When you turn off a Multani camel-skin lamp, it seems to be a beautifully decorated object. Turn it on, and the piece's character shifts. The thin skin allows light to enter, softening the colors and highlighting small details of the artwork to the surface.

Although that light appears simple, the lamp has already been handled by a number of expert hands. Its creation combines the preparation of hides, the creation of molds, and the Multan ornate painting tradition known as Naqashi.

A Craft Rooted in Multan

Camel hide was used in this region long before it was incorporated into decorative lights. Because it could retain a shape after drying, artisans sculpted it into useful items like bottles and containers.

Naqashi's role in Multan's visual culture is much more expansive. The traditions of architecture, ceramics, woodworking, and camel skin are documented in the World Crafts Council Asia-Pacific's craft encyclopedia. According to one known artisan lineage, Abdullah Naqash started creating intricate designs on lamp forms around 1910, which is when camel-skin lamps first appeared. His family carried on the task in succeeding generations.

The combination of these two customs, shaping prepared hide and hand-decorating it, gave rise to the lamp that we know today.

One Lamp, Several Skilled Hands

A single person rarely creates a traditional lamp from beginning to end. The hide is prepared by the Dabgar. The shape is made by a mold maker or clay craftsman. And the Naqash handles the painting and decorative finish.

Although these jobs are connected, but they are not interchangeable. Overly thick hide obstructs light, and unevenly stretched skin might undermine the shape. The painting must also follow the lamp's curve

Preparing and Shaping the Camel Skin

Before being molded, the raw camel hide is carefully cleansed. After getting soaked to soften the material, any leftover tissue, fat, and hair are removed by scraping out. In order to make the hide semi-translucent without compromising the strength required to keep its form, it is also thinned.

The mold will also be created by another craftsman. These molds are generally crafted from clay. They come in all shapes, from urns, to long ones, to ones that are rounded in shape and all can be decorated.  The skin is then wrapped around and placed onto the mold.  They must be very careful of the seams, folds and where the skin is uneven in places.

The Naqash Takes Over

The artwork, which most people notice first, is now ready to be added on the simple shell. Traditional Naqashi involves more than just adding color to the surface. The composition has to follow the lamp's shape and remain balanced from different angles.

A perforated paper pattern is used to transfer a design. The artist reinforces and paints the guide created by the pigment sifted via the holes. The arrangement of floral vines, leaves, geometric shapes, borders, and recurring motifs varies depending to the lamp’s curve.

This is also where handmade variation appears. A flower may sit slightly higher on one lamp, or a border may differ by a few brushstrokes. Those differences are not necessarily defects. They show that the design was placed and painted by a person rather than reproduced by a machine.

Finishing the Surface and Testing the Glow

With the painting complete, the process moves onto the final stages. With traditional pieces of Naqashi work polished, World Crafts Council shares, lacquer coating is used to seal the surface on the camel-skin lamps once ornamentation is finished, and although opaque on its own it remains in place to preserve the details painted on the surface of the artwork.

Once this shell, painstakingly examined is finally polished, it's ready to sit and adorn its lamp stand or stand itself. When switched on, the softer shades become more vivid, with finer details on the illustration illuminated with a deeper level of depth. A functional art decoration during the day, by night it illuminates to offer a warm ambient glow, completely transforming its character.

Hand-Painted lamps and Printed Lamps Are Different Products

The difference can be easily missed in photographs. A traditional camel-skin lamp uses prepared hide as its surface, with the design painted by hand. Whereas a printed lamp transfers artwork onto a different material through a printing process.

One is not simply a substitute for the other, as each is produced using different techniques and offers a distinct finish. Gul Khan therefore keeps its camel-skin and printed lamps in separate collections. The camel-skin range is identified as hand-painted, so small differences between pieces should be expected.

Camel-Skin Lamps at Gul Khan Truck Art

We have over 20 designs available at the moment. Each is painstakingly hand-painted on a dried camel hide base, featuring classic patterns and designs. As all our lamps are made with natural materials and by hand, they require special care and attention in comparison to your average modern or manufactured lighting:

· To maintain their appearance and lifespan, carefully dust your lamp with a clean, dry cloth, and dab away marks with a damp one.
· Never submerge your lamp in water.
· Try to avoid exposing your lamp to direct sunlight for long periods, to prevent fading and damage.
· Store your lamp in a clean and dry space when not in use.
· Do not use rough cloths or household chemicals, to avoid damaging the painted surface or wax coating.

Seeing what the Light shows you

When we first see a finished camel-skin lamp, we naturally focus on the design on the surface. But true skill is to be found beneath the ornamentation. Each of these lamps take many hours to create - cleaning and thinning and shaping the skin, drying, stretching, carefully transferring the design onto a curved surface.

And this ability to apply that skill and care and focus is what creates the lamps as a whole, of course. Once we turn it on, our lamp is not just shedding light on a room; the lamplight shows off its construction, its form and thoughtful composition and the art that has turned animal skin into an illuminated artwork.