Egbert-Jan Lam of Netherlands-based Burojet Design Studio created the ‘embroidered’ Stitches family of lamps. Called Mopti, Tombuctú, Djenné and Bamako—after towns and cities in the West African nation of Mali—each lamp has its own distinct pattern. To make an individual lamp, veneer lengths are crafted in a traditional sewing fashion: the pattern is marked out, cut and then repeated. Where hemming is normally used to complete a garment, the Stitches lamp has a visible hemstitch through which light radiates.

The unique shape of each Stitches lamp is an allusion to the adobe mosques found across Mali. Moreover, the Stitches lamps embody Mali’s long history as a producer of embroidery.