Keith Lipert's Blog

I have always had a thing for sheep, which was probably due to my childhood growing up near the English countryside where seeing wonderful sheep line the hills and farm lands is the norm. For someone who has lived more of their life outside of their country of birth, the sheep has always been a great remembrance for me of my childhood.       

About twenty-five years ago, while working in wholesale and supplying a long gone Detroit department store, I had found these wonderful little wooden sheep in a store near by. They had been made in Germany from wool, and the hair on the little sheep was made from actual sheep’s wool. My mother, at that time had just moved to the countryside and therefore she was surrounded by more sheep than people. The sheep from her area were actually called the “Burwash Beauties” (on a more morbid note I think that had more to do with the quality of their meat than the sheep themselves). Well, I knew I had to get one for my mother and I did – for the sake of this meaningful blog post, I do hope she kept and treasured it!       

 Years passed, and I had lost contact with the supplier but I had always wanted to find them again because I thought these sheep were so great! Finally, on my most recent trip to Frankfurt on a buying business trip for new and existing fashion jewelry and modern decorative art for the store, I found the sheep! I was so excited and happy, that I did not just get one like last time – but all seventy five that were displayed!      

 I had originally gotten my mother the white sheep but for every family there is the “black sheep” and so I bought quite a few of those as well! Anyways, long story short, they are now displayed in my store in the window with a sheep herder/Jewish Hassid/Amish (depending on your cultural preferrences) standing behind them!      

“The Shepard always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same”       

~Stendhall~