Pop-Up Retail Exhibition, Salford, 2018
Salford Makers Shop
For one Christmas season in 2018, the Salford Makers collective turned an empty unit on Chapel Street, Salford, into an artist-led shop. Mark took part as one of several makers showing work in the space, contributing a run of laser-etched Christmas decorations and four mirrors made for the shop itself.
The Collective
Salford Makers is a loose collective of makers and artists working across Salford and Manchester. In December 2018 the group took on an empty unit on Chapel Street and ran it as a shop for one Christmas season, filling it with work that would otherwise have gone out through markets, online shops or word of mouth.
Mark took part alongside several other makers, each bringing a different practice into the same space. Printmaking, textiles, jewellery and ceramics sat on the same shelves as his own laser-etched work.
The Work
Mark’s contribution split two ways. The shop stocked a run of Christmas decorations cut from laser-etched acrylic mirror, small pieces made to hang on a tree but reflective enough to catch the shop’s lighting as visitors moved past.
Alongside these, he was commissioned to make four laser-etched glass mirrors for the shop itself. Hung within the space, each mirror carried its own etched pattern over whatever it happened to be reflecting: a customer, a shelf of other makers’ work, the street outside.
The Shop
By night, the shopfront read simply: Salford Makers Shop, gifts and homeware made by us. Inside, the space held work from across the collective side by side, pouches and jewellery on one table, embroidery hoops on a reclaimed shelf, fabric wall hangings on the walls, a till at the back surrounded by plants. It had the feel of a shop being run by the people who made what was in it.
Selling Direct
Running a shop, even for one season, put makers in direct contact with the people buying their work, without a gallery or an online platform standing between them. For Mark, that meant seeing decorations and mirrors chosen and taken home in real time, a different kind of feedback to showing work online.
The shop closed at the end of that Christmas season and was not repeated. It stands as one season of a wider, ongoing pattern in Mark’s practice: making work for a specific place, then handing it over to be used.
Commission a Similar Project
I take on a small number of retail, hospitality and small-collective commissions each year, working directly with shops, bars, makers’ groups and independent spaces who want laser-cut or mirrored work made for a specific interior, primarily across Manchester, Salford, the Peak District and the wider North West.
If you are planning a shop fit-out, a pop-up, or a space that needs something made to measure rather than bought in, I would like to hear about it early, while the brief is still open.
Get in touch about a commission →
Questions
What was Salford Makers Shop?
A pop-up Christmas shop run by the Salford Makers collective on Chapel Street, Salford, open for one season in December 2018 and stocked with work made by the makers taking part.
What did Mark make for the shop?
A run of Christmas decorations laser-etched into acrylic mirror, plus four laser-etched glass mirrors commissioned for the shop’s own interior.
Was Mark part of the Salford Makers collective, or brought in just to make the mirrors?
Mark took part as one of several makers showing work in the shop. The four mirrors were made specifically for that space as part of his contribution alongside the decorations.
Did Salford Makers Shop run again after 2018?
No. It ran for one Christmas season only and was not repeated in later years.
Is Salford Makers Shop still open?
No. The shop closed at the end of the 2018 Christmas season.
Can Moderate Studio make laser-etched work for a shop or retail space?
Yes. Moderate Studio takes on a small number of retail and hospitality commissions each year, working with shops, bars and small collectives on laser-cut and mirrored pieces made for a specific space.
From the Journal
One Christmas in Salford
Dated entries from the Salford Makers shop at Vimto Gardens, the opening, the laser-cut decorations and the four etched mirrors made for the space.