Charo Iglesias is a maker, but also a keeper of the art of hat making. Trained as a teacher, she went on to transform her passion for hats into a profession without forgetting her background. These days she makes hats in her Madrid workshop and teaches in different schools, as well as writing a book about her 25 years’ experience. Her mantra is “crafts choose those who can make them happen”. She doesn't start by sketching; instead the hat comes to life in her mind and through her hands, which are her main tools. Her workshop is where ideas, colours, dreams and materials come together to create something that is not just an accessory but a beautiful finishing touch to an outfit.

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Spain’s vibrant culture is an antidote to an often apathetic world. It’s capital city is brimming with unique artisanal treasures. A passion for natural materials brings a new dimension to the Spanish craft culture and makes this attractive European metropole even more exciting. Let Madrid tell you a new story of natural beauty through contemporary interpretations of traditional, locally sourced or ancestral materials.

Madrid: a passion for natural materials

Explore Madrid’s craft culture where natural materials take centre stage. This buzzing capital city will tell you a new story of Spain’s natural beauty through contemporary interpretations of traditional, locally sourced or ancestral materials and techniques.

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Charo made this hat using dyed wheat straw, ironing it into its final form and hand seaming the edges. Pink flowers made from dyed and ironed silk were added to the top, accompanied by large dyed pink goose feathers.

Rocío

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This dyed straw hat was entirely handmade. Charo ironed the form into its final shape and hand sewed the edge. Hand dyed and ironed silk flowers and organza leaves were added to the underside of the hat, which is worn tilted to one side.

Carmen

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This wide brimmed hat was entirely handmade using dyed wheat. The hat was ironed into its final form and finished with wire and a hand seamed edge. Charo created the form of a flying bird using dyed and cut feathers which she glued together and sewed to a hand stitched bird's head.

Lupe

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Charo created this purple peach basket hat from rabbit felt that she shaped using a wooden mould. The edge of the hat was then ironed by hand to create its final form, and hand sewn. She decorated the hat with cotton velvet, draped to create a wave-like form.

Laya

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Charo created this cloche hat from blue felt that she glued and shaped in a double wing mould. She adorned the hat with hand sewn green cotton grosgrain tape as well as a narrow strip of velvet tape.

Hulla

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Created in 1981, Fundesarte is the leading institution for the promotion and development of Spanish craftsmanship businesses. It works to improve the economic and social relevance of the craft sector in Spain through projects that promote and enhance Spanish crafts and support competitiveness and innovation. Among its many promotional activities are the National Crafts Awards and the European Handicrafts Days, an annual initiative whose objective is to bring the world of heritage and creation closer to the public through craftsmanship events. It also organises exhibitions that tour Spain and internationally. Fundesarte is part of the EOI Foundation, an organisation linked to the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.

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Elena Ferro leads the third generation of wooden clog makers in her family. Along with her sisters, she keeps alive this artisan practice, which has always been in danger of disappearing since the industrial revolution. Her father and aunt taught her the techniques of the craft and to take pride in the work made in the family workshop. At 18, after finishing high school, she took over the workshop created by her grandfather in 1915 in the town of Merza (Pontevedra). Since then, she has been creating clogs and other leather goods with innovative designs and colours that are inspired by the nature of the Galician region. In 2019, Elena was awarded the National Craftsmanship Award for reinventing this humble footwear as a fashionable accessory.

Ferro, Elena

Reinventing clog making

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As well as a degree in Art History, Inés Prat trained for six years in the technique of high-warp hand weaving. She learned from two masters: Olga Hernández and Teresa Rosa Aguayo at the Teranyina Workshop School. "I have always been interested in weaving, artisanal processes and working with my hands," says Inés. It was in 2020, during the pandemic, that she decided to dedicate herself full-time to her chosen craft. She left Barcelona, where she was born, and opened her workshop in A Coruña where she feels better able to express herself artistically. "The high-warp loom connects me with myself and with history, as this type of loom is similar to those used in ancient times." Her first creation was a tapestry made with different knots that evoke the sea. Her simple designs and minimalist compositions leave room for texture to play a role.

