Urban Makers at Old Spitalfields — Wednesday 9 December

About this event

Where

Good to know

Meet the makers

• 

  Clay & Canvas

  Ceramics

  I throw everything on a small wheel in a railway arch, mostly in a speckled stoneware that fires to a warm oatmeal. My range is built around daily things: deep breakfast bowls, tumblers that sit right in the hand, jugs for milk or for wildflowers. I mix my own glazes from oxides and wood ash, so every batch shifts slightly. I also paint slip decoration freehand, which is where the canvas half of the name comes from. Markets are where I test new shapes before they reach the shop.

  website@clayandcanvas

• 

  Concrete Botanicals

  Print & illustration

  I make botanical studies of weeds.

  website@concretebotanicals

• 

  Foundry Fern

  Jewellery

  I do my own casting, which most makers at my scale send out.

  website@foundryfern

• 

  Lost Wax Lane

  Jewellery

  I carve wax models under a magnifying lamp, which is how I lose whole afternoons. The pieces come out heavy and architectural: signet rings with a chiselled face, wide bands with a carved chevron, cufflinks that look like small buildings. Casting is done at a foundry in Hatton Garden and I do all the filing, sanding and polishing myself, which is the unglamorous majority of the work. Everything is available in silver as standard and in 9ct gold to order.

  website@lostwaxlane

• 

  Pickle Parade

  Food & drink

  I make the pickles I grew up eating in Poland, plus a few my English wife has talked me into. Dill cucumbers in a salt brine, sauerkraut with caraway, pickled beetroot, and a mustard piccalilli that is not remotely traditional but sells beautifully. Vegetables come from a wholesaler in Leyton and whatever the allotment gives me. Everything ferments in food-grade barrels in a cold garage, then goes into jars I sterilise myself. I bring open jars and cocktail sticks and expect people to try before they buy.

  website@pickleparade

• 

  Quiet Hammer

  Jewellery

  My whole range is forged from a single gauge of square wire, twisted, tapered and curled into bangles, ear cuffs and open rings that you squeeze to fit. Because it is all one material there is very little waste, and offcuts get soldered into chain links. I work in brass for the affordable end and silver above that. The finish is deliberately dark, brought back with beeswax rather than lacquer, so it keeps ageing after it leaves me.

  website@quiethammer

• 

  Signet & Salt

  Jewellery

  I hand-engrave, which is a stubborn craft to have chosen in 2026.

  website@signetandsalt

• 

  Two Left Thumbs

  Ceramics

  I am entirely self-taught and my pots look it, cheerfully. I hand-build with coils and slabs, so there are wobbly mugs, lopsided planters and jugs with ears for handles, then I paint them with underglaze faces and stripes. It is all earthenware, fired twice, and properly glossy. Most of my customers are buying a gift and want something that makes somebody laugh when they unwrap it. I keep prices deliberately low, because being playful should not mean being precious.

  website@twoleftthumbs