You saw right! Not 1, not 2, but 3 sketchbooks could be in your hands to fill with all your artsy creativity, business plans and doodles galore! We would love to build our email list so you can receive all the latest content from our blog as it happens.

What must you do to get this? Look to your right in the side bar and below the Search box and wordpress button, above our Instagram feed, there is a box where you can sign up with your email address to our blog. Once you have hit the sign up button, you will receive an email confirming you have entered our random draw to win 3 glorious Pink Pig sketchbooks.

The 3 sketchbooks are a large A3, an A4 and a landscape stretched A5. The winner will be drawn from our email list on Saturday March 4th at random, you will then have 3 options, either posted, dropoff within 3 mile radius of central Barnsley or collection from near town centre.

So get your email address in that box to the right!

 

You saw right! Not 1, not 2, but 3 sketchbooks could be in your hands to fill with all your artsy creativity, business plans and doodles galore! We would love to build our email list so you can receive all the latest content from our blog as it happens.

What must you do to get this? Look to your right in the side bar and below the Search box and wordpress button, above our Instagram feed, there is a box where you can sign up with your email address to our blog. Once you have hit the sign up button, you will receive an email confirming you have entered our random draw to win 3 glorious Pink Pig sketchbooks.

The 3 sketchbooks are a large A3, an A4 and a landscape stretched A5. The winner will be drawn from our email list on Saturday March 4th at random, you will then have 3 options, either posted, dropoff within 3 mile radius of central Barnsley or collection from near town centre.

So get your email address in that box to the right!

 

Last week I purchased a beautiful choker necklace from Chic-yCow and did a product review of it just in case you were on the fence of buying from her. I was attending a wedding and needed a necklace to complete my outfit and knew I had to have a leather one in my life, so I approached them with my idea and it went from there. Check out their facebook page here www.facebook.com/chicycowdesigns/

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I asked about having a choker made but I wasn't sure what kind of style I wanted, so I searched through their Facebook photos for different styles they had done before to see what inspired me. I came across a bracelet that had a row of circles on it and that struck out to me as to what I could have on mine. We chatted back and forth about the technicalities, the sizes of these circles and also the colour as I was needing a turquoise colour but metallic and more a green-turquoise, so was a little tricky to get all the details straightened out. Once we were sorted, Jo of Chic-yCow began making it and sent me a photo the next day and it was perfect! Exactly how I'd imagined it.

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The necklace came in this sweet little box with some soft wadding and the Chic-yCow branding, packaged up simply to show off the necklace. I know that if I saw this necklace in the shop, presented this same way, I'd still buy it! Beautiful items like this don't need to be overly packaged and presented, just straight forward simplicity.

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Wearing the choker was super comfortable, I sometimes get aggravated when I have things around my neck and feels itchy, but not this! The circles were on a soft black leather strap with the suede side touching my neck so it was nice and soft, not once during the night I felt itchy or overly aware that I had something round my neck.

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The cost for this necklace was £20, which for a customised commissioned piece I expected it to be more so I was pleasantly surprised at the cost. I really cannot wait to wear this again as I think it would definitely suit plenty more outfits. I highly recommend Chic-yCow, from the customer service, packaging the item, quality of it and the cost all come round to the conclusion that I'll be back ordering more!

All photos belong to Barnsley Fashion Creatives.

As we progress through the details of planning the first Barnsley Fashion Creatives project with Spirit Original Designs, I'm getting more and more excited! The main updates since we first released the brief are that we have two confirmed models with a possible third, we have a photographer sorted and make-up and hair are all good to go. We almost had our location confirmed but we've had to find another place due to the last one pulling out but hey, these things happen. This is why we do all this planning and prepping before the day to make sure the photoshoot runs the smoothest possible for us to get the most photographs from it.

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We had a fitting with the two confirmed models, Sarah & Sammi, which was a lot of fun. The reason for doing fittings ensures that your clothes will definitely fit them, but it also helps to figure out what colours and styles suit them so that on the day you have a good idea of what other items would look great without wasting time.

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We also got to play about with some styling options like adding some Spirit Original Designs jewellery and handbags and mixing with cape ponchos and neck wraps, making sure we can make a complete outfit that customers could wear themselves.

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If you have a project in mind that you'd like to do but not sure how to do it, let us give you a helping hand and find the people you need to connect with and get the project off the ground. All we ask in return is to be able to share the project on our blog and social medias, that's it! Drop us an email using the contact form.

