Amelia’s Magazine | The ACOFI Book Tour visits Soma Gallery in Bristol

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011

Soma Gallery has been a faithful stockist of Amelia’s Magazine since the early days of its print version, generic so I’ve had a long and lovely relationship with gallery owner Fiona Hamilton:

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Fiona Hamilton

Fiona started up Soma Gallery in 2005 as a place to show up and coming artists, and thanks to her good eye she picked up on the likes of Rob Ryan, Anthony Burrill and Gemma Correll early on in their careers.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011

Soma Gallery used to be housed in a tiny space inside the Clifton Arcade but last year Fiona moved into a bigger shop across the road and it was in the upstairs gallery that we held the ACOFI Book Tour gathering just over a week ago.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 LahlooACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lahloo Tea

When I arrived (last minute, slightly flustered, again. must learn to manage time better) Kate Gover from Lahloo Tea already had the kettle on. She was joined by Vicky and Stu, who were both excellent people to have helping out. Kate came to the tea trade via restaurant retail, but it was a slightly strange career path to choose because she hates normal builders’ tea.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Kate and Fiona
Kate Gover shows Fiona some of the tea.

Due to her inquisitive nature she decided to find a tea that she did enjoy drinking and spent many years developing her palette by training with some of the best tea masters – through them she met with the small scale producers who now supply her with the very best quality teas from their estates. Lahloo Teas can be bought in Chandos Deli and Arch House Deli in Bristol, as well as in fine food stores across the UK. I particularly love Kate’s dedication to the way her teas are presented – she has developed some lovely flyers to promote the tea, her logo features a great fat red heart, and larger quantities come presented in a wooden box. Each tin is decorated with an old shipping map that was inspired by the travels of a famous clipper that her great grandfather sailed on, after which the tea brand is named. Clearly she is a lady for whom attention to detail is important and it certainly pays off with her fragrant teas. Choose from such delights as Amber Oolong Tea, grown on a misty mountain in Taiwan or Guricha Green Loose Tea from China.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Hart's BakeryACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Hart's Bakery iced ginger heartsACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Hart's Bakery iced bicycle biscuits

Lahloo Tea is the perfect accompaniment to a very good hand made biscuit… and on the table were three expertly packed boxes of the most stupendously gorgeous biscuits from Hart’s Bakery: as promised Laura had hand made heart shaped custard creams, iced gingerbread hearts and the cutest hand iced shortbread bicycles. Honestly, I am flabbergasted at pâtissière Laura’s skills – she’s trained with the best of them and it shows. Good folks of Bristol, if you want to try something really special then you should visit her in her shop in Hampton Lane for some artisan delights, where you can also try rhubarb and almond danish, eccles cakes alongside savoury delicacies such as olive and rosemary bread and filled croissants. It really doesn’t get better than this. I am jealous of you Bristol folks.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Juiceology
ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Juiceology
Of course we once more had a little help from Juiceology drinks and Dr.Hauschka goodies, much appreciated by everyone who attended, thankyou!

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Bex Glover
At my Bristol leg of the tour I was lucky enough to be joined by two of the illustrators who are featured in ACOFI – Bex Glover of Severn Studios, whose work just keeps getting better and better. She’s just done a mural for a cafe in Harrods and she is currently featured in several other magazines including The Mighty Pencil – combining two of her favourite things: fashion illustration and animals.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Bex GloverACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Bex GloverACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Bex Glover
She has also been doing tutorials for the likes of Digital Artist Magazine, so you can catch up with some of her techniques there. I’m sure you’ll be seeing much more of Bex’ unique style.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Bex Glover Hart's Bakery
Bex Glover with a Hart’s Bakery bicycle biscuit.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Katie Harnett Lahloo Tea
Katie checks out the Lahloo tea – she’s a big tea fan! Hence her moniker Teabelle!

Katie Harnett is just coming to the end of her degree at UWE, so she’s been very busy putting that together – I look forward to seeing the show in July when it comes to London!

