Meet the busy mums behind Hackney’s new creative craft shop 

 

Woman shopping in the store. Pic: La Cabine de Margaux

There is jewellery, ceramics, clothing and much more at Urban Makers East in Hackney.    Pic: La Cabine de Margaux

Local design company Urban Makers East have opened a pop-up shop in Hackney until May 7 to showcase handmade designs.

The shop is selling items by around 30 designers and includes jewellery, ceramics, homewares, textiles, clothing and accessories for children and adults, original art and stationery.

Urban Makers East was founded in Bow in the heart of the East End by three local mums who intended the initiative to be a local market hub that allowed designers to sell directly to customers. Ilka Dickens is one of the directors of UME.  She started the company with other mothers, Julia Redgrove and Jo Croucher. Within the team, Julia creates lots of jewellery, Ilka designs greeting cards, prints and homewares and Jo is a learning mentor and designer-maker when she finds the time.

“We all met through the local children’s centre,” Ilka explained. “We all discovered we were designers as well as mothers, so we created Urban Makers East, because we realised there weren’t any kind of makers events in east London where we lived.”

Ilka added: “There are a lot of creative people in Hackney and they appreciate homemade products. They also appreciate that they can go into a shop which tells them about where the products have been made and who made them. Nothing is mass-produced, everything is made by hand. Definitely people in Hackney seem to embrace that a lot.”

When asked about if the shop is going well, Ilka said: “It’s going really well so far in Hackney. We have managed to sell a lot of our products. Generally the feedback has been very positive from everyone.”

Urban Markers East can be found at Fount London, Westgate Street, Hackney, E8. Visit the website for more details https://urbanmakerseast.co.uk/about/

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