His first creations were the floral necklaces he used to make for his grandmother. Since then, Alexander Posthuma has come a long way. He studied in an agricultural school from the age of 13, he went to Australia and Saudi Arabia to gain international knowledge then trained as a florist in Amsterdam. “Both in street-side kiosks, where I learned to work quickly and efficiently, and in the shops of some of the city’s leading florists, who taught me how to transform a person’s wishes into shape and colour.” In 2012, he launched his brand A.P Bloem, opening a shop in town and a greenhouse in Aalsmeer. Nowadays, he’s a well-known master of the so-called Dutch field style, the Amsterdam unique style of floral arrangement inspired by the painters of the 17th century.

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A yellow-dominated bouquet of daffodils and mimosa (also called golden wattle), with dark flowers to create a beautiful contrast. The ensemble is cheerful and spring-like: the perfect arrangement to say goodbye to winter.

Spring arrangement

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There is nothing as quintessentially Dutch as tulips. Here they are arranged in a loose, sunny bouquet illuminated by yellow touches.

Tulips

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Peonies, hydrangea, roses and other spring flowers are arranged in a low vase. The colour palette is one of pink and purple. The arrangement was made as a gift for Mother's Day.

Mama Mia

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A dynamic explosion of colour and texture in a low vase, with orchids, strelizia and other flowers. The bouquet is a typical example of Dutch field style, the Amsterdam unique style of floral arrangement inspired by the painters of the Golden Age.

Amsterdam

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A bunch of fresh flowers, grown in Alexander Posthuma's greenhouse, ready to be arranged in a lively bouquet.

Fresh flowers

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Geir Nustad was born in Tromsø, in the north of Norway, in 1984. In 2006 he moved to Sweden, where he trained to become a glassblower at the Kosta Glascenter, one of Europe’s most renowned glass schools. He then moved to the Netherlands for further study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Geir has also worked alongside different skilled masters to improve his skills. Currently living and working in Amsterdam, his practice as an artist ranges from drawings and paintings to objects, sculptures and installations that consist mainly of glass, either as a sculptural medium or related to design/applied-arts.

Nustad, Geir

Spellbound by the magic of glass

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Barbara Nanning is a Dutch ceramicist and glass artist. “I learned to throw on a wheel when I was eight years old. I had a wheel in my bedroom, right beside my bed, and later a small electric kiln. All my free time during my teenage years was spent happily practising throwing.” The invitation in 1995 from Royal Leerdam to make a series of unique pieces brought a great change in her career. In Leerdam she mostly made dishes and objects of colourless glass, in which she played with the thickness of the glass and its distorting effects. “The forms were a continuation of my ceramic idiom. Since then I have worked alternately in ceramics and glass, following my intuition and imagination.”

Nanning, Barbara

Made with intuition and imagination

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Peter Jan Brouwer’s furniture is crafted in homage to ancient woodworking traditions, the past being an integral point of reference for his bespoke pieces. For him a piece of furniture is well made when its “construction and design are durable and can last for at least one hundred years.” At six years old, Peter Jan was given a toolbox by his parents with real woodworking tools, which spurred him on to make things, such as his own bed and small boxes for his grandfather. Ignoring his father’s advice to pursue a woodworking career, he carved out his own path studying Art History at the University of Groningen, only to become so inspired by all the craftsmanship he saw during his studies that he ultimately ended up following his father’s advice, becoming a cabinetmaker after all.

Brouwer, Peter Jan

Future heirlooms

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Sebastiaan van Soest was trained by his father, H.A.B. van Soest, who was a pioneer in preserving and restoring existing gilded leather and in making new pieces. “I literally grew up with gilded leather. My father taught me to create it at my mother’s knee. Wherever my parents went to work, they used to take my sister and me along,” he says. This delicate and meticulous technique of decorating leather dates back to the 6th century. Contrary to what one could assume, given its name, gilded leather is not worked with gold leaf but rather with very thin sheets of silver leaf. In order for the silver not to oxidise, layers of natural varnish are applied, lending it its final golden colour.

Van Soest, Sebastiaan

Preserving an ancient Dutch skill

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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.

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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