Buy Local This Christmas

So, you want to buy local this Christmas?

A collection of local creatives and small businesses in Gibraltar

This Christmas is going to be different for so many reasons, and sadly, here in Gibraltar, there will be no hot chocolate or mulled wine drunk at the traditional cozy Christmas Market. Instead, local artists are turning to selling their wonderful Christmas creations and gifts themselves. Upon stumbling across the Facebook page ‘Gibraltar Christmas Market’ I decided to reach out to these creatives who are missing out on selling their work face to face, as well as some other local artists and small businesses who are are selling products which could make beautiful gifts. Most items can be purchased directly from the sellers themselves, but I would recommend checking out gibraltarartists.gi, a website where you can purchase a wide variety of products from locals.

Thank you to all of our amazing artists who have contributed to this post. Please shop local this Christmas, not only will you be supporting and contributing towards our culture and small businesses, you’ll also, in most cases, be saving yourself delivery and customs charges!

Fabric Studios

Lyanne is a university student studying fashion and design. She has always had a passion for making and creating new things ranging from accessories to garments. Over the lockdown period, she decided to pursue her dreams and open up her own small business. She began selling scrunchies and headbands and would change the designs of the scrunchies and order new fabric to keep up with and provide her customers with different options. She now sells a large array of items such as gift sets, satin pillow cases, scrunchies, scrunchie Apple Watch straps, headbands and babies’ hats.

You can find out more about ‘Fabric Studios’ on their Facebook page, and can purchase their products from their Etsy shop ‘FabricStudios’ or by messaging them via Facebook. A lot of their products are also stocked in The Flower Shop in at 13 City Mill Lane. You can also message Lyanne with any requests you may have!

Melissa Bosano

Melissa is a secondary school teacher who paints in her free time. She is a self-taught artist. Although she has always been creative, after studying art at school in the mid-90s, she didn’t come back to art until 2013 when she joined the local life drawing sessions at the Fine Arts Gallery in Gibraltar. From there she began experimenting with watercolours, eventually combining these with ink sketches. She is inspired by Gibraltar’s urban environment and how it merges both old and new.

You can find out more about Melissa on her Instagram Page @melbosano and can purchase her art via https://gibraltarartists.gi

Essential Oils with Tina

Christina is a distributor for Young Essential Oils and products. These essential oils are of the highest and purest quality as Young Living is the only company which guarantees a seed to seal promise of no chemicals or toxins. These oils help support wellbeing through helping to ease sleeplessness and stress, with supporting our immune systems and with so many other things that we sometimes suffer from! To Christina, turning to essential oils has been the best thing that she and her family have done. The Premium Starter Kit is the best place to start and would make a lovely gift for either yourself or for a loved one. We also have a fantastic range of products all infused with essential oils and great sets and diffusers for Christmas.

You can find out more about Christina on her Facebook page ‘Essential Oils with Tina’ and you can purchase essential oils from Christina via Facebook.

Melting Moments Gib

Melting Moments Gib is a small family business run by two women who have always been very good with handmade products such as baking, sewing and crafting. However, their fascination with soy wax melts came about when they bought some as a gift and became intrigued about how they were made. They started to research and found a gap in the market so took the risk (in the middle of lockdown!) and decided to buy all the supplies they needed from the UK. Their wax melts are made from 100% soy wax and all the packaging is biodegradable and eco-friendly. They hand pour all their products, and currently have over 30 scents to choose from. Apart from selling individual wax melts they have also catered for baby showers, communions, baptisms and weddings.

You can find out more about Melting Moments Gib via their Instagram page @meltingmoments_gib and can order from them via Instagram or Facebook.

Lowh

Lowh’s mission is to provide the community with organic, eco-conscious cosmetics, whilst hopefully making people aware of how important a switch from bottle to bar can be for your body, your health and your planet. Their solid cosmetics will leave your hair and body feeling healthier and nourished, and that’s because they avoid harsh chemicals and other harsh ingredients usually found in conventional bottles of liquid shampoo, conditioner and soap. They really care about making Lowh as sustainable and plastic-free as possible. How many plastic bottles can you currently count in your bathroom? Each of Lowh’s individual products (as well as their bigger packs) are packaged in paper or cardboard that can be reused and/or recycled. Bringing solid cosmetics into your daily routine can be an easy, small, but significant lifestyle change to cut down on your waste footprint! 

