Images above courtesy of shelf/life
We have so many fantastic businesses stocking our wares and thought it would be great to share them with you. So a regular little post will be dedicated to introducing them to you. Our first talent is Jess Yee of shelf / life in Surry Hills Sydney. Obviously her shop is divine as you can see from the pics but read on and you will discover some depth to this beauty.
Describe shelf/life in three words? Ethically designed homewares
What is the philosophy behind your store? Shelf / life is a boutique homewares store with a focus on ethical design and production. We aim to support independent local and international designers who make things with integrity as well as companies that promote sustainability. Shelf / life aims to be a friendly neighbourhood store offering great design that also helps to ease the strain on the planet.
When you think of shelf/life what makes you smile? Receiving and opening new orders – it’s like Christmas all year round!
How long has your store been running? We opened a week before Christmas 2009 so we are almost ready to celebrate our first birthday.
You have a handcrafted bent to the products you stock. Can you tell us a little about some of the products, where they come from, who makes them, what techniques are used in the crafting of them? We have a variety of products that are handmade, environmentally friendly or fair trade. The Dharma Door provides us with beautiful natural jute bags and baskets which are handwoven by women in Bangladesh. We have a lot of items from local designers such as Rabbit & the Duck and Mingus Designs who hand sew purses, wallets, bags and pencil cases. Our huge range of greeting cards are either letter-pressed on tree-free paper or hand screen-printed onto PCW recycled paper.
Image above courtesy of Mingus Design
Have you visited many of your stockists? Any interesting studios or stories? I haven’t had a chance to visit any stockists yet but I keep up to date with our local suppliers by reading their blogs every day. A while ago I was lucky enough to have a visit from Shannon, owner of The Dharma Door who introduced me to Kohinoor Yeasmin, the CEO of NGO Tarango, an organisation that helps empower women in Bangladesh. Kohinoor told me about the lives of these women and how producing natural jute baskets and bags helped to give them an income and provide a better life for their families. Her stories were amazing and she was such an inspirational person to meet. Needless to say I am very happy that the Dharma Door bags are one of our most popular items.
Who are your customers and what are they generally looking for? Being situated in Surry Hills, our customers are a varied bunch. We get a lot of locals and people working in the area coming in regularly to buy gifts. Our customers love supporting ethical design and small business and always ask a lot of questions about where and how products in the store are made. We get quite a few people returning to the shop for our rather unique range of greeting cards.
Image above courtesy of shelf /life
What do you most enjoy about owning a small business? Is there any aspect that you don’t enjoy? We are still a young business but I think so far I am just enjoying making decisions that will hopefully guide the business towards success. I really like running the behind-the-scenes stuff like placing orders, sourcing new products and even the administration that comes with a small business. Unfortunately I never have enough time to dedicate to these tasks as I work in the shop 5 days a week as well. If I could wish for anything right now it would be to have just one extra day in the week where I could get a bit more done!
Do you stock many textiles products? Could you tell me a little about them? We stock a variety of cushions, tea towels, placemats, coasters and aprons, mostly made locally in Australia. All of our screenprinted texiles are by Australian designers such as Ink & Spindle, Pippijoe, Thea & Sami and of course Harvest Textiles. With our textiles products in particular we endeavour to stock locally made items that have hemp, organic cotton or natural linen as a basecloth and are printed with non-toxic inks.
Who/where do you look to for inspiration? I think most of my inspiration comes from just wandering around and seeing the sights. Travelling to different countries and cities always gets my brain swirling with ideas, as does reading lots of local and international blogs on a daily basis and swooning over the styling in magazines like Inside Out and Belle. There are so many people in the world doing crazy creative interesting things – it blows my mind sometimes.
Image above courtesy of Eveleigh Farmer's Market
Your favourite place/s in Sydney and why? At the moment I think it is Eveleigh Farmer's Market at Carriageworks. I’m not able to go that often as I work Saturdays in the shop, but I love popping in on a sunny Saturday morning to check out all the fresh produce and flowers. It’s a vibrant market filled with lots of people and their dogs and I’m not really sure why, but it just makes me happy to be in amongst that.
Favourite book/music/film? I think it would be hard to even narrow my favourites down to a top ten so I can’t really answer this one! But I can tell you that I’m currently reading Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs, recently watched The Assassination of Jesse James by Coward Robert Ford for the second time as I love the cinematography, and am listening to the Bronx on my ipod and Kings of Convenience in the store.
Favourite colour? It tends to change a lot but I will always love shades of grey. Colour of the moment is definitely mustard though.
Are you a maker? What do you make? I have dabbled a lot over the years. Every winter I pick up where I left off with the previous season’s scarf or crochet blanket, but I’m not very good. I love re-purposing old discarded furniture and thus end up hoarding other people’s old chairs and cabinets until I can find time to get out the sander and paint stripper.
Any exciting plans for shelf/life that you would like to tell us about? We’re just about to start work on getting our online store up and running. Hopefully we will be selling products online early in 2010!
Thanks Jess for your time. If you are in Sydney and keen to visit Jess and her lovely store you will find her at Shop 1, 50 Reservoir St, Surry Hills 2010.
Things are slowly coming together down at the Harvest Workroom. 
