What is Tholu Bommalata?

Tholu Bommalata is the shadow puppet theatre of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the name translates as the dance of leather dolls. Puppeteers paint a translucent hide, perforate it, and light it from behind a cloth screen so the colour reads as a glowing silhouette. The same painting hand decorates these shades.

Which state is Tholu Bommalata from?

Tholu Bommalata comes from Andhra Pradesh, and is also practised in Telangana and parts of Karnataka. Nimmalakunta in Andhra Pradesh is the best known working cluster today.

Are they safe to leave switched on?

LED fairy lights of this kind give off very little heat, so the shades stay cool to the touch during normal use. Switch them off when you leave the room, as with any decorative light. Keep them indoors and away from water.

Can I use these outdoors?

These fairy lights are made for indoor use only. The painted shades are not weather sealed, so rain, direct sun and a damp balcony will lift the colour and soften the folds.

Why do the shades look slightly different from one another?

The shades are painted one facet at a time and freehand, so no two carry the same motif in the same weight of line. Small shifts in colour and outline are the mark of hand painting rather than a fault.

Are these a good choice for Diwali decoration?

For Diwali these work best along a doorway, a balcony grille seen from inside, or a mantel set beside diyas. The warm tone of the chain sits closer to lamp light than to the cool white of a standard string light.

How do I store them after the festive season?

Store the fairy lights loosely coiled in a box rather than pressed flat, so the folds keep their shape. Wrap the chain in tissue, and keep the box dry and away from heat.

How do I clean the painted shades?

Clean the painted shades with a dry soft brush or a light puff of air. Water, alcohol and cleaning sprays will lift the pigment, so keep all of them well away.

Origami Fairy Lights

Rs. 1319

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Product Details

Folded shades run the length of a single LED chain, each face hand-painted by the leather puppet artisans of Andhra Pradesh. The motifs come straight off puppet borders: open rosettes, bands of scalloped scale-work, concentric discs in red, ochre, indigo and leaf green. Switch it on and the colour warms through the sheet. Switch it off and a row of small painted panels is still there on the wall, which is more than a mass-market string light leaves behind.

Art TypeLeather Puppetry

Packaging Dimension32X22X6

Materials & Care

Keep it away from direct sunlight and moisture to preserve its vibrant colors and delicate craftsmanship. Clean gently with a soft, dry cloth.

Product Disclosure

SKU: SM-FLTR-01Style Code: SM-FLTRHSN Code: 97030000State: Andhra pradesh

Curated by Studio Moya

Each piece is handcrafted, so slight variations in colour, texture and dimension are natural and celebrate its handmade origin.

Where it works: Doorways, shelf edges, the inside of a balcony grille, the back of a bookcase. Any spot where the string hangs free and the shades can turn a little beats a spot where they lie flat against plaster, because these are four-sided objects and half the painting is lost the moment you press them to a wall. A stair rail works well. So does a headboard.

Daily use or occasion: Both, and that is the point of a low-heat chain. Left up along a shelf it reads as quiet ornament by day and warm light after dark, and unlike a single lamp it spreads that light across a whole run of wall instead of pooling it in one corner. For Diwali and festive evenings, move it to the doorway people pass under.

What it pairs with: Plain walls, wood, unglazed pottery, brass. The palette here is already loud. Let the surroundings stay quiet, and keep it away from patterned textiles hung at the same eye level.

Indoors only: Rain, direct sun and damp will lift the pigment and soften the folds. Treat this as an indoor piece.

Care while it is up: Dust with a dry soft brush. Do not wipe with a damp cloth. When the season ends, coil the chain loosely into a box rather than pressing it flat, and the shades hold their shape for next year.

The craft behind it: Tholu Bommalata is the shadow puppet theatre of Andhra Pradesh. Tholu means leather, bommalu means puppets, aata means dance, and for centuries the whole art turned on one problem: how to make a flat painted surface come alive when a lamp sits behind it rather than in front of it. Nimmalakunta in Andhra Pradesh is the cluster where that practice still runs daily. These shades come out of the same bench, shrunk to the size of a palm.

The net: A thin translucent sheet is cut into triangular nets, each net folding up into one four-sided shade. The cut has to be exact. A net off by a few millimetres will not close cleanly at the tip.

The drawing: Here the piece is decided. Every facet gets a motif of its own, outlined freehand in fine dark line: an open rosette on one face, a band of scalloped scale-work on the next, a concentric disc on the third. The vocabulary is borrowed from puppet borders, the ornamental strips that frame a figure rather than the figure itself, and scaled down to a few centimetres a side.

The colour: Colour is filled facet by facet in the puppet palette of red, ochre, indigo and leaf green. The painter is choosing for backlight, not for daylight. Tones that look heavy on the bench are exactly the ones that read warm once a bulb sits inside.

The fold and the thread: Each net is folded and closed into its pyramid, then threaded onto the chain so one bulb sits centred inside one shade. Spacing is checked by eye down the whole run. No two shades leave the workshop carrying the same combination of faces.