You can find out more about Lowh via their Instagram page @lowh.bars and can order from them via Facebook or Instagram.

Geraldine Martinez

Geraldine has been creating art all her life, exploring virtually every artistic medium along the way. She studied at the Chelsea School of Art and Exeter College of Art and Design. She uses a variety of media, also using her experience as a graphic designer and her use of digital resources to bring her art forward to the 21st century. Geraldine is currently creating portraits and landscapes using her iPad, many featuring the Rock of` Gibraltar. Experimenting with different types of media in an unconventional manner appeals to Geraldine, who wants to provoke thought in people viewing her work. Using a variety of digital techniques such as Photoshop, she manipulates and ‘peels back the layers’ of a photograph to create a painterly effect, similar to watercolours, and her iPad paintings are full of colour and bold strokes, much in the same vein as her real-life canvases.

You can find out more about Geraldine on her website geraldinemartinezart.com. You can purchase her products directly from her website or from gibraltarartists.gi

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Rina Devine

Rina is a multi-award winning photographer; she loves nothing more than to walk to streets and alleyways of Gibraltar, eyes alert, camera in hand and ever ready, to capture that moment in time of a magical vision that truly reflects the character and beauty to be found throughout Gibraltar. She is very creative in her photography and is self taught. She loves to add many textures to her images, which brings them alive in a vintage fashion. In June Rina opened her own shop which consists of quality prints, calendars, colouring books and more, all of Gibraltar! You can also find a selection of creative black and white prints in her store. She does her own printing and mounting; this way she has full control of how each print looks.

You can find out more about Rina on her Facebook Page ‘Fine Art Prints and Gifts by Rina Devine’ and you can purchase products from her store at 9 Convent Place!

Honest Artisan Soap

Handmade soap with olive oil, coconut oil, wild botanicals and natural minerals. Jackie Hitchcock started ‘Honest Artisan Soap’ during her mission to find bar soaps that were palm oil free. During this time, her friend who founded the ‘Rock Distillery’ asked whether she would consider formulating a natural soap; after many disasters she realised it was not as easy as it seemed, and so after much thought, research and experimentation she came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to keep it as simple as possible, with just a few ingredients. She concentrated on olive oil and coconut oil as her base and set out to make the best soap as she could with as few ingredients as possible. Now, she has soap that she is proud of; vegan, palm oil free and harmless all the way down the line. Just good, honest soap made with good, honest ingredients.

You can find out more about ‘Honest Artisan Soap’ on their Facebook page and can purchase from them via Facebook!

Geraldine Gustavino

Geraldine was born in Gibraltar but lives in Perth, Western Australia. She has won several art awards both abroad and in Australia. Geraldine likes to experiment with new techniques and applications. Allowing the free flow of paint with acrylics, she lets herself paint intuitively and expresses her feelings through colour and brush marks.  But her main inspiration comes in the way of her Dancers, Geraldine feels the music and applies her colours and brushstrokes to recreate the movement as the dancers make their appearances on her canvas. She wants the audience to feel the music and dance. Geraldine now teaches at The Art House On Hobbs in Armadale and her inspiration to all her students is, “Just Paint. The first stroke is never your last. Feel the magic.”

You can find out more about about Geraldine on her Facebook page ‘Geraldine Gustavino Art’ and can purchase her work via https://gibraltarartists.gi

Wanda Bush

Wanda is a passionate artist who has been painting all her life. She finds Gibraltar’s location provides opportunities for fresh ideas. Wanda studied Fine Art at College and gained valuable experience. She has always enjoyed painting outdoors and has participated in many competitions and exhibitions in Gibraltar, Spain and Italy. Wanda has undertaken various large mural commissions and was a founding member of the Fine Arts Association which operated from the Fine Arts Gallery in Casemates. An avid lover of all things God created and nature, Wanda is a Christian Artist.

You can find out more about Wanda on ‘Bush ART’ and can purchase her products from https://gibraltarartists.gi and you can contact her for commissions.

