In a very delicate process, Sophie Blanc gilds plants that she gathers in the wild. Inspired by memories of her childhood, when she spent time walking in the woods, her sculptures tell the story of her intimate connection with nature. Initially trained as a furniture restorer in cabinetmaking, Sophie first turned to gold leaf to broaden her skills. It is only years of practice later, that she discovered the creative potential of this technique and how she could adapt it to express herself artistically. Full of precision and fragility, her poetic sculptures reflect magic moments experienced in nature. While Sophie still shares the workshop A l'or et du Bois with her partner Jean Blanc, a restorer, she now focuses solely on her own gilding creations.

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This sculpture features a delicate composition of plants, all picked from the wild. In particular, it is composed of 16 common bentgrass (Agrostis capillaris ) and nine wild salsify flowers (Tragopogon pratensis). Each plant has been meticulously gilded with the traditional gold leaf technique.

Légère Dualité

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This sculpture features a fine composition of golden plants. It is notably composed of five common bentgrass (Agrostis capillaris) and five wild salsify (Tragopogon pratensis) that have been delicately gilded with gold leaf. The plants are standing on a black wooden base and covered by a rectangular glass box.

Murmures

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This sculpture features a fine composition of plants, that have been picked from the wild and finished with gold leaf. The composition has 68 cupules of sessile oak (Quercus petraea), 20 of which are black on the inside and 48 of which are gilded in the inside. The sculpture is standing on a wooden base and is protected with a rectangular glass box.

S'endormir sous les Arbres

Standing on a blackened wooden base and covered by a glass box, this sculpture features a delicate composition of golden plants. It is composed of 12 common bentgrasses (Agrostis capillaris), one sprig of Amur grass (Eragrostis trichodes) and 19 poppy capsules (Papaver rhoeas). Each one was picked from the wild and meticulously gilded with the traditional gold leaf technique.

A La Lisière

This sculpture features a delicate composition of plants meticulously gilded using gold leaf. In particular, it is composed of three sprigs of blue lapsana (Lapsana communis) and 100 decorative garlic fruits (Allium Purple Rain). The sculpture is standing on a wooden base and is covered by a rectangular glass box.

Rêverie sur la Planète

Rêverie sur la Planèze

At the age of 33 Valérie Colas des Francs decided she wanted to leave her career in marketing in order to work with her hands, but she was afraid she wouldn’t have enough patience for a manual profession. That proved to be the case when she took a course in stained glass. Then, determined to put her patience to the ultimate test, she decided to pursue an internship in straw marquetry, “because it’s meticulous, detailed work. I told myself if I am patient enough to work with this, I can change jobs”. When she first arrived to train at the workshop of French master Lison de Caunes, she “fell in love with straw” and knew instantly this was what she wanted to do. She stayed with de Caunes for 14 years before opening her own studio.

Colas des Francs, Valérie

Testing her own patience

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Alain Mailland first studied fine arts but his heart wasn’t really in it. After two years he gave up and went to earn a living on building sites as a roof carpenter. He worked in construction for the next 15 years and it was during the later part of these years when he discovered woodturning. The first time he turned a piece of wood he knew instantly that this was what he wanted to do. After an internship, he started by turning and selling bowls and vases. However, one day he had the idea to create flowers out of wood, and from there, little by little, he developed a unique technique of carving and sculpting wood into delicate yet spectacular forms inspired by nature.

Mailland, Alain

Sculpting natural forms in wood

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After obtaining a diploma in cabinetmaking from Ecole Boulle in Paris in 2001, Nicolas Pinon continued to work on traditional and contemporary finishing techniques. During his studies he attended a conference on Japanese lacquering and knew immediately that this was what he wanted to do. He took a few courses in Paris and in Barcelona, Spain. However, he knew that if he wanted to immerse himself fully in this technique he would need to go to Japan. So in 2007 he packed his bags and travelled to Japan where he would meet his future master, Nagatoshi Onishi, with whom he later trained for three months.

Pinon, Nicolas

A Japanese craft in French hands

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Growing up above his father’s wood workshop had a profound impact on Emmanuel Joussot, who was immersed in this world from an early age. His father employed apprentices from the Compagnons du Devoir and, as a child, Emmanuel learnt cabinetry and joinery alongside them. He worked under his father’s guidance for 14 years before taking over the management of the workshop on his retirement in 1989. The workshop originally focused on the production of 17th to 19th century French furniture designs, however now Emmanuel mainly makes contemporary furniture as well as panelling, antique furniture and gilded wood. He works closely with designers and interior decorators to create interior layouts and single pieces or limited series.

Joussot, Emmanuel

Keeping it in the family

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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

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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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