A bit of east London pottering usually results in a trip to Shelf in Cheshire Street. Obviously we both like the word shelf – and I like a lot of the things they sell there too. It’s a heavily curated gallery-like space, like a lot of the shops on this street. Nice though.
Anyhow, I bought a few cards and asked for them to be put in the brown paper bag with two birds on it – pictured here. The bag was too small, but they gave it me anyway. Good thing too, as I was in my: ‘I want that. Now.’ mode. I have almost got over my embarrassment at being more excited by packaging than the purchase. It has taken a long time.
These birds by German Frerk Muller were also available in the shop on mugs and as prints. Oddly, there isn’t much on the internet about Muller. Unusual these days, when you expect to get at least a few mentions about the most obscure anything.
And especially odd as birds seem to be an obsession across craft-y blogs and in craft-y design-y shops at the moment. Felt ones, patchwork ones, wire ones. Bird patterns on booklets, journals, wallpapers, fabrics, mobiles. You name it.
Frerk’s birds are rather amorphous birds, the sort of birds you might see in a dream. They have sour expressions – annoyed at being exploited in every material going, probably.
Are you Jane whom I know?