The Cooper Art Gallery on  Church Street in the town centre is a glorious little place with its changing exhibitions, cafe and gift shop. We had the chance to visit and see its newest exhibition '45 rpm' by Terry Brookes, the permanent pieces from the Cooper Collection, new pieces in their newly built extension and the 'Expressed' exhibition showcasing the best of Barnsley College end-of-year shows. There's a lot packed into this deceivingly 'small' gallery and really worth the visit.

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The Terry Brookes 45 rpm exhibition is all about mod type artworks and 3D objects. Also includes a wooden sculpture of a Vespa accompanied by a green parka and bike helmets for you to dress up and play on! We had much fun on this. My model boyfriend showed this off perfectly, in which I couldn't resist and had to join in too! Our favourite painting was the one of the tapes, on our forever wish list.

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Their permanent exhibition from their Cooper collection looks more beautiful than ever since the area has been renovated and now includes more interactive elements for a friendlier visit for all the family. Next to them is the newly built extension with more amazing pieces as well as some ceramic, pottery and sculptures. We also enjoyed the interactive games like the hexagonal jigsaw and re-building the magnetic pot.

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Then finally I headed upstairs into the Sadler room to see the 'Expressed' exhibition from Barnsley College. The Cooper Art Gallery chose their favourites from the end of year showcase that all Art & Design students do in the final projects. There was a nice range of paintings, 3D sculptures, graphic design and Fashion garments.

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Have you visited the gallery recently? What was your thoughts?

'The Stories of the Somme' exhibition at the Experience Barnsley Museum began 24th of August and runs up until 20th of November. Alongside their other Barnsley memorabilia, stories from the Battle of the Somme were presented with items, literature and memories of by-gone soldiers. Dotted around the museum were also garments created by Barnsley College Fashion students from their World War one project earlier this year which brought the theme more to life. The exhibition is definitely worth a visit as well as seeing all the other items within the museum.

Here's the photo journal of the visit.



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The Alhambra Shopping Centre has held a Fashion Week event to coincide with London's Fashion Week to spotlight some of the shops, give away prizes and put on some shows.The event has been on since Tuesday with the Barnsley Hospice having a pop-up shop and fundraising. On Friday there was some vintage style Paparazzi's taking photos and giving away £150 when they entered the competition. Saturday was the main day with their 'Fashion On The Move' shows, consisting of 5 models and doing a shows every half an hour at various spots around the centre to show different shops' selection of clothing. At each show, they were giving away £50 vouchers to spend in those shows, the winners being picked at random from the audience.

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From Tuesday, the Barnsley Hospice charity was in the centre selling pre-loved clothing from their charity shops and promoting their upcoming events. On Friday they had two vintage style paparazzis in the centre, taking photos of local shoppers and then giving them a card where they could download the photos for free and also have the chance of winning £150 to spend in the retailers. These were a nice touch to the event and created a fun atmosphere.

The 'Fashion On The Move' shows were a delight to watch, they had 5 models of which were 3 gals and 2 guys. Dressed in the retailers, the shows were right outside of that shop amongst all of the shoppers. They would then put on a dance routine and then a standard catwalk show. The compere would then talk about the clothing the models wore and what prices they were at. The shows were on roughly every half an hour and the models did do the same dance routine every show, which I thought they could have maybe had 2 dance routines to switch it up a little. Despite this though, each show was kept lively, intriguing and informative by the host. In the show that was outside TK Maxx, my boyfriend that had come along with me whispered 'I want that shirt that model is wearing.' so we headed straight in to find it, proving the shows worked as they should have!

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It would be great that next year when they do this again, they try to add even more to the fashion week event and bring more people into the Barnsley town centre. Maybe some more pop-up shops? Live mannequin window displays? Let us know what ideas you have. The Alhambra Shopping Centre is one of our 10 places to visit in Barnsley and putting on events like these ensure its place on that list!

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Credit given to first 2 pictures, all rest belong to Barnsley Fashion Creatives.

Barnsley photographer Liam Gilroy talks to us about styles, editing tips and photoshoot planning. He constantly surrounds himself by all the right people to ensure his authenticness in his photography and his parents old photos ignited that spark. Read the full conversation below and see some of his photos. Visit  www.liamgilroy.com



BFC:  What first attracted you to photography?

