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The upcoming Ambiente Frankfurt, better known to all of us in the US as the Frankfurt housewares show, will host 4,500 exhibitors over four days. To see them all you’d have to stop by 1,125 booths each day. But there is one section of the show that operates on a much smaller scale.
There are just eight participants in A MANO, a group of artisans producing high-grade hand-made goods – a must-see at Ambiente, and, I expect, a much needed relief from the slick, mass production of the rest of the consumer goods at the show. Here are three standouts from the bunch – the others are so small-scale they don’t have websites, so you’ll have to see those for yourself.
Atelier Berthold Hoffman, Germany (image above)
Located in Nuremburg since 1985, Hoffman specializes in cast iron cooking pots and gorgeous silverware.
Ingrid Donhauser Glaswerkstatt, Germany
Located in the Bavarian Forest, Donhauser make hand-blown, free form glass objects. mostly brightly colored bowls and cups but also intricately worked vases.
TWO PEOPLE, Poland
Though their website doesn’t work in English (and only barely seems to work in Polish), from what I can tell from the images, their ceramics seem to be a mix of traditional Polish and Japanese motifs.
