What a busy week we have had here at The Red Door. The Edinburgh festival has just jumped upon us meaning until now we haven't managed to get some images of the recently opened 'Under the Looking Glass' show by Seymour up for you all to see. Here they finally are............
It was a great night with some obviously amazing artwork. Check it out for yourselves.
(Above: Melanie and Sarah hanging their favourite piece, Below: Our windows all covered up with Seymour flyers to hide all the secret activity going on inside.)


Thanks to all who popped along on the night to check out Seymours work. Also, a big thanks goes to anCnoc who supplied us with some very tasty beverages. xxx

I was having a wee poke round today, and found these delicious wee cupcake wrappers. There are themed ones, occasional ones, and just plain pretty ones to jazz up your tiny treats. If you want a look at them all or the other cut paper goodies go have a look on paper Orchid.

Alice Melvin has a wonderful new product which takes us back to being children.
With these great new cut out and dress paper dolls you can cut out Mr and Mrs Peg and then decide which one of their snazzy outfits they're going to wear!
Each set is £8 and is available from The Red Door.

We are about to shut out doors and begin hanging Seymours 'Under the Looking Glass' show. Oh what fun! We hope you are all as excited about the show as us. As a wee reminder - the show opens tomorrow with an exhibition preview tomorrow evening from 6-8pm. We hope you and your friends can come and join us to snap up some of Seymours collectable work and to share in a few drinks from our wonderful sponsors anCnoc whisky.

For those of you who can't make it to the opening, the majority of the work from his new show will be online on our website for any purchases from Friday morning. If you have any questions, just flick us an email and we will get right back to you. Cheers!

Claudia from 'Word of Mouth Travels' alerted me to a wonderful event that is happening just 5mins walk away from The Red door this week. The inaugural West Port Book Festival which runs from 14^th - 17^th August boasts a diverse and exciting programme of events which are all free and take place in an intriguing assortment of local venues. All manner of writers, musicians, magicians, chess players and grumpy old gentlemen, all in celebration of the numerous bookshops and the fascinating history of the West Port area. Check out their website for all event information. Sound pretty good to me.... lucky we are only a hop, skip and jump away.

Some new notebooks from Serrote just arrived. We love them and hope you will too!

A fresh batch of new Third Drawer Down tea towels just arrived here at The Red Door. See above for three of my new favourites ( Allyson Mellberg Taylor's 'Attention', Carolyn Alexander's 'Family Portrait' and Katherine Brickman's 'Crumbs in Beard').

Above is one of Third Drawer Downs newest products 'Decalart Mania' which allows us all the play like children. With the thoughtful assistance of artists from around the globe, you can scratch your way to transforming a surface or object in your own special way. These will be in store very very soon.

We are thrilled to announce that our online shop is now officially up and ready for sales. Yipppeee!
So, if you live on the other side of the world, or find that it is raining and you don't want to leave the house, you can now shop till your hearts are content. We will of course be shipping worldwide and offering you as many of our goodies as possible. Time to get shopping.

We would also love to thank you all for your wonderful patience! x

We are all about Seymour this week as we work on last minute bits and pieces for his solo show which opens next Friday 18th June. We thought it might be nice for you all to share in an interview with did with Seymour last month.

Q -The big question - who is Seymour?

A -I suppose Seymour is the grand title for a series of work that I produce. I see it as more of a style then just a pseudonym. Seymour is the creator of the fictitious world which contributes to the narrative of each piece.

Q - Do you start with an idea or story and build around this as you go or do you always have a clear idea about how a finished piece will look?

A -I start with an initial loose idea/concept but details within the theme change dramatically during the colouring stage of my process as I tend to get carried away. The ambiguity in my pieces allows the viewer to interpret their own meaning for the piece, yet deep down there is some definite and personal content.

Q -In your eyes, has your work changed much over the last few years?

A - Yeah, my work has actually changed a lot over the last few years. Maybe not so much changed but matured. The detail has become finer and more intricate. I am actually using more colour, which previously I have kept away from. I am also experimenting a lot with scale and the final presentation of my work.

Q - You must have a huge list of inspirations as an artist, want to share any?

A - My main inspiration is other peoples junk. I have always been fascinated with curios and things found in charity shops. I always look at things with the thought of what it could be turned into. I also have a fascination with anything and everything decorative and ornate. Another major inspiration for me is people and their many strange characteristics which I try and tie into my own characteristics and worlds they live.

Q -You originally studied graphic design; does this have any influence in what you are doing now?