Liam: What first attracted me to photography was mostly how, when I was growing up, my parents took a lot of photos of me and my siblings just as people do now, except they weren't lost in the cloud for ever, they were actually developed and printed and acted as physical memories. I always loved that idea of archiving memories this way, and I think that's what's lead me into my love of capturing people, moments and atmospheres.

BFC: Its a shame people don't really print out their photos anymore. So how has your style developed over the time?

Liam:  I think over time I've developed a more earthy tone and started to focus in on a certain aesthetic that excites me, usually the more gritty and mysterious. I usually do this this now by creating more of a 'shot on film' feel, which perhaps relates to the last question. With fashion photography I think it's good to have models that have an uniqueness about them, which ultimately makes the clothing more desirable!



BFC: Following from your styles, where do you tend to get your inspiration from?

Liam: A lot of the time I'm lucky enough to work with people who express a theme in their products, so in those cases I can draw on that iconography and try to match that with a real world setting that helps to build a narrative.



BFC: What was one of your favourite projects that you've worked on?

Liam: One that springs to mind is a Fear and Loathing Clothing shoot we did for their Up The Dosage collection. We shot all the lifestyle shots around this huge abandoned house which was a lot of fun to play around with. We decided to run with some more unusual ideas, like building a prop satanic ritual in the barn, the location was a playground for photography. Here's a behind the scenes video of that shoot.
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BFC: Oh wow that's so cool! What were your post-shoot processes after that?

Liam: I'm lucky enough that my brother Jordan Gilroy co-runs F&L and is a very talented designer, so we get to collaborate a lot and that extends into the editing of the photos, which we always agree on! Outside of F&L I still get a lot of freedom in editing (mostly in Photoshop). I think because fashion based photography is usually more dramatic, you get to take more liberties with colouring and balancing the image and it's seen as being part of an overall process.



BFC: What tips would you give about photo editing to those who want to make their own products look better? Maybe they only use their mobile phones, so is there anything they can do just to bring them more to life?

Liam: A big thing for me is not getting too caught up on gear, so I tent to find kit and software and stick with it until I feel like it hasn't done the job. For me I use photoshop, because you can always play around with depth by using layer masks or tilt shifts etc and play with the contrast a lot. I use a cool piece of software called CameraBag2, which has some awesome customisable presets for specific tones etc. Honestly, I think Instagram is great if you're working on mobile. For example, you can get a really great looking tone just by pumping up the contrast and and taking the saturation way down on your image just like you would in Photoshop. I think it's just good to experiment.

BFC: And last question, what tips would you give to someone who's planning their own photoshoot?

Liam: My advice for anyone planning their own photoshoot, if I'm qualified to give advice, would be to first create a good atmosphere, make sure everyone's on the same page about what you want to achieve and make sure that everyone's having a good time! Your shoot will benefit massively from this. Second of all I'd say try something different. With the exemption of practising before you shoot, try and do something new that you finding challenging.

We have our first Barnsley Fashion Creatives project! We have been in touch with Trish Evans from Spirit Original Designs who would like to do a photoshoot of her clothing and accessories and is looking for other locals to participate. Here is the run down of the brief with subject to changes as more details are confirmed.

At Barnsley Fashion Creatives, our main aim is to get people connected in Barnsley to work together and help each other out to further enhance our experiences and business. If you have a project in mind and not sure where to go with it, we can help. We can get in touch with the right people to get what you need, find suitable locations and help get it all organised. Feel free to enquire about your project.

Brief by: Spirit Original Designs

Proposed Location: Spring bank Farm (waiting on confirmation)

Date: October

Theme: Rustic, old, quirky, historical, woods

Who we are looking for: Models in sizes 10, 14 & 16, at least one blonde and one brunette. A Photographer and anyone else who'd like to participate. We already have hair & makeup.

Project is unpaid, all participants will get full use of the photos.

This is a fun project for people who are based in Barnsley to all help each other out and get their own use out of it as well, if you require some photos of particular areas that show your own work, we can get those done for you to put in your own portfolios.

If you yourself or if know anyone who would like to help out on the project please use the contact page quoting the brief and with any links to your work. All participants must be agreed by the project leader to ensure you fit the desired brief.

Other than the high streets shops, there are a number of places to get different menswear in Barnsley from independent shops and handmade designers. There's always plenty of places for womenswear and the menswear seems sparce or hard to find. Well we've done the leg work for you, here's our list of possibilities for you guys to explore.

