Opening Times Over Christmas

We will be open Thursday 23rd 10am - 5:30pm and Friday 24th 10am - 4pm.

We are closed 25th, 26th, 27th. Opening times from 28th will depend on the weather so keep an eye on this blog and twitter for further details.

Postage will be affected and we will not be offering our next day delivery option between Christmas and New Year. We will aim to send out parcels during this period, but delivery times may be longer. Please get in touch if you need something for a specific date and we will see what we can do.

We will re-open early January. Dates will be confirmed closer to the time.

I Pretend to Work

The above image is by Andy Smith and is part of our Christmas Exhibition. We have this one in two colourways. You can see both here.

Print & Pattern blog kindly featured us which you can see here.

'I Pretend to Work' was also featured in Will Bryant's Holiday Gift guide on Poppytalk which you can see here.

Our New Shop & Gallery Space

Thought it was about time we showed you what our new space looks like now we've been in and open for a couple of months. So first up is the ground floor which is our shop and has a lovely selection of prints, jewellery, ceramics, textiles and more on display.













Then we have our gallery space upstairs. This is a really lovely bright room with a window at the front and the back so lets loads of light in.







Come and hang out on our sofa!

Go to the website...

Donna Wilson at Soma

We have just had delivery of some new bits from the incredibly talented Donna Wilson including the new Raindrop cushion above and a Lightning Bolt cushion. We've also got some more of her creatures and cushions including the two images below (Owl Cushion and Woolfie).

And we're open!

We've just re-opened today at 4 Boyces Avenue. Come and visit us in our lovely new space.

We're open 10am - 5:30 Tuesday to Saturday.

We Have Moved

The Clifton Arcade shop has now closed. We are in the process of putting the finishing touches to the ground floor of the new shop at 4 Boyces Avenue so will be open in a few days time.

We will be opening the upstairs gallery a little later.

If you plan to make a special trip to Soma, please get in touch to find out if we'll be open!

Extended Sale

The new shop and gallery has meant that we're running behind with our new website. So we've extended our mega sale and have put the Jody Barton prints and books back in the sale. This means we have some amazing offers for you with Jody Barton, Andy Smith and Spencer Wilson signed limited edition silkscreen prints (& some digital) at half price.

There's plenty of other things in the sale including Pepe & Friends by Camila Prada, tea towels by Pintuck, homewares by Isak, magazine back issues and loads more. We'll throw in stickers, zines, postcards etc with each purchase of sale items (while stocks last!)

Go to the Sale...

We're moving to a big shop!

We've got some very exciting news at the moment... not only are we getting a new website, but we're getting a new shop as well!

Last week I received the keys to a much larger shop over the road from the Arcade where we are currently. We've put a small amount of photos on our flickr here but we'll upload a load more in the coming days. We've already done an awful lot of work since those photos were taken!

4 Boyces Avenue will be our new address. It is on two floors so we'll have a dedicated gallery space on the first floor with the shop on the ground floor.

All this has meant our new website will be pushed back a little bit, but we're working hard to get both the new shop and the new website ready as soon as possible!

Our shop in Clifton Arcade is still open, but if you're planning on making a special trip, please do get in touch to make sure someone will be there.

Lady Luck Rules Ok comes to Bristol!

Friend of Soma, Leona Barker of Lady Luck Rules Ok, will be doing a talk and jewellery workshop here in Bristol at the Folk House on Park Street. You can buy your tickets for the event here.

Read all about the event below:

Jewellery Workshop & Trade Secrets Talk
UK Tour

By Leona Baker
the creator of cult indie jewellery brand
Lady Luck Rules OK

After 3 sold out Trade Secrets Talks and 5 sold out Jewellery Workshops in my London studio
I’ve combined the two events to take on a mini tour around the UK!

The trade secrets talk will cover topics such as how to start, run & grow an independent creative business; how to successfully sell online; PR, marketing and social media; wholesale & trade shows; and how to deal with the tough stuff like competitors and copycats!

The jewellery workshop will reveal all our unique production methods & materials including how we made our personalised jewellery, enamel & gold charms, glittery broken hearts, printed acrylic pendants, fuzzy wooden animals & mixed media Midnight Forest designs. I’ll also detail the importance of sampling, working with manufacturers, where to source and practical tips on how to achieve the best results. The techniques involved can also be applied to many other products including accessories, clothing, home wares, greetings cards and stationery.

My London talks and workshops have been attended a wide variety of people from artists, graphic designers & illustrators, boutique owners, jewellery designer/makers, fans of LLROK wondering just how we made everything and folk researching how to turn that first seed of an idea into a product to make and sell. My students have also included a Central St Martins Design Tutor and girls who’ve traveled from Paris and Italy!

