The art vending machine is a national project specially commissioned for the festival, in collaboration with Lady Magpie and Me. The vending machine is an alternative pop up curated gallery, show casing unique arts and crafts. It has taken months of planning, numerous hours and 16 artists to create their designs, some created exclusively for the project.

Lady Magpie and Me founder, Leah Halliday has been on the hunt for exciting and innovative contemporary visual and applied artists. Her mission to engage and surprise the public. For the whole of the 3 day Big Burns Supper festival, visitors have the chance to buy affordable art and craft from a vending machine, which will be popping up in the Spiegel Gardens.

There's not a sweetie or crisp packet in sight at the Big Burns Supper, just put £5 in the slot and you can choose from a vending machine crammed full of wonderful art & craft. We have 16 artists and designer/makers involved in the project from Dumfries & Galloway and beyond, and over 380 pieces of artwork created. Buying art will never feel the same again!

Business Name: in the frame design

Facebook: www.facebook.com/intheframedesign Twitter: @in_the_frame

Short Bio: Beautifully designed typographic art. Combine a graphic designer with a passion for gift giving and the result is in the frame.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: 'to a mouse' of course. Reminds me of happy school days trying to memorise Burns poems and avoiding Tam O'Shanter at all costs, far too long for a ten year old! :o)

Business Name: Cute aza Button

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/handmadeshabbychicloveliness

Short Bio: Tracy Waugh and Annette MacKail began making bags, broaches and earrings when they realized how much certain pieces of vintage materials meant to them that previously went unused. All pieces are made by hand with lovely vintage and new materials. Also offering custom made to order; bags, button earrings and button broaches- shabby chic loveliness for you and yours!

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: To A Mouse. I remember as a child my Dad reading this poem to us and getting so scared and giggly. Just brings back good memories and all the laughter our house had.

Business Name: Deirdre Carlisle

http://deirdrecarlisle.blogspot.co.uk/ http://www.theartco-op.co.uk/

Short Bio: Graduated 1982 BA Hons Fine Art – Chelsea School of Art, London;  member of GoFA (Gatehouse of Fleet Artists’ Co-operative); now mainly using digital media to create work either for commissions or in response to ideas/interests based on the world around us – natural and social)

Favourite Burns piece and why: I’ve always liked To A Mouse.  I love the way Burns thinks about things and it expresses so much about us and our place in nature.  The phrase “I’m truly sorry man’s dominion, Has broken nature’s social union,” is so apt and prescient.

Business Name: Auldhill Soap Company

Website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter: www.auldhillsoaps.com

A short bio: I make a range of my own glass products. Each piece is unique, practical and affordable glass art. Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?:  a red, red rose. As my granny used to read it to me when i was little.

Business Name: Sarah-Jane Coleby Arts and Crafts

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sarahjanecolebyartist

A short bio: Sarah-Jane Coleby graduated from Middlesex University back in 1999 with a degree in Scientific and Technical illustration and very little idea what to do with it. After travelling around the world, managing a call center and a stint in planning she happened upon South West Scotland. Sarah-Jane takes inspiration from beasties near and far and turns wool into mini works of art through the magic of needle felting.  Favorite Burns Poem: To a mouse, I love the line: The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, Eddy Izzard used it in one of his sketches and it still makes me chuckle.

Business Name: Hatastic!

Website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter: www.hatastic.co.uk / www.facebook.com/Hatastic / https://twitter.com/Hatastic

A short bio: Chloë Haywood, Designer of Hatastic! won Young Clothes Show Designer of the Year when she was only 16. Leságe himself offered her an opportunity to study at his school in Parisat the time. Chloës’ desire to rejuvenate and transform the old, unused and unloved, into something strangely beautiful is essentially the ethic of Hatastic! and with collections shown at Milan and London Fashion Weeks, and designs seen in Vogue, Elle and The Times, this ethical label has come a long way since it started as a hobby in 2009. Chloe solely designs and creates in her workshop at the end of her garden in Surrey.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: My wife's a winsome wee thing - a funny little ditty!