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Down the Victorian Arcade are 3 independent shops, Ashworth & Bird, Originals and The Gallery. Each of these have a different style and look so depending how you're feeling, you can easily pop into all 3 down one short street to figure out what you're wanting.



If you leave the Arcade at the bottom after being inside Ashworth & Bird, cross the road and head to your right and you'll pass the corner shop of Ghia Menswear, for the more sport luxe clothing as well as accessories.



Also On your visit list should be Nomad Atelier, many of their items are unisex, looking amazing on men as they do on women. Be prepared to pay the price for their luxurious fabrics, bu they'll certainly last you many years to come in both quality and style.

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Speaking of handmade, local designer Emily Sharp Fashion creates quirky menswear garments, geometric t-shirts, stylish trousers and one-off cardigans. She can also cater to requests and commissions if there's something you'd like but just can't find in the shops.



And lastly, if you're needing something more formal, Greenwoods Menswear is the place. Now based in the Alhambra shopping centre, they have suits, shirts, ties, jackets and more.

All photos belong to Barnsley Fashion Creatives, except Emily Sharp Fashion's two photos.

Chic-yCow are a local handmade accessories business all based on leather. These almost artistic pieces can finish off any outfit and with being such high quality, will be finishing your outfits for years to come. Through the seasons Jo likes to switch things round and try new designs and ranges from natural floral forms to geometric shapes. You can find her Etsy shop here and follow her Facebook page here.

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Jo: These are some of my favourite 'Geometrix' designs, combining leather that has been hand painted in metallic colours and combined with stainless steel hardware like studs. I've always had a passion for all things crafty and over a number of years, I've learnt how to sew, knit, crochet, paint watercolours and make costume jewellery, many techniques I now use in my work.

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Jo: These are items from my best selling 'Autumn Leaves' designs and are again hand painted in metalics and then embroidered over the top, with added beads. Chic-yCow was set up in 2011 when I started to incorporate my love of Art, Colour, Textiles and Painting to produce individually handmade Leather Jewellery, Handbags and Accessories.

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Jo: From the 'Daisies' range, these are also my favourites and some of my best sellers. My products are made using leather that has been embellished with intricately printed and painted designs before being cut, layered and combined to create softly textural pieces of jewellery and accessories.



Jo: Here are a mixture of bracelets, necklaces and brooches. Whilst I am occasionally distracted by geometric shapes and repeating patterns, my main love is working with natural forms.



Jo: These are the updated version of the 'Flower Bracelet', which I've been making now for over 5 years. During the summer, my work features hand painted and printed flowers, combined with glass and ceramic beads and in the winter you can see pieces that are covered with embroidered metallic leaves and bold hand painted leather, combined with metal hardware.

Sandra hill is a local multi-skilled artist with multiple businesses, all of the creative persuasion. Her main business is creating dog-clothing and accessories, but also has knowledge is crafts such as jewellery making, glass-work, textiles and more.  we asked her about some of her favourite pieces she's made in fashion accessories.

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BFC: Hi Sandra, so how do you make these?

Sandra: These were during a more intricate phase, placing items, inclusions and stringers. The green is my favourite ever! The glass can be a bit fiddly. Its a clear and green piece of glass with a cut copper inclusion and strips of coordinating glass sandwiched between them. This is then fused in the kiln & usually cross toes, fingers and any thing else that it fused ok without oxidizing the copper inclusion, or slipping off deforming the shape. It's like christmas day opening the kiln after a firing, as glass can have a life of its own.

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Sandra: But you sometimes just find a lovely piece of glass, that just needs rounding or softening as these. Some glass pieces are just pretty on their own so I just need to cut the required size, then fuse together, just take sharp edges off, or fuse to a full rounded fused shape.

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Sandra: I really enjoy the freedom wire wrapping gives you, a bead or gemstone & silver or plated wire and let your imagination loose. I use beads for wire wrapping, usually coloured glass or semi precious stones, even just nice pebbles I find on the beach!

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Sandra: This I love! Having a break from the glass and wire work, with a textile, touchy, feely moment. It reminds me of a muppet from my childhood!

BFC: What are they made from and how do you do them?

Sandra: They're made from wool/yarn and they're made using a flower loom. I also make flower hair bands and brooches, etc.

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BFC: Ooh interesting! What is a flower loom?