Prat, Inés

Minimalist compositions

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Javier Reta Gallego and Myrte Sara Huyts are a couple whose passion is hat-making. He, a Spaniard, comes from a background in Fine Arts and graphic design. Whereas Myrte, who is Dutch, comes from a family of musicians, and studied literature and philology. It all started in 2017, in an apartment in the Madrid neighbourhood of Lavapiés. There, several factors came together: the love for hats, the desire to make something with their own hands, the desire to do something without haste, recreating in the small details and the curiosity for history, cultures and traditions. Their workshop officially opened in 2019. Currently, they make genderless hats, always worked with a wooden hat block, handmade, one by one. Most of their antique hat blocks come from a milliner in La Mancha, who lived in a small town almost 200km from Madrid.

Reta Gallego, Javier & Huyts, Myrte Sara

Love for hats

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Candela Cort makes hats, necklaces, headdresses, bracelets, and collars, which combine modern and ancient styles but, above all, which show her search for freedom and love for intuition. Candela has a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and she took a course in millinery at the London Fashion School. “When I was a child, I did all kinds of handicrafts. This skill developed into a hobby until it became a way of living,” she says and remembers that her first hat was a Lycra necklace. “When I went to take it off, I realized that it worked very well on my head. From that moment on, I started my career as a milliner”. In 1997 she had her first exhibition in Madrid. Since then she has shown her work in museums, galleries, and fashion shows around the world. Her hats have also been paraded in films, operas, and at royal weddings.

Cort, Candela

A delicate touch

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Your authorizations

Developed in partnership with Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte and made possible by the support of Cartier, Homo Faber in Città gives you a rare chance to visit over 70 artisan workshops. The project is developed in collaboration with Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Confartigianato Imprese Venezia, CNA Venezia, Consorzio Promovetro Murano, The Venice Glass Week and Venezia da Vivere.

Our Partners

Step inside the workshops and ateliers to learn the secrets of local master artisans and manufacturers

Try your hand at different crafts with an authentic experience

Marvel at examples of fine craftsmanship by doing our itineraries

This september, the second edition of Homo Faber in Città invites visitors to step off the beaten track and discover the artisanal addresses where Venetian craftspeople create objects of exquisite beauty. A rare opportunity to witness Venice’s master artisans and young talents demonstrating their crafts and presenting the tools, materials and skills involved in contemporary Venetian craftsmanship.

Enrich your experience beyond Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life

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Homo Faber Guide is an online portal dedicated to contemporary craftsmanship, showcasing artisans, ateliers, museums, galleries, shops and experiences. Create your user account for access to exclusive features on Homo Faber Guide: save your preferred pages, hear about hot topics first, leave recommendations for your favourite artisans and much more.

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Although the Michelangelo Foundation researches the talents for its projects autonomously, collaboration with our ambassadors is fundamental. Over 120 associations, schools and institutions allow us to map the continents for craftsmanship and to have partners in each country who share our vision and goals. In addition, we have asked well-known personalities in the craft, design and art world to be our ambassadors in the cities where they live, so that their recommendations can offer a unique insight into craftsmanship in the major cities of Europe and beyond.

Who are our ambassadors?

Download our free Homo Faber Guide app (iOS and Android) to discover artisans, museums, galleries, shops, and experiences by location. Search Homo Faber on the App store on your mobile device.

Find craftsmanship destinations on the go

Discover the addresses of esteemed manufacturers, well known for producing high quality objects across a wide variety of crafts. Read their stories and find out where you can shop their contemporary pieces, see their archive collections and even in some cases visit their workshops. Find exceptional ateliers where artisans collaborate creatively to create fine pieces of craftsmanship. Reach out to them to commission something special.