Business Name: Fistful of Books

Website: www.fistfulofbooks.com

Short Bio: Fistful of Books (FoB) produces limited edition artists zines. It was founded in 2012 by Simon Robinson (photographer) and is initially producing zines of his work. Simon is a street and documentary photographer who also practices in other genres of photography. Simon has had several successful exhibitions in Dumfries & Galloway and Glasgow.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: Tam O’Shanter – because it’s the only one I know apart from Auld Lang Syne (I am from New Zealand where “Robbie Burns” is a chain of discount liquor stores).  

Business Name: Bel’s Art World

Website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter: www.belsartworld.com http://www.facebook.com/belsartworld

A short bio: Belinda Chen is a freelance illustrator, printmaker and book artist based in East London.  She is particularly passionate about character design, collage, book art and narrative story telling. Her work is inspired by childhood memories and she strives to create a dreamlike utopia.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: This is a tough question as I choose all those items for some reasons as they could relate to this special event. If I must choose I would say Kings of imaginary lands (zine). Because this little booklet is playful, imaginative and aim to bring the audience into the different world.

Business Name: AliCatCreative

Website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter: www.alicatcreative.co.uk

A short bio: AliCatCreative produces ‘super lightweight’ statement pieces of jewellery using a unique process. Each is created over a period of several days to create layers of design and colour. This series of pieces incorporates traditional Scottish words from Robert Burns poetry. Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?:   Ae Fond Kiss. It is heart-breakingly beautiful, and tells such an evocative story.

Business Name: GWD (Contemporary Artist and Printmaker)

Blog: gwdatlen.tumblr.com

Short Bio:I graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2006 with an Honours Degree in Graphic Design. Despite having a love of design and a passion for typography and white space, I chose to study teaching and currently work part-time as an Art and Design teacher in a Secondary school. This allows me to fund my growing pineapple and tin collection and my own contemporary art and printmaking. My own work shows a clear Graphic influence and tends to be very geometric and simplistic with a minimalist and purist style. Though I work in a variety of mediums, I am currently exploring Collagraphy and have neglected typically inked prints for blind, embossed prints.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: My favourite Burns piece is the poem “Bonnie Lesley” in which Burns describes the beauty of a girl named Lesley. The main reason for this is that Lesley is the name of my Mother, who is also my main influence, artistically and creatively. “Thou art a queen, fair Lesley.” and though I may be biased “There’s nane again sae bonnie!”

Business Name: Elegant Originals

www.elegantoriginals.co.uk http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elegant-Originals/142155845896589

Elegant Orignals is about using colour and texture to create bespoke nuno felted silk scarves, felted bridal bodices, silk wraps and shrugs and bespoke felted wedding accessories. Using luxurious merino wool and silk fibres, each item is lovingly handmade to create a unique piece to love and treasure. I would like to submit a range of hand felted lavender hearts. All the felt is hand made using a range of colours of merino wool and silk fibres to create a felt fabric which is unique in design. All the hearts are hand stitched and have a dried lavender pouch securely sewn inside it. A ribbon is sewn onto each heart to allow the hearts to be tied to a wardrobe rail if needed.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: A Red, Red Rose – No matter how many times I hear this, the simplicity and beauty always warms my heart and I cannot help but smile.

Business Name: The Two Dog Press

Kim Lowe started letterpress printing in 2001 when she inherited some of her fathers’ letterpress equipment. She adopted The Two Dog Press as a working name and has attended and organized craft fayres around Galloway since moving up from London in 2005. Kim regularly takes her Adana 5x3 Victorian handpress out to events such as the Arts & Crafts Trail, Kirkcudbright Summer Festivities events and one-off family events, and as a trained Primary and Support for Learning teacher she teaches children of all ages and adults with learning disabilities about the history of printing and gives practical demonstrations. Although she has exhibited her photography at various public venues around Dumfries & Galloway. traditional letterpress printing is now her main income, working from the Scottish Showcase Gallery in Kirkcudbright. Kim is about to open the Kirkcudbright Working Print Studio. My favourite piece of Burn’s writing To a Mouse – this was the first piece of Burn’s work I had to teach when I moved to Scotland from Hackney, East London, in 2005. I learnt more about the poem from the pupils than I could teach, but the language is so vivid that it allowed the children’s imagination to produce the most amazing pictures. The images produced by the children have remained with me since, bringing the poem to life whenever I read or hear it recited.

