I’m Kincső Kádár, the creator of Explore. I studied ethnography and cultural anthropology and worked in museum education for many years. Along the way, I somehow always found myself making, building, or shaping something. Explore grew out of all these different experiences: a love of craftsmanship, materials and objects, an interest in cultural heritage, and that stubborn curiosity about how an idea can be turned into a real object.

The first “creation” I remember making was for my grandfather’s birthday. I must have been about six years old when I made a flower arrangement from a coffee tin and a few leftover pieces of wire.

I grew up in town, but spent a significant part of my childhood in a small village in Székely Land. My grandparents were true all-round makers. For them, it seemed perfectly natural that every problem had a solution – and if something didn’t exist, you could simply make it yourself.

As a child, the workshop and the barn were just as much my playground as the yard. I had my own saw, hammer, vice and pliers, and my grandparents let me build and experiment as much as I wanted. At the same time, they taught me to sew, embroider, knit and crochet. This was where I first discovered the rich patterns of woven textiles, traditional clothing and everyday handmade objects. My love of things that are handmade, beautiful and practical probably began there too.

Later, I studied ethnography and cultural anthropology. After university, I spent ten years working in museum education. Being surrounded by exhibitions, heritage objects, traditional crafts, buildings and stories strongly shaped the way I look at an object or a decorative motif today. I enjoy working with old forms, noticing details and starting from stories – but I am equally interested in how all of these can become something contemporary and functional.

This is how Explore was born.

A lot has changed since the first lamps. New objects, our own materials, techniques and new directions have emerged, and the workshop has gradually become a place where design, craftsmanship, material experimentation and cultural inspiration naturally come together.

Today, I no longer work alone. My husband is also actively involved in the everyday life of the workshop: we work together on making the objects, developing technical solutions and everything else needed to turn an idea into reality. Over the years, Explore has increasingly become our shared workshop.

At Explore, we make lamps and home accessories, develop custom projects, experiment with our own materials, and through workshop visits we also show how an idea becomes a real object. These activities may be quite different from one another, but they are connected by the same way of thinking: we like to understand the materials we work with, pay attention to detail, find good solutions, and create objects with a character of their own.

Cultural heritage remains an important source of inspiration. I enjoy drawing on buildings, objects, traditional crafts, ornamentation and even the atmosphere of a landscape. I look for elements that can be reinterpreted and can naturally continue their story in a contemporary object.

The Explore workshop is located in the centre of Frumoasa, in a renovated traditional village house. This is where our objects are made, where experiments and prototype testing take place, and where we welcome those who are curious to discover what goes on behind a finished object.