ALBUM artisans MADINEUROPE An on-line showcase of European craftsmanship, selected according to the high level of excellence in many different categories and specialities. The website offers an extensive selection to whoever is looking for a skilled artisan and at the same time it gives visibility to the master craftsmen who work hidden away in their workshops. Madina Benvenuti, a young woman of Italian-French origins who now lives in Belgium, is the creator of the platform where artisans from many European countries can be found, endorsed and reviewed (categorised by sector, craft, product, material and location). Benvenuti called the website Mad’in Europe, a wordplay between her first name and “made in Europe”. Thanks both to the accurate preliminary selection of every single workshop made by the site’s creator and to a very powerful search engine, the website is a window on the world, to promote the development of small, high-quality businesses beyond their national borders, focusing on the human dimension and placing technology at the service of tradition. Around 800 artisans have registered so far. www.madineurope.eu
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GURI I ZI Guri I Zi is a workshop named after the town in the Albanian province of Scutari where many women practise the traditional craft of weaving on wooden looms. They produce beautiful textiles in linen and cotton, mostly in multi-coloured stripes and finished with embroidery. Guri I Zi offers a wide selection of bedding and home linens as well as fabrics by the metre. All of the items can be made to measure and customised from a wide choice of material, designs and colours. The promoter of this initiative is Elena Galateri, a young and adventurous social entrepreneur. In 2006, she founded the non profit organisation Idee Migranti, a female microenterprise project whose aim was both to create a source of income for the most vulnerable women in the Guri I Zi community and to promote traditional Albanian textile works. The project has been hugely successful, considering that it started with a small group of only four women and has now grown to 53 members. Guri I Zi plans to include another 20 women into its organisation, over the next couple of years. Alessandra Dentice di Frasso (designer and teacher at the Accademia di Arte, Moda e Design in Florence) is in charge of the design. The textiles are woven from yarn supplied by Italian manufacturers: the warp is in fine Egyptian cotton and the weave is in combed cotton of exquisite quality, to give luminosity and intensity of colour to the fabrics. www.guriizi.com
COY HUTSALON Berlin is a city of many faces: the ultramodern areas with skyscrapers designed by famous starchitects, the wide streets lined with imposing Neoclassical buildings and the charming district known as the Höfe, a network of communicating, restored rear courtyards. This is where many young artisans and designers have opened their workshops and it is here, at number 8 of the historical Hackische Höfe, that Cornelia Plotzki, alias Coy, has her hat atelier. Assisted by a very close team, the creative milliner designs bespoke hats for men and for women, and for every occasion. Armed with a sewing machine, scissors and brushes, natural fabrics (linen, silk, felt...) and an impressive collection of precious wooden
hat blocks, she brings truly original creations to life: cloche hats, wide-brimmed hats, casual caps and creations embellished with jet for formal events, can all be made in the colours chosen by the client. Classic men’s hats are available too, as well as many ready-to-wear models, ranging from formal to casual. For brides, Cornelia designs hats coordinated with small bags, brooches and shawls with matching decorations. Even those not accustomed to wearing hats will be delighted by the sight of her charming shop and the decidedly quaint courtyard. www.berliner-hutsalon.de
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