We’re quick to brag about Lucknow’s tehzeeb and craftsmanship, but how much do we actually know? Beyond chikankari, can you name even two rare crafts still surviving here? Right now, in cramped workshops you’ve probably walked past, artisans are hand-beating chandi warq and carving bones into art. Nine incredible traditions are fading while we scroll past. Let’s see how many you recognise.
Silver Nagra work
Deep in Lucknow’s old quarters, Mohammad Hussain is keeping a rare craft from extinction. As the city’s last Naqqashi master, he hand-engraves silver sheets into stunning sandals using only a hammer and chisel. Each piece takes days, carefully etching intricate patterns, then delicately setting kundan stones and gems. It’s backbreaking, precise work that few remember, fewer still practice.
Where- Jawwar Hussain Naqqashi Wale, Tarkari Mandi, Chowk, Lucknow,
Wood Carving
Shisham wood carved by hand becomes magic, intricate jali lattices, sweeping mehrabs, delicate anguri vines requiring impossible precision. It’s geometric artistry rivaling Agra’s stonecraft, each chisel mark deliberate. In Lucknow’s 50-year-old Mandir Market, artisans from different faiths gather to create exquisite miniature wooden temples together. But CNC machines are killing the craft, carving faster, cheaper, without soul. Between handwork versus automation, the machines are winning.
Where- Mandir Market, near Nishatganj Police Chauki
Bone Carving
What most would throw away, Jalaluddeen and a small handful of remaining artisans, transform into art. For decades, Lucknow’s buffalo bone craftsmen have been turning discarded buffalo bones into exquisite treasures: ornate boxes, delicate lamps, and Nawabi-era frames.
The process is brutal, endless cutting, bleaching, then hand-carving intricate patterns with impossible precision. Once a thriving craft, it is now largely limited to Jalaluddin Akhtar’s family, with only a few other artisans like him still keeping the tradition alive.
Where- Jalaluddin Bone Handicraft, No 456/556, Sajjad Bagh, Colony 2, Daulat Ganj, Daulat Ganj Chowk
Kaamdani work
Kaamdani transforms fabric into shimmer, metallic threads twisted by hand into chikankari, creating intricate florals and jaalis that catch light beautifully. This 16th-century Mughal craft, also called mukaish or badla work, requires nothing but a thin needle and incredible precision. While a few dozen workshops still survive across Lucknow, artists like Shahnazawaz Abdullah keep the tradition alive, representing four generations of families fighting to preserve this glittering art.
Where- Abdullah Badla Works, 25, Tondan Marg, near cms, Chaupatiyan, Chowk
Kalai Work
Deep in Yahiyaganj’s forgotten alleys, kalai-walas still practice metallurgy most have abandoned. They coat copper vessels with molten tin and nausadar powder, creating glossy linings that make cookware food-safe, blocking deadly metal-acid reactions. After tinning comes the buffing, transforming dull brass into sparkling pieces. Only 5-6 cramped, century-old shops survive, keeping this essential craft alive through sheer stubbornness and skill.
Where- Yahiyaganj Market, Chowk
Urdu Calligraphy
Syed Azeem Haider Jafri isn’t ready to let centuries slip away. As one of Lucknow’s last calligraphy or khattati masters, he still hand-cuts sarkanda reeds at 45-degree angles, creating qalams that bring Quranic verses to life on stone and paper. He’s restored Chota Imambada’s magnificent inscriptions using hakik stone burnishing, techniques most have forgotten. Now he’s teaching eager students, desperately preserving this Nawabi art before it vanishes.
Chandi Warq making
Chandi ka warq wasn’t always about sweets, it started as medicine. Following Hakim Luqmaan’s ancient wisdom, artisans hand-hammered silver into paper-thin sheets for Ayurvedic healing, wrapping herbal pastes and remedies. Now artisans like Shaan Ilahi and Mohd. Hafiz preserve this fading craft, spending over three decades beating silver by hand while machines take over. They watch their work shimmer on galawati kebabs, gilauris and mithai, decoration replacing remedy, tradition barely surviving.
Where- Bharat Chandi Works, 332/100, Gali Taksal, Chowk Road
Mat weaving
Lucknow’s chatai weavers have been working moonj grass, bamboo, and river reeds since the 19th century, creating mats that naturally cool homes and bodies. What started as simple floor seating now appears in yoga studios and meditation spaces. Local artisans still handweave these eco-friendly pieces, though modern variants using recycled materials are creeping in. It’s sustainable craft that’s somehow survived industrialisation.
Where- Aminabad, Moulviganj
Silbatta making
Chiselling a sil-batta is pure precision, each groove carved deliberately so spices release their oils just right, grinding to that perfect texture machines can’t touch. The angles, the depth, the stone’s texture, all engineered through experience, not blueprints. Vijay Kumar has spent 50 years mastering this ancient craft, but he’s losing the battle to electric grinders in kitchens that forgot why stone-ground actually matters.
Where- Pata Nala, Nakkhas, Nahariya Chauraha
