Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

Can I speak frankly to you? I am in love with this bag. She came to me in a vision: something gorgeous to show the world on one side ( the bees and flowers ) and then on the side you hug close to your body, a reminder word ('explore!')




and something evocative of delight (ladybugs!): something to constantly remind you to smile every time you need to reach for something. Having a secret of sorts next to you, gliding with you as you meet your world person by person, place by place.

I bought this thick black grament leather: so unbelievably substantial and yet still buttery soft and flexible, and I knew it had to be included. And rivets: rivers and rivers of double cap rivets in brass...and rings and antique and resist and hours and hours of tooling and construction.......and here it is. Done.







Making bags is like this overwhelming storm that takes over: so much to be done, so many pieces to put together - the tooling part is the most familiar, and that can take a week or two of stealing moments to apply textures and cut and bevel, etc, and then once all the pieces have been tooled and colored it is time to rivet. For a few days my workshop is in turmoil and disarray, and then finally and as if by magic it is done and normalcy returns. I put away the prodigious amount of tools that need to be used to put it all together, clean up the million tiny circles of leather punches while applying rivets, sweep scraps and fluff kicked off the leather by dremel sanding... and then I am done.

And the world gets too silent and still to bear.

Back to the shop :)