Business Name: Will Levi  Marshall

Architectural Artworks Holm Studio Auchencairn  Castle Douglas  Dumfries  DG7 1QL Scotland

Website: http://holmstudio.com

Marshall trained in ceramics and established an international exhibition record in that field with his work in many significant public and private collections. However he has been involved in architectural projects for a long time through his work with the Edward Marshall Trust. In 2001 he received an award from the Scottish Arts Council to develop larger scale work, this now forms the mainstay of his business. He usually works on a commission basis and designs and installs site specific projects for both public and private clients. Ceramics can form an element in his work although he currently works in a number of materials. Community engagement often informs brief development and permanent and temporary works are produced as required. He is also undertakes design, consultancy, and art strategy development.

Your favourite Burn’s piece and why?: The bank-note on which these characteristic lines were endorsed, came into the hands of the late James Gracie, banker in Dumfries: he knew the handwriting of Burns, and kept it as a curiosity. The concluding lines point to the year 1786, as the date of the composition.

Wae worth thy power, thou cursed leaf, Fell source o' a' my woe an' grief; For lack o' thee I've lost my lass, For lack o' thee I scrimp my glass.       I see the children of affliction       Unaided, through thy cursed restriction       I've seen the oppressor's cruel smile       Amid his hapless victim's spoil:       And for thy potence vainly wished,       To crush the villain in the dust.     For lack o' thee, I leave this much-lov'd shore,     Never, perhaps, to greet old Scotland more. R. B. Reason "only conceptual sculpture he produced?"

Business Name: Hideous Dwarf Projects

Website: www.naomilethbridge.co.uk

Favourite Burns work: My favourite Burns poem is 'To a Louse', because of it's sentiment, that it is usually accompanied by an English  translation (helpful for those of us bereft of the appropriate accent) and it is quite brief.

Short Bio: Naomi Lethbridge grew up in Dumfries and Galloway and graduated (BA(HONS), 2004) from Duncan of Jordanstone and (MA, 2009) from Manchester Metropolitan University in Fine Art. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Britain and Europe, and she is due to begin a residency in Chongqing in the spring. She is represented by Paper Gallery (http://www.paper-gallery.co.uk/70879/629415/paper-artists/naomi-lethbridge).

Business Name: MMV Art

www.mmvart.com

Short Bio: Studied painting at Glasgow School of Art, then moved to D&G. Taught art here till 2004, then set up an art studio with husband to make and exhibit our work, mostly installations now and also collaborative works. Spring Fling member and exhibitor for 3 years. Pre- selected installation for the SSA exhibition in March this year. Recent Exhibitions 2011 RSA Open, Edinburgh 2012 RSW Edinburgh 2012 RGI Glasgow 2012 Pollok House - selected installation Favourite Burns' piece changes with my mood, but today it has to be M’Pherson’s Farewell It’s a huge celebration of spirit over adversity

Business Name: Leah Halliday

www.leahhalliday.co.uk

Short Bio: Leah Halliday lovingly creates and designs a collection of handmade gifts, accessories, homewares and paper goods that combines her life long love of craft and all things vintage from her studio in the South West of Scotland.  Leah finds herself inspired by fabrics, vintage bits and pieces, nostalgic images, ribbons and trims. She loves nothing better than turning something old and forgotten into something beautiful & new. 

Favourite Burns: To a Mouse, it was the first Burns poem I learned at primary school.