Purses and Designs
I’ve done a little bit more work on a couple of the purses I started. I’d already sewn up one of the slubbed white ones, and now I’ve added the button and button-hole. I thought doing large-ish blanket stitch around the button hole would suit the colours and style of this purse.
I used some slubbed wool I bought quite a few years ago to make the felt for this. I added some extra threads and bits of silk to the felt. I can’t find a photo of it, but this piece is very similar, and this is a close up of the texture.
I used a cream vintage button, and kept the natural uneven edges again for the back pocket.
The other purse I worked on was one made from a piece of felt and squares of silk paper. It was one of my favourite pieces, the silk squares are so shiny. I’m still undecided about the button, I’m thinking of using this vintage one:
And the inside, I like these purses with two pockets because you get to see more felt than on the zipper ones:
The other thing I worked on last week were some collage sheets. I’m working on designs for sheets to sell on etsy and maybe even do some designs for fabric through Spoonflower and some printed silk. I hoped I might get some feedback on the designs, so I’ve made some samples and uploaded them here. Feel free to print them and use them, but please don’t sell/redistribute the designs.
23 thoughts on “Purses and Designs”
Love, love the blue purse! Great use of color!!
Thank you 🙂
Love them both but particularly the one with squares of silk paper.
Thanks, Liz 🙂
Your collage sheets are lovely – I hope they do well on Etsy. I hadn’t heard of Spoonflower before, now that would be a good place for your designs.
The white purses remind me of marble – very clever! I like the design with the two pockets and the silk paper makes a brill embellishment.
Thanks, Lyn 🙂
You only get a percentage if people order fabrics with your design from Spoonflower, but it’s better than nothing 🙂
Zed, the purses are beautiful. It’s too bad the photo doesn’t do justice to the silk paper. I’m sure it’s stunning. I love your fabric designs. The colors are so vibrant. It looks as if you used a variety of methods to get the textures. It’s too bad you couldn’t find a more profitable outlet for them. When someone buys them do you give them any information on how you accomplished the design or do they just buy the design? Very inspirational. Thanks.
Thanks, Marilyn 🙂
No one has bought any yet. I have a few on etsy, but they don’t even get looked at, so I thought I’d do some sample sheets for free and hopefully get feedback. I have mentioned in the etsy description what the images are based on.
I love the design with two pockets. Very functional for credit cards etc. Do your collage sheets come in bigger sizes so they could be used in backgrounds for things like art journaling? I love the idea of Spoonflower fabrics but I know they are pretty expensive. Do they have printed silk?
Thanks, Ruth 🙂
So far, I’ve done ATC sizes, medium tiles, bamboo tiles and there are some border/strips on etsy, but not larger than that, like an art print size or anything. I’m not sure I know what art journaling is 🙂
Spoonflower do have silk, but it’s hard to tell how thick it is from their description, they don’t give a weight.
Hmmm… that makes it hard to determine if the silk would work for nuno, doesn’t it? I’m sure they’d tell you if you inquired but I bet it is fairly thick as they want it to print well.
Art journaling is a combination of journaling and then adding your art to the pages. Many people like to do backgrounds first and then add collage, paint or whatever on top of the background. I just thought people might like them for that purpose or heaven forbid, scrap booking. They could be various sizes for different sizes of notebooks or not. 🙂
I did have a quick google for silk printing and saw a place which will do a sample print and recommended doing a few swatches on one large piece, which sounds like a good idea. It’s the kind of thing that needs to be done in person rather than over the internet, I think.
I did know what art journaling was then, I just thought it was called ‘journalling’ or altered journals 🙂
What sizes?
I like the use of the silk paper. Is this the paper you made last year when we all had a go at it?
I haven’t used mine yet, but think I might try it, though I’ve not felt inspired recently! (pun intended) 😉
Thanks, Judith 🙂
Yeah, it’s some of that paper, I still have loads left too.
I don’t know what sizes are called in your neck of the woods. I know you have things like A1 etc. but I don’t know what that means. My sketchbook is 5″x 9′, regular paper size here is 8 1/2″ x 11″, scrap book paper is often 12″ x 12″. I don’t think you need to make all the sizes but perhaps one that is large enough that it could be cut down to size as needed?
I did think about larger sizes, but have only done strips the length of printer/A4 paper so far. I’ll have to do new designs I think for a really large one. Maybe if there’s any interest I will.
Great purses. I agree about the button on the blue one, It needs more pizazz to match the purse, maybe something in brass or pewter. What about making some post cards or cards to sell. I think your designs would be great for that.
Thanks, Ann 🙂
I think I might have some shiny buttons, I’ll have a look.
I actually did a business course about 25 years ago because I wanted to sell postcards/greetings cards with artwork on, but it was just getting to the end of standard printing and computer printing was just coming in and it ended up being too much to do.
I have thought about it again, Aileen Clarke gets some really good prints.
It’s the same thing with everything else though, a lot of work, a lot of expense and no one buys anything 🙁
I here you about no one buying right now.
The purses look gorgeous Zed, love the silk paper one, i actually made some more of that last week. I love your collage sheets, your artwork is amazing, i think a bit bigger would be great to, if you had 4 on your A4 sheet it’ll be easier for me lol
Thanks, Kaz 🙂
I’ll definitely think about slightly larger sizes 🙂
When I make purses, I use those magnetic clasps. The top one shows the fixings, so I machine sew a piece of co-ordinating felt ovet the top. I’ve been using one like this daily for 2 years and it’s still going strong. I buy my fasteners on e-bay and I’ve had varying qualities. I find the basic ones are stronger, some of the shiny ones are not so strong.
I have quite a few of those and I’ve used one on a bag, but they’re a bit chunky for these small purses. I do like them though 🙂