Meet The Stockist : Handmade Nottingham

Hi guys! It’s time for something new this week. This is the first in what I hope will be a nice long series of Meet the Stockist blog posts, where I will introduce you to the wonderful independant shops that stock my work. It’s a great way to give a shout out to the the creative businesses that support me, and the perfect guide to find great new independant shops to visit on your travels! Where better to start than with Handmade Nottingham, my very first stockist - the shop that: believed in me when I was still a student making minus-money at local craft fairs, and showed me that my designs would sell, infront of the right eyes. Rhea and her shop have seen me through from my earliest, disorientated collections to right now, and hopefully long into the future.

Handmade Nottingham began as a Christmas Pop-Up Shop (one I remember perusing hungrily in my first years of uni, before I’d even started designing products to sell) in a shop space that was part of the Malt Cross pub. It did so well that it eventually became a permanent residence! Since then, it’s created an atmosphere of unique, local and independant shopping on St James’ street, with other independantly owned shops popping up around it.

I always think about Handmade Nottingham with a little well of pride in my chest. It was my first stockist, and my longest-standing. Stocking a selection of independantly designed and handmade goods, Handmade Nottingham has become a little vignette of vibrance and creativity in Nottingham (my home for 3 years whilst at uni and one of my most beloved places.) As well as stocking makers that are well known around Nottingham, I think of it as a place that offers a platform for all the wonderful and creative creatures who come out of Nottingham Trent Uni with a degree and a passion for their product, but not a lot of experience, and you can feel it through the huge selection of products that are stocked.

If you’re in Nottingham, I highly recommend taking a trip to St James’ Street, just off Market Square, to check it out or, over the Christmas Period, drop into their Christmas Pop Up Shop