#hosm

This is Emma O'Brien from Coventry, which is 150km northwest of London. She and a fellow member of We Are Handmade carpooled on £65 of gas to get to Old Spitalfields bright and early Saturday morning, the day we meet her.

Her business card describes her as a "creator of monsters, zombies, & soft stuff," which seems just about right when you see her collection of adorable plush creations that she claims "came right off the shelf from home" and go right back after the day at the market. The inspiration for Naughty Monsters came in 2008 when she was an MA student working on soft sculptures.

"I was making this black splatter kind-of-thing for my thesis," she tells me. "Then one day my daughter, who was five years old at the time, got a hold of it in the car and just absolutely loved it."

"And so that's when you started making Naughty Monsters?"

"She was the inspiration."

Each Naughty Monster is unique and is inspired by some eccentricity of her imagination or childhood. She tells me the names of some of them and reads off a little description on the tag. Harriet "likes hiding in the loo and biting your bum when you sit down, so do make sure you check under the seat before you have a poo." Another is named after an ex-boyfriend. The largest one is named Norris, and then there's Borris and Morris. She asks me if I can think of any other names that rhyme with Morris.

I ask her why she's here at Old Spitalfields Market. It's mainly because of the themed handmade section; OSM hosts a different themed area every Saturday. "The premium for handmade gifts means you can't just be selling next to somebody who's selling mass-manufactured clothes," she says. It's only her second time here and she's hoping that business will be good.