A - Yeah, my work is more graphical and illustrative than a lot of fine art and I do think this has come from my design background. My process in creating my pieces is also very design like and structured and in most cases my final piece is a computer file and not a painted block canvas. In saying that, every piece I do is totally drawn by hand and the computer is only a used as a tool to colour and shade. I still have to manually choose my brush types, sizes, colours etc, so I am basically painting on screen.
My design background has also given me the skills to do all my own promotional work which love doing as I get to try lots of different print/production techniques that I would never be able to try with a client.

Q - We heard you recently dabbled with painting as a medium in a recent series of work for Strichnyn Gallery in Berlin. Is this something you are going to continue alongside your print work?

A - This was actually the first time I had painted anything with the intention of selling. I hadn't even picked up a brush since design school so I had to teach myself the basics and do two pieces in 3 weeks. It was definitely a great experience but so much harder than I thought. I would love to have another go at it in the near future if I had time on my hands however, I have worked really hard to create my own unique style within print which I think I will stick with for the time being. I did come out of the experience with a lot more respect for good painters.

Q - What appeals to you about working in print?

A - It's really just a great process. I like that the piece you create can be put onto so many different surfaces using different inks and techniques, from screen printing, giclee to block printing etc. Also print quality in the area of giclee has come a long way. I love seeing a piece printed for the first time as every time I'm blown away by the depth, richness and saturation of the colour.

Q - 'Seymour' and 'Love Fran' collaborated together for your 'My Name is Seymour' exhibition with Pop Up last year, any collaborations coming up in the future?

A - Yeah, we are actually working on a second series of customized toys which will be for my up and coming show at The Red Door Gallery in July. Love Fran makes the toy from start to finish with much love and perfection. She is a great artist to collaborate with. The last series of toys sold out before the show started so make sure you come and check them out at the opening.

Q - You also hold down a successful career as a chef, how do you juggle both labor intensive jobs?

A - I seem to have juggled the two for some time now and it seems to work out. I basically split my weeks in two, half for each job. I really like the balance I get from two such different activities. I think they compliment each other nicely and cheffing is as much of a creative outlet for me as my artwork is. I also think having two jobs makes me want to do each one even more, and not get bored as easily.

Q - What does the future hold for Seymour?

A - Hopefully all good things..... I have some goals. I'm still having fun exploring my own style and there is a lot I want to experiment with within print and painting. I am working on some cool installation based work for upcoming shows. Generally having fun, playing some guitar and of course in the near future, my first UK solo show at The Red Door.

We are thrilled to announce that anCnoc whisky will be sponsoring Seymour's 'Under the Looking Glass' show which is opening here next Friday 18th of July from 6-8pm. We have always been anCnoc fans and now we can share our anCnoc love with all of you in the form of anCnoc drams and cocktails. What a great combination - great whisky and amazing artwork. Thanks anCnoc, we can't wait!

We have some brand new vintage matchboxes and super cute plastic 50s style earrings fresh in store here at The Red Door. Time to get down and get shopping. x

We are busy getting last minute tasks done in preparation for the amazing 'Under the Looking Glass' show by the extraordinary talent Seymour. We will be posting an interview and update on all things Seymour over the next week so watch this space. This show is going to be amazing!

The lovely Alison Hardcastle has been super busy over the last 6 months. Not only has she set up her own printing studio, but she has amazingly developed a whole new range of cards, paper goods and tote bags to be snapped up by all you lucky customers. Alison's new range includes some great little notebooks, invitations packs, books and cards, cards and more cards to tickle your tastebuds (of only paper goods could do that!).

We are also lucky enough to be hosting a solo show by Alison here at The Red Door in September, so watch out for lots more from this rising talent. She will be taking over the world very shortly.

For those of you who are in a crafty mood this weekend, what better place to get some fresh ideas than from the Queen of craft herself Martha Stewart. Her website is a great place to grab some great summer bag ideas. The few that caught my eye were (from left to right) - The T-Shirt Bag, Handmade Totes, The Bias Tape Bag and The Oilcloth Lunchbag. Time to get your sewing kits out!

For those of us that missed her at Glastonbury (playing at the same time as Leonard Cohen was always going to be tough) and for others who are unaquainted, let me introduce the exceptionally talented and ever-charming Miss Florence of Florence and the Machine.

To hear her soulful tunes and spine-tingling renditions of Beirut's 'Postcards From Italy' and Cold War Kid's 'Hospital Beds' be sure to check out her myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=172931187

For some reason, today feels like summer! It's not because it's hot or even sunny outside, but I think it has something to do with all our wonderful customers being in chatty moods, the fact that I've been playing summery music all day and that I keep coming across things that remind me of summer today. As you can see from Hanna Melin's wonderful image above, she seems to be in that mood too!

Oh the love of it! Berries have to be one of my all time favourite foods. I seem to love recipe that can house these little packages of goodness including the two delicious plates above! Yum