A nomadic existence as a child in Australia made it natural for Tchai Munch to search for a profession independent of verbal language. Clay was her first choice but glass quickly became the material that fascinated her the most. The picturesque Danish town of Ebeltoft became this nomad's final port, and she has now lived and worked there for more than 40 years. Tchai's early work concentrated on blowing, fusing and slumping, a process in which pieces of glass are fused together and then shaped by reheating. The process of composing patterns, often using ancient Venetian techniques, requires delicacy and the careful hand of an experienced artisan. More recently, Tchai has been working with sandcasting, combining clay with glass.

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This handcrafted plate was shaped by fusing various coloured glass canes together. Black canes were placed next to one another across the plate, interrupted by a band of multicoloured canes protruding to one side. The fused piece was partially sandblasted and slumped.

Eungella

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This handcrafted round plate was made by fusing twisted clear and dichroic glass. Small dichroic glass buttons were scattered on one side. The black glass on the plate was sandblasted, then the whole was slumped into a predetermined form. The shape was inspired by opal hunting in the deserts of Australia where Tchai Munch grew up.

Andamooka

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This fused and slumped glass plate features a rich variety of colours separated by thick dark lines. Tchai Munch shaped these colours using pulled cane in various colours, black cane with twists and bands of black in different widths. The canes were assembled while cold in a geometric pattern and then fused in an electric kiln. The final fused piece was then trimmed and sandblasted before being slumped into a predetermined form.

Kirribilli

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This large handcrafted oval plate was formed by fusing various pieces of coloured glass. Blue and white pulled canes are connected via a wavy, river-like band of red glass coated with gold leaf. The plate was sandblasted, avoiding the gold leaf, and then slumped. The piece was commissioned by the municipality of Ebeltoft to be presented to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, on her official visit to the town in 2015.

Fusion

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This hand blown cobalt blue glass vase has been decorated with four silver and gold leaf squares and oval glass 'buttons'.

Cobalt blue vase

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Dutch-Danish duo Rick Gerner and Johanne Jahncke met at the Royal Danish Academy on the island of Bornholm, from where both graduated in 2016. But while Johanne has been fascinated by glass for as long as she can remember, Rick discovered his passion on Bornholm when he first came in contact with liquid glass. With a communal interest in geology “not from a scientific point of view but from an aesthetic perspective”, they examine soil from around the world and use this knowledge when creating glass and ceramics. This natural material has a very special role in their work. So special that they chose to settle in the Unesco World Craft Region of Bornholm, where the rich subsoil has generated a long artisanal tradition.

Gerner, Rick & Jahncke, Johanne

Creating colours from the earth

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Both Christina Hellevik and Leif Møller Nielsen are newcomers to Ebeltoft. Originally from Norway, Christina got her artistic education in Denmark, while Leif came to Ebeltoft from Copenhagen. Both of them trained as glassblowers in the famous Swedish Kosta. Their glass workshop Pust (which translates as "Blow") is today situated in the old merchant´s house in the centre of picturesque Ebeltoft – once a fishing town surrounded by magnificent nature. The place is a combination of the hot shop and a sales gallery filled with unique hand blown utility and decorative glass items.  Exquisite shapes – either plain or decorated – are in perfect balance with the delicate shades of colours.

Møller Nielsen, Leif & Hellevik, Christina

Passion for blown glass and for each other

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Hungarian born Anett Biliczki started her artistic education in Budapest and finished it only a few years ago at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts. Her glass craftsmanship skills led her to become technical assistant for several well-established glass artists in Scandinavia, despite her young age. Anett works primarily with glass, enjoying finding new ways to create objects. In some of her recent work, she combines gypsum with glass, exploring the differences between the durability of these two materials. By using the properties of glass such as its fragility, transparency and fluidity, her objects create associations with narratives of certain places, both imaginary and real ones. Other times, she expresses clashes between the human made urban landscape and the forces of nature.

Biliczki, Anett

Reflecting nature in glass

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Swiss born Jonas has been passionate about glass since he first saw glass art at the age of nine during a visit to Iittala Glass Factory. By the time he turned 14, he went to Glasfachschule in Zwiesel, Germany to become an apprentice glass blower. Learning from the Bavarian Masters and later on working in glass workshops in Italy, Austria, Denmark and USA, he developed a unique appreciation for the intricacies of glass, studying everything from the big picture to the smallest details. As a result, he has an artistic voice that is strongly individual while echoing the works of historical greats. He uses a self-invented technique, applied in his series Floating Lines which consists of the rapid folding of coloured strings in hot glass.

Niedermann, Jonas Noël

Enamoured by glass

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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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