About Luma
Luma is a UK-focused marketplace for genuinely handmade goods, created to solve a growing trust problem in existing platforms.
Many marketplaces have become crowded with mass-produced goods, print-on-demand items, dropshipping, and AI-generated art. As a result, shoppers struggle to know what is authentically handmade, and makers often feel lost in the noise — their carefully crafted work buried alongside listings that took no time or skill to produce.
We believe handmade deserves protection and trust. Our goal is to build a space where makers can showcase their work with confidence, and shoppers can trust that what they’re buying is exactly what it claims to be.
We’re not trying to replicate other marketplaces. We’re building something crafted for makers and shoppers who care about real handmade products.
It’s where handmade means handmade.
About Us
We’re Laura and David, a developer duo based in Stockport, UK, and between us we bring a genuine love of making and years of experience building digital products people actually want to use.
We started Luma because we saw a problem we couldn’t ignore. After speaking with over 100 makers and shoppers and running surveys across the craft community, it became clear that trust had quietly broken down on the platforms makers rely on. Makers were struggling to stand out. Shoppers were unsure what they could believe. And the handmade label, once a mark of care and skill, had been stretched to mean almost anything.
That’s why we started Luma: to create a marketplace that supports makers, protects handmade, and restores trust between creators and shoppers. We’re based in the United Kingdom and our focus is on supporting the talented UK community first, while creating a platform that can grow sustainably and support creators more widely over time.
Laura
Co-Founder & Director
Crafting has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up watching my Mum design, knit, and sew toys taught me about the joy of crafting. Over the years I’ve created work across a range of mediums and I have sold my creations on a few online platforms.
My experience as a seller taught me a lot. Watching carefully made pieces compete with mass-produced listings often felt frustrating, and that frustration is what eventually became Luma.
Luma is the platform I wished had existed. I want every maker who joins us to feel seen, fairly represented, and confident that the people browsing their shop are there because they genuinely value what handmade means.
What I bring to this alongside that maker perspective is a technical one. Like David, I’m a developer by trade, which means we’ve built everything you’ll use from the ground up ourselves, because we have cared enough to get it right.
David
Co-Founder & Technical Lead
I am, by my own admission, something of a hobby magpie. I’m always drawn to trying something new, whether that’s picking up an unfamiliar craft or diving into whatever hobby project has caught my attention that week. Over the last couple of years that’s landed me on woodworking, which has quietly become a weekend obsession.
That creative curiosity has always run alongside a natural inclination for technology. Over the last seven years I have helped deliver large-scale projects in the banking and recruitment sectors, and throughout all of it my priority has been the same: making sure the people using a product actually enjoy using it.
At Luma, I get to bring both sides to work: the maker who understands what it means to build something with your hands, and the developer who knows how to build something that works well for the people using it.
Join the Journey
Luma is still early in its journey, and we think that’s something to be excited about. The platform will be shaped by the people it’s built for. Right now, that means you.
If you’re a maker who wants a fairer, more trustworthy place to sell, or a shopper who’s tired of guessing what’s genuinely handmade, we’d love to have you involved. Take a short survey, share your thoughts, and help us build something the craft world actually needs.