Samyong Hwang began working with mother-of-pearl at 17 years old, learning the craft from his older brother, who was already an artisan. Samyong's journey was not easy, especially since he lost all his works in two fires, which almost made him give up. After the second fire, he retreated to the mountains for six months. His wife, using money she had saved for a new washing machine, encouraged him to re-open the workshop, knowing that this work brought him the most happiness. With her support, Samyong took up his work again. When Damien Hirst purchased some of his sculptures in 2015 and 2017 his work began to gain international recognition. Today, his artworks are displayed in museums such as the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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To create this piece, Samyong Hwang broke Korean blue and red mother-of-pearl by hand and assembled the pieces one by one, like a puzzle.

You and I

Through cutting and cracking techniques, Samyong Hwang captured the leisurely movements of fish among rocks and seaweed in the sea in this sculpture.

Mother’s arms

To produce this sculpture, Samyong Hwang cut mother-of-pearl into 0.6mm pieces, assembled them, and finished by using a shaping technique.

White Pebble

Pebble

To produce this sculpture, Samyong Hwang cut Korea abalone mother-of-pearl into 0.6mm pieces, assembled them, and finished by using a shaping technique.

Water Drop

Seoul-based Seulki Kim has been a popular flower designer for a decade, creating stylish arrangements for brand events, fine dinings and magazines, running a flower shop and teaching floristry classes. What made all of this happen was her ability to transform her bad luck into good fortune. First, she turned to flowers because in her late twenties she was stressed at work and needed a hobby to relax. After learning the basics, she couldn’t find an advanced course so she went on practising by herself and developed her own style. Then, she applied for a job in various flower studios, but nobody ever replied. So, in 2012 Seulki launched her own studio, 1304. "At the beginning it was just a blog", she explains. But fortune rewards the bold. And the talented, too.

Kim, Seulki

High speed floristry

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Lee Hyunju’s love story with plants began when she was working as a book editor. "Providing pictures for books about nature and ecology was part of my job" she explains. "I used to go to the mountains by myself to observe wild flowers and take photos of them. It was so much fun that, little by little, I took interest in cultivated species, too. So, when I decided I wanted to work on my own and express my creativity, floral design was a natural choice." After a two-year course in South Korea, she completed her studies in London, at the London Flower School, and in 2018 she launched her atelier in Paju, a very inspiring city as it’s surrounded by low mountains and rivers. She called the studio Mugu, which means “pure in nature without any decorations”.

Lee, Hyunju

Enjoying flowers

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Jian Yoo was born and raised in Seoul and went on to study Interior Design at Pratt Institute in New York. She currently lives and works between Korea and the United States. While studying in New York in her twenties, she took time to ponder on what she should specialise in, and settled on mother-of-pearl. She already had an affinity for the material as her father had been a master. After returning to Korea in 2013, she set to work on being a pioneer for the modern mother-of-pearl craft by creating her own brand, labelled Arijian.  With a contemporary approach, Jian sees mother-of-pearl as an artistic material rather than as a historical material. She attributes meaning to her chosen material through the pieces she creates.

Yoo, Jian

Modern mother-of-pearl

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At first, Jiseon Jang took up flower design as a remedy for stress. After graduating in metal craft design, she worked for a jewellery maker, but grew exhausted and felt she needed something more stimulating. Flower classes helped her in this process, and after a couple of years of study, her hobby turned into her profession. "I found a job in a flower shop, but I wanted to express my sensibility and taste to the full," she says, "so I ended up launching my own Seoul-based studio, Sole Moon." Since then, she has found her own way, both making arrangements for weddings and events, and teaching flowers in one-to-one workshops. "Coming up with new designs every day is not easy," she admits, "but this challenge is also my major driving force. I love what I do because I am always studying, thinking and creating."

Jang, Jiseon

Painting with flowers

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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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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.

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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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