With Manufact’Home, everyone – adults and children, individuals and groups – can experience the pleasure and satisfaction of making by creating a beautiful object of their own at home. A series of objects conceived by design studio BrichetZiegler – a pouffe, a paper lantern or a portable desk – can be built from scratch thanks to how-to videos led by craftspeople from the Manufacto programme, which are available on the Foundation’s YouTube channel. No special tools are necessary beyond everyday materials. In each video the craftsperson carefully explains their gestures and shares their tips with viewers to help them successfully complete their object.

Each tutorial is accompanied by a downloadable set of technical specifications. In the first video, architect and craftswoman Lise demonstrates how to make a pouffe at home using gestures and techniques borrowed from weaving, woodwork and model-making. In a second video, sculptor Marine invites viewers to create a paper lantern: from drawing the pattern to cutting, assembling, stretching and expanding, she demonstrates a series of steps that enables each viewer to create their own personal lighting piece. Finally, in a third tutorial, leather craftsman Fred shows how to create a mobile desk using cardboard, fabric or leather.

The three crafts sessions allow a broad audience to take part in an enjoyable initiation into the world of craft skills thanks to the contributions of these three professionals, all of whom participate in the Manufacto programme. Through Manufact’Home, they share remotely the fundamental gestures of their practice, so that everyone can create their own objects in the comfort of their own home and discover at their own place the richness of these manual trades. These three tutorials, devised by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in the exceptional circumstances of the spring 2020 lockdown, remain accessible online so that as many people as possible can share in these moments and begin to learn about artisan professions.