Kevin Attard began to show an interest in crafts from a young age, while he was working in his father’s workshop mending jewellery. He trained in the craftsmanship of filigree, and before setting up his own workshop, he worked in one of the leading jewellery shops in Valletta. Since launching as a freelance craftsman, he has focused on creating innovative and modern filigree while preserving traditional Maltese filigree techniques, meticulously crafting everything from jewellery to abstract sculptures. Passionate about sharing his experience with future generations of filigree artists, he regularly runs lessons and lectures in Malta’s leading educational institutions and trains apprentices, to ensure this traditional craft is nurtured and preserved.

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Silver filigree is most known as a traditional Maltese craft, however, Kevin succeeds in breaking such barriers creating innovative and technically challenging artworks. This shift in his work is a transition in itself, turning away from the traditional by changing the subject matter, and by using more modern filigree techniques while still embracing and respecting former ones. From exotic creatures to elegant napkin holders to a unique jewellery line, this collection of works offers variety and versatility.

Bull 2

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Silver filigree is most known as a traditional Maltese craft, however, Kevin succeeds in breaking such barriers creating innovative and technically challenging artworks. From exotic creatures to elegant napkin holders to a unique jewellery line, this collection of works offers variety and versatility.

Cobra

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Bull 1

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The theme of the pieces is about animals and the masks represent the human animal. From exotic creatures to elegant napkin holders to a unique jewellery line, this collection of works offers variety and versatility. Silver filigree is most known as a traditional Maltese craft, however, Kevin succeeds in breaking such barriers creating innovative and technically challenging artworks.

Mask

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This wearable silver filigree mask was handmade by Kevin Attard during the Covid-19 pandemic. The theme of the pieces is about animals and the masks represent the human animal. Silver filigree is most known as a traditional Maltese craft, however, Kevin succeeds in breaking such barriers creating innovative and technically challenging artworks. This shift in his work is a transition in itself, turning away from tradition by changing the subject matter, and by using more modern filigree techniques while still embracing and respecting former ones.

Mask 1

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Malta Creative Collective was founded in 2016 by fashion designer Carla Grima and creative Rossella Frigerio, following a collaboration. This prompted them to create a platform with the aiming of uniting fellow creatives resident on the island of Malta. Through a calendar of educational workshops and informative talks both online and offline, social gatherings and events across Malta, the collective seeks to elevate the local visual literacy and to facilitate fruitful connections, leading to new collaborations, ideas, products and brands. The collective has a wide membership from interior designers and architects to ceramicists and photographers, all united by their passion for their home island and their crafts.

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Few in Malta hold the expertise and knowledge of filigree craftsmanship as Gaetano Saliba, who has been perfecting his skills since he began crafting silver when he was just 17 years old. Inheriting tools and a passion from his father – who himself was a silversmith – Gaetano trained in the art of filigree with some of the few masters that were alive back then, and refined his skills by taking a course at the Malta School of Art. He opened his workshop in 1989, and ever since, he has been working assiduously to preserve this traditional craft, creating unique filigree pieces while attending local and international trade fairs to showcase and share his art with the world. While he re-interprets traditional motifs, inspiration drives him to refine and polish older designs to fit contemporary settings, always remaining true to the values of quality and attention to detail.

Saliba, Gaetano

The art of preserving filigree

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While Gioia Clavenzani and Ivano Ghinelli hail from very different personal and professional backgrounds, their jewellery workshop represents an effortless blend of their unique traits that, when combined, bring to life one-of-a-kind pieces of jewellery. For Ivano, what they create together represents the culmination of a family story that began years ago with his father, an experienced jewellery maker and designer, while for Gioia, their craft reminds her of being a high school art student. Specialised in a multitude of jewellery making techniques, namely stone-setting, goldsmithery, and intricate metal wire work, they opened their first studio and workshop together in the hamlet of Città della Pieve in Perugia, Italy. Nature and contemporary art represent their greatest inspiration, reflected in both the materials and textures of their creations.

Clavenzani, Gioia & Ghinelli, Ivano

The beauty of raw materials

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Victor Azzopardi has almost five decades of experience in silversmithing, and is the only master silversmith left still practising in Malta. He inherited an interest in the craft from his family, which is renowned for creating some of the most refined and intricate pieces of silverware on the island since the 1800s. From his early teens, he has been honing and perfecting his silversmithing skills, beginning as an apprentice to some of the most experienced local masters of the craft in the 1970s and 80s before moving to Italy and the United Kingdom to continue his studies. He blends the contemporary with the traditional by reproducing silver artefacts that were originally created in the 17th and 18th centuries using age-old techniques, all while adapting the wares to contemporary living. He is driven by the desire to create appreciable and timeless silver artefacts.

Azzopardi, Victor

Malta's last silversmith

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Mark Borg has dedicated his career to the art of filigree, combining tradition and innovation. His creative journey began at the age of 13 when he embarked on a three-year course specialising in filigree making. Over the years, his style has evolved, showcasing his versatility and innovative spirit. Mark's commitment to the craft goes beyond tradition. He is renowned for pushing the boundaries of filigree by crafting sculptures in non-precious metals, creating kinetic sculptures, and producing contemporary filigree alongside traditional works. His passion for sustainability and artistry is evident in his ability to repurpose materials, such as brass pistol cartridges from local shooting ranges.

Borg, Mark

Reinventing the art of filigree

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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