When buying his first expensive watch, Vladimir Petrov did not like how the strap looked on his wrist. Generally inspired by intellectual challenge and learning new things, he wanted to make a better strap himself. By destroying a sofa to get the leather and taking threads and needles from the household sewing machine, Vladimir made his first watch strap – according to him, the result was horrible. Ever since, Vladimir continued to train as a self-taught leatherworker by experimenting, making errors, correcting them and learning from many masters. He strives to make every single detail correctly, even if it might not be visible, to create the bespoke leather accessories that he has become known for which make his customers happy.

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This handmade classic diplomatic attache bag is made out of black goat leather and lined with pig suede. It has a divider section with zipper and four internal pockets. The bag flap is secured with a palladium plated brass key lock. The edges are painted and satin polished. Vladmir Petrov hand stitched it with a grey linen thread giving the bag its elegant finish.

Diplomatic attache bag

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The apple red Niloticus crocodile belt is patted and lined with a vegetable tanned calf lining. A rectangular gold-plated brass buckle rounds off this luxurious belt. The belt is hand stitched by Vladimir Petrov with a matching red linen thread. All edges are painted and satin polished.

Crocodile belt

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The marine blue simple flip-over gusseted encasing for business cards is made by Vladimir Petrov with vegetable tanned leather, so called Buttero leather, and is lined with a graphite coloured goat leather. A luxurious cold plated snap fastener secures the business cards holder and the graphite coloured stitches make for an elegant finish.

Business card holder

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This protective case for sunglasses is hand stitched by Vladimir Petrov and made from green speckled African buffalo leather. The entirely encased construction is lined with reindeer suede which protects the sunglasses both from scratches and from deformation. The leather-covered round snap fastener and delicate stitches give the case its meticulous finish.

Sunglasses case

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These two classic bag handles are made of black goat's leather. The brass handle attachments give any bag a beautiful and classic touch. Placed in front of the bag handles is a bag handle filler, which Vladimir Petrov sculpted by hand with a knife. Each differently coloured layer of the filler is clearly visible.

Bag handles and the handle filler

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Roman Räss is one of the few Weissküfer artisans still working in Switzerland. He masters a technique that originated in the late 17th century as a way of shaping and bending wood to create milk pails, buckets, butter churners, moulds and other tools needed by alpine farmers. Woodcarving was a source of income for generations of families in the Bernese Oberland. In its heyday, in the second half of the 19th century, around 2,000 people were occupied as woodcarvers in the area. They made souvenirs such as wild and domestic animals and human figures, but also things for everyday use. The Brienz School of Woodcarving, which still trains woodcarvers today, was founded in 1884.

Räss, Roman

Upholding a Swiss tradition

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François Junod has the contagious and overwhelming enthusiasm of a child. When you step into his amusement park of mechanical creatures, perched among the Jura mountains, he invites you to discover his latest creations. They are constructed in neverending pursuit of perfection as François pushes himself beyond the boundaries that he himself set in place when making his last object. His latest feats are a chirping flock of birds and an exotic dancer who can replicate the exact movements of the dancers that go on stage every night in Bangkok. With François it’s always “look at this one, and look at this other one”. And even if you are not familiar with precision mechanics, Junod will draw you into this magical kingdom, a place that would make any child happy. That’s because he has remained a child himself, continuing to live a dream he has chased since he was a boy.

Junod, François

The genius of mechanical art

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Anita Porchet is the best-known enamel artist working in watches today. She was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the very heart of Switzerland’s fine watchmaking region. And it is precisely in the luxury watchmaking industry where she has become famous for the splendid dials and cases that she skilfully decorates with the sophisticated enamelling techniques of cloisonné, champlevé, plique-à-jour, email Grand Feu, paillonné and miniature painting. In 1994 she opened her workshop, where, besides carrying out her own enamelling work, she has for the past ten years taught enamelling skills to other artisans.

Porchet, Anita

Mastering a miniature world

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In 1995 Eva Mechler was fed up with the grammar school, its system and its approach to learning. So in the 10th grade she decided to leave school and to take up a traditional carpentry apprenticeship instead, “I wanted to create something with my own hands and put my interest in geometry into practice.” Fast forward six years, Eva reached the rank of master carpenter following the footsteps of her grandfather. “At the age of eight, I built my first piece of furniture together with my grandfather. He was a carpenter himself and made furniture and toys for me and my brothers.” Today, she is an award winning designer who established her own company in Switzerland. She collaborates with leading designers in Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam, London and New York, for land, air, and sea projects, and takes part in every step of the making process, from sketch to completion. Having started her practice in the late 1990s, Eva has developed a unique but simple aesthetic that builds on quality with a special focus on contemporary design fit for the future.

Mechler, Eva

The beauty of practicality

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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.

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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