BRADFORD is to get a new indoor craft market, thanks to a husband-and-wife team who both turned hobbies into businesses.

On Friday, Catriona and Barrie Naylor will open the doors to the Craft Market in Darley Street, which will showcase their own work as well as those of other local independent crafters.

It will be open six days a week, with a selection of mainly handmade goods on the ground floor and up to six stallholders on the first floor.

The couple, who live in Undercliffe, Bradford, have both been keen crafters over the years.

Mrs Naylor, 37, had started a business from home selling personalised framed gifts, called Little Legs Personalised Gifts, as a sideline when she wasn’t working her main job as a support worker or looking after daughter Abigail, now two.

She said: “Pretty much as soon as the baby went down to sleep, I got on with making them.”

Meanwhile, Mr Naylor, 50, a former bouncer, turned a love of watches and watch repairs into a watch and jewellery business, Father’s Joy.

Last year, they decided to make the leap into starting a new craft market and they have have now invested around £15,000 of their own money into setting up the business in a four-storey former hairdressers.

Mrs Naylor said: “I was going to move out and get a shop and when this one came up, we just loved the shop. The upstairs is great and we started thinking about getting other people in with us.

“That’s when we came up with the idea of a craft market, because there isn’t really a craft market, the closest one is in Skipton.

“People like myself are getting out of their back rooms so all the clutter in the house can be moved into a workshop space.

“It’s giving small hobby crafters an opportunity to start a business.”

They took over the building in November and Mrs Naylor finished her support worker job last month to concentrate on their new endeavour.

On the ground floor, crafters will be given the opportunity to exhibit their wares for no cost, with the Craft Market taking a commission on sales.

And on the first floor, old wooden pallets have been used to divide the room into six to accommodate stallholders, who will be taking out rolling monthly tenancies.

Mrs Naylor said: “It’s to give it a rustic market look in an old building.

“We just wanted it to look different and stand out because it is such a different thing.

“We didn’t want it to look like everybody else.”

So far, at least four stallholders and a number of other craft sellers have taken up space in the market.

Wares on offer will include photographs, recycled and upcycled furniture, personalised cushions and soft furnishings, rag dolls, keyrings, bags, tie-dye clothing, crystals and holistic therapy.

The couple also hope to start craft workshops on the second floor, once the market has become established.

From Friday, the Craft Market will be open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.

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