Creative Craft and Flea: Five small businesses share their stories as the market visits Leeds

Creative Craft & Flea has become one of the most inclusive pop-up markets out there thanks to the variety of talented creatives, artists and producers that it hosts from all over the region. From vintage clothing and artisan jewellery to hand-crafted wooden cutting boards and local produce, the market prides itself on cultivating a community of fellow creators.

In a place brimming with such diversity, the traders themselves often have stories to tell. We spoke to five of the small businesses taking part in a recent Creative Craft & Flea market here in Leeds.

Koukou Creations – Feminist fashion and prints for the eco-conscious

“I started about three years ago now; it started as a hobby I was drawing and painting in my spare time and slowly I started attending markets. The business just grew and grew and now I do it full time. I have a consistent following on Instagram and loads of people that support me. I absolutely adore it. It makes me really happy.

"My women of the world map is one of my favourite things because it’s so important. It tells women’s stories that are just not told. There are so many on there that just aren’t heard of, or that don’t have a spotlight. They’re not in museums, they’re not in films. There’s no content around these stories. I think it’s important to put their names on a map, so you hear about them, and you know them.

"I took an entire month to research these women every single day. It was like a little bug, once I read one, I was like ‘let me find another!’ It was just so exciting, and it made me feel so empowered to see all these women doing great things and then also quite frustrated and emotional when there are countries where I couldn’t find people.

"I think these markets give people a way to support small businesses and if you don’t have this infrastructure how are you going to be able to find all these small businesses in one place? And it makes a small little economy within the city. You’re popping up in these little places and allowing these people to thrive. The rent in shops is so expensive, it’s just not accessible for small businesses so something like this that’s affordable and just pops up is brilliant.”

Beau - Handmade wood dolls and sensory play toys

“My business is named after my childhood dog Beau. I create all handmaid, hand-painted wooden peg dolls and sensory play toys. I also make story spoons that go with books, so the characters just give another element, and you can learn through play.

"I used to teach art to autistic adults so that’s where it all really spiralled from. Playing through toys gives individuals something else to interact with instead of having to sit there and be taught one way; it gives them more of a three-dimensional learning experience. My little peg dolls are my favourite to do. They can be decorative or just something to hold. So many people buy them as worry dolls.

“As for the markets, I think it’s important to support people that have their own businesses, especially at the minute with everything going on. Craft and Flea is just really good at bringing so many people together and you get to know so many people. It’s like its own little community.”

Workshop No 9 - Bespoke wood creations made with pride

“I’m an ex-rugby league player turned teacher turned woodworker – and nine was my rugby number. It was pre-pandemic and I built myself a bar in my back garden, and then Covid hit so I couldn’t use it. I turned it into a workshop and since then I just started making stuff and I sell it at markets. I seem to just make stuff because I like it, I really enjoy the process of finishing it. And then I end up with too much stuff, so I just sell it.

“People enjoy them, that’s the main thing. I really like making things that take a lot more time to make, like boxes, bowls, coffee tables. You have to put a bit more love into them as opposed to commercial, quick and easy stuff to fill a profit. I feel like it’s so rewarding when I can take pieces of wood and scraps, stuff you can find in gardens and workshops, and turning it into something that’s reclaimed, something that people can love and enjoy.

"All of it is self-taught, really just trial and error and I ruined a lot of wood before I got it right. I think that’s everything though, you make a lot of mistakes, but you just learn from them and make it better next time. I aways love doing craft and flea markets. We get to share the things that we love and enjoy doing with the local people here.

"It’s the independence of it too, a lot of these people are like me who just do these things as a hobby, who really get something out of it. Rather than the big corporate businesses that just use machines and create this stuff and sell it for half as cheap.”

Northstar Needle Work - Luxury handcrafted bags and accessories

“It’s my wife’s business. She started this when we first went into lockdown. She started sewing masks. She sold them on Etsy at first and it just went from there. She didn’t really have anything else to do. Then she started making bags, and the bags just flew out from the Etsy store around Christmas time, and it just developed from bags to hairbands, to mirrors, to purses, to glasses cases.

"We did some Christmas markets last year and did well. She quit her job to do this full-time. So, she sits in our back room with her sewing machine just cranking out all these bits and pieces. I brought my son, he’s the man with the money. A proper family business at the minute I guess you could say.

"The bags go quickly. One of the designs was the one that really took off and it sold over and over again. It allowed us to feel encouraged and keep going. You find that once a design takes off, another one might take off. And every now and again you sell another.

“We found that since Covid, people seem to really want to actively change their shopping habits. I think people realised that there are local businesses that could really use the help. It’s people actively giving money back to the local communities.”

Hawkins Distillery - Nano distillery specialising in small batch gins

“My son started setting the business up in 2019, that is when he decided to get the company name registered. We’ve always been very family oriented. We moved away from our hometown when the kids were small, so we had no one to look after the children so if we went anywhere, we took the children with us. We became a close family and we’ve stayed like that.

"We’ve always been very supportive of the kids and with this distillery, he’s so keen to make it a success that he deserves the support. We enjoy talking to people and being at markets can be nice. He takes pride in what he’s doing, and we take pride in him and what he’s trying to do. We try and help him. You should always try and help your kids I think, you should always try and help them be better off than you at their age.

"His ultimate dream would be that when he is my age, his sons are in a business that he built. They might not go that way, but that’s his aim is to have something his boys could use and take care of as a family.”