At The Lamp Factory

When I described our lamp purchase at the neighborhood lighting store, I mentioned that we had an invitation to come see the nearby factory.

We walk a two-mile loop through the neighborhood most mornings.  We have run into the lamp store owner a couple of times as he drives over to the factory.  This morning, we saw one of his brothers as we were walking close to the factory, and he invited us to visit.

This is not a typical "show and sell" operation that you frequently find here in Cairo.  You can pretty quickly tell that the factory is set up for production and not selling.  No tea, for instance.   And it is located on two floors of a newer building with much construction going on nearby.

If you take a close look at one of the lamps we bought,

 

you will notice all of the detailing.  All of this is handwork, placed on the lamp with steel chisels and a hammer.  Here, Linda is getting an up close view of the process:

Tamer, one of the brothers, is following a pattern drawn on the brass in ink.  Each triangle-hole takes three blows of a tiny chisel.  The lines are applied with a larger chisel.

Tamer laid out some of the chisels for a picture.

The family is quite a group of artisans.  We give them "two thumbs up" and "four stars."

Here are the brothers and their father back at the shop.

This shop is one we would definitely recommend to any visitor in the area.  A lot of very high quality work goes into each of these lamps or other brass works.

The address is
Al Chahbandar Bazaar Galery
151 Sakara St.

El Haram Rd.

Giza