Deep dedication to craft.
Rooted in community.
A Bay Area network of interdisciplinary artisans and designers committed to achieving mastery — and to each other.
shokunin
shoh-koo-NEEN · Japanese noun
A craftsperson or artisan who devotes their entire life to a single discipline, pursuing mastery through relentless practice and deep care — not for recognition, but for the work itself.
“I think shokunin are the kind of people that care about what we make, instead of what I make.”
Hōsai Matsubayashi
Envisioned by artists and entrepreneurs Mary Revelli and Caroline Lizarraga, Shokunin SF illuminates the labor that happens behind the scenes, hosting gatherings that inspire meaningful connection and collaboration between artists, artisans, and designers.
Shokunin is a network of interdisciplinary artisans and designers committed to achieving mastery within their chosen field, and whose success is rooted in their community. We celebrate both innovating and preserving skilled craft and design.
Shokunin is a community-engaged collaboration between artisans and designers. Our goal is to preserve and innovate craft, highlighting the importance of hands-on experiences that bring together artisans, mentees, and designers.
We continue the ideas of apprenticeship and mastery of craft within a modern context of inclusivity, skill-building, and community effort.
Building genuine trust between artisans, clients, and designers — the foundation of every lasting collaboration.
Sharing opportunities and knowledge so the challenges we face as individuals are faced together by all of us.
Guiding the next generation of artisans through apprenticeship, continuing a tradition of craft mastery.
Maintaining professionalism and deep dedication in the artistic process — honoring the work and those who make it.
For centuries, craft survived not through institutions but through people — masters who chose to teach, and students who chose to learn.
The medieval guild system formalized something humanity had always understood: craft knowledge doesn't live in books — it lives in workshops. Apprentices learned by doing, journeymen refined their skills under different masters, and only those who produced a true masterpiece earned the title of master in turn. It was a social contract as much as an education: the master gave time and knowledge, the apprentice gave labor and devotion, and the community received work it could trust.
In Japan, the shitei relationship between master and student carried the same weight. A student might spend years in observation before ever touching the tools — the point was not speed but depth. As formal craft education fades and studios close, this way of transmitting knowledge is at risk of disappearing. Shokunin exists, in part, to keep it alive.
We've developed a set of standards for Shokunin artisans who take on apprentices — ensuring every opportunity is structured, fair, and deeply educational for both parties. If you are an artisan ready to mentor, we'd love to hear from you.
Our events are neither transactional networking nor community-building without substance. We come to find common threads — and leave inspired.
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View All Events on EventbriteThe most powerful things in craft happen at the intersection of disciplines — when a furniture maker, a ceramicist, and a textile artist sit in the same room as a designer. When their work converges, something greater than any one of them emerges.
The completed room — designed by Sindhu Peruri, Peruri Design Company
Linda Fahey — hand-formed ceramic tiles with embedded reflective glass
Linda Fahey — the tile panels as built into the alcove shelving
Caroline Lizarraga — hand-painted walls with embedded metallic glass
One Off Furniture — fireplace screen, forged steel with enamel
All three crafts converging — ceramics, painting, and metalwork in one space
Three Shokunin artisans and one designer came together to conceive, design, and build an entire room for San Francisco's most celebrated interior design event. Every piece of furniture, every textile, every handmade element was commissioned directly from an artisan in our community. This is what the artisan–designer relationship looks like at its best.
Ceramicist
Linda created the hand-formed ceramic tile panels with embedded reflective glass — tiles that catch and scatter light across the room. Her work lives at the intersection of functional and sculptural.
Decorative Painter · Co-founder, Shokunin
Caroline painted the room's decorative wall surfaces by hand with embedded metallic glass — layering pigment and reflective material to produce a finish that shifts with the light.
Metal Fabrication & Enameling · Co-founder, Shokunin
The One Off team fabricated the fireplace screen and metalwork entirely by hand — a studio of makers combining forged steel and enamel into a piece as structural as it is beautiful.
Interior Designer, Peruri Design Company
Sindhu conceived and directed the vision for the room — curating each artisan's contribution into a cohesive whole that is deeply researched, culturally layered, and unmistakably hers.
Jeweler · Founder, Rose Gold SF
Photo by Shokunin member and photographer Sonya Yruel (@sonyayruel) at our February Suminagashi paper marbling workshop.
Marie McCarthy has spent over two decades honing the art of authentic adornment. Her jewellery ranges from the classically inspired to the darkly mysterious — pieces with a femme, individualistic cool that is entirely her own. No one in San Francisco quite nails it the way she does. The video opposite captures her philosophy on craft and process in her own words.
Note: this film was made when Marie operated under the name Fiat Luxe. She now creates as Rose Gold SF — the artistry, and the artist, are the same.
The greatest works of human craft have always been made possible by those who believed in them. Patronage is not charity — it is an investment in culture itself.
“Without the Medici, there is no Botticelli. Without the guilds of Florence, no Michelangelo. The patron and the artisan are two halves of the same act of creation.”
For thousands of years, the relationship between patron and artisan has been the engine of human creativity. The Medici family of Florence funded the Renaissance not merely as collectors, but as believers — enabling Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci to dedicate their lives to their craft.
In medieval Japan, the philosophy of shokunin — the master craftsperson who devotes a lifetime to a single discipline — flourished within a society that honored and supported skilled makers. That devotion to mastery was only possible because communities chose to value and sustain it.
Today, in San Francisco, that same choice faces us. As the city's creative infrastructure erodes under economic pressure, patrons of Shokunin make it possible for artisans to keep their studios open, for mentors to pass their knowledge to the next generation, and for a community of makers to flourish together.
Covering the cost of studio space, materials, and hospitality so every event remains accessible to all members.
Connecting emerging artisans with masters in their field, continuing the apprenticeship tradition in a modern context.
Documenting and sharing the work of our community — ensuring skilled craft is seen, celebrated, and valued.
Building a network of tools, spaces, and opportunities that no single artisan could access alone.
Leave your name and email and we'll reach out when our patronage program launches.
Whether you are an artisan, designer, or someone who believes deeply in the power of craft — there is a place for you here. Reach out and let us know who you are and what you make.