Support the Makers

Passionately championing makers, creatives & independents

Who we are...

Support The Makers was born from owner Carmen’s love of of colour, textiles and accessories all handmade by local makers in her native county of South Africa.   Moving to Edinburgh I wanted to fill my home with colour and things that I loved and this started my journey into discovering local makers.             

I hosted my first market in Portobello in 2018 and it was this first market that pushed me to create a platform to give local makers the chance to have their work shared to a wider audience.  

Over the past 5 years I have been able to work with a huge amount of handmade makers, creatives and independents to host markets, collaborate on exciting projects, attend festivals and work with venues to host markers markets, makers meets and creative workshops.                                      

I will always look for new opportunities to give my makers and am very proud to have grown my love of handmade to where it is today.

I am very excited to be managing the makers markets and retail space within Leith Makers, and supporting the start of new creative community in this beautiful space.

A word from our makers

Carmen is, as her business name suggests, truly passionate about supporting makers. I have been lucky to work with her since early in my small business journey, and Carmen has been very generous with her experience and advice. I have taken part in a lot of Support the Makers markets and they are always fun and well organised. Carmen really cares about her makers and that everyone has a good day of trading. What's more, I have met a great, supportive community of other makers through my involvement with STM. Being self employed can be lonely, so it has been wonderful to make these important connections.
Support the Makers is full of heart and passion for the hand-crafted, locally made, independent businesses. At the core of STM is a desire to promote makers like me, and give us a strong platform from which to go from strength to strength. The physical markets are busy events, well organised, promoted and diverse. It’s all down to a single person who drives this community with enthusiasm, love and commitment. Carmen is always on fire and I love her excitement for makers like me.
Kiki - End of Terrace Trading
Stitchsmith
I did my very first market with Carmen as one of her young makers. I was really nervous but Carmen was amazing and helped me before and on the day. The other makers kept checking in on me too and I had a great time. Because of the confidence she gave me I went on to do other events in 2023, and I'm excited to be doing lots more in 2024. The only bad thing was I ended up spending lots of my money at the other stalls because they were amazing!!
I have been lucky enough to to be part of the support the makers across three platforms •Instagram takeover •online makers market • physical markers marker And now with the website it means makers have even more coverage. It’s so exciting to have the new website because now everything is in one place, you can find out more about the makers and where to purchase their crafts and what ‘Support the Makers’ is all about. Being part of this makers community is so encouraging, inspiring and also fulfils my shopping habit! Carmen is amazing and is responsible for it all. She is so supportive, believes in all the makers and does endless amounts of work.
Jenny - Wren by Jenny
capes and kimonos