2011: in Review

Well, what a busy year 2011 was! I feel like my Christmas rest could perhaps have done with being a little longer. 2011 was probably our biggest year at Soma in terms of events, exhibitions and projects. Some of the ideas that were in our heads were actually realised this year and we had our first ever events in our gallery space.

Going backwards a little bit... In August 2010 we moved to our new building, which really kick started things with actual storage space (instead of none!) and a lovely big light filled gallery space. Following this in November came our new, easy to operate website to replace the one I had designed and built (poorly by current standards) way back in 2005 and was on its last legs as well as being a pain to keep updated. So we had a good platform to kick 2011 off from.

Some of the great things we've done this year are highlighted below.


Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration at Soma

We started in May with our first event, the Bristol leg of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration book tour. Amelia gave a talk and signed copies of the book whilst Lahloo Tea, Juiceology and Harts Bakery provided the refreshments.



You can read about it on our blog here
And again after the event on the blog here
Or see photos on Flickr here
And view the book online here 


Lesley Barnes Tote for Soma

Also in May, we comissioned Lesley Barnes (who we worked with a few times in 2011 - more to come!) to design an exclusive promotional Soma tote bag. She came up with this fabulous dancing bear design. Lesley designed loads of other little characters for us which we have on badges for online orders.



You can buy the tote on our website for £5 here.


Andy Smith's Sunny Side Up Exhibition

The next event was Andy Smith's fantastic 'Sunny Side Up' solo exhibition. This show featured brand new silkscreen prints on both paper and wood plus hand painted pieces from Andy. This was the first time a solo artist had shown in the first floor space and fortunately Andy is quite prolific as there was a lot of space to fill!



This show ran from 24th June and was due to end on 20th August but by popular demand was extended!



Most pieces from the show are now sold out or are just about to sell out. You can view Andy's page on our website here.

You can read about it on the blog here
And a review of the show and private view on the blog here
And see the photoset of the show on Flickr here


Gemma Correll Exclusive Tote Design

In August we comissioned Gemma Correll to design a tote for us. She came up with this great cat on a scooter design 'Au Revoir'.



You can buy this tote for £10 here


Crispin Finn's Pack Rat Exhibition

The next exhibition was 'Pack Rat' from the fantastic Crispin Finn which opened at the end of September.



You can read about the show on the blog here
And more on the blog here
And see the Flickr photos here


Soma for Not Another Bill

We put together the October Mailout for Not Another Bill which was released at the start of the month.



Bristol based Peskimo and Tom Frost created exclusive prints and badges for this and Lesley Barnes designed an exclusive tote bag.

You can read a bit more on the blog here
And see photos on Flickr here


Tatty Devine Workshop and Book Signing

Then in November Tatty Devine came to Soma to host a workshop and book signing for their new book 'How to Make Jewellery with Tatty Devine'. They taught people how to make a tape measure rosette, one of the projects in the book. Lahloo Tea also were there to provide delicious refreshments once again.



Read about this on the blog here
And here
And see the photos here


Lesley Barnes Wrapping Paper Design

Also in November we launched this beautiful wrapping paper by (yes, her again!) Lesley Barnes. We sell this wrap in sheets and use it for gift wrapping online orders.



You can view this wrapping paper online here.


Christmas Exhibition

And finally at the end of November we had our annual Christmas Exhibition which went down really well, with original pieces from Andy Smith and Gemma Correll selling out as soon as they went on sale!

20% off magazines online during October

Throughout October we are offering a very generous 20% discount on magazines and books online. We have quite an extensive range of back issues and it's time to clear some of them out! We have Eye, 3x3, Varoom, iDN, and Anorak amongst others. To claim your discount, use the code HAPPYMAGAZINE at the checkout. This offer can only be used on books and magazines.

ACOFI at Soma - The Event

A little over a week ago we hosted the Bristol leg of Amelia Gregory's ACOFI book tour. We were joined by two fantastic Bristol based businesses Lahloo Tea and Harts bakery who provided teas and biscuits respectively. Juiceology provided beautiful blended juice drinks and Dr Hauschka provided skincare samples.



We have had a lovely long relationship with Amelia since we started stocking Amelia's Magazine back in around 2005. We started on issue 3 and I wish I had heard about it sooner as I would have loved to have managed to get a copy of issue 2 which came with a Tatty Devine necklace and a cover designed by Rob Ryan (who we also have a great relationship with and have stocked both for a few years too now).

