Urban Makers Weekend Market — Saturday 28 November
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
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.
Foxglove Editions
Print & illustration
I make copperplate etchings, which means acid, aquatint and a lot of rag paper soaked overnight before printing.
Hedgerow Millinery
Textiles & accessories
I block hats on wooden forms with steam, which is hot, damp work and completely absorbing. My materials are wool felt for winter and straw braid for summer, sewn in a spiral by hand for the straw hats, which takes a full day per hat. Trims come from my own dyed ribbon and the odd found feather. I make a wide-brim, a small cap and a bucket shape, and I can adjust a fitting on the stall since almost nobody has the head size they think they do.
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.
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.
Mended & Made
Textiles & accessories
I weave rag rugs and mats on a peg loom using strips torn from worn-out bedsheets and shirts.
Signature & Spine
Stationery
I rebind damaged books and make blank journals in the same traditional structures. Full leather, quarter cloth, rounded and backed spines, headbands sewn in silk. The repairs come to me through word of mouth, usually a family bible or a cookbook that has fallen apart from being loved. For markets I bring journals and guest books bound in the same way, plus a few rescued volumes I have rebound speculatively. I letter spines with real gold leaf and a heated tool, which is unforgiving work.
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.
Thistle & Thread
Textiles & accessories
I weave on a four-shaft floor loom that takes up most of my living room. The yarn is British wool from a mill in the Borders, undyed or plant-dyed in my kitchen with onion skins, madder and woad. I make scarves, throws and small woven bags, all finished by hand-twisting the fringes, which is the part that takes the longest. Warping the loom for a run of six scarves takes a full day before any weaving starts. I have been doing this for eleven years.
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.
Organised by
Moderate refunds. Full refund available until 7 days before the event.
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