About Us

Who we are

Turquoise Mountain is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2006 to preserve heritage crafts. We work in Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Myanmar with artisans whose crafts are critically endangered. Over the last two decades, Turquoise Mountain has trained thousands of artisans and workers, restored hundreds of historic buildings, and organised major international exhibitions - from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. 

Partnering with international clients, we have brought over $37 million worth of craft products to market, sharing world-class traditions with a global audience and bringing vital income back to the artisan communities we collaborate with. Our brand partners and clients include Asprey, Jo Malone, Christopher Farr Rugs, interior designers Guy Oliver and Robert Couturier, and luxury hotels such as The Connaught, Four Seasons, and Fairmont. Together, we develop products and bespoke commissions inspired by heritage traditions for contemporary markets.

Turquoise Mountain in Palestine

Turquoise Mountain has worked in Palestine since 2023 partnering with a network of talented artisans, workshops, and organisations in glassblowing, stonemasonry, carpentry, jewellery, ceramics, embroidery, and other endangered crafts. Our mission is to see the Palestinian artisanal community thriving. Where crafts are protected, recognised, and passed on. 

We work with artisans by: collaborating on new heritage-led designs, bringing artisanal work to market both locally and internationally, and helping artisans to improve their businesses step-by-step through business and design training and mentorship. In 2025, we opened our new creative hub, Dar Al Ghazawi, and our showroom in Bethlehem. In these spaces, we are bringing together communities of artisans and designers through training programmes, events, and partnerships, as well as showcasing beautiful craft products that celebrate Palestinian heritage. 

Design and Production

Our design team is working alongside skilled master artisans from across Palestine to produce heritage-led collections that are a fit for global markets. Our work begins with an extensive mapping to identify workshops keeping traditional practices alive, followed by design research, experimentation and careful quality assurance. 

We aim to create products that celebrate the artisan, their story, and stories from across Palestine, whilst helping workshops to connect with new clients. With a community of artisans, we are working on bespoke commissions, retail collections, and interior design projects in carpentry, stone, glass, embroidery, ceramics and other endangered crafts.

Leadership

We are working with artisans through training, mentorship, and financial support to help them to grow their businesses. Our team covers essential topics such as digital marketing, product design, business management, entrepreneurship, and sales, and we deliver both in-person and online to ensure accessibility across the West Bank and Gaza. 

We have trained over 367 artisans to date in business skills, marketing, and branding mentorship, fashion design for craft, and product design. We aim to build connections to market into our programmes wherever possible to provide opportunities for immediate income for artisans as well as skill development. We are proud to partner with organisations such as Dar al Kalima University, Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, and Darzah in our programmes.

Bethlehem Showroom

The newest addition to our sales network is our showroom in Bethlehem on Star Street. In this space, we bring together and celebrate the work of artisans from across Palestine. These craftspeople are practicing traditional Palestinian crafts to the highest level, protecting it, and passing it on to the next generation. Our showroom aims to celebrate them and their work, as well as offer a new route to market locally. In this space, we are hosting sales events, talks and other activities, designed to help customers and clients connect directly with the artisanal community.

Sales

Our sales team works globally to open up commercial opportunities for artisans and provide sustainability for their businesses. We do this by building partnerships with high-end retail brands and designers, such as Jo Malone and Kate Spade, as well as five-star hoteliers like the Four Seasons and the Connaught Hotel. 

Palestinian glass, ceramics, stone and embroidery are now also on display to a growing audience through our showroom in Amman. This showroom, which has sold $2million in craft products to date, is a platform for traditional crafts from across the region and now offers Palestinian artisans a route to a growing and aligned market in Jordan. 

Through exhibitions at the Ithra Museum in Saudi Arabia in 2021 and 2024, Dubai Expo in 2022, Ataya in Abu Dhabi in 2023, and the Sharjah Biennial in 2023, we have also begun to develop a wider market for our artisanal community in the Gulf. Through sales missions and trade shows in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, we are working to build new opportunities for Palestinian artisans.

Next up

Dar Al Ghazawi. Home to artisans and traditional crafts

Dar Al Ghazawi in Bethlehem is our creative hub, where we bring together artisans and designers and provide facilities, materials and support for collaboration, as well running events and activities for artisans and the wider community. Within the building we have an incubation space, materials library, and training rooms. 

Dar Al Ghazawi was built by Issa Ghazawi between 1923-25 and was a home for his family for many decades. Issa Ghazawi carefully documented the process of building Dar Al Ghazawi in a notebook, where he detailed every worker, artisan and material he used. Over 85 workers were involved in the construction, including stonemasons, stone carvers, glassworkers, mosaicists, and painters. We believe in the importance of preserving this heritage and keeping the building alive in a way that reflects its cultural and historical value. 

The building was restored in 2024 in partnership with Alwaleed Philanthropies and the Saïd Foundation and in collaboration with the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation. The restoration supported work for 45 workers, as well as providing commissions for 11 artisanal workshops.