Urban Makers Weekend Market — Sunday 30 August
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
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.
Ore & Origin
Jewellery
Traceability is the reason I started. Every gram of metal I use is recycled and every stone comes from a cutter I can name, mostly British-mined fluorite, Scottish agate and rough diamonds from a certified single source. I make substantial rings and pendants with heavy bezels and a matt finish that suits the stones better than polish. Each piece leaves with a card saying where the material came from. It costs me more and I would rather explain why than hide it.
Sawdust & Sunlight
Woodwork
I make wooden toys that are meant to be chewed, dropped and stood on.
The Balm Room
Bath & body
I infuse oils with herbs for six weeks in a sunny window before I make anything, which is the slow step everybody skips.
The Dried Bunch
Plants & florals
I grow and dry everything myself on an allotment in Walthamstow. Statice, strawflower, nigella pods, grasses and a lot of achillea, all cut at exactly the right moment and hung upside down in a dark shed for three weeks. I do not bleach or dye anything, so the colours are the faded natural ones rather than the neon pinks you see everywhere. I sell single-variety bunches and made-up arrangements, plus a small dried wreath in autumn. They last years if you keep them out of direct sun.
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. It is raw, coarse-filtered and never heated, which keeps the pollen in and means some jars set solid. Alongside the honey I sell beeswax food wraps and a small amount of comb when there is any. Harvest is late summer, so by March I am usually sold out and honest about it.
Wayward Silver
Jewellery
I make jewellery for people who do not really wear jewellery. Plain bands with a hammered edge, one small stud rather than a pair, a pendant with nothing on it at all. It is deliberately quiet work and it takes discipline to leave things alone. Everything is recycled sterling, finished with a fine emery and a wax polish rather than a mirror shine, so it wears in instead of scratching up. I offer free resizing for life, which people find surprising.
Organised by
Moderate refunds. Full refund available until 7 days before the event.
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