Pálma Babos has been in love with porcelain since she graduated from the College of Applied Arts in 1985. She believes that this material is so clean, white, versatile and elementary at the same time that it resembles fine marble. Pálma has had a busy career - she was the artistic director of the world-famous Porcelain manufacturer in Herend for 3 years, winning multiple prizes and a prestigious residential fellowship in Japan, yet she remains intrigued by ceramics. There are still a number of questions – both philosophical and structural – that keep her preoccupied, and until she finds the answers, she can’t stop experimenting with particular shapes. “First I always raise a question then I start to analyse it. It could take years. For example I was dealing with pipe structures some time ago, and when I recognized that the creation had become repetitive rather than explorative, I knew I must immediately abandon these forms,” she explains.

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According to evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object. This hand built porcelain sculpture evokes this phenomenon with citizens and cities.

Mimicry

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This hand built sculpture explores ideas around society and humans, drawing a parallel between the destruction of the towers and human society.

Couple

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This sculpture, crafted from porcelain, is an example of Pálma's ongoing investigation of form and hand building techniques. Recently, her work has focused on the cities of the 21st century, as well as the relations of the people living in them.

City

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This handmade porcelain sculpture evokes a modern city seen from above. The structure creates shadows as if clouds were passing over the buildings, in between the viewer and them.

Clouds Above the City

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Judit Osvárt started her career as a journalist for different lifestyle magazines in Hungary. In 2006, she was the founding editor-in-chief of the local edition of Elle Decoration, then worked for H.O.M.E. and Flair magazine's international editions. Since 2013, she has been curator of Budapest Design Week, the biggest design event in Hungary with more than 150 programmes yearly, where the main aim is to raise awareness of design as a multidisciplinary approach. She's also involved with David Barath Design, a company that works on different design, branding and communication assignments and that she runs with her partner. Besides design and craftsmanship, she is interested in architecture, contemporary art and local history, and she also likes to travel.

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Zsuzsa Boldizsár has always been captivated by the feeling of ‘flow’ when she is completely immersed, absorbed in the creative process. This meditative state is extremely inspiring to her – in addition to the multitude of expression possibilities arising from ceramics. She experiments a lot with pieces that combine traditions of porcelain making and those of decorative embroidery, which are intensely present in her own family traditions. Her pierced and embroidered items are items located at the border of everyday objects and works of fine art. In her latest works, she has been researching the technical possibilities of porcelain making: for example, she was able to implement dying material between the single porcelain layers using a unique method developed by herself.

Boldizsar, Zsuzsa

Embroidered ceramics

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Gábor Somoskői was initially into photography and worked a lot with wood, creating skateboards for years, but he always loved  as a child. He started working with ceramics more seriously in 2012, when he bought his first small kiln. Today, he is happy that he can work with ceramics in his own workshop, full-time – which he considers to be a kind of meditative activity, and which he learned by doing, step by step, in a self-taught way, without any formal education. Gábor likes to see his work as a continuation of a 10,000 year-old tradition, as, to put it very simply, he makes bowls and utensils from clay in the same way as his pre-historic predecessors – but he has modern tools and ingredients to do so.

Somoskői, Gábor

A meditative approach

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The works of Etelka Meixner-Hegyi are characterised by poetic finesse. Her objects are often reminiscent of the ever-changing, shining surface of water. Not by chance: choosing their colours is a lengthy process in itself, and their surface is created with a so-called drop technique developed by Etelka herself. The end result is a spectacular surface reminiscent of an optical game that evokes both the surface of the water and the fishes that shimmer in it. Recently, she has also made jewellery using this technique, and she took her first steps towards interior design, too: she creates washbasins and luminaires – with the same precision, sensitivity and richness of detail that applies to her tableware.

Meixner-Hegyi, Etelka

Experimenting with porcelain

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Ábel Lakatos graduated from the University of West Hungary with a degree in typography and packaging design. It was during a summer internship that he fell in love with ceramics. “In the internationally renowned Kecskemét Ceramics Studio, we built a 5-metre-high furnace sculpture together with internationally renowned ceramic artist Nina Hole. We set it up on the main square of the city, fired for three days, working on it with our bare hands – it was then that I realised that unlike other design disciplines that I have been working with, ceramics is alive and intense, and is in constant physical contact with elements.” After university, he worked as a graphic artist for some time. Later Ábel had the opportunity to work as Head of Ceramics Department at the Ferenc Medgyessy High School in Debrecen, which allowed him to devote his full attention to ceramics. His pieces are popular commodities at fairs and design shops, but he also cooperates with a Hungarian muesli manufacturer because his pieces – colourful, playful but always highly functional – are ideal accessories in any modern kitchen.

Lakatos, Ábel

All about duality

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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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