Why We're Building Luma Market

Making something by hand means something. The care that goes into it, the time, the decisions become part of what's made. It's why people seek out handmade goods in the first place, and why makers build their livelihoods around them.

Crafting has always been part of my life

Growing up watching my mum design, knit, and sew taught me something early: that making things with your hands is its own kind of language. It communicates care in a way that manufactured goods simply can't.

Over the years I've worked across different mediums and eventually started selling my own creations online. Like a lot of makers, I was excited about the reach those platforms could offer. And for a time, it was good.

More recently I'd come back to making properly, a genuine creative surge. I started sharing videos of the process on social media, and found myself seriously considering selling again. But being active in those communities meant I was also seeing something I couldn't ignore: maker after maker voicing the same frustrations with the platforms they were on. Fees that kept climbing. Work buried next to mass-produced goods. A growing sense that the platforms had quietly stopped being built for people like them.

What we kept hearing

David and I started talking about this properly towards the end of 2025 and we decided to listen more deliberately. Conversations with makers, community threads, social media posts from people who were still actively selling. The same things kept coming up.

Makers felt invisible. Their work was technically listed, but standing out against mass-produced goods, dropshipped items, and AI-generated images felt nearly impossible. The system that was supposed to celebrate handmade had stopped protecting it.

Shoppers felt deceived. People were buying what they thought was handmade, only to receive something that clearly wasn't. The trust was fading.

"I don't feel seen" was a phrase we heard more than once. From makers who had poured real skill and time into their work, and found it made no difference to the search results.

One weekend. Over 150 responses.

We wanted to know if this was widespread, so we put together a short survey asking UK makers and shoppers whether they'd want a better marketplace for genuinely handmade goods.

After two days, we had over 150 responses.

That wasn't what we expected. We'd hoped for 30 or 40 thoughtful replies. What we got was a flood of people who'd clearly been waiting to be asked. Makers who were frustrated. Shoppers who felt let down. People who still believed in what handmade could mean, but felt the options available to them had stopped serving them.

It was the clearest possible signal: the need was real.

What we decided to build

Luma Market is a UK-focused marketplace where the word "handmade" is protected, not stretched until it's meaningless. Every listing is held to our handmade standard. Makers describe their process and the tools they use. Shoppers can browse knowing that what they see is what they're actually getting.

We're not naive enough to think a policy alone solves everything. Trust is built over time, through consistency. That's why we're involving the community from the very start. From day one, makers and shoppers alike will be able to raise authenticity concerns, and a human will always be on the other side to see them.

We haven't quit our day jobs. That's intentional.

We're both developers by trade. We're building Luma Market ourselves, from scratch, because we cared enough to get it right. We're still in our day jobs while we do it, not because we're not serious, but because we want to build this properly rather than quickly.

We started building this at the beginning of this year. The platform is real, the community is growing, and every feature we add is shaped by what makers and shoppers actually tell us they need.

We're building a platform we wish existed

If you're a maker who's felt the same, we'd love to have you with us.

If you're a shopper who's tired of guessing whether something is genuinely handmade, we're building exactly that space for you too.

We're early. We're honest about that. But we're building something that matters, and we think that's worth starting.