London Craft Week 2025: Meet the Artist Ella Krispel

What can we expect from your London Craft Week event at Old Spitalfields Market

Visiting Another Flood, a five-metre-tall woven installation, or taking part in one of the community workshops will offer you the chance to experience craft in a fresh and unexpected way.

Another Flood is more than a woven tapestry, it’s a piece of creative information and data design. Its handmade, tactile nature enables it to tell complex stories about the identities of immigrants coming to the UK. It confronts the usual framing of migration and invites the public to reconsider their views.

Put simply, it uses the craft of weaving to question common social perceptions of immigration in the UK.

 

How did you come to Paper Weaving as a medium and what training did you have or who did you learn your technique from?

I found weaving to be a powerful medium for telling complex stories. When weaving lines of text, information, or data, as I do, the resulting piece reveals more than just a pattern or image. It illustrates how information can be shaped or distorted to tell different stories, depending on who is telling, or in this metaphor weaving, the narrative.

I was naturally drawn to weaving as a medium because of my academic and professional background. I studied textiles and fashion, and after several years working as a print and textile designer, I went on to complete a two-year MA in Graphic Communication Design here in London.

The tactile, crafted quality of textiles, combined with my love for typography and creative communication, led me to my current body of work.

 

Why is being part of London Craft Week important to you?

Being part of London Craft Week offers a valuable opportunity to share my work with new audiences who may not usually encounter this kind of socially engaged craft. It also allows me to facilitate a collaborative project that brings together diverse voices through creative participation. The event’s visibility helps amplify the stories embedded in the piece and extends the reach of the conversations I hope to inspire around migration attitudes.

 

Why does the Market make a good home for this installation?

Pieces of art and communication that are enclosed behind walls of museums or paid entrance can be limited in their public reach.

By commissioning and hosting my new piece, Old Spitalfields Market has made it part of public life – free to be encountered either in depth or in passing by a large and diverse audience of both locals and tourists.

 

How can people get involved?

The most direct way to get involved is by coming to see the piece and initiating or joining conversations about the realities of migration to the UK. You’re also warmly invited to take part in our workshops and share your own perspective.

 

What do you hope people will go away from the workshops feeling?

I hope participants leave with a sense of joy from having made something together. More than that, I hope they leave feeling curious, reflective and prompted to continue thinking and talking about the complex realities of migration in the UK.

 

What else are you excited to see at London Craft Week?

I’m especially excited to experience the work of individual makers in person, pieces that often live only on screens through social media or websites. There’s something powerful about seeing the materials, scale, and techniques up close, and meeting the people behind the craft.

 

Visiting Another Flood will be in the Market on 13th and 14th May, when Ella’s workshops will also take place as part of London Craft Weeks 2025. You will find more details here.