11/21/15

A Time to Stitch 8 Reveal

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!


Many thanks to Christine and Therese for always encouraging us to explore new places to take our beading. Below is a list of today's participants. I can’t wait to see how everyone tackled this challenge!

23 comments:

  1. wow so inventive! and snapped needles? ouch! I hate that. what is a tapestry needle? I didn't realize they made them - but of course that makes sense! This is just so much fun, and makes so much sense to have hands free at the show. No doubt it will be a conversation starter with its beautiful beadwork!

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  2. There is so much goodness here ~ the great bones and history the bag already possessed were heightened by your fabulous beadwork! The bag as a whole is gorgeous and sturdy, industrial and artistic, work and play, and there are two details my eye keeps taking me to ~ the beaded pattern above the zipper and that gold circle with the two red lines and pearl next to the word "create". That circle would make a wonderful pendant or earrings. I just love the bold statement of that simple pattern! Thanks for being in the hop, Karin ~ it wouldn't be a hop without you :-)

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  3. Hi Karin,
    As always you did an awesome job at meeting the requirements of the ATTS challenge! I love your bag and all the needle challenges you went through to take the bag from it's plain usefulness to it's now blinged up usefulness. I do not blame you one bit for wanting to use this bag more often then when you are doing a show. This one needs to be shown off. Thank you for joining in on this round of ATTS challenges and I hope that you will join us again in the next one.
    Therese

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  4. It's a beautifully embellished bag. I love all the mandalas that you've added to it.
    Happy beading,
    Ana

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  5. What a great idea! I love the the way you blended so much shine with an industrial bag. It looks awesome!

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  6. Hi Karin, It is great that you made the bag truey your own. Your embellishment is wonderful. I too would use it more often than just shows.

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  7. What a fun idea in taking this great bag and adding your own special touches! SO pretty!

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  8. What a fabulous idea! Not only will it be functional for shows, it's like a little advertisment - a billboard of your creativity. The thought of stitching through canvas layers makes my fingers hurt -- you definitely win points on difficulty with that. Customers will be able to find you at shows, just by remembering they're looking for the artist with the super cool bag. And I like that you solved a purely practical problem with such style!

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  9. Great idea and wow tough work, it is a challenge to stitch through several layers of fabric let alone canvas, your embellishments are perfect just enough to make it one of a kind, very chic!

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  10. Fantastic! Just love the bag with all those beautiful embellishments !

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  11. That's a bag for showcasing your art! I love how so many of the group decided to combine the useful with the beautiful and create meaningful pieces of art. Wonderful work!

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  12. Well now, how cool is that?! GREAT idea, excellently executed.

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  13. Love your embellishing the Mona B bag. I frequently don't wear my challenge submittals because they can be a bit over the top but your bag is not only beautiful - it's useful too! The slogan on the bag was absolutely perfect too! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

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  14. Yikes! 2 layers of heavy canvas>?! Glad you persevered!

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  15. It looks so much better and true to its words now that you've embellished it! I can almost feel the ouch using needles on that canvas.

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  16. You certainly made that your own, and it looks fabulous. I once tried to stitch beads to a pair of keds tennis shoes- I gave up. Congratulations on completing your work.

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  17. That a very nice bag, I was going to make something on a bag I purchased, but going various layers was very difficult. indeed very nice bag.

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  18. I feel your pain with the snapped needles. I hate sewing on thick fabrics. The beady goodness you added to the bag was just PERFECT. The right amount of sparkle to make it a beauty, but not so much that you obscured its essence. I bet you will get loads of complements when you're making change :-)

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