About Handora

I’m Özgür Yüksel, a medical doctor by training. I spent many years in pharma and now work in medical informatics. Away from the screen, it has always been the bench—the smell of cut wood, careful measurements, quiet concentration. Handora is the name for what comes from that table: handcrafted objects shaped by care. Crafted tradition, for everyday life.

Here in Basel, I grew attached to Fasnacht badges (Blaggedde)—funny, clever, beautifully made—yet too many sit in dark drawers, forgotten and a little rusty. That felt like a small loss each time. These pieces were meant to be seen, handled, talked about. The Basel Fasnacht coasters became my way to bring those stories back into daily use. I started collecting badges that would otherwise be ignored and giving them a place on the table again—useful, tactile, and ready to spark a memory.

Everything is made here in Basel in a small atelier setting: original badges set into precisely cut wood, sealed by hand, edges smoothed one by one. It’s slow, personal work—nothing rushed, nothing mass-produced—just attention, patience, and respect for what the badge has already lived through.

Handora is an umbrella, and the coasters are the first to stand under it. Perhaps others will join someday; perhaps this remains the quiet focus. What matters is the feeling they carry. A badge can hold a whole moment—was it your first Morgenstreich, the year you moved to Basel, the winter your daughter was born, the friend you met on the parade route? When that memory surfaces at a desk or kitchen table and a small smile returns as your fingers trace the smooth edge of the coaster, the story is alive again. For a heartbeat, Räppli seems to hang in the air again. That small spark is why Handora exists...