The jam packed 3 hour event will fill your head with oodles of inspiration and a wealth of knowledge enabling you to transform your ideas and designs into awesome products to make, promote and sell.

Vive le Independent!

PSSST!
I've had some great feedback for my past talks and workshop!
Read my reviews here

Sale now online...

It's Sale time at Soma!

In anticipation of our forthcoming shiny new website, we are having a bit of a sale of a few things that won't be moving over with us.

Over the years we have accumulated quite a bit of stuff and will be giving away some free items including cards, postcards, tote bags, badges and ceramics that are cluttering us up with each order while stocks last.

We've also got an exclusive 50% off mega sale on Jody Barton prints. This is for two weeks only and you can pick up a fantastic original print at half price! This will run until midnight Thursday 15th July.

The sale includes items from Isak, Donna Wilson, Lisa Jones, Pintuck, Camila Prada's Pepe & Friends plus more.

www.somagallery.co.uk

www.somagallery.co.uk/shop/shopsectionsale.html

**Plus check out Venue this week Bristol people for a chance to win an Anthony Burrill 'Work Hard' letterpress print!**

Temporary changes to our opening times between 14th & 23rd June

Due to holidays and staff shortages Soma will be running on different opening times between 14th - 23rd June

Monday 14th: Closed as usual
Tuesday 15th: Closed
Wednesday 16th: Open 10:30 - 5:30
Thursday 17th: Open 10:30 - 5:30
Friday 18th: Open 10:30 - 5:30
Saturday 19th: Open 10:30 - 5:30

Sunday 20th & Monday 21st: Closed as usual

Tuesday 22nd: Closed
Wednesday 23rd: Open from 12noon - 5:30
Open as usual from Thursday 24th

Please also note during this period there may be some delays on purchases from our online shop. Our courier next day service will be unavailable.

New things in Soma

Hot off the press, this new letterpress poster from Anthony Burrill is a fabulous addition to his affordable collection. You can buy it from us here.

We have also got the Work Hard available on light yellow paper. See all prints and posters by Anthony here.

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We also have some new screenprints from Lucy Vigrass. Lucy is a member of the Illustration Collective 'Peepshow' and her work is often seen in numerous magazines and newspapers. Some of her clients include the V&A, The Independent, The Telegraph Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian and many more. We're really pleased about these because they are gorgeous!

You can view Lucy's page on our website here.

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This cute little fella is courtesy of Graham Carter and there's plenty more where he came from! Graham is one of our most popular artists here at Soma so we're very happy to have a collection of new work from him.

You can see Graham's page on our website here.

New Blog Header Designed by Lesley Barnes

Our super brand new header has been designed for us by Illustrator and Animator Lesley Barnes. Lesley has been selling her fantastic bookmarks with us since last summer and they have proved to be a very popular addition to our stock.





Bookmarks by Lesley.

Glasgow based Lesley loves tea, brass buttons vintage books and old lady hats. She started as an animator and her graduation film 'Herzog and the Monsters' has shown at film festivals over the world and won a nimber of prizes including BAFTA Scottish Students on Screen and best animation at the Chicago International Children' film festival. Since she graduated in 2006 she have worked on a few short films for BBC Scotland, designed title sequences, directed adverts (for the economist and the charity tommys). Her last two animation projects were animations for a Channel 4 documentary (she worked with Matt Saunders aka rabbitportal on this) and also a short web based film for DBB in new york on preventing teenage suicide in America.

Herzog and the Monsters from Lesley Barnes on Vimeo.

Lesley only started Illustrating about a year ago, although she has managed to fit a large body of work into that small time. One of the first projects she was involved in was for Amelia's Anthology of Illustration. As well as having work included in the book, she created the contents and the endpages of the book.



A spread from the book above and the endpaper pattern below.



One of her current personal projects is to illustrate a pack of cards. You can view her progress here. She hopes to eventually build a huge house of cards!





Other projects include animating a title sequence of the BBC and an animated short called '7' with Thereza Rowe. The image below shows some of the characters they have created.



We can't wait to see what she will do next!

Go to Lesley Barnes page on the Soma website
An Ace in the Pack blog
Lesley Barnes

New Lasercut from Rob Ryan

We are very excited about the imminent arrival of this beautiful lasercut from Rob Ryan. It is from an edition of 250 and is signed and numbered by Rob. It is lasercut from blue card and the text reads "Our Adventure is About to Begin". It measures 27 x 37.5 cm and is mounted on white card that is approx 29 x 39.5. It costs £60 plus p&p.

