Having been born and raised on a small island on the north-western coast of Norway, Gjertrud Hals is hugely influenced by the landscape in her artwork. Much of her work is an attempt at expressing the connection between the island’s micro-history and the world’s macro-history. Her creations are “nets artworks” made of thread, metal wire, paper or paper fibre. But also embroideries and 3D works made of paper and fibre, metal wire and resin. “I am working with the connection between form, light and shadow. For me, lightness is an important quality, often combined with sizes and shapes that are normally thought of as massive and solid. When I am creating sculptural volumes, I prefer to use materials that look fragile, but are actually physically strong.”

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Gjertrud Hals makes objects that vary in nature and in the techniques applied: she casts, sprays, cuts, knits and weaves “net artworks” made of thread, metal wire, paper, paper fibre and resin. Like gathering world-wide myths and experiences, collecting material and objects is also an important part of her work process. Gjertrud welcomes visitors to her workshop in Molde, an ancient city located on the Romsdal Peninsula, on the north-western coast of Norway. In her studio, she shows techniques and materials that she uses to create nets in mixed media, and demonstrates the types of equipment she uses to build two and three dimensional objects. Visitors will have the opportunity to test themselves and take inspiring photos of her artwork.

Net-making demonstration in Norway

Enjoy a live demonstration of net making

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White Night is a wall hanging, consisting of two parts. It has a web-like structure, stiff and hard to touch. The colour is pearl white. The grid is made of iron wire, combined with cotton fibre balls. The grid is sprayed approximately 25 times with white coloured paper pulp.

White Night

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The Ultima project consist of a series of objects with different natural colours, structures and heights, but similar shapes. This Ultima object, a mix between a vase and an urn, is knitted from linen thread, shaped and cast on a mould with resin. It is stiff, lightweight and translucent.

Ultima

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Tela is a wall hanging consisting of three parts, each measuring 200 x 100 cm. The web-like structure, made of iron wire with small balls, is sprayed with 50 layers of liquified paper pulp. The colour is golden yellow. It should hang freely or with a distance to the wall.

Tela

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Insula is a wall hanging made as a network. It represents the human nervous system, abstracted into a rectangle. Each section measuring 100 x 100 cm is sprayed more than 100 times with a liquified paper pulp consisting of pigmented linen fibres, cellulose glue and water. The colour is dark pure red.

Insula

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“I work as a way of thinking, creating and expressing myself.” A graduate of Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Irene Nordli’s creations represent her personal research in ceramic sculptures, probing the dimensions of the porcelain figurine and the vessel, which she models, builds, casts, tears apart and puts together in new ways. “I explore clay in all its forms. Liquid, plastic, moulded and modelled; wet and dry, soft and hard. I allow my hands to be wiser than my head, I allow my body to be involved in the decision-making process.” An exploration that has led to innumerable exhibitions and commissioned works, scholarships and awards.

Nordli, Irene

Probing porcelain's endless possibilites

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Inger Johanne Rasmussen creates large-scale textile intarsia with woollen cloth, which she dyes, cuts and stitches by hand. “I was interested in textile crafts from a very early age, learning knitting and sewing from my mother. I have been studying and working with art and textiles full time since the age of 16.” She learned decorative drawing and weaving in high school, then at the Bergen art school (SHKD) and in Stockholm (Konstfack). Her inspirations include textiles from all around the world, old patterns, folk art, early Renaissance paintings, optical illusions, traditional embroidery, children’s drawings and needlework samplers.

Rasmussen, Inger Johanne

Telling stories through tapestry

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Sidsel Hanum is based on the island of Borøy, off the southern coast of Norway. The natural environment greatly influences her ceramic works, which are made using the technique of slip-trailing: she squeezes liquid porcelain out of a dispenser fitted with a narrow spout, obtaining superimposed layers of clay, which solidify into delicate shapes that are reminiscent of nature. “The process I work with explores the potential and limitations of clay. The amazing diversity of shells, corals, sea anemones and starfish is imprinted in my work,” she says. “I feel that the rise and fall of the ocean tides unites the world as a whole.”

Hanum, Sidsel

Exploring the potential of clay

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Ingrid Larssen grew up in northern Norway on a small island with only 8,000 inhabitants. Like most girls back then, she learned to knit and sew from her mother. Her first experience with smocking was at an afternoon workshop for children, where she fell in love with needlework. At the age of 18 she moved to Oslo, where she studied metalwork at the National Academy of Arts and Craft. “It was in the 1980s, when wearable art was fashionable. I made jewellery in different kinds of materials such as wood, acrylic glass, bamboo, feathers, metal, horse hair, textiles and so on. I made large collars in smocking on silk. That’s when I began to experiment with this technique.”

Larssen, Ingrid

Making art under the northern lights

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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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