Our Story
Three generations, one workshop, in Morocco
Mana Atelier began with Simohammed's grandfather, who set up a small workbench in Morocco at a time when thuya woodworking was passed down entirely by hand, one apprentice to the next. He taught the trade to his son, who taught it to Simohammed, and today Simohammed works the same bench alongside his own children, Amal and Hamid — the third generation to shape thuya burl into boxes, trays, and games under this roof.
The workshop has never modernized in the way a furniture factory would. There is no CNC router, no laser cutter, no jig that cuts marquetry automatically. Every piece begins with a raw block of thuya burl, sourced from licensed cutters working the Atlas foothills, and is shaped with hand planes and chisels the same way it would have been fifty years ago. Marquetry patterns — the stars, arabesques, and geometric bands that appear across the collection — are cut piece by piece from contrasting woods and mother of pearl, then set by hand into a recessed field and leveled flush with the surrounding surface.
What comes out of that process is furniture and objects that carry the individual character of both the wood and the person who shaped it. Because thuya burl grows in irregular, stress-formed masses, no two blocks look alike — which means no two finished pieces do either, even when they follow the same pattern.
The Artisans
Who makes each piece
Simohammed Mana
Master Artisan
Simohammed learned the craft from his father, who learned it from his father before him. He has spent more than three decades at the workbench, and today he oversees every piece that leaves the workshop, from the first cut into a raw burl block to the final polish.
Amal Mana
Marquetry & Inlay
Amal specializes in the workshop's most detailed inlay work — mother of pearl settings, tri-tone marquetry, and the fine geometric patterns that take the longest to lay by hand. She is the third generation of the family to work at this bench.
Hamid Mana
Shaping & Finishing
Hamid works the raw burl into form — hollowing boxes, shaping tray bodies, and hand-sanding every surface through progressively finer grits before the workshop's natural oil finish is applied.
In the Workshop
From raw burl to final piece
A single box or tray moves through several distinct stages before it leaves the bench: rough-cutting the burl to size, hollowing or shaping the body, laying out and cutting marquetry components, setting the inlay into a recessed field, sanding through progressively finer grits, and hand-polishing the finished surface. Depending on the complexity of the inlay, a single piece can take several days of bench time alone, separate from the weeks a well-seasoned burl blank may have already spent drying before it was ever touched by a chisel.
Orynza Global LLC is the United States export partner for Mana Atelier, the family workshop in Morocco.
We handle U.S.-based sales, customer support, and worldwide shipping logistics on the workshop's behalf, so the artisans can stay focused on the bench. Every piece sold through orynzaglobal.com is made in Morocco and shipped directly from the workshop, worldwide.