Wood you believe it ... store sells sticks at £18 a time!
THEY look like something the dog brought in. But these sticks are not some pet’s plaything provided free by nature.
Instead they are the latest must-have accessory for the achingly trendy metropolitan home – and come with a reassuringly hefty price tag.
Strewn next to a few empty bottles, they fill a couple of shelves at an emporium called Botanique Workshop, which styles itself as an ‘artisan store and flower shop’.
The sticks – which cost between £12 and £18 each – have holes drilled in them for possible use in the home as clothes hooks or hangers for jewellery.
They are on sale at Botanique’s new branch – on a bohemian street in gentrified Stoke Newington, North London, and just a short walk from tree-filled Clissold Park.
While the shop’s owner has defended her wares as ‘not just any sticks’, the feedback online has been rather more disparaging.
radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine posted a picture on social media with the message: ‘Good to hear that a new shop has opened in Stoke Newington selling STICKS.’
The image has been shared dozens of times. It was originally posted by food writer Debora robertson, who joked: ‘My dog has a lucrative new career ahead... There we go, into the caviar fund.’ Dawn Jagdev commented: ‘Hipsters will buy any old tat as long as it’s pricey and artisan.’ Kevin Liddy wrote: ‘That stick in the middle is exactly the one I’ve been looking for. Thanks for the heads up.’
Botanique owner Alice Howard, 29, who has another shop in exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, central London, admitted yesterday: ‘It’s quite funny, any Press is good Press I suppose, but it’s gone a bit crazy – people are calling it Stick Newington now. These aren’t just any sticks. even our shop dogs Goose and Bertie know not to touch them.’
The hangings, made from birch and holly,
‘Hipsters will buy any old tat’
are sanded down before holes are drilled into the back so they can be attached to a wall.
Miss Howard said they were ‘on trend’ and handcrafted items were popular.
She added: ‘They are made by a friend of my mum in Devon, he doesn’t sell them to me very cheaply. I think they take about 20 minutes to make. He has to source the wood because not all branches have the right notches. Then he has to sand them off and plane the back to give them a nice finish, then add the holes, so that’s what makes it a product and not just a stick. They look quite nice displayed on a wall if you’re into that kind of thing, I have a fair few at home.
‘We had some in our other shop on exmouth Market for a while and we sold plenty.’
But visitors to the store yesterday had mixed views. Sarah Cassidy, 34, said: ‘It’s fine, if people are prepared to pay it.’
However John Hawkes, 49, said: ‘That’s pretty steep for a stick, I’m sure I could find one on the floor myself and drill a hole in it and save myself nearly £20.’
And Lindsey Jones, 28, added: ‘It seems quite a lot – but for Stoke Newington it’s probably just normal.’