This document discusses the relationship between traditional artisans and modern makers. It argues that artisans come from ancient cultural heritage but can be limited by tradition, while makers are more open to new technologies and fields but lack deep knowledge. The goal is to encourage a new generation that combines artisanal know-how with technology and design thinking. This can be achieved through education, web tools that break down walls, and cross-disciplinary collaboration in makerspaces. Examples from Italy show how contamination across sectors can drive innovation beyond just technology.

1. The New Tech-Oriented Generation of Craftsmen:
FromArtisans to Makers

2. Who are artisans?
Those who have the know-how to produce
beautiful things

3. young people who
renew historical traditions

4. those who make things with
their own hands

5. those who know how to give form to matter

6. those who create unique and special products

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

8. common ground:
it’s a matter of making
(Making is thinking, DIY approach etc.)
Artisans vs. makers

9. But… ;)
ARTISANSMAKERS

10. But...It’s a matter of time
TIMELINE
ARTISANS MAKERS NEW HYBRID
ARTISANS GENERATION
=
KNOW HOW + TECH
+ HI DESIGN VALUE

11. 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.

12. 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

13. It’s a matter of mindset
It’s a generational matter

14. 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

15. How?
• Web (as tool and mindset)
• Education (openness)
• Contamination (with other professionals)
• Storytelling (to communicate the craft added
value)

16. 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

17. 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

18. strengths
•Heritage
•Creativity
•Know how
•style and design
•adaptation
•an historical moment of
redemption
weaknesses
•Heritage
•culture of secrecy
•lack of knowledge
Artisans

19. • 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

20. 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

21. Only TOGETHER makers, artisans and manufacturing
industry, can seize new OPPORTUNITIES
Beyond tech,
EDUCATION and CONTAMINATION are the real
CHALLENGE for this century

22. 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.

23. CAINO DESIGN – hybrid sectors
from automotive todesign

24. iToch – innovation without tech
theknow how of acarpenter + a luther

25. LITHOO – hybrid sectors
From technical caramics (BiTicino) todesign

26. EX-NOVO – design 3D printed

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

28. LOFO.IO – the first Italian makerspace

29. THANK YOU!
Francesca Mazzocchi
CNA Toscana
mazzocchi@cnatoscana.it
Twitter: @framazzocchi