Laurent Dif is a man of many talents, artisan and designer in one soul. Restorer, carpenter, furniture designer, since 2013 he has been working with metal, adapting his knowledge and skills to the challenges and endless possibilities this material offers. Curious and ingenious by nature, he also crafts the tools he uses, devising the necessary techniques to shape metal into items that have a function, while pleasing the eye and touch. His creations are like one-of-a-kind sculptures, where the single metal sheet is manually folded and shaped, sometimes cut, then varnished. Creations that are linear and timeless, perceived as light in spite of what would be expected from the material they are made of, thanks to the taming and transformation of metal’s resistance and strength. A further touch is from time to time added with wood layers, lacquering and satin finishings.

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Laurent is very keen to share his knowledge in transforming metal, combining shape and function and going beyond the cliché of metal considered as just being heavy. He welcomes both design students or members of the public interested in designing pieces in metal (or alternatively plastic or wood). He offers the opportunity to develop and construct pieces designed elsewhere, or provide support and training in metal design and in the manufacture of specific tools.

Introduction to metal work in Madrid

Learn how to work metal

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Laurent likes to share his knowledge and enjoys spending time with those people who show interest in knowing more about his craft. He carries out an introduction to metal showing its versatility as a material and explains what can be done with it. This is why he offers the opportunity of visiting the workshop and testing all the different tools he has devised for bending metal as well. Being very practical, he wants people to try by themselves, so they can challenge themselves with painting and lacquering. The workshop is tailored to client's wishes.

Metalwork studio tour in Madrid

Learn the art of metalwork

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Complex and architectural, this metal work represents, through simple cutouts, a great structural success. The result is a play between its aesthetic and formal balance extremely controlled.

Parrot

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Supported by three support points emerging from an original circle, the Vrille coffee table seems carried by perpetual movement. She seems to defy reason with her self-winding lines, but its base remains imperturbable.

Vrille

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Long rectangle metal sheet in which part of the interior surface is cut without separating it, to oppose it and then constrain it into a shape suitable for the sitting and resting of the human body.

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Luminous metal arch whose simplicity conceals three functions in one. Designed to be hung anywhere, it is also perfect as a desk lamp where it will even support a few books or any other object on its flat surface. It will also diffuse a soft and warm light, placed upright on the floor in a corner of a room or against a wall.

Dites 33

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The most authentic of the One Piece Model Collection. Without a single cut, nor any welding, but with a complex realization and an absolute asymmetry, this model rediscovers the table object to purify its concept.

Bendit

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Thirteen years ago, Joaquín Donézar left his job in the IT sector to take over the family business, the Donézar confectionery and candle workshop. The family business opened in 1853 in Pamplona, the capital city of Navarra, where it is located up to this day. In little more than a decade, Joaquín has ended up becoming the last wax worker in the north of Spain, and the only confectionery and candle shop left in the country. With its own hives distributed throughout Soria and Zaragoza, he takes advantage of the winter months to manually manufacture beeswax candles. The honey from the hives is used to make nougat, tea pastries, and puff pastry. Undoubtedly,  creating a candle layer by layer by dipping each wick in the wax, is a very special craftsmanship.

Donézar, Joaquín

The beauty of beeswax

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German by origin, Frank Buschmann spent his childhood between South Africa and Nigeria, and his teenage and formative years between Germany and the Netherlands. Today, in Galicia, Spain, he uses the most traditional woodworking techniques to build his contemporary furniture that invites us to rediscover craft's forgotten values. Born into a family of craftsmen, he started working with wood at an early age and then trained at the School of Crafts in Germany and the Design Academy of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He opened his workshop in 2012. His first object was a reproduction of a table made by The Shakers in the 18th century. With this piece, Frank made his intentions clear that his focus was on the making rather than on form. Since then, he has manifested his experimental spirit, working on projects that push boundaries and established conventions.

Buschmann, Frank

An experimental philosophy

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Alberto Ribera Ibargüen began designing furniture at the age of eight years old when he helped his father in his atelier. His work drifted towards architectural sculpture and later to natural design. He eventually inherited his father's workshop in Madrid and this opened up new spaces for Alberto to develop his work towards painting, design and sculpture. He considers himself scrupulous in his work. "For me, something well made is a piece that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but that has soul and communicates," he says. Today, Alberto works out of his workshop in Turégano. "I have had many important moments on my creative journey. From making furniture for a non-profit association helping the disabled, to selecting 12 of my pieces for a German collector. Recently joining Homo Faber Guide is a new challenge."

Ribera, Alberto

Crafting inside the box

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With a degree in Fine Arts, Belgian Jean Baptiste Van den Heede began his career as a craftsman at the age of 14 in an Arts and Crafts school in Belgium. The cabinetmaker's trade was the same one practised by his father and grandfather. Young Jean Baptiste quickly realised that he also liked to work with wood and with his hands. The first object he made was a box for his mother and since then he has not stopped working with wood. He believes that good cabinetmaking will make tomorrow's antiques possible, "which will allow us to continue to enjoy them for centuries and perpetuate the art of the restorer-conservator," he says. Today, Jean Baptiste lives in Guadalix de la Sierra in Spain, where he continues to practise this trade that he considers ancestral.

Van Den Heede, Jean Baptiste

Sculptural furniture

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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

Account and data history

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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.

Create your account

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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