Ateliers & Manufacturers

All the artisans and small workshops featured in Homo Faber Guide have been carefully researched and selected. They are presented and narrated through a selection of images and an interview, which allows readers to immerse themselves in the universe of these makers who exemplify excellence in their individual fields or are promising talents of the future. Find masters and rising stars who share the same passion and determination, and whose workshops are ready to share their secrets with visitors.

A selection of the best artisans

Are you eager to discover a city through craftsmanship? Do you wish to spend a few hours visiting an applied arts museum or attending a course on a craft with one of the masters featured in Homo Faber Guide? Browse the section dedicated to experiences and find your next adventure.

Experiences

An expert artisan is an accomplished artisan who has been in activity for more than ten years. He or she may also be engaged in passing on their knowledge to the next generations, but they have been doing so for less than seven years. Beyond this, they will become a Master artisan.

Who is an Expert artisan?

Homo Faber Guide provides you with a selection of the best addresses across Europe and further afield, where you will be able to discover and purchase exceptional objects, some of which are created by artisans featured in Homo Faber Guide.

Galleries

Homo Faber Guide is an online platform dedicated to craftsmanship that allows you to discover artisans and their masterpieces; explore museums, visit galleries and shops selling unique objects; enjoy experiences in cities across Europe and beyond.

Homo Faber Guide is a signature project developed by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, an international non-profit organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, which was set up in 2016 thanks to the intuition of Franco Cologni and Johann Rupert. The Michelangelo Foundation’s mission is to celebrate and preserve master craftsmanship, and for this reason it has created a map of the most significant representatives in this field, with the aim of connecting all its protagonists: artisans, designers, gallery owners, art curators, collectors and enthusiasts of high-quality handmade pieces.

About the Guide

Are you an artisan, atelier or manufacturer? Would you like to be featured in Homo Faber Guide? The Michelangelo Foundation encourages self-assessment initiatives and is pleased to evaluate new members to appear on the Guide or in other projects. Thanks to the Master’s Touch Evaluation Tool, every artisan can send their application: register and access a questionnaire to see if you fulfill the 11 criteria for excellence that stand behind all the activities of the Michelangelo Foundation. If your answers reach the minimum requirement, your application will be brought to our attention; if, on the contrary, you should score below the minimum requirement, we will give you some points for improvement, in the hope that you may participate in future initiatives of the Michelangelo Foundation.

Join the Homo Faber Guide!

Our artisan labels

A master artisan is an accomplished artisan who has been in activity for more than ten years, and who has also been engaged in passing on his or her expertise to the younger generations for more than seven years. This is in keeping with one of the key values of the Michelangelo Foundation: the transmission of knowledge in craftsmanship.

Who is a Master artisan?

Find museums handpicked for their links to contemporary craftsmanship and the exquisite collections they have on display. In each city, discover a museum of interest and organise your visit. From Italian museums displaying coral collections, glass pieces and ceramics to decorative art museums in Russia and Greece, marvel at the variety of museums exhibiting masterpieces, showcasing techniques and recounting histories.

Museums

A rising star is an artisan who has been active for less than ten years, and who is capable of expressing his or her craft with competence, creativity and originality. Whether self-taught or trained, the rising star represents the future of craftsmanship, in creativity, concerns and approaches.

Who is a Rising star?

The artisans featured in Homo Faber Guide have been selected through a meticulous assessment process based on the 11 criteria for excellence, identified by Alberto Cavalli, Executive Director of the Michelangelo Foundation, in the volume The Master’s Touch, written with researchers Giuditta Comerci and Giovanna Marchello. The members of the Michelangelo Foundation’s network who have been invited to participate in sourcing artisans for the Guide use an evaluation tool based on these criteria. In this way, they can identify the most suitable artisans to include in the project.

Simple rules for a transparent selection

In which city does the artisan work?

In which country does the artisan practise?

What craft does the artisan practise?

What is the artisan’s Instagram page?

What is the name of the artisan you are recommending?

Does the artisan have a website?

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