Amelia's magazine gained a bit of a cult following during it's 10 issue run. Beautifully illustrated and designed as well as being full of top quality content including fashion, art and music, it blew most other publications out of the water. The incredible attention to detail  including glow in the dark covers, scratch n sniff covers, usb sticks full of music, cocktail books and many more extra additions made it incredibly covetable but also incredibly expensive to produce as well as being a huge amount of work. So after 10 issues, Amelia moved into the world of book publishing.

ACOFI is her second title and focusses on ethical fashion. Amelia gave us a talk about her journey from setting up the magazine to the creation of the books, the rise of eco fashion and the importance of social media in promoting yourself.

Amelia's compendium of Fashion Illustration is available on our website here or in our Bristol shop. All the copies we have are signed by Amelia. We also have a few back issues of the fabulous Amelia's Magazine available in the shop.


The book & the delicious custard creams (which were swiftly gobbled up and then twittered about the next day by some of the appreciative guests!) with the tasty Juiceology drinks.


Amelia enjoying one of the fantastic custard creams made by Laura Hart of Harts Bakery.


Amelia and Bex Glover, one of the illustrators from ACOFI

Two of the illustrators from the book were present at the event. Bex Glover who is shown in the photo above showing her work and Katie Harnett.

We are so grateful to our fantastic sponsors of the day, in particular Kate Gover and her team from Lahloo tea and Laura Hart of Harts Bakers who made the event extra special with their wonderful products.


Image (c) Lahloo

Lahloo Tea was founded by Kate Gover. This dynamic new company offers tea drinkers a boutique collection of loose-leaf tea from some of the world’s finest small tea gardens. With a little help from two expert importers, Lahloo brings you fairly traded, organic tea direct from small artisan producers.

You can find Lahloo tea sold a couple of doors down from us in Arch House Deli as well as in Chandos Deli's in Bristol. For those of you outside Bristol, you can buy direct from their website www.lahlootea.co.uk or find it stocked in specialist deli's and cafe's.


Image (c) Harts Bakery / Rebecca Bernstein

Harts Bakery is run by Laura Hart. Laura has worked in Bristol as a pastry chef and baker for nine years. She has gained a wealth of baking experience working at Quartier Vert, followed by Bordeaux Quay, the Arch House Deli, and the Clifton Lido.

Her bakery and shop is open Monday - Friday and is located in Hampton Lane just off Cotham Hill and close to the Clifton Down shopping centre and station. You can also find her on Saturdays on a stall on Gloucester Road outside Planet Pizza and opposite Bristol North Swimming Baths.

Amelia has also blogged about the event and her review is full of pictures.
Amelia's blog of the event here.

The last leg of the tour is at Tatty Devine tomorrow evening. For more information go here.

ACOFI on our website here

Lahloo tea website here
Harts Bakery website here
Juiceology website here
Dr Hauschka website

Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration on Tour at Soma Gallery

We are really pleased to have been invited by Amelia to host one of the Book Tour events here at Soma. Local tea company Lahloo will be providing delicious teas for the event.

Amelia Gregory of Amelia’s Magazine will be visiting Soma Gallery in Bristol as part of the #ACOFI Book Tour on on Thursday 26th May, from 6-10pm.

Please do join us for an informal talk about the creation of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, the rise of eco fashion, illustration process and social media for creatives, followed by an official book signing and chance for fellow creatives to network whilst enjoying complimentary organic juices from Juiceology, fine teas from Lahloo and yummy baked goods. On purchase of books there will also be the opportunity to take part in a personal portfolio crit with Amelia Gregory, which will continue into the next day. Keep an eye on Twitter @ameliagregory for updates on the #ACOFI hashtag. Free to attend but please book in advance at: fiona@somagallery.co.uk

Other dates: Tatty Devine in Covent Garden, London on Tues 10th May, Fruitmarket in Edinburgh on Tues 17th May, Castor and Pollux in Brighton on Tues 24th May, Oxford Comma in Oxford on Weds 25th May, Tatty Devine in Brick Lane, London on Tues 7th June.

"Champions the art form and gives a thorough insight into working practices... and it looks stunning, which is not a suprise considering the calibre of the work included." Design Week

"Beautiful and informative as each interview and feature takes you on a personal journey, understanding where each artist and designer get their inspiration from and why ethical fashion is important to them." Ecouterre

"A coffee-table book with a difference... perfect for dipping in and out of for both artistic and fashion inspiration." The Young Creatives

ACOFI at Soma Facebook page
Lahloo tea website
Juiceology website
Amelia's Magazine website

More to be announced in the coming weeks. Hopefully see you there!

EDIT - Bristol based Harts Bakery are now providing home baked iced bicuits, gingerbread hearts & custard creams! Visit their 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

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.