Originally trained as a photographer, ceramicist Mette Duedahl felt she lacked hands-on experience with material as photography became more digitised. She studied at the Ceramic Design Studies at the Royal Danish Academy on Bornholm, here she found that the three-dimensional way of working was crucial to her. Working with her hands in the clay enabled her to transmit aesthetics on a functional level creating a subtle and understated series of tableware that shortly after her graduation became wildly popular. Since then, Mette has set up her own practice and shop on the island of Bornholm, where she sells her handmade series HANDMADE, made on location in her studio, and the commercial series LAND, produced by a small workshop in Portugal.

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Her studio is silent, only the rustling of nature outside interacts with her concentrated, creative mind. Sandra Davolio is a very private person. She likes to work by herself, immersed in a world of beauty, strength and frailty: this is how she sees the world of ceramics. Based in Copenhagen since the 70s, her pieces express a Scandinavian vibe yet also display an undertone of audacity. “I was always considered an outsider in the Danish minimalism movement,” she explains. “In my objects there is always something more vivid, wild, intense. This is my Italian side.”

Davolio, Sandra

Danish style with Italian flair

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The signature of Ane-Katrine von Bülow’s work is black and white precision patterns on ceramic pieces. She makes large-scale graphic patterns that cover vases, bowls and cylinders. Geometric patterns create illusions in her abstract compositions and Ane-Katrine describes her ceramic pieces as graphic porcelain. She strives to achieve aesthetic simplicity. Ane-Katrine applies 3D generated patterns to porcelain, bridging the gap between ceramics and the latest computer technology. Inspired by opposing themes of black and white, yin and yang, empty and full, inside and outside, her pieces are crafted with a nod at Japanese minimalism.

TJ --> applies computer-generated patterns to porcelain

Von Bülow, Ane-Katrine

Opposing themes in graphic porcelain

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Lotte Westphael’s ceramic pieces flow and float yet appear solid at the same time. She finds inspiration in architecture, textile art and classical music and seeks to fuse these disparate elements in her ceramic shapes. Lotte’s cylinders are built of thin strips of porcelain cut and reassembled, creating a distinct and unique design in colour displacement. The colour patterns are meticulously planned, but her process is open to the irregularities that creep in during the final phases of creation. "With every addition of a new colour, cracks can occur." But this offsetting of perfection is what gives Lotte's pieces their complexity and beauty.

Westphael, Lotte

How to capture poetry

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The Danish island of Bornholm, originally a place for fishermen, is today a kind of paradise for people engaged in art and crafts. Charlotte Thorup trained in ceramics here and now lives and works in a small harbour town on the island. Her work focuses on pattern and repetition, unique dimensions, contrasts and connections. Taking inspiration from the town's architecture and the symmetry of nature, she models clay sticks and forms them into simple modules to create minimalist compositions. Slight variations and imperfections create interest, while matt or glossy surfaces convey light and shadow effects.

Thorup, Charlotte

The simplicity of repetition

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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.

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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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