My First Makers Market
Chorltons Makers Market | By Amy Hurst
My first Makers Market was in Chorlton, Manchester. It was my first time meeting Kate at one of her market stalls and luckily this was one of the quietest markets I’ve been too of them all. This was held out side of the public library in Chorlton. Although when you think of market stalls you think of meat, random stuff and just something you would not particular spend time looking at I found this market stall set up to be interesting and show a variety of handmade goodies!
Kate’s stall luckily was one of the first stalls to come across when we pulled up at the car park. The weather wasn’t bad and it was the weekend so she was hoping for a steady crowd of people. There were a few people around which seemed to be interested in what was going on, on the stalls around her and hers. Although she did confess to me she had a busy morning and wasn’t very well prepared for this market stall leaving her with little on display and to sell however, this did not stop me from taking various amounts of photographs of her beautifully, even though small display of taxidermy pieces.
There was a jewellery stall which I remember seeing in the market stall that had a handmade jewellery holder made from a book, I saw the jewellery holder from the other side of the market and walked straight over. I spoke to the woman about her stall, asking if I could take some photographs for my project and she asked me why I was taking photographs of the Makers Market, I explained how I was part of Kate’s stall and taking photographs for a university project. She told me how much she liked Kate’s style and work although, unfortunately I didn’t take the name of the lady at the stall or the name of the business.
The stall which was directly behind Kate was called The Glass Gardener, I had never heard of this company before until that day. She had a variety of handmade terrariums, small cacti and succulents and stones which were for sale to make your own homemade terrarium for plants. I was intrigued by the beautiful hanging plants also which were air plants that needed no soil to live so they were hung in glass terrariums she also made.
Kate told me afterwards how the owner Sarah who is a ‘keen gardener and has a side hobby of glass gardening’ (as quoted on her website) has given Kate some of her handmade terrariums for free in the hope that they can make some collaborations together of small taxidermy pieces, some crystals and plants inside of the terrariums. Kate told me all about her ideas and how she hopes to be able to make more interesting and unique pieces for her new age taxidermy company.
This was one of the smallest Makers Markets I went too with a small selection of stalls and little entertainment however, there was still a small crowd of people and the stalls were varied in style. I would highly recommend going to the Markers Markets if you get chance as they have a variety of things for sale and it is definitely interesting to see the different handmade pieces for sale at each event.
