Category: About

Our beautiful banner image by Alice Angus


The Makerhood blog banner comes from this drawing of Brixton Village by Alice

You might have noticed the banner on the Makerhood blog. The illustration that always sits at the top of the page whether you’re reading about improvised pantomime or pork pies. Beautiful isn’t it? The use of that illustration was a gift to us by its maker, Alice Angus. Alice isn’t a south London girl so perhaps it’s a bit cheeky to use it on the Makerhood blog, but as it’s a drawing of Brixton market I figured you wouldn’t mind..


The set of 6 drawings Alice made in Brixton Market

Alice is one of the directors of Proboscis and an illustrator. Last year, Dan Thompson of the Empty Shops Network invited her to spend a week in Brixton Village making sketches and drawings of what she saw there. For the Makerhood blog we’ve used a part of the drawing at the top of this post. It’s a little hard to tell from the section we’ve used but Alice builds up her drawings layering scraps of different papers, black and white ink sketches and colour. I think they’re beautiful.


Detail from one of the Brixton Village / Granville Arcade drawings

I used to work with Proboscis and I’ve known Alice a long time now. When Kristina and I were talking about setting up the blog we couldn’t think of a better image to represent Makerhood than one of Alice’s drawings of Brixton market (this was before we met any Brixton-based illustrators). I was quite shy to approach Alice about using one of the drawings as we couldn’t afford to buy it or pay for it so I was thrilled when she said we could use one anyway. This spirit of generosity and willingness to share with others is something we’ve met again and again as we’ve worked to set up Makerhood. I hope one day Makerhood will have a chance to pass on some of the good will we’ve received to others.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Alice’s drawings (and you really should!) you can take a look at her Flickr account or email her on alice(at)proboscis.org.uk to find out about exhibitions, sales and so on.

Alice also has a blog for her ‘As it Comes’ project exploring the role of independent shops and Lancaster in Lancaster, see it at http://lancasterasitcomes.wordpress.com/

Happy New Year!!

I’m excited about 2011, developing the Makerhood site, meeting more makers around Brixton, Camberwell, Stockwell and Herne Hill and figuring out how to connect makers and buyers together in a way that benefits everyone. The turn of the new year always makes me look back as well as forward, reflecting on what took place in the previous 12 months and I thought that this might be a good time to share the story of Makerhood with you and tell you how Kristina and I came up with the idea. So, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin..

Twelve months ago the idea of Makerhood didn’t exist. It was born one Sunday in May when Kristina and I were in a pub in Camden enjoying a long Sunday lunch to celebrate the visit of a friend of ours who had recently moved to New York. Kristina told me about an idea she’d had the day before for a website to help people find things made in their local area. The inspiration had come as she tried to find a particular item made locally and had not been able to. I was excited. Her idea was the online version of a proposal I had put forward when Spacemakers were offering shops at Brixton Village. I had proposed to run a shop where local makers of any kind could sell their produce whether they had one item or thirty to put on sale and whether they were professional or hobbyist. I’d never spoken to Kristina about it yet we had come up with very similar ideas. The coincidence was too good to ignore and we began to plan.

We started talking to people about it. We talked to makers at Brixton Village, Tunstall Road market, the Piano House and Lambeth Country Fair and asked – if we build this site would you be interested in using it? We were so excited when many people told us ‘Yes, we would use it. Please build it!’ We asked our friends to advise us and over the summer Kalam, Dougald, Carolina, Aoife, Amar, Hannah, Anand and Monica all joined us on Windrush Square as we sat on the grass and discussed possible names, user journeys and strategies. We could have been called ThisWeirdGirlMadeIt, MyNeighbourStitchedMeUp, MadeByMe or Doozy. Luckily Makerhood stuck and the domain was free. Yay!

We searched out people around Brixton who were already involved with makers and met people doing great projects such as Hannah with Re:Made in Brixton, Mitchell of MadeInBrixton, Ed of We-Fab, Fiona of Oh Sew Brixton and Zoe of SWCraftClub and talented individuals and makers such as Emily, Bua and Laura*. All of whom were incredibly generous with their time, knowledge and experience and willing to share these things with us. In August Kristina and I had enough details worked out to put in an application for UnLtd Level 1 funding and in late October we heard we’d been successful. That meant we could get a developer on board (the amazing Andy) and we began to think seriously about the site architecture, user experience, platform, user journeys and design. Right now we are completing these tasks and beginning to actually build the website.

It’s been an incredible seven months and difficult to remember a time before Makerhood. For me, it’s been very exciting to begin to make the website happen yet the most enriching part has been the people I’ve met. I feel more connected to my local area than ever before as I meet people who live and work here. I’m looking forward to more of that in 2011 and I’m hoping that when we launch the website it will play a part in the landscape of creative, inspiring projects that are happening right now in Brixton and surrounding areas. And, of course, we’ll keep you updated about all of that here on the blog. So here’s to 2011!

*And many more.. I’m sorry if I missed your name out here but be certain that I’m very happy to have met you!