Sometimes there are unexpected joys when you have a laboriously slow internet connection (there are no expected joys, believe you me). Example: the other day I was surfing the interwebs, minding my own business, trying to find out whether Lea Stein’s second 2008 design had been released yet. I checked around a few websites and found nada. Then, I went to Sheryl’s Art Deco (where there’s always a fine array of Lea Stein to marvel at), and lo and behold, text appeared which declared ‘MOUSTACHE – NEW FOR 2008!’ But the picture took about another five minutes to load.
Let me tell you, that was an interesting five minutes. My brain was whizzing. Would it be a curly artist mo, like those brooches by Tatty Devine? Would it be a Sheriff, or a Pirate, or some other face with a ridiculous ’stache? A bearded lady? Of course, it was none of these things. It was a really cute dog with a ‘moustache’ of fur, in the manner of a Schnauzer - but this pooch looks more like a shih tzu.
It’s a great design, but totally at the other end of the spectrum from 2008’s other design, the fire breathing dragon. Where the dragon was elegant and fierce, ‘Moustache’ is all about the hilarity – the dog’s moustache is ridiculously long and cartoonish and lovable.
It kind of reminds me of the really vintage Stein pieces from the 70s, like the designs of children, or the goose or camel. There’s something self-consciously disproportionate and amusing about these designs, which differ in tone from the foxes, cats etc. It’s definitely one for the dog lovers, anyway. You can see Lea Stein’s Moustache here.
P.S. I have a dilemma. I got a comment from Lea Stein on this blog a couple of weeks ago, which you can read here. My first instinct was ‘hooray for life, time to write a gushy email in reply!’ but then i thought ‘hold your horses, this is the interwebs we’re talking about, could be Not What It Seems’. Have a read – do you reckon it’s ridgy didge? My gushy-email-trigger fingers are itching.
