There are faster woods. There are cheaper woods. We keep coming back to cedar.
It grows here
Cedar comes from the Middle Atlas — the forests above Azrou and Ifrane, a few hours from our workshop. It has been the wood of Moroccan craft for centuries: the carved ceilings of the medersas, the doors of the old riads, the panelled rooms of Fez. When you walk through the medina and look up at a carved ceiling that has held its detail for three hundred years, you are usually looking at cedar.
We work in it because it is the wood our artisans' fathers worked in. The techniques were built around this material.
It carves
This is the practical reason. Cedar is soft enough to take fine detail without splitting, and stable enough to hold that detail once it's cut. Geometric carving — the dense, interlocking patterns on our mirrors — demands a wood that will accept a hundred small cuts in a small space and not crumble.
Harder woods fight the chisel. Softer woods lose the edge of the pattern. Cedar sits in the narrow band between the two.
It smells
Open a cedar box and you will know immediately. The scent is warm, resinous, slightly sweet — and it lasts for years. It is one of those details that photographs can't carry, which is why every customer who receives a cedar piece mentions it.
That scent is the wood's own defence: the natural oils that give cedar its smell also make it resistant to insects and rot. It protected the manuscripts of old libraries. Now it protects itself.
It ages well
Cedar does not stay the colour you first see. It deepens — golden brown turning to a richer, warmer tone over the years, especially where the light touches it. Like the unlacquered brass we pair it with, it is a material that keeps changing after it leaves us.
We finish our cedar with natural oils rather than heavy varnish, precisely so it can keep breathing and keep darkening. A sealed piece is frozen. We would rather ours grow older with you.
What it costs us
Cedar is not the easy choice. It takes longer to carve than the woods most manufacturers use, and a large carved piece can take a craftsman days. It's why our wood pieces have the longest lead times in our catalogue, and why we make them in small numbers.
We think that's the right trade. A carved cedar mirror is not something you replace in five years — it's something that ends up in the next house, and the one after that.
A note on the forests
Atlas cedar is a protected species and its forests are under real pressure. We source our wood through licensed suppliers, and we don't waste it: offcuts become smaller pieces — boxes, trays, handles — rather than becoming firewood.
[Adapt this section to your actual sourcing. If you can name your supplier or describe your process, do — this paragraph builds enormous trust with the exact designers you want, and a vague version is worse than none.]
[Button: Shop the Cedar Collection]
Why We Work in Cedar
There are faster woods. There are cheaper woods. We keep coming back to cedar.
It grows here
Cedar comes from the Middle Atlas — the forests above Azrou and Ifrane, a few hours from our workshop. It has been the wood of Moroccan craft for centuries: the carved ceilings of the medersas, the doors of the old riads, the panelled rooms of Fez. When you walk through the medina and look up at a carved ceiling that has held its detail for three hundred years, you are usually looking at cedar.
We work in it because it is the wood our artisans' fathers worked in. The techniques were built around this material.
It carves
This is the practical reason. Cedar is soft enough to take fine detail without splitting, and stable enough to hold that detail once it's cut. Geometric carving — the dense, interlocking patterns on our mirrors — demands a wood that will accept a hundred small cuts in a small space and not crumble.
Harder woods fight the chisel. Softer woods lose the edge of the pattern. Cedar sits in the narrow band between the two.
It smells
Open a cedar box and you will know immediately. The scent is warm, resinous, slightly sweet — and it lasts for years. It is one of those details that photographs can't carry, which is why every customer who receives a cedar piece mentions it.
That scent is the wood's own defence: the natural oils that give cedar its smell also make it resistant to insects and rot. It protected the manuscripts of old libraries. Now it protects itself.
It ages well
Cedar does not stay the colour you first see. It deepens — golden brown turning to a richer, warmer tone over the years, especially where the light touches it. Like the unlacquered brass we pair it with, it is a material that keeps changing after it leaves us.
We finish our cedar with natural oils rather than heavy varnish, precisely so it can keep breathing and keep darkening. A sealed piece is frozen. We would rather ours grow older with you.
What it costs us
Cedar is not the easy choice. It takes longer to carve than the woods most manufacturers use, and a large carved piece can take a craftsman days. It's why our wood pieces have the longest lead times in our catalogue, and why we make them in small numbers.
We think that's the right trade. A carved cedar mirror is not something you replace in five years — it's something that ends up in the next house, and the one after that.
A note on the forests
Atlas cedar is a protected species and its forests are under real pressure. We source our wood through licensed suppliers, and we don't waste it: offcuts become smaller pieces — boxes, trays, handles — rather than becoming firewood.
[Adapt this section to your actual sourcing. If you can name your supplier or describe your process, do — this paragraph builds enormous trust with the exact designers you want, and a vague version is worse than none.]
[Button: Shop the Cedar Collection]