Team Activ is a local company based in the Digital Media Centre and provide activities for businesses, education and the community. In conjunction with Penistone Grammar School, from January they will be running an after school club with them and are looking for arts & crafts tutors to deliver classes over a 12 week block. Read more about Team Activ here www.teamactiv.org

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If you have a craft or skill in the creative subjects and can be taught in a school environment, then you would be perfect! Here are the finer details about it.

Where: Penistone Grammar School / Club Programme

When: 3-5pm 1 day a week (to suit your availability) w/c 09.01.17 for 12 weeks and w/c 27.02.17 for 12 weeks.

Rates: £10-£20 p/h dependent on qualifications and experience.

Looking for: Any teachable craft skills such as: Fine Art, Sewing, 3D crafts, Textiles and more...

If this sounds of interest to you please contact us through the contact form at the top of the page, or email directly to hannah456@hotmail.com with your qualifications and experience and which day would be most suitable to you. We will pass your details on and you should be contacted by a Team Activ member.

'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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We all make silly mistakes even at the best of times and when running a business and facing your customers, the best corkers come spilling out. The thing is, we're only human and we all do it at times so don't beat yourself up about it because in the years to come, you'll laugh about it. Some things are just what we've learnt not to do and things to remember to do the next time we're in that situation, but these are all growing points for us and our businesses. Here's what some Barnsley Fashion Creatives admitted to..

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Emily Roberts of Emi B Designs, "At the start of my business I wasn't very organised at keeping everything in one place, such as writing down what I'd sold or keeping all my receipts in one place. It meant I had to hunt high and low for all the bits of paper with this information on when I needed it ! Now I am much more organised."

Here's a few things you can take from that, get a receipt book where it duplicates everything and then you have a record of everything you've sold, the day it sold and your customer gets a copy of it as well! In my own dressmaking studio I have a 'receipts tin', everytime I buy fabric or some other items to run my business they went in that tin until the end of the month when I log everything into my accounts and then go into monthly envelopes.

Nicola Whitfield Make-up Artist, "I Forgot my make up brushes on a photoshoot once, fortunately I had time to nip to the shop and pick up some to use, now I have a checklist so when I pack my kit up and I know I've not forgotten anything"

Lists can sound tedious to some people but are definitely an effective tool when done well (and you don't loose that list!). There's many ways to do list-making such as apps on your phones or tablets, special notebooks specifically for lists, a plain old pad or the ever favourable, post-it notes!

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Laura Fletcher of Something New-Wedding Specialists, "I do remember going to a dress fitting without my tape measure lol... the bride had to borrow one from a neighbour!"

If your business has a few main tools that let you do what you do, it's always good to have spares and stuff them in places where you're likely to be when you need them. For example, stuff some tape measures in a pocket in your car. Or have a couple in the zipper pocket of your bag. If they're small things that always come in handy, why not grab a few extras next time you go shopping.

Sandra Hill, "I used to just randomly pluck prices out of the air when I first started. No working out costs, profits etc, I've had to be more methodical in the business side of things."

This is always a tricky subject when working out your prices. Do you work at a cost that your customers will pay? Or work it out perfectly adding in all your costs and profits and hope that it's still an affordable price? It's a hard decision, but one thing you should remember is to never work at a loss! Make sure you are at least covering the material costs, otherwise you aren't doing business.

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Kellyann Garforth of Klue by Kellyann, "The only one I can think of is always forgetting my business cards and having to write my email down on random bits of paper, but then I still do this now "

Ok, some daft mistakes are still alright to happen and they aren't the end of the world. Like I said, we're only human! Do you have any things you used to do and have learnt from? Silly mistakes that you laugh about now? Comment below or drop an email to hannah456@hotmail.com

 

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.

Whether you're doing a photoshoot, an event, or whatever project that requires help from other creatives, the age old question is, to ask my friends? Or to hire professionals? There's pros and cons to both sides and it all depends on the outcomes you want to achieve. If you want to just have some fun, get your friends involved. If you want to boost your business sales, are you better off hiring professionals? Here's some food for thought.

Pros-

• They're your friends!

• They're free.

• You can quite easily say no to them when they have an idea for you that's totally in the wrong direction.

• No awkward meetings.

• You already know their skills and quality levels.

• Talk more freely about your ideas.

Cons-

• Fall outs can happen!

• You may only get up to a certain quality.

• Friends can ditch out on you last minute.

• Could have low experience.

Pros-

• Guaranteed good quality.

• They have the relative experience.

• They can prove they'll get your desired outcome with previous work & testimonials.

• They have high level contacts and networks.

• Reliable, reliable, reliable.

• You can learn things from them.

• You can explain your idea and they immediately understand what you're after.

Cons-

• Costs, they charge what they want for their services (and sometimes rightly so!)

• They may have more experience than you and could use that against you.

• They could run away in their own style that they've built up over their career.

• Could put a time limit on how long they work with you, they're busy people!

After all this, the best position to have yourself in is to make really good friends with professionals and then you can have the best of both worlds. I know we're not all that lucky though, bare in mind these thoughts when you come across this dilemma. Do you have any stories of using friends or professionals? Or other pros & cons to add? Get in touch with your comments.

Photo Credit Here.

In Barnsley you can learn the art of sewing at many places, from how to use your sewing machine, to pattern drafting garments and making accessories. Here are a few places you can pick up a new skill or two.


Barnsley College has both a full time course and an evening course in Fashion. Their full-time course in Fashion is one of the best in Yorkshire. a 2 year course covering sewing, marketing, textiles, illustration and more. See the full details here.

Their part-time evening course runs over 10 weeks with a different subject each time, the first one starting in September will be covering 'Skirts', then the next courses in January & April will covering a different garment type. You can learn to use sewing machines, pattern drafting, made-to-measure and different techniques. Find out all about it here.





Oh Sew Sweet Shop have two locations, one in the Fountain Parade, Mapplewell and the other on Dovecliffe Road, Wombwell. Their shops are based around fabrics, quilting, craft supplies and sweets! But they also run a lot of regular sewing classes, including some garment making and bag classes.

You can see their full class schedule in this PDF or visit their full website www.ohsewsweetshop.co.uk




Barnsley Council run adult learning classes that usually last 5 weeks long and their sewing class covers basic skills, learning your machines, inserting zips, etc. Along with other courses like life skills and creative subjects, theses courses are great foundation building blocks for the money they charge. They are based in the Wellington House on Market Street, see more info on their course here.



If you know of other sewing classes that are happening or you are someone that teaches the skill, get in touch and let us know all about it and we can share your story.

All images belong to above businesses, header image by Barnsley College.

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