Clifton Village Residents Parking Scheme - How Will it Affect Customers?

Photo from Bristol247

On the 16th March 2015 Clifton Village will be covered by a residents parking scheme. For our customers who currently visit us and have difficulty parking, this should hopefully address this as there will be many pay and display spaces.

The scheme operates 9am - 9pm Monday - Saturday for the Southern part of Clifton Village where the main shopping area is (below Clifton park). The Northern part (above Clifton Park) runs from 9am - 5pm Monday - Friday.

During these times you can park for up to 30 minutes for free or £1 per hour for longer. For free 30 minute parking you must get a ticket from the machine.

You can read about the scheme and view the maps on the council website here.

View a map of Clifton Village South here in a pdf file.

View a map of Clifton Village North here in a pdf file.

Visiting us on a Saturday
We would advise you to use the Northern part of Clifton Village for free parking on a Saturday. It is a very short walk to Soma and the rest of Clifton Village. If you need to park close to Soma there are many pay & display bays nearby. Don't forget the first 30 minutes is free.

Visiting us on a week day
The Southern part of Clifton Village where we are based has a maximum of 3 hour stays in the pay and display bays. The Nothern part has up to 5 hours. For 30 minute stays or less this is free with a ticket from the machine.

Visiting us on a bank or public holiday
The parking scheme is not operational on a bank or public holiday so you can park anywhere in Clifton Village for free without a permit or ticket.

Motorcycles
Motorcycles can park for free in any marked permit or pay and display parking space with no time limit.

Bus services
901 Park and Ride from the Portway
505 Long Ashton Park & Ride
8/9 Temple Meads/Redland/Centre (Catch 8 from Temple Meads Station, Centre or Cabot Circus)

Long stay parking
West End Car Park at the top of Jacob Wells Road is approximately 10 - 15 mins walk or 3 minute bus ride via service number 8 to Clifton Village. If you are also visiting the Triangle or Park Street this is convenient. Read more information here.

If you have any questions about visiting us, please phone us on 0117 973 9838 or send us an email here.

Andy Smith New Exhibition at Soma

Four Fonts Walk Into a Bar...
An Exhibition of Silkscreen Prints by Andy Smith
Opens Saturday 1st March 2014

Our new exhibition by Andy Smith is now open in our first floor gallery space. All the prints and items from the exhibition are available to view and purchase online.

The artwork of Andy Smith has at its core a sense of optimism and humour. This new collection of work by the award winning illustrator revels in this and explores the theme of popular jokes, one liners, gags and puns.

He presents a set of images which experiment with hand drawn typography and silkscreen printing that are bold, colourful and eye popping- his most colourful work yet.

Complementing the prints on paper are some of his popular, large, wooden printed signs, books and objects all signed and numbered by Andy.

Come along and find out what happened when those four fonts went into that bar!

View all the prints on our website here

View photos of the exhibition on Flickr here

Hate Mail by Mr Bingo Book Signing 17th Nov

Next Saturday 17th November between 2-4pm, Mr Bingo will be in Soma for the Bristol signing of his new book, 'Hate Mail'. Come along during this time to meet the genius illustrator and get your books signed. 



In his own words, "Last year I sent a postcard to a stranger called Jonathan Hopkins. It said on it "F*ck you Jonathan, f*ck you and f*ck your sh*t legs". People seemed to be into it so I opened a service on my website, inviting strangers to pay me in return for an offensive postcard addressed to them (or whoever they ordered it for).

"I persevered with the project and now with over 400 'Hate Mails' under my belt, I am pleased to announce that Hate Mail (the book) is out now and available to buy."

It has been rumoured that there could be bottles of 'Hate Ale' at the signing, brewed specially for his London book launch in a brewery.

Books will be available to purchase in Soma from the 17th.







You can read Creative Review's review of the book here.



The signing will be held on Saturday 17th November, 2-4pm, 1st Floor Gallery Space, Soma, 4 Boyces Avenue, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4AA.

Christmas Exhibition at Soma

Konichiwa, Japan! An exhibition by Felt Mistress and Jonathan Edwards

Konichiwa, Japan!
Exhibition by Felt Mistress and Jonathan Edwards at Soma Gallery
Opening Saturday 21st July, runs til mid September

Sat 21st East meets West style afternoon tea 11am – 5:30pm

During the summer of 2011 Felt Mistress (AKA Louise Evans) and Jonathan Edwards spent 5 weeks in Japan as part of a gallery residency at Headspace in Nara and also headlined the Headspace arts & music festival in Osaka. This show collects some of the work created during their time there and also new pieces influenced by their experiences in Japan and created exclusively for this exhibition. The show will be a collection of 3D pieces, prints and original artwork featuring the character design that they've become known for. Both Louise and Jonathan will be present in the gallery on the opening Saturday and visitors will also have the opportunity to have their portraits drawn in the style of a Felt Mistress character.



