Royal Exchange Hosts Maker's Market

As part of London Design Festival 2021, which took place across London from 18 - 26th September, the Royal Exchange hosted a pop up market for makers.

The Royal Exchange, based in the heart of the City of London is an historical building renowned for it's luxury shopping and fine eateries. It provided a glamorous backdrop for makers to sell handcrafted pieces to financial workers and also a platform from which to raise interest in buying handmade, British made, thoughtfully and sustainably.

I made a quick visit to the market on the friday and was delighted to chat to some of the makers including Sam Sweet and Blackpop.

Samantha Sweet handblows bottles from 24% lead crystal which are then hand graved with traditional patterns onto their surface. Bottles come in two ranges - milk and pop and can be used as attractive, light catching vases for single stem and small flower displays or as decorative stand alone pieces.

www.samanthasweet.com

Blackpop made the journey from the Derbyshire Dales bringing with them their collections of fabrics, wallpapers and wallhangings. Historical imagery is combined with abstract mark making to create striking patterns digitally printed onto wallpaper, velvet, silk dupion and voile.

Inspiration for the collections has come from a range of historical sources including Moulin Rouge, Tudor portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, the Sir John Soane's Museum and Paradise Lost by John Milton.  The result is a contemporary combination of gothic meets punk meets Victoriana.  Decorative handmade velvet cushions and silk dupion fringed lampshades can be purchased direct from their website.

www.blackpop.co.uk