Sourcing Moroccan Zellige in the United States

Zellige, bejmat and mosaic tiles reach a project in the United States the way any made-to-order ceramic material does: they are produced to specification in Morocco, packed at the workshop that made them, and exported for delivery to the destination address. We hold no stock and quote before order, so every American order begins with a written brief instead of a shelf.

This guide is written for US architects, interior designers, distributors, hospitality teams and general contractors. It sets out what to settle before an order is placed, how sampling and colour approval work, what variation to expect from a handmade material, and how a project programme should be arranged around an overseas shipping leg. It does not state duty rates, carrier names, transit times or customs rules, because those change and must be verified for each shipment.

What the brief has to settle first

Five points decide whether a zellige order runs smoothly, and all of them are easier to settle before production than after it.

• Tile type and format: square zellige, rectangular bejmat, hexagonal, or a mosaic pattern, with the nominal size range the design calls for.
• Colour direction and finish, described against a physical sample or a reference photograph of the intended palette.
• Approximate quantity in square metres or pieces, plus the wastage allowance the installer wants for hand-cut material.
• Destination, access at the delivery address, and the team that will receive a palletised shipment.
• [PLACEHOLDER: confirmed production window and order cut-off agreed with the artisan workshop for this project]

Sampling and colour approval

Zellige is hand-glazed and hand-cut. Colour, edge and surface vary from piece to piece and from one production batch to the next. A sample shows the character of a glaze rather than a fixed, repeatable colour, and a finished wall normally carries more depth and movement than a single tile suggests.

For a US project we recommend approving a physical sample board rather than a screen image, because monitors and room lighting change how a glaze reads. Where a project runs over several rooms or phases, the colour should be approved once and recorded in writing so later batches are produced against the same reference. [PLACEHOLDER: sample production and dispatch window for US addresses]

Tolerances and acceptance

Hand-cut tiles differ slightly in size, thickness and edge. That is the nature of the material, not a fault, and it is what produces the light-catching surface associated with traditional zellige. A fixer should therefore expect small lippage and plan the joint width accordingly.

Specifiers working to a submittal or purchase order should record the acceptance criteria they will apply: nominal size with a stated tolerance, the approved colour reference, and the allowance for natural variation. Writing that down protects both the installer and the client when the material arrives. [PLACEHOLDER: tolerance values to confirm for the specific format ordered]

Documentation and import arrangements

A commercial invoice, a packing list and a certificate of origin normally travel with an export shipment, and further documents are added when the importer’s customs broker asks for them. The exact set depends on the importer’s arrangements and is confirmed before dispatch.

Most US importers work with a licensed customs broker and a receiving location that can accept freight. We can coordinate the export leg from Morocco and provide the commercial documents a broker requests, while the import entry itself is handled on the US side by the importer or the broker they appoint. [PLACEHOLDER: named US customs broker, importer of record and receiving warehouse]

Scheduling the project around the shipping leg

A sea freight leg sits between workshop completion and receipt at the destination. Its duration is confirmed per project in the written quotation; we do not publish standard transit times, because routing, season and service level all affect it.

The practical consequence for a US programme is that installation should not be sequenced to the day a shipment lands. A buffer around the arrival date, a firm receiving slot, and a clear internal owner for the delivery are the three things that most often keep a tile package off the critical path. [PLACEHOLDER: provisional shipping window and delivery conditions for this project]

Quantities, spares and phasing

Because each production run is made to order, a later addition may not match an earlier delivery exactly. Ordering a sensible attic stock for cuts, breakage and future repair is standard practice on handmade material, and where a project allows, phasing the order by area makes the receiving and fixing programme easier to manage.

Next step

Send the format, colour direction, quantity and destination. We return a written quotation coordinated with independent artisan workshops, and samples can be arranged before any commitment is made.