Asili Light is a small Polish lamp maker from Nowy Sącz. Its lamps are built around one material: Kyambalo, a barkcloth made by hand by farmers of the Baganda people in Uganda, a craft with centuries of tradition behind it. The name fits the idea – “asili” means origin or nature in Swahili – and the maker presents its lamps as a meeting of that African craft with modern lamp fittings.
According to the maker, the inner bark of fig trees is stripped without harming the core of the tree, and the trunk is wrapped in banana leaves so that new bark grows back. The bark is steamed, beaten many times with wooden mallets until it is soft and even, and dried in the equatorial sun, which gives it its amber colour. A tree can be harvested once a year, in the rainy season, many times over its life.
Kyambalo is made only of plant fibres that form an irregular mesh, so no two shades look the same. Its colour runs from amber to brown, depending on how long the bark dried in the sun. The maker has had the material tested for abrasion resistance, colour fastness and tensile strength, so it holds up as a lampshade rather than being a fragile curiosity.
At Lunares you will find Asili Light pendant lights such as MBILI: a large Kyambalo shade, about 40 cm wide and 50 cm high, on a steel fitting with a 12 × 12 cm ceiling rose.
For other natural-material pieces, see lampshades.