Billy Couper

Billy is a photographic artist. He describes his style as soulful and minimalistic. Although his work is expressed in the form of photographs, he considers himself more of an artist than a photographer. He prefers not to adhere to strict photographic rules as, arguably, he feels they tend to restrict a person’s artistic freedoms and may draw attention away from the essence of feeling beneath each image. On his creative journey, over the years, he has obtained awards and a measure of international recognition, especially in the genre of Street Photography, and communication that both expresses and provokes. His prints are available in a variety of sizes and formats.

You can find out more about Billy on his website https://www.billycouperimages.com and can purchase his prints by contacting him at billycouperimages@gmail.com, via Facebook or on https://gibraltarartists.gi

Jenny’s Jewels

Jenny has been making jewellery for the past 9 years. It has become her passion; she especially loves choosing and buying beads and then combining them. She is a member of the ‘Institute of Self-Representing Artists in Jewellery and Design’. You could describe Jenny’s style as eclectic and boho and she loves using bright and contrasting colours. Apart from this Jenny is a full time Transport Inspector which she thinks is awesome. Jenny thinks that Gibraltar is beautiful and she hopes her jewellery is a reflection of where she lives. Her surroundings inspire her, she loves walking in the countryside and up the rock!

You can find out more about Jenny and her jewellery on her Facebook page ‘Jenny’s Jewels’. You can message Jenny via her page to purchase any of her jewellery!

Giorann Henshaw

At the age of 17, Giorann was accepted to the Royal Worcester-Porcelein on a one-year foundation course. Here, she was taught how to paint on china and and porcelain and how to make moulds and sculptures. On completion, she was offered a place on the factory floor on the enamelling section and painting dinnerware, thimbles children’s birthday mugs and Dorothy Doughty Bird Plates. Giorann received her BA Honors in Fine Art and History of Art through the Open University. For 20 years, she has taught children from ages 4 to 17, and adults, how to draw and paint. Giorann likes to explore different mediums; ceramics, fabric, watercolours, acrylics and oils. She loves to paint flowers and stylistic landscapes, she is influenced by her moods.

You can find out more about Giorann on her Facebook Page ‘Giorann Henshaw Art’ and you can purchase her products by contact her directly, or you can purchase from the Gibraltar Museum and the Heritage Trust Shop.

Janine Giles-Holmes

For the past 20 odd years Janine has been running her business, Short Cut Ladies Salon and Barber Shop, but her main passion is her hobby of crochet. Her most popular creation was her mice which became quite famous in Gib. A local bank even ordered a load of these two Christmases in a row for promotional purposes. She also creates clothes, scarves, hats, shawls and much more, all in her own, unique designs. She now mainly concentrates on her dolls; when they are finished she likeS to post them on her Facebook page and people love to take part in choosing names for them. They are then put up for ‘adoption’.

You can find out more about Janine via her Facebook page ‘JGH Crochet Creations' and purchase her products directly through Facebook!

Mark Baglietto

Mark is a commercial artist, working from home. His forte is oil paintings and he sold his work at The Gibraltar Artisan Market before the pandemic. He offers good quality paintings for The Gibraltar Christmas Market online. He feels that art is an intelligent way to express yourself, to enrich your heart with colours and therefore make people feel happy and proud to have your work on their walls. He thinks that it is a humble way to earn your living, but certainly the most rewarding thing he has ever done..

You can find out more about Mark on his Facebook page ‘Mark Baglietto Art On the Rock’ and can purchase Mark’s products by contacting him via email at markbaglietto@hotmail.com, directly through Facebook, or by telephone on +350 200 52990.

Victor Cabrera

Victor works with mineral stones and uses these to create bracelets, necklaces, key charms and anything to do with jewellery! With every purchase, Victor explains the properties of these minerals to his clients as well as continually ensuring he fulfils their needs. Victor works alongside Mark Baglietto, and together they made the phrase ‘Art is Work’ become a reality for them.

You can find out more about Victor on his Facebook Page ‘Minerales Stones Victor Baglietto’ and can purchase his jewellery by contacting him via Facebook, or by contacting Mark Baglietto.

Thank you for reading!