Glazed ceramic lamp base · Leaf relief

Handmade glazed ceramic lamp base from Fayoum, Egypt. Wheel-thrown from locally sourced Nile clay and finished in a smooth ivory and taupe glaze, the surface is decorated with raised leaf impressions that cast subtle shadows across the form - a quiet sculptural presence as much as a functional object. Each piece is individually made and unique. 

The Craft. Each lamp base is wheel-thrown by hand from clay sourced from the Nile Valley, shaped with precision and decorated with raised leaf relief before being glazed and fired. The ivory glaze is applied to achieve a smooth, luminous finish. Working without moulds or mechanical reproduction, potters produce each piece individually, using natural dyes and local pigments.

The Heritage. Although pottery making was widespread in Egypt as far back as Pharaonic times, centuries of declining demand brought the craft to near extinction. The revival began in the 1980s when Swiss-born potter Evelyne Porret settled in the farming village of Tunis in the Fayoum oasis and, together with her husband Michel Pastore, founded the Fayoum Pottery School. Drawing on ancient Egyptian techniques and Nile Valley clay, they taught the children of the village to put their magic into form. Today, those first students and the artisans they have in turn taught operate their own workshops, sustaining a living craft tradition in a village that has become one of Egypt's most celebrated centres of contemporary ceramics.

The Maker. Abd el-Sattar was among the first students of Evelyne Porret and one of the earliest to open his own independent workshop. An instinctive experimenter, he has spent decades pushing the boundaries of the Fayoum tradition — developing metallic lustre glazes, mastering raku firing, and continuously seeking new forms and surfaces. He works alongside his brother Saleem, who has developed his own distinctive visual language, and his son Abduh, who is learning the craft at his father's side — ensuring that the family's contribution to Fayoum ceramics will extend into a second generation.