Stories

Short dispatches from the bench.

Interviews with our artisans, introductions to the crafts, and honest guides to the parts of Amsterdam that still make things by hand.

City notes · 2 June 2026

Where Amsterdam still makes things by hand

The workshops did not disappear when the factories left. They moved upstairs, out to Noord, and behind unmarked doors.

Gifting

Because the person who owns everything does not want a fourteenth candle. They want an afternoon.

Artisan profile

Two ingredients, one board, and thirty years of doing the same thing until it stopped being difficult.

Artisan profile

On green beans, burnt batches, and why the coffee you make at home tastes nothing like the coffee in the cafe.

Inside a workshop

A blow-by-blow account for anyone who has been meaning to book one for two years and keeps not doing it.

Guide

The queue outside the Rijksmuseum is forty minutes long. Here is what the rest of the city is doing instead.

Stories

For artisans

You would be in good company. Our artisans are chefs, coffee roasters, ceramicists teaching curious, thoughtful guests.

Already on Handworks?