Felt Mistress

Felt Mistress AKA Louise Evans is a UK based stitcher and prolific tea drinker who creates a range of one-off bespoke creatures with her partner, illustrator Jonathan Edwards. Originally trained in fashion design and millinery, Louise has brought many of the skills learnt through years of work as a couture dress maker to the world of character design. As well as original Felt Mistress characters Louise has also collaborated with a variety of other artists including Jon Burgerman, Jon Knox (Hello, Brute)and Pete Fowler. Her work has been exhibited in the UK and internationally and in 2010 was given her own window on Oxford Street as part of Selfridges' Christmas display.

 She states her main interests as sewing, Japan, buttons, creatures, cake and Mr Edwards. When not sewing she likes to dream she'll live to see the day when you can download French Fancies "off of the Internet".


Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan's work first appeared in 1993 in Deadline and Tank Girl Magazine with strips such as Dandy Dilemma, Simon Creem, The Squabbling Dandies (with Richard Holland) and one pagers about, amongst others, Scott Walker, Sly Stone, Nancy Sinatra, Kraftwerk and The Beach Boys. Since then he's worked for the Guardian, Mojo, Q, Mad, The Black Eyed Peas, A Skillz & Krafty Kuts, The Jungle Brothers, The Glastonbury Festival, etc. His comics include Aunt Connie & The Plague of Beards, A Bag Of Anteaters (with Ian Carney) and Two Coats McWhinnie (also with Carney). He's also been a regular contributor to the Guardian since 1999 and illustrated the Hard Sell weekly column in the Guide from 2002 - 2011.

Jonathan's  design work includes collaborations with his  partner, Louise (AKA Felt Mistress), and a vinyl toy, Inspector Cumulus available from Crazylabel toys.

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!

Tatty Devine Workshop & Book Signing

On Saturday 12th November, a lovely sunny day, Rosie and Harriet from Tatty Devine came to Soma to host a jewellery making workshop and book signing.



It was really busy and loads of people came wearing their Tatty Devine jewellery!

People making their rosettes.







A happy customer with her finished rosette!



Lahloo Tea provided the refreshments and their Earl Grey and Peppermint teas went down a storm. As did the clementine drizzle cake they brought along! We also had some fun cat cakes made by my sister, who is a massive Tatty Devine fan!

Lahloo have recently opened Lahloo Pantry, a cafe and shop just around the corner from us where they sell their beautiful teas as well as very tasty food. They're definitely well worth a visit when you come and visit us!

The workshop was in aid of the new book Tatty Devine have just brought out, 'How to Make Jewellery with Tatty Devine' and the rosette brooch everyone was making is one of the projects. You can buy the book on our website here. Harriet signing a book below.



We've been selling Tatty Devine jewellery almost as long as we've been open, so they're amongst our longest standing artists!

You can buy Tatty Devine jewellery on our website here.
More photos on Flickr here.
Read Tatty Devine's account of the event on their blog here.

New prints for April 2011

Sam Chivers

We have several new prints from Brighton based Sam Chivers including the print above '42' and a giclee version of the incredibly popular 'That's No Moon' print.

See more prints by Sam Chivers here.



Spencer Wilson

We have two brand new planographic prints from Spencer Wilson. 'Strongman' on the left and 'Pinocchio' on the right above.

Both prints by Spencer and two more in the series available here.



Tom Frost

Bristol based Tom Frost is one of our newest artists in Soma. We've only had his prints for a couple of weeks and they've been very popular so far! We have some screenprints from him as well as some hand printed wooden lovebirds and dead wrestlers (above left)!

You can view more prints by Tom Frost here.



Graham Carter

We have a large selection of new prints from the very prolific Graham Carter! We have a mixture of silkscreen prints and silkscreen with foiled details including gold and metallic foils.

View more prints by Graham Carter here.



Peskimo

Peskimo have produced a couple of affordable large run litho posters. In A4 and A3 (print above) these make great gifts. We also received a top up of Peskimo prints recently too.

View all prints by Peskimo here.

You can view all new arrivals on our website here.

Boyces Avenue over the years

Inspired by Analogue's old photo of their new shop, I thought I would do the same with the old photos of Boyces Avenue I've found on Flickr. None are good enough quality to see what our shop used to be, but not that much has changed over the years.

First up is our street in (at an uneducated guess) around the late 1800's early 1900's. We're on the right hand side towards the arch in the middle of the terrace of three two storey shops. The building with the bicycle outside it on the left was demolished in the 50's and one of the single storey shops on the right hand side is now two stories.


Photo by Brizzle Born and Bred

Then a view through the arch towards Boyces avenue in the 50's. You can't see our shop, but you can see a bacon van which would probably be parked outside us.


Photo by Brizzle Born and Bred

Unfortunately this image from 1978 can only be viewed by following the link but it's worth looking at it large http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwmc/4699391773/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Finally there's a 1991 photo here of what is now the entrance to Clifton Arcade and the Primrose Cafe over the road from us where we were for 6 years before moving to number 4. It was built as an arcade but was used as a storage depository until the current owners took it over in an almost derilict state and rebuilt parts and refurbished it.


Photo by Photopic Eye

A view of the Arcade entrance and the Primrose Cafe today here.

Brizzle Born and Bred has a lot more information about the area on his Flickr stream. Clifton set here.