Jasper Conran A/W 2011 by Katie Harnett
Jasper Conran A/W 2011 by Katie Harnett. She has also been experimenting with some new techniques and animal drawings.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Katie Harnett
She came along with an old school friend and fellow UWE student Lilly Allen, but sadly no one else from UWE came along. I put it down to the frantic time of year…

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Kat and Rog of Howkowpow
It was a pleasure to meet Kat and Rog of Howkapow, who stock a delicious range of goodies on their website. Kat is a girl after my own heart – a lover of bright colours and patterns with an 80s flavour. All good things I say! She was wearing an eye-catching Gonzalo Cutrina Extinct necklace from her website. It’s a mere £55 – what a bargain:

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Gonzalo Cutrina Extinct necklace Howkapow
The Howkapow website invests in new and unknown designers and they plan to open an agency to fully support them alongside. Why not find out more about what they are up to on the Howkapow blog?

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Ben Newman
It was lovely to finally meet illustrator Ben Newman, who illustrated for two issues of Amelia’s Magazine back at the start of what has become a very successful career. What a lovely smiley chap he is!

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lauren Neko, Bonina Silvestre and Charlotte Pain
Lauren Neko, Bonina Silvestre and Charlotte Pain.

It was also nice to meet the fabulously named Bonina Silvestre and her friend Charlotte Pain, both studying art. Lauren Neko sings and reads dreams. Impressed!

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lesley Barnes badgesACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lesley Barnes dancing bear tote
There are countless good reasons to visit Soma Gallery, either at Fiona’s space in Bristol, or online from anywhere in the world: Soma Gallery stocks Lesley Barnes prints, and also Lesley Barnes dancing bear badges… and tote bags.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Fiona Hamilton badgesACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Fiona Hamilton badges
Fiona has an old specialist printer with which she makes these adorable badges: I couldn’t resist buying a metallic pair of brightly coloured rodents. Also stocked at Comma Shop.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Tom Frost
Soma stocks a wide range of one off and limited edition art, including this lovely screenprinted wooden piece from Tom Frost.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Donna Wilson creaturesACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Donna Wilson creatures and Lisa Jones cushion
Donna Wilson animals are in abundant supply, as are Lisa Jones prints, cushions (above) mugs and cards:

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Roger La Borde cards
And of course Soma also does a roaring trade with my new Roger La Borde range. Yay! Make sure you visit Soma Gallery soon.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Ben Newman
Ben Newman reads my Anthology of Illustration.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lauren Neko
Lauren Neko.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Lilly Allen
Lilly Allen.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Rog, Fiona, Kat
Rog, Fiona and Kat.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011 Stephanie Weise
Stephanie Weise.

ACOFI book tour Soma Gallery 2011
I sat on the floor to give my talk, it was all very informal!
You can read Fiona Hamilton’s marvellous account of the night here.

Don’t forget that I have one more date on my ACOFI Book Tour – if you live in London please do join me at Tatty Devine, Brick Lane, on Tuesday 7th May. I’ll be talking from 7.30pm and there will also be the opportunity to learn how to make iced biscuits with Biscuiteers! Read about my first tour date a few weeks back at Tatty Devine, Covent Garden. Lovely stuff. Join the facebook for the event here.

Categories ,ACOFI, ,Amber Oolong Tea, ,Anthony Burrill, ,Arch House Deli, ,Ben Newman, ,Bex Glover, ,Biscuiteers, ,Bonina Silvestre, ,Book Tour, ,Chandos Deli, ,Charlotte Pain, ,Clifton Arcade, ,Clipper, ,Comma Shop, ,Digital Artist Magazine, ,Dr.Hauschka, ,Dreaming with Neko, ,Extinct necklace, ,Fiona Hamilton, ,Gemma Correll, ,Gonzalo Cutrina, ,Guri-Cha Green Loose Tea, ,Guricha Green Loose Tea, ,Hart’s Bakery, ,Howkapow, ,Jasper Conran, ,Juiceology, ,Kat and Rog, ,Kate Gover, ,Katie Harnett, ,Lahloo Tea, ,Laura Hart, ,Lauren Neko, ,Lesley Barnes, ,Lilly Allen, ,Lisa Jones, ,pâtissière, ,rob ryan, ,Roger La Borde, ,Severn Studios, ,Soma Gallery, ,Tatty Devine, ,teabelle, ,The Mighty Pencil, ,Tom Frost, ,UWE

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Amelia’s Magazine | Nobrow Press Flickr competition: People I’ve Never Met & Conversations I’ve Never Had

Nobrow No.1 Gods & Monsters
Nobrow No.1 Gods & Monsters
Nobrow No.1 Gods & Monsters

Last year Nobrow Press caught my attention with their first book, ampoule Gods & Monsters, a beautiful limited edition affair deliciously screen-printed in just blue and black. Featuring contributions from a range of illustrators it was ferried straight to the counter of the Design Museum shop. A rare thing indeed, as I don’t often buy new design books.

