A clutch of Dalston artists wants to build on the area’s reputation as an art hub. Hedy Parry-Davies, left, tells how they are doing it

IN GOOD TIME FOR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING, the E8 Art and Craft Trail runs next weekend. It is a walking trail, leading to a series of open homes and studios — mine is pictured above — in a small, easily navigable area.

The artists and makers who devised it envisaged a trail that would allow people to spend a few hours browsing art and craft in the Hackney E8 neighbourhood, meeting artists who live and work there.

Using the Trail’s interactive map you will be able to stroll from studio to studio, perusing details of the artists on their web pages as you go.

Many of us E8 artists sell online and in galleries and markets. Yet we felt there would be something exciting and more personal about inviting the public to go behind the scenes to see where the work is made and to meet the people who make it.

The trail was born out of conversations between artists and makers in E8. It follows a tradition of Dalston’s association with the arts that goes back more than 200 years: Kingsland, as Dalston was then called, was where one of our country’s greatest painters, JMW Turner (1775-1851), got his materials.

Inspired by arts-and-crafts schemes in other areas and by Hidden Art, which started in Hackney and ran from 1990 to 2011, we wanted to create a model that is small, local and efficient to run on a not-for-profit basis. We plan to run it every June and December.

Fine art, illustration, ceramics, jewellery and textiles — the trail will delight you with its variety. l invite you to spend some happy hours browsing and meeting the artists who live and work in the neighbourhood.

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* The writer is a member of ArtCan and the Society of Architect Artists.

* E8 Art and Craft Trail, Hackney, Saturday 3 December 2022 and Sunday 4 December 2022, 11am-5pm

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.

* Photographs supplied by E8 Art and Craft Trail. Note, some of those shown here are extracts from the works. For full representations, go to the trail site.