Urban Makers Weekend Market — Sunday 26 July
By Urban MakersUp to 30 independent makers in the covered hall at Old Spitalfields. Free entry, 10am–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
Hearth & Hush
Candles & home fragrance
I pour into vessels I cast myself from jesmonite, in a speckled terrazzo made with crushed offcuts from previous batches.
Marmalade Riso
Print & illustration
Everything I sell comes off a risograph, which is somewhere between a photocopier and a screen printer and has a mind of its own. I draw each layer separately, in pencil and ink, then print them one colour at a time in fluorescent orange, teal and a deep blue. The misregistration is part of it. My subjects are London greenhouses, allotments and market stalls. I also make small zines about the printing itself, because people always ask how the machine works.
Matchstick Mornings
Candles & home fragrance
I make candles for the start of the day rather than the end of it, which nobody else seems to be doing. Coffee grounds and grapefruit, hot buttered toast, a cold clean mint. They come in short wide tins so they light quickly and go out without drama. The wax is a soy and coconut blend and I pour about sixty a week in a shared kitchen unit. Every tin comes with a strip of long matches, because hunting for a lighter at seven in the morning is miserable.
Rosehip Rituals
Bath & body
My range is built around facial oils, blended for specific skin rather than sold as one miracle bottle. Rosehip and sea buckthorn for older skin, jojoba and hemp for oily skin that everyone insists on stripping, a heavier blend for winter. I blend to order in small dark glass bottles with a pipette, and every batch is dated because oils do go off. At markets I talk people out of buying the wrong one fairly often, which is bad for a day's takings and good for coming back.
Sawdust & Sunlight
Woodwork
I make wooden toys that are meant to be chewed, dropped and stood on. A stacking rainbow, a push-along beetle, chunky vehicles with wheels that actually roll, and a set of blocks in six shapes. Everything is solid beech and maple, sanded to a silk finish and left completely bare or finished with a plant-based oil that meets the toy safety standard. No paint, no plastic, no glue anywhere a child can reach. I test everything on my niece, who is a very harsh critic.
The Annealing Room
Glass
I cast glass into plaster moulds taken from objects I have modelled in wax, which means each mould is destroyed to get the piece out.
The Honey Round
Food & drink
I keep eleven hives on rooftops and allotments across east London and bottle the honey by postcode, so you can taste the difference between a hive over a lime avenue and one near a buddleia embankment.
Organised by
Moderate refunds. Full refund available until 7 days before the event.
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