Gods & Monsters by Bjorn Rune Lie
Gods & Monsters by Bjorn Rune Lie

Gods & Monsters by Ben Newman
Gods & Monsters by Ben Newman who has been featured in Amelia’s Magazine.

By Alex Spiro
By Alex Spiro

Working from their Shoreditch studio illustrator Alex Spiro and short film director Sam Arthur have been most prolific in the last few months, quickly releasing their more colourful second volume The Jungle (which I’ve sadly not scraped enough cash to buy yet, though I stroke it lovingly whenever I see it in a shop) and reprinting another lovely book by the cover artist Blex BolexAbecederia.

Nobrow 2 - The Jungle
Nobrow 2 – The Jungle

Abecederia by BlexBolex
Abecederia by BlexBolex

They have also printed People I’ve Never Met & Conversations I’ve Never Had by illustrator Nick White and decided that the subject matter was so interesting that they would open it up to the wider illustration world. Which is where you, dear illustrator (or dear person who most probably has illustrator friends that you really should go and tell about this opportunity right now), have the opportunity to be part of the next Nobrow publication.

People I've Never Met & Conversations I've Never Had by Nick White
People I’ve Never Met & Conversations I’ve Never Had by Nick White

You are asked to submit one image of a person you’ve never met, and another image that illustrates a conversation you’ve never had. These images can be a drawing, photograph, collage, etching – whatever you would like really. The best designs will be put together in a beautiful book, printed in cmyk on uncoated stock and perfect bound in an edition of 500-1000. What a fabulous opportunity to get your work included in what is bound to be a stunning project.

BUT you don’t have long – your two images must be submitted to the Nobrow boys by 15th February 2010, mere days away. To do so upload them to this flickr group, where you can also check out the competition and get inspired. I particularly like the work of Onionmilk, KatsAsleep, Doris Freigofas, Sam Brewster and Jack Teagle, whose work you can see below. Images should measure ?115mm x 145mm at 350dpi (1585px x 1998px)

Get ready, get set, GO!

Jack Teagle for Nobrow Press
Jack Teagle for Nobrow Press
Jack Teagle for Nobrow Press

Categories ,Abecederia, ,Alex Spiro, ,Ben Newman, ,Blex Bolex, ,competition, ,Design Museum, ,Nick White, ,Nobrow Press, ,Open brief, ,publishing, ,Sam Arthur

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pick Me Up Contemporary Graphic Art Fair 2011: Sam Arthur of Nobrow speaks at Mokita

Sam Arthur of Nobrow by Yelena Bryksenkova
Sam Arthur of Nobrow by Yelena Bryksenkova
Sam Arthur of Nobrow by Yelena Bryksenkova.

Since Nobrow burst onto the scene in 2008 I’ve been a massive fan of their beautifully produced books and magazines – somehow they’ve managed to print a huge collection of work in just a short space of time and for the past two years they’ve been showcasing their wares at Pick Me Up. This year several of their featured artists were also amongst the newer names showing in the Ones to Watch section on the first floor so I was intrigued to hear Sam Arthur, this one half of Nobrow, medicine in conversation with Kingston University illustration lecturer Geoff Grandfield with interjections from Adrian Shaughnessy and Valerie Perezon. Below is a rough transcription of the conversation that ensued during the Mokita Symposium.

Nobrow 5 - A Few of My Favourite Things
Nobrow 5 – A Few of My Favourite Things.

