News of the gallery and framing talk

Sue at the General Store got Javier to frame a huge photograph of the Common Riding as a raffle prize, and it's on display at the Market which is on the first Saturday of the month ( a great source of picnics by the way).

We have ice cream shops to the left and right of us, Skinny's to the left of us and Gelato Scoop up the road.
We're sampling both just so as to inform our customers, of course ...

May window featuring Cauldshiels Loch by John Onslow
The weather is unsettled but the window is set fair, blue skies and sunny-ness. - And a nice bunch of tulips given by a very gifted designer/artist, James Hutcheson who's going to exhibit her in Autumn with David Faithful.

If you can't get to the gallery the gallery will come to you.

Walks in the Borders

Eight new shops to date including a repair shop, an ironmongers and an ethically sourced Indian gift shop have opened now.
The Border Telegraph has reviewed the new shops opened during lockdown today in the Border Telegraph, and we're among them!

Us holding up a watercolour by John Onslow, photo by Phil Wilkinson.

We are so glad to see the Farmers Market after so long; so were many other people.
And blue skies!

We opening our doors on Tuesday 27 April!

With lots of new card, art materials and a new exhibition starting on Tuesday 4 May of John Onslow's watercolours vibrating with light.

We have got much very interesting art materials like this Spanish Viarco Vintage Pencils
Each box contains 12 HB pencils.

By the way, I have tried, and like the soft Spanish Factis eraser - it's lovely and soft and rubs everything out including to my distress watercolour ... I tried to get a grubby mark out of a watercolour I had done and just rubbed out the watercolour and everything - but it does what it's meant to do!

It may seem odd to the reader that we're getting excited about a rubber, but wait until you hear about this rubber:

Factis Synthetic Erasers
Produced in Spain since 1918, Factis synthetic erasers are made using a unique and protected formulation and are non-toxic The result is an extra soft eraser with greater absorption power which will not damage the paper surface. This is ideal for the artist who demands an effective eraser for soft pencil marks that will not damage delicate surfaces

Sounds so good that we've stocked some; I've bought one already and I'll tell you how it performs in my next news.

Afternoon at the circus

A circus encamped itself at the base of Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh. Javier developed his photographs printed them and hand coloured them.
I think the image looks like a 1920's postcard - what do you think?

We have put another picture in the window and the weather seems to echo it - it's trying to snow ...

We showed beautiful boxes by Tony King, an Edinburgh based artist, during December. We contacted him and he's kindly allowed us to sell his work here in our shop
He made these before the first lock down and is unable to make more during the pandemic so these are the last ones until we all get our vaccinations.

We have made some collections of our cards in our online shop.
They'll be sent to you by 1st Class post.

Unfortunately, we cannot open after Christmas, until it is safe to so so.
But we are preparing products that you can buy from this website - watch this space!

How beautiful the bell tower of Sir Walter Scott's courtroom is in the cold blue air of Christmas Eve.

... in the nick of time before lockdown!

He's a really good sign painter (instagram - @journeymansigns and an old friend from our Coburg Studio days. He's a colleague of Robin Abbey a master sign writer sadly no longer with us.

A family business, tarted in 1948 at Berwick with bees from retiring beekeepers. Now they have 1,500 bees kept in different beehives around Berwick.
A beeswax candle burns cleanly an brightly and as it burns gives off a honey smell. These candles are 100% beeswax and hand rolled.

Candles are a symbol of hope to me, and hope is something that we need lots of at the moment.

Our Christmas window features smooth turned boxes in different woods by Tony King and 'Shaker' boxes by Andrew Spilbury - he uses steam and copper nails to make his jewellery boxes.

Javier pfinishes either his own frames or preloved frames people bring in to him; to the right tone for the artwork. This is a lime wood frame painted pale grey to suit the picture.

Javier makes cyanotypes (one of the oldest types of printing) as well as albumen (the liquid he coats on the paper contains whipped up egg white) and silver gelatine prints.

All printed by hand.