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MOSAIC

THE BEST STORIES ARE IN THE DETAILS

clothes
Gentlemen’s embroidery

A trawl through the shops of Mutrah souq will unearth a rich haul of embroidery. This embellishment is not limited to clothes and accessories intended for women – it adorns gentlemen’s garments, too. The decoration at the collars of all those crisp, white dishdashas is machine worked, as is the embroidery that covers the less expensive caps or kummahs, which retail for one or two rials apiece; but the most beautiful kummahs are hand-embroidered and can cost up to RO150 each. Hashim, who works at Abu Sumaiya Trading (tel: 24 711234), often supplements his income during the off-season by preparing kummah cloth. The making of top-notch kummahs is laborious, involving three stages (see top right) before the cloth is ready to be fashioned and sewn into a cap shape. First, a basic pattern is stitched through a double layer of white cotton using pale blue-grey thread. Next comes what Hashim calls tatrisse, the process by which several strands of thicker thread are inserted, like piping, into the gaps in the stitching and between the two layers of cotton (main picture). This raised ‘piping’ effectively articulates the design. To finish, the rest of the design is filled in with hand embroidery (below right). Hashim buys his cloth ready-stitched with a basic pattern, and it takes him two days to add tatrisse to a single cap, for which he earns RO1.

Round the corner from Hashim is Monir Ahmed in Naser Saud Hamed al Hadi Trading (tel: 9426898), which also sells kummahs, some of them machine embroidered, others worked by hand in Oman, India or the Philippines. Monir also stocks massars, the Kashmiri embroidered cloths worn by Omani men round their heads. His best-quality massar costs RO45 (elsewhere it is possible to find massars priced at RO200). The massars display patterns of densely worked, vibrantly coloured embroidery (middle right) – although Hashim also sells cream and white cloths that have evaded the embroiderer’s needle. “Old men prefer the plain ones,” he says.

What’s on
Summer activities for children

Among the handful of summer schools offering diverting activities for children is the arts programme available at Bait al Baranda from July 12 to August 28. The summer programme, which also ran last year, aims to make arts and crafts fun and is supervised by professional artists. For children aged eight to 15, there are workshops on pottery, Arabic calligraphy and painting, all held daily except on Sunday and Tuesday. The pottery workshop sounds particularly intriguing – children will be able to experiment with and compare the textures of clay from Oman and beyond. Ten to 17 year olds can also enrol on the photography sessions, which will run twice a week. “The programme is really exciting,” says Malik al Hinai, director of Bait al Baranda – especially for thrifty parents, since each session costs from only 500bz each. The workshops are scheduled to run from 10am until 1pm and 4–6pm.
For further details, call 24 714262, or email baranda@omantel. net.om.

Other ideas for parents to consider are the summer schools on offer at Al Shalman Institute of Dance, Music and Acting. The romantically titled workshop ‘Any Dream Will Do!’ commences on August 2 and guides children through the process of putting on a play. Aimed at eight to 18 year olds, the three-week course costs RO145 and runs Saturday to Wednesday, 9am–1pm. Littler children can also learn to dance, sing and act, using scripts, songs and props from musicals and fairy tales, during the two-week course that begins on August 2. The workshop costs RO90, and runs Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, 2–4pm.
For further details, call Al Shalman Institute on 92 181144.

Sport
Masirah sails

Oman has long been associated with outstanding seamanship – Sohar, for example, is often cited as the legendary birthplace of Sindbad the Sailor. A new initiative, dubbed Oman Sail and set up by the Ministry of Tourism, aims to tap into this maritime tradition by developing and training a core crew of Omani sailors who will then represent the sultanate at sailing events in Europe and Oman. The aim is that Oman Sail will help to attract tourism and promote the sultanate as a world-class sailing destination. The project will also play a key role in the Festival of the Sea, planned for 2010 to celebrate His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s 40th year on the throne.

The Oman Sail team currently features eight Omanis recruited from The Sultan’s Armed Forces, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy, the ROP and the Special Forces. These men are taking part in the Extreme 40 iShares Cup Series, which last month saw action in Switzerland and France (the series moves to the UK in August, followed by Germany and the Netherlands). The Oman Sail team, crewed by four Britons and members of the Oman squad in rotation, had some success in Switzerland, but fared less well in France when the Tommy Hilfiger team rammed into Masirah, Oman Sail’s beautiful, 40ft-long catamaran. Masirah has stylish livery in red, white and green – you can follow its progress in the series online (the next round takes place at Cowes from August 2 to 4), at www.isharescup.com.

museum
Muscat Gate

The museum that straddles the road linking Mutrah corniche with old Muscat is not one for little children. It is, however, entirely engrossing to anyone with an interest in the history of Oman, specifically that of Muscat. The single-room museum is a trove of historical titbits that range from information on rock art round the capital to the old palace, which in the late 19th century was reported to have two caged lions on guard within the beautifully carved door.

‘Footprints’ set into the floor of the museum guide visitors from prehistory to the modern-day. There is a particularly compelling detail early on, gleaned from the excavation of graves around Ras al Hamra that date back to 3,800–3,300BC. Apparently these ancient people clearly considered the sea important to their conception of the afterlife, for the dead were ornamented with shells often arranged into a turtle aspect, with a turtle skull sometimes placed face to face, or a pearl clasped in the hand.

Muscat Gate Museum is built upon the site of the mountain outcrop that once defined the historical boundary of Muscat city. An informative and easy-to-reach port of call for
anyone en route to shopping in the souq, it is open Sunday to Thursday, 9.30am–1pm
and 4–7pm.

Art
A summer exhibition

With the arrival of the hottest season many of Muscat’s inhabitants flee for more clement climes, and this fact, combined with the dearth of tourists, means that the city’s cultural scene usually eases off until autumn. Happily, Bait Muzna is this year bucking the trend – its exhibition of paintings by Omani artists lasts for the duration of the summer.

Until October 1 the gallery will showcase works on a rotation basis (so that returning visitors have something new to look at) by artists including Anwar Sonya, Moosa Omar and Maryam al Zadjali (top), all well-known names in Muscat. Bait Muzna is the
only gallery in Oman to promote its artists internationally – later this year, in October, the art director, Ellen Molliet (below right), will attend Art Paris-Abu Dhabi, taking with her four Omani artists: Radhika Hamlai and Rasheed Abdulrahman (both pictured, right), and Hassan Meer and Saleh al Shukairi. Next year Ellen plans to exhibit at Art Dubai, too, and she also has two sales trips to Europe forthcoming. The summer exhibition is a good place to get a sneak preview of the sort of pictures Bait Muzna will show in Abu Dhabi – Saleh’s imaginative calligraphic creations, Hassan’s vibrant canvases and so on.
For details, call 24 739204.