Both at school and at home, since she was a child, Mathilde Nivet enjoyed doing crafts. She made her own objects for the dolls she played with. When she grew up, she studied design for fabrics, but paper would be her true love. Inspired by Japanese and Asian aesthetics, tweaked to her personal taste, Mathilde creates flower gardens, sculptures of fantastic creatures, façades for palaces, flocks of birds out of paper. Paper being an unforgiving material, the slightest mistake might mean she has to start something all over again. Her paper work has led her into designing entire sets, which transport the viewer to a world of dreams: lightness and elegance are mixed in delicate shapes cut with scissors and other simple tools.

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This blue and grey swallow was part of a 300 bird installation for the Burlington Arcade in London. Its polyurethane body was patiently covered with hundreds of tiny paper feathers.

Birds

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This chandelier was part of a window display scene of the famous restaurant of the Ritz palace. Entirely made of paper, it was lit by LEDs to convey a more realistic impression.

Ritz chandelier

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This waiter's arm was part of a larger scene of the restaurant at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. It was made entirely with white paper. The waiter is carrying a tray with the star puddings of the restaurant.

Ritz waiter

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In this paper garden you will find colourful hydrangeas, anemones, wisteria, yarrow, irises, clematis, morning glory, and of course, roses. All these hundreds of flowers and leaves were carefully shaped and assembled by hand.

The English Garden

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This dragon was made for a Louis Vuitton shop in Paris, using an iron structure and bamboo circles for the body and 3D printing for head and legs. Both were covered with several layers of silk paper using primary colours and white.

Dragon - Louis Vuitton

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Musician and musicologist Matéo Crémades discovered a forgotten craft through instrument making. Fascinated by the baroque guitar, and being a player himself, it was while building his own from an old model that he was led to replicate a parchment rosette. This is a fine decorative ornament found on some early instruments. From this first attempt, he has developed his own expertise as a parchment rosette sculptor specialised in the reproduction of historical models. With a scalpel and cutting forms, he meticulously carves the layers of parchment, a very thin goatskin, a material he quickly fell in love with. Today, in addition to working with violin makers from all over Europe, Matéo takes the rosette out of its historical context by introducing it to other artistic worlds, for other artistic applications.

Cremades, Matéo

The forgotten know-how of rosettes

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Anja Madsen Pernot has cultivated her fascination for paper since childhood. Born in Denmark, the paper cut-outs of author H. C. Andersen and the country's Easter paper traditions sparked her first inspirations. Since then, paper has always followed her. Even while studying textile design, Anja found ways to explore the intimate connection between fabric and paper. In constant evolution, her work confronts classical techniques with those borrowed from other disciplines, such as the photographic cyanotype process, to find ever new expressions. The sensitivity and fragility of Anja’s artworks stems from her wonder at nature: the calligraphic shadows of the trees at sunset, bird songs at night, reflections on water. “It is this poetry that leads me to creation,” she explains.

Madsen Pernot, Anja

The emotional power of paper

How can paper be embellished? How can its subtlety, softness, and complexity be revealed? As a paper sculptor, Marie Gobert approaches her work like an engineer, in a process of constant research. After an education in industrial design, Marie joined the packaging and events studio at Maison Chanel. This was a fortuitous first experience that turned into 15 fulfilling professional years. From here, she recalls her creative freedom and the exposure to the company's different disciplines, which greatly contributed to shaping her knowledge and experience of excellence. Marie now devotes herself to her own paper creations. Through repetition, imbrication, and extremely precise gestures, Marie plays with paper to create bas-reliefs, frames and compositions combining design and craftsmanship.

Gobert, Marie

Playing with paper

Didier Mutel is an intaglio engraver who continues a rich tradition of engraving, passed down by the masters of his workshop to their pupils since 1793. Didier arrived at the Paris workshop in 1988, and officially took over its management in 2008, before relocating it to the Jura mountains several years later. His artists’ books and prints are characterised by a constant search for innovation based on traditional engraving techniques and intaglio printing. He feels passionately that his work should take people on a journey. “I hope you will be surprised, a little awestruck when looking at my work. Opening a book is like passing through the door of the workshop,” he says.

Mutel, Didier

A journey into a historic workshop

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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.

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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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