We will only have a small number of these available and as the valentines lasercut sold out before we had even finished the mailout it is advisable to register your interest as soon as possible! We'll be putting the lasercut on our website when it arrives, though please get in touch if you would like to pre-order.

We also have now available on our website the full range of Rob Ryan for Roger La Borde lasercut greetings cards and his beautiful book "This Is For You".

Go to Rob Ryans page here

EDIT: This print is now available from us here Sold out now - sorry.
.

New things from Donna Wilson, Lisa Jones, James Brown, Michelle Thompson and more!

A few updates in our online shop and physical gallery and shop space include new textiles and some ceramics from Donna Wilson, prints and tea towels from Lisa Jones, a fantastic new screenprint from new artist Michelle Thompson and new prints by James Brown.

Donna Wilson
James Brown
Lisa Jones
Michelle Thompson
New items page

We've also just done our March Newsletter which you can read here.

When Katie Wore a Cupcake

A little bit late posting this but one of our Donna Wilson Cupcakes has made its way onto the fantastic What Katie Wore blog as a brooch! What a great thing to do with it! Check out the blog here. What Katie Wore. The cupcakes are also available on our website here.

A couple of other bits of blog press include a mention on the Easy Living blog and Art at Heart.

...And not forgetting this Valentines post from Amelia of Amelia's Magazine here.

Tatty Devine Spring Collection 'Sundae Best'

We're loving our new selection of Tatty Devine now on display in the gallery. Their spring collection is entitled "Sundae Best'. It includes senorita fans, doilies, pop star hands, cocktail umbrella pieces and more.

Tatty Devine on our website.

New Screen Prints From James Joyce

We have 5 new silkscreen prints from James Joyce available to buy here.

James Joyce is an artist/designer living and working in London. At the start of 2006 he founded his own print studio One Fine Day where he produces limited edition prints of his work and also takes on commissions. To date he's worked for a wide range of clients including Penguin books, Nike, Creative Review, Levi's, Kiehl's and Carhartt.

We had an exhibition of his work in 2007 and he's been a firm favourite with our customers ever since.

I Like It. What Is It?

We've this fantastic new letterpress poster from Anthony Burrill now in stock here.

Rob Ryan's Valentines Cut Out

This year Rob Ryan has taken his Valentines print to a new level of loveliness! He has created a beautiful limited edition silkscreened lasercut. It is hand screenprinted in a limited edition of 250 and is printed on 350gsm pale blue paper. It will be presented in a red card envelope, fastened with ribbon. This print is available to pre-order from us now at a very reasonable £47 and will be delivered in the first week of February.
Pre-order here.

Rebecca Telford

We will be exhibiting screenprints by Rebecca Telford during March. We're really excited about her new series of prints. We've sold out of all her existing work here!





Originally from East Sussex, Rebecca graduated from Bath Spa University in 2004 with a BA Hons in Fine Art Painting. In 2007/8 she went travelling across America, Canada & Mexico from which she takes much of her inspiration.

Rebecca’s work is influenced by architecture, pattern & colour. Her screen prints are all hand cut stencils on rubylith, and the paintings are hand rollered, and scalpel precise.

Rebecca currently lives and works in Bristol.

Anthony Burrill

Anthony Burrill is one of our longest standing Artists. We've been selling his work since our very first exhibition waaaay back in 2004.



Bio

Anthony Burrill is a designer who works in a broad range of activities, including print, advertising, moving image, exhibitions and products. He was born in Littleborough, Lancashire and now lives and works on the Isle of Oxney, Kent. After studying graphic design at Leeds Polytechnic he completed an MA in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, London.

His hugely popular letterpress poster prints are also one of our best sellers. To go to Anthony's page on our website and see these plus screen prints and badges click here.

Work Hard
Think of Your Own Ideas
Golden Sunshine
It Is Ok

January Sale

Our January Sale is now on here. We have a selection of greetings cards, tea towels, shoppers, homeware and more reduced.

Images clockwise from top left Donna Wilson, Darling Clementine, Isak and Donna Wilson

Press from over Christmas

We had some lovely press over Christmas on various blogs.

Creative Review
Poppytalk
Print & Pattern
Wee Birdy

Fiona also did the Bristol City Guide for the Urban Outfitters website.

Other blogs to mention Soma and our artists recently include:

Design Milk piece on Sam Chivers
Planet Mithi - Winner of Amelia's Climate Change competition (Fiona was one of the judges)
Inspire - various artists
Print & Pattern - various artists
Wee Birdy - Birdy Pick of the Week - Ben Newman print

Image above 'Other Planets' by Rob Ryan.