peppered tales.

today our friend nadine took us to her friends' (julia and manou) indie craft shop tucked away in the side streets of the würzburg city centre - {herr} pfeffer. i have to say that in the midst of this performance your, it was incredibly comforting to round a corner and see the telltale markers of indie craft - banners, colour, flags, scalloped edges, bunting. to me, the sense of similarity between shops like these is a gentle gateway into the differences between crafting communities.

i like that indie craft develops in a mixture of isolation, community and cross-pollinated inspiration. it develops work that is both recoginizable in its kinship to...say...what i do while also expressing unique personal voice. at {herr} pfeffer, i saw work that was more playful than the muted tones and minimalism i have been seeing back home. even the politics were dealt with in a more playful manner (fonts communicate a lot when it comes to political messages - see below). not that either is right or wrong, i just like the sense that overlap and independence can coexist. it's organic.

while we were in the shop, manou was working on a large crochet piece intended for public intervention. she also told us a great story about making massive beanies for the city's iconic bridge statues. they were apparently left up on their heads for months before they slowly disappeared. eventually, she saw one of them reemerge in the city on the head of a beleaguered man with dreadlocks down to the ground. this has something to do with the way indie craft operates - work is put out into the world without any control over what the world will do with it. you could say the same about the mass market, but as a maker, the reunion with a single piece would be impossible it that context. unique, handmade work inherently holds story and collects it.

if you find yourself in würzburg, i highly recommend a browse through the shirts, dolls, magnets, pins, notebooks and more of {herr} pfeffer. their stock comes from all over europe and feels like little peeks into the minds of all those makers.