From ARTISANS to MAKERS

The New Tech-Oriented Generation of Craftsmen:

From Artisans to Makers

Who are artisans?

Those who have the know-how to produce

beautiful things

young people who renew historical traditions

those who make things with their own hands

those who know how to give form to matter

those who create unique and special products

those who create taylor made products, customized on your needs (the new luxury concept)

common ground:

it’s a matter of making (Making is thinking, DIY approach etc.)

Artisans vs. makers

But… ;)

ARTISANS MAKERS

But...It’s a matter of time

TIMELINE

ARTISANS MAKERS NEW HYBRID ARTISANS GENERATION

= KNOW HOW + TECH + HI DESIGN VALUE

But...It’s a matter of time

MAKERS

We can call them: “new barbarians”

They are new, they are free, their world

is horizontal, they stretch the whole

history on the same plane and on these

plane they can easily pick up, merge,

put together, mix and hybridize all the

ingredients: languages, different fields,

materials, techonologies, tools and

economic sectors.

(The barbarians, Alessandro Baricco,

italian writer)

ARTISANS

come from the past, they come from

an ancient culture and heritage, they

have memory, they flow into the

deep, they know how to do things

from centuries, from their DNA.

For these reasons, because they

know deeply, they are less free to

change, to flow into the present, to go

out of their habits, attitudes and

mental boundaries.

In Italy and Europe, we cannot speak about

“making” without speaking about artisans.

In Italy we have 1.4 million of Small and Medium

enterprises of the artisan sector

606,000 operating in the manufacturing sector

It’s a matter of context

and an economic fact

It’s a matter of mindset

It’s a generational matter

we have 2 goals:

• encouraging the birth of a new

generation of makers

• take artisans out of their box, to

assure them a new renaissance

How?

• Web (as tool and mindset)

• Education (openness)

• Contamination (with other professionals)

• Storytelling (to communicate the craft added

value)

The web has brought the first revolution, has

broken down the walls of the artisans’ shop,

opened to new knowledge, a new way to

communicate, to share, and finally to work.

The web has opened to a new way to think

WEB as tool and mindset

The new global market teach us that

know-how is not enough to compete.

you have to know:

• how to innovate your product

• how to hybridize materials and technology

• how to collaborate with others professionals

• how to tell the story and the value of your products

• how to package it and how to sell it all over the

world

Education

strengths

•Heritage

•Creativity

•Know how

•style and design

•adaptation

•an historical moment of

redemption

weaknesses

•Heritage

•culture of secrecy

•lack of knowledge

Artisans

• artisans may not be able to open up and

to intercept the change

• the world is in danger of losing a cultural heritage and

people who know how to do things

Risks

Opportunities

•Thanks to the makers movement, manufacturing and small business have

become mainstream, “making” is back a “cool” theme

•Craft is the new luxury, there’s a big attention now (Google Made in Italy/

Samsung maestros)

•Fast prototyping, laser cutting, 3d printing are now means available at a cheap

price, this allows all the artisans to buy them and test them to make new

products, some parts of their products or engineering some phases of the

production process

•The third industrial revolution brings with it a new way of working and a new

logic of workspaces. The passwords are sharing (ideas and tools),

contamination of professionalism and sectors.

FabLabs and makerspace are not only places to spread the making culture,

they are the new platforms for innovation in manufacturing. first of all because

they are the sites of contamination and secondly sharing

Only TOGETHER makers, artisans and manufacturing

industry, can seize new OPPORTUNITIES

Beyond tech,

EDUCATION and CONTAMINATION are the real

CHALLENGE for this century

Italian’s best innovation cases

Not only Arduino!

The most disruptive aspects seem to be:

Contamination, hybridation, cross-

fertilization between sectors, technologies

and hi-design.

CAINO DESIGN – hybrid sectors from automotive to design

iToch – innovation without tech the know how of a carpenter + a luther

LITHOO – hybrid sectors From technical caramics (BiTicino) to design

EX-NOVO – design 3D printed

e–QBO by T-Red – young innovative startup tech, craft, sustainability

LOFO.IO – the first Italian makerspace

THANK YOU!

Francesca Mazzocchi

CNA Toscana

mazzocchi@cnatoscana.it

Twitter: @framazzocchi