Houman would introduce Willis to masters of other crafts, including zellige (glazed tile mosaic), gebs (carved and incised white plaster) and mashrabiya (intricately carved cedar for pierced screens).

WSJ: A Magician from Memphis

Willis soon discovered Jean Gallotti and Albert Laprade's Le Jardin et la Maison Arabes au Maroc, a magnificent book featuring Lucien Vogel's photographs of the finest work from the '20s and line drawings clarifying, with great precision, the techniques used naming, for example, each tiny shape that creates the great sunburst of zellige.

WSJ: A Magician from Memphis