Image by Laura Pettinger

Last week a rainy Saturday morning saw the bright new opening of The Cookie Jar Designer Market at the Holy Biscuit in Shieldfield.

The Holy Biscuit is an innovative partnership between The Biscuit Factory and The Methodist Church. The building, a refurbished Methodist church, is located down the road from The Biscuit Factory in Shieldfield.

The space has been converted into two art galleries which can be hired for private use and for community events to support the local arts and cultural scene in Newcastle.

There were 14 tables with a wide variety of products on display at the craft fair, from beautiful ceramics, knitting and cards, to more edible products such as homemade breads, chocolates and cupcakes. Browsers also had the opportunity to taste the breads from the stall of the Artisan Baking Community, whilst the Bakeylicious Cupcake Stall offered bites of fudge.

Margaret Graham, business manager of the Holy Biscuit, organised the event and has previously run a craft fair for the Jesmond Community Festival in the Methodist Church. She explained that though her previous attempt was “quite successful, the access to the venue was not great. The Holy Biscuit is much more accessible for people,” she continued, “and has the advantage of car parking facilities.”

Graham also manned a stall herself at The Cookie Jar for Dorcas Crafts, a non-profit business selling handcrafted gifts, working alongside business partner Katie Hawkins.

Chris Gibb held impressive spinning demonstrations during the event, with the intention that The Cookie Jar will harness talented artisans in the community to provide craft skills workshops following on from these monthly meetings.

There was steady interest from browsers during the day. Charlotte Greenwood and Carolyn Basing had wondered into the market “by accident” on the way to The Biscuit Factory. After purchasing early Easter eggs from the Cocoretto Chocolates stall they expressed how it was “great to see new innovative skills and products which you would not see otherwise,” and had found the event “very interesting.”

The Cookie Jar Designer market will be held at The Holy Biscuit every second Saturday of the month from 11am- 5pm, with the next market on 13th April.