Geoff: How did you decide that there was a market for your work?
Sam: We were inspired by publishers such as Le Dernier Cri, Bongout, and Fantagraphics: small places with an avante garde output. And we felt we could do something similar in this country. We’ve both been through the art college system, but I felt that most illustration was very industry based, always destined for a client. No one was generating their own material, for their own sake, so we felt there might be a gap in the market that we could exploit. Our aim is to get illustrators to do their own work – we just set a theme and a colour palette. We were unsure it would take off but we knew it was really important to print everything nicely.

Nobrow 5 - A Few of My Favourite ThingsNobrow 5 - A Few of My Favourite Things
Pages from Nobrow 5 – A Few of My Favourite Things

Geoff: In a way you turned the clock back.
Sam: We have a mix of influences, but we love all the old methods of printing. I guess these anachronistic methods of production have met the internet with Nobrow. People say that we have a very strong look but we love lots of different types of work and I think the similarity comes from the way we print things, and our restricted colour palettes. We look at every bit of work that comes to us and store it in memory bank for later. Then we might come back to it at the right time and ask does it communicate the right idea and can we work with this person on an individual basis? We are drawn to relatively expensive ways of printing, which is quite risky really but we want our stuff to look good, smell good and feel good.

Ford Almanac 1964
One of the images Sam chose for a slide show: a famous cover of the Ford Almanac 1964, illustrated by Charley Harper.

Geoff: Like scratch ‘n’ sniff?
Sam: There is definitely a shift back towards attention to detail; I had a paper merchant in recently and she was trying to push coated paper stock onto me, but of course I wasn’t interested. She moaned that no new graphic designer will ever uses it – I guess it’s because we like to be different and coated stock seems so common.
Geoff: Who is your audience?
Sam: In terms of an easily identifiable market it’s mainly students and working practitioners – there is a danger that we will never turn a profit and it will always be that way… For the people that aren’t so easy to label I’m sure there’s some marketing speak for them… maybe Rainbow Sky Crap Thinkers or something! But for us the most important thing is to remain close to our customers via our website and social networking.
Adrian: Mark Valli of Magma said he set up the shop because he realised that there was a big non professional audience, so maybe that is changing?…

Nobrow 5 - A Few of My Favourite ThingsNobrow 5 - A Few of My Favourite Things
Nobrow 5 – A Few of My Favourite Things.

Valerie Perezon: What is your editorial line?
Sam: We don’t mind how you describe yourself, we just chose what we like. Online we can be more adaptable, for example in a blog you can put across whatever idea of yourself you like. You can be illustrator or an artist one week and then a circus performer the next. But it all starts with being able to draw and communicate. For example we saw Jack Teagle at his graduate show and he immediately grabbed us. We are quite often drawn to print making because we like the restrictions of spot colour techniques but I think our tastes are quite diverse: we’re currently working with John Sibbick, who over the years has worked on dinosaur pictures and heavy metal covers.

The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman, former Amelia's Magazine contributor
The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman, former Amelia’s Magazine contributor.

Geoff: Do you ever tackle themes of social change?
Sam: We like to keep our themes interpretable, so that leaves them open to tackle social issues if people want to.

The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman, former Amelia's Magazine contributor
The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman.

Geoff: Did you know that 40% of the printed matter in world is Manga?
Sam: Because the magazine we produce is made up of collections of images on a theme it does tend to limit our mass appeal.
Adrian: There has generally been a huge move towards a very visual culture, but in UK we are still very much a literary culture – we value the word above all and image is not valued as much, apart from the F-word that is, photography… which is revered and valued.
Sam: The French publishing industry is underwritten by the government but here illustrated books are still seen as for children.
Adrian: I think the biggest drivers of imagery come from subcultures where the image is revered, but is it a weapon or a platform? Because something comes from a subculture does that mean by definition that it has a limited period of interest?
Sam: Yeah, and if I become too trendy then I cease to be… but I’m not trendy so that’s fine. Even if we did sell Nobrow Magazine in WHSmith no one would buy it so we know this title will always be relatively niche.

The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman, former Amelia's Magazine contributor
The Bento Bestiary, illustrated by Ben Newman.

The Bento Bestiary is out now and the fifth issue of Nobrow magazine has just been released with the title A Few of My Favourite Things.

Read my transcript of James Jarvis’ talk at Mokita, my review of the whole Mokita symposium or my review of this years Pick Me Up exhibition.

