Urban Makers at Old Spitalfields — Wednesday 7 October
By Urban MakersOur weekly midweek maker market in the covered hall at Old Spitalfields. Free entry, 11am–5pm.
About this event
Where
Old Spitalfields Market
16 Horner Square, Spitalfields, London E1 6EW
Good to know
Free entry
No ticket needed — just turn up. Bring a bag for life.
Step-free access
The whole market is step-free with accessible toilets on site.
Getting here
Please travel by public transport or bike — there is no visitor parking.
Meet the makers
Coptic & Co
Stationery
Coptic binding is the oldest codex structure there is and it lets a book open completely flat, which matters enormously if you are drawing across a spread.
Crumb & Cranny
Food & drink
I bake with a sourdough starter I have kept alive for nine years and a stone-milled flour from a farm in Suffolk. The loaves are long-fermented over two days, which is why they keep for a week and why people who struggle with shop bread tend to get on with mine. At markets I bring country loaves, seeded rye, and a tray of cardamom buns that sell out first every single time. Everything is baked the night before in a small bakery I rent by the hour.
Endgrain & Co
Woodwork
My speciality is end-grain butcher's blocks, where the wood is cut into cubes and glued standing up so the knife goes between the fibres rather than across them.
Kiln Formed
Glass
I fuse and slump glass in a kiln rather than blowing it, so my work is flat: dishes, coasters, small wall panels and jewellery. I stack sheet glass with layers of powder and stringer between them, fire it to 800 degrees to fuse, then fire again over a mould to give it a shape. Each firing cycle takes eighteen hours including the cooling, so nothing is quick. Colours are deliberately restrained, mostly steel blue, olive and a warm smoky grey that suits British light.
Nightshift Etching
Print & illustration
I drive a night bus four evenings a week and draw everything I see from the cab in a pocket sketchbook at the terminus.
Pinch & Coil
Ceramics
No wheel here. I coil-build the large pieces, floor vases, deep planters and urns, over several days, scraping the walls smooth with a metal rib and leaving faint horizontal ridges as a record of the making. The clay is a red earthenware, burnished rather than glazed outside, with a sealed interior. A big piece takes three weeks and I only ever bring two or three to a market. Pinch pots and incense dishes fill the rest of the table.
Riverbed Jewellery
Jewellery
I roll-print my silver using dried grasses, feathers and lace collected on walks, running them through the mill under enough pressure to leave a permanent impression.
Signet & Salt
Jewellery
I hand-engrave, which is a stubborn craft to have chosen in 2026. Gravers, a ball vice, and a lot of sharpening. Most of what I sell is signet rings engraved with initials, a small animal or a line of handwriting a customer sends me. I also make plain seal pendants ready for engraving later. Because it is cut by hand rather than machined, the line has depth and catches light differently along its length. Commissions take four weeks and I always send a proof first.
Soot & Saffron
Candles & home fragrance
I hand-roll incense the way my aunt taught me, mixing powdered woods, resins and gums with water into a stiff paste, then rolling it onto bamboo sticks and drying them flat for a week. Nothing is dipped in fragrance oil, which is how most incense is made and why so much of it smells thin. My blends are frankincense and orange peel, sandalwood and saffron, and a heavy oud for winter. I sell them in bundles of thirty with a small ceramic holder.
Wednesday Woodblock
Print & illustration
I print mokuhanga, Japanese water-based woodblock, using cherry plywood, rice paste and a baren rubbed by hand. There is no press involved at all. Each colour is a separate block, registered with cut notches, and a print with six colours means six carvings and six passes. The ink sinks into the paper rather than sitting on it, so the surface stays matt and soft. My images are quiet: rain on water, folded laundry, a bowl of plums. Editions of twenty, printed in one sitting.
Woad & Weft
Textiles & accessories
I keep an indigo vat going in my back yard and feed it like a sourdough starter, which is exactly as odd as it sounds.
Wool & Wander
Textiles & accessories
I hand-knit hats, mittens and long socks on double-pointed needles, in undyed wool from a flock of Shetlands I visit once a year in Cumbria. The natural fleece colours give me eight shades without any dye at all, from near-white to a proper charcoal. Patterns are traditional Fair Isle motifs I learned from my grandmother, worked in the round with no seams. A pair of gloves takes about fifteen hours. I bring the wool undyed and knitted side by side so people can see the connection.
Organised by
Moderate refunds. Full refund available until 7 days before the event.
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