Sandra: A flower loom is a circle with pins stuck up at even spacings that you can wrap threads, wool etc around. Easy really, but then you need to push the designs and play with it and the materials.

You can contact Sandra through her main business facebook page: A Pawfect Fit.

Whilst at the Barnsley Archives the other day, I found out about this wonderful event called the Barnsley Shopping Carnival. In the archives they had the booklets from 1910 and 1922 and found them so fascinating to look at and read through. These booklets were actually more like an entire book and properly bound. Inside were drawings, photographs, advertisements, all about Barnsley, shops, competitions and more.

The 1910 booklet was less illustrious and more text based, as you'd expect. This was the first year Barnsley held this week-long event and it wrote how other towns had also done in and Barnsley wanted to join in. The carnival meant gathering all the shops throughout the town and to work together to create a massive attraction to all customers new and old, they would host special offers to get them into their shops and also import some special products that could only be bought during this week. The main part of the carnival was the window dressing competitions, they had different categories such as Ladies goods to wear, Mens goods to wear, Goods to eat, Best outside decoration and Best novelty window exhibition. To entice the shoppers, they urged them also to take part in guessing who would get the awards and also written essays about the carnival.

The 1922 book had far more visuals and even the first page was printed in colour as seen above.It echoed the previous book but had far more pages as it had grown in popularity. This time, the window dressing competitions had simplified down to the categories Things to eat, Things to wear and Things to use, but had extra special prizes given by  companies if they had put any of their products amongst their window displays. The Barnsley British Co-operative Society is featured quite heavily throughout this book, advertising each and every of it's departments, right down to particular products. Here's a selection of images from the 1922 booklet. Can you imagine if Barnsley still did this?

All content from the Barnsley Archives.

Something New - Wedding Specialists is ran by Laura Fletcher and creates beautiful bridesmaid and flower girl dresses, along with venue decorations like chair covers, table top decor and candy carts. We talked to her about her favourite makes, cos who doesn't want to see gorgeous flowy dresses??



Laura: As the wedding season slows down for me, I've started to research bridesmaid trends for 2017 and you can see that having your maids in a mixture of colours is set to continue. The first of my customers to do this in 2015 was Joanne, whose bridesmaids wore our best-seller, Adriana, in shades of pinks and purples.



Laura: One of my favourites from 2016 was Faith's lovely ladies in their custom made Renée gowns in purple hues, beautiful for a June wedding.



Laura: Also from this year was Alexa's girls in their various vintage pink shades. And still to come next month, a wonderful array of blue, silver and mint! And my top tip for 2017... pastels!



BFC: Where do you go to look for inspiration on your styles, designs and colours?

Laura: Pinterest... I'm totally obsessed! Most of what is on there are American weddings, which are always one step ahead. We tend to follow 1-2 years on, so whatever is happening there, we're sure to follow.

BFC: And what fabrics do you mostly use and which is your favourite to work with?

Laura: Definitely chiffon. It's flattering and looks so pretty. Also corded lace! Its great for the classic, vintage look.

You can see more of her work on her website and also give her facebook page a like!

The other day I got invited to go visit the Barnsley Archives and I got so excited seeing what they'd found for me, I got a bit lost in the reason why I was originally there and ended up just reading through old booklets and staring at photographs a bit too long. However there was some more gorgeous old photos of the Barnsley Co-operative Society that I had already done some delving into and it was because of this that I got invited to go and see more. So here is a few of the photos they had found for me.







These three photos above are from the 60's in it's ladies wear department. I love how happy the women in them are and that the styles of clothing in them can still be found in high street stores today. Something that stands out to me in all the photographs though, is that carpet!

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This was one of the make-up areas, featuring some brands that have obviously stood the test of time! You can also see the hair dyes, hair products and then for some reason...umbrellas at the back?





The Haberdashery department! If I had been around then, this would be where I'd spend all my time! All those rolls of fabric, mannequins, buttons, ribbons and so, so much more!

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The lingerie department looks typical of the 60's, full length nighties and under-slips. And there is that wonderful carpet again, it's growing on me!







The three photos above were taken in 1959, so a little earlier than the others and are of the Menswear departments. Here you could buy off the rack and have things made-to-measure. They also have all the school uniforms, shirts and accessories.

I find all these so fascinating and learning more about our town of Barnsley and it's history can still inspire you today. Massive thanks to the Barnsley Archives for your help, I'll definitely be coming back.

All photos from the Barnsley Archives.