PS: I did scratch ‘n’ sniff for issue 04 of Amelia’s Magazine.

Categories ,A Few of My Favourite Things, ,Adrian Shaughnessy, ,Ben Newman, ,Bongout, ,Charley Harper, ,comics, ,Fantagraphics, ,Ford Almanac, ,Geoff Grandfield, ,Graphic Cosmography, ,Jack Teagle, ,Kingston University, ,Le Dernier Cri, ,Magma, ,Manga, ,Mark Valli, ,Mokita, ,Nobrow, ,Nobrow Press, ,Pick Me Up, ,Sam Arthur, ,scratch ‘n’ sniff, ,Somerset House, ,The Bento Bestiary, ,Valerie Perezon, ,Yelena Bryksenkova

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Amelia’s Magazine | Exhibition Review: Ghosts of Gone Birds

Margaret Atwood by Faye West
Margaret Atwood by Faye West.

Ghosts of Gone Birds. Have you been yet? This fabulous exhibition can be seen at the Rochelle School, Shoreditch up until the 23rd November. From there it goes on tour, so with any luck you will be able to catch it soon at a venue near you.

Gone Birds -albatross
Ghosts of Gone Birds is the brainwave of film maker Ceri Levy, who chanced upon the idea whilst making a documentary called The Bird Effect, which examines the effect of avian life on human life.

margaret-atwood-by marta-spendowska
Margaret Atwood by Marta Spendowska.

At the start of November I attended a special introduction to the exhibition given by the renowned writer Margaret Atwood, who just so happens be a massive fan of birds. She had just returned from a conservation trip to Madagascar, and on her way home she was enchanted to discover that the man at customs was a fan of vultures, of all things… it seems you just have to start the conversation and you will discover a fan of birds.

Gone Birds t-shirt design by Daria Hlazatova
Gone Birds t-shirt design by Daria Hlazatova.

Her contribution to Ghosts of Gone Birds is a knitted Great Auk, which was made at a Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group in Canada using local wool. It’s eye is formed from a local Inuit bead and the Auk is a resident of the Canadian Arctic… so the use of materials and subject work in perfect unity.

Margaret Atwood emphasised the importance of the exhibition as a means to spread the message about the plight of birds beyond the usual enthusiasts. In the unfolding biodiversity disaster that we humans are currently inflicting on the planet birds have become one of the biggest sufferers. According to figures released by BirdLife International birds are now going extinct at a thousand times the natural background rate: that’s a pretty major disaster.

There are loads of great artworks in the exhibition, too many to show, so here are just a few of my favourites:

Angie Lewin - Double-Banded Argus
Double Banded Argus by Angie Lewin.

Ben Newman - Bishop's 'O'O
Bishop’s O by Ben Newman.

Reunion Owl by Billy Childish
Reunion Owl by Billy Childish.

Gone Birds -Red Moustached Fruit Dove by Emily Sutton
Red Moustached Fruit Dove by Emily Sutton.

Jack Teagle - Black Mamo
Black Mamo by Jack Teagle.

Gone Birds -The Unsung Soldier by David Taborn
Detail from The Unsung Soldier by David Taborn.

Gone Birds -The Sound of Extinction by Philip Hardaker
The Sound of Extinction by Philip Hardaker.

Gone Birds -Empty Nest by Jackie Hodgson
Detail from Empty Nest by Jackie Hodgson.

Gone Birds -St Helena Hoopooe by Felt Mistress
St Helena Hoopooe by Felt Mistress.

Le Gun - The Tragic Demise of the White Gallinule
The Tragic Demise of the White Gallinule by Le Gun.

Full listing information can be found here.

Categories ,Angie Lewin, ,Ben Newman, ,Billy Childish, ,BirdLife International, ,Ceri Levy, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Emily Sutton, ,Faye West, ,Felt Mistress, ,Ghosts of Gone Birds, ,Great Auk, ,Inuit, ,Jack Teagle, ,Jackie Hodgson, ,Le Gun, ,Margaret Artwood, ,Marta Spendowska, ,Philip Hardaker, ,review, ,Rochelle School, ,Stitch N Bitch

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