The challenge Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller gave us
for A Time to Stitch 8 was to bead a bag. Any bag and any portion of that bag.
Which was great timing for me, because I had decided that I needed a money bag
to take to art and craft fairs so my hands would be free while I tended to
customers.
I decided on a belt bag from Mona B’s Live Work Create line of handbags because, well, I love their
backstory. Each bag is made from upcycled truck tarps or military tents. Which
means I had my work cut out for me because the bag was already constructed and
I was sewing through, in some cases, two layers of tarp and the lining. Many,
many needles were snapped, bent beyond recognition and otherwise mangled until
I finally tried a tapestry needle and found success.
Here’s the bag as it appears in the Mona B catalog:
And here is my embellished version.
The rugged lines and canvas texture of the bag made this the
perfect project for incorporating additional hardware into my beadwork. I took
a component class from Laura McCabe several years ago and adapted some of her
techniques in my design. I love the look of cobalt blue and classic red with
olive, and even though I used pearls and a crystal rivoli, I made sure to use
lots of the black and brass of the antique zipper to keep the industrial
aesthetic.
I may not wait until my next art show to take my new bag off
the shelf. There are lots of other times it would be great to be hands free!
