Artistry and bag-making

Can bags be considered as art? I have seen some exquisite "bags" in art exhibitions: exotic shapes and embellishments in sculptural forms that definitely make them worthy of the title "art" and justifiably exhibits on a plinth. I am full of admiration for these, but they are not what my bag-making is about. I want my bags to be practical as well as original and attractive.

When I first started making bags, about 12 years ago, my aim was to make useful items that could be made from reclaimed fabrics. Each bag that I created was made from a patchwork of fabrics and featured my own appliqued designs. I explored my emerging ability to create art by drawing my designs, usually floral, and transforming them into a fabric image which could be appliqued onto the flap of the basic style of messenger bag that I had designed.

An early example of a patchwork bag with appliqued roses

An early example of a floral design appliqued onto a messenger bag

A patchwork messenger bag with appliqued flower design

As I extended the styles of bags and the range of appliqued motifs, I was still firmly routed in the belief that they needed to be practical - the sort of bag that I could and would use. And while originality and beauty were always uppermost in my decisions when choosing designs and fabric combinations for appliques and patchwork, I never stopped to consider that the bags I made were art.

Examples of bespoke bags

Requests for bespoke bags encouraged me to recreate pictorial scenes on the sides of bags shaped to fit the uses that their future owners required and hence to consider a bag as a form of wearable art. Some of these were designed to match with footwear or another item of clothing and I know that most have been used extensively. This is reassuring to me as my concern is that ornate designs will not be durable enough to endure much use.

The function of the bag is, in my mind, important to consider if its embellishments are going to be quite elaborate. So when I decided to recreate one of my paintings as a fabric design, the bag I applied it to was a tote bag that could be used as a project bag. This exclusive bag sold and is used for its new owner's knitting projects.

Exclusive tote bag featuring icicles textile art

Northern Lights zipped clutch or craft pouch

Similarly, this smaller zipped pouch with its Northern Lights design could be used as a craft pouch or as an exclusive evening clutch.

More recently my emphasis has shifted from making bags to creating textile pictures which I would not hesitate to classify as art and view in a totally different way.

I still make bags to order and many of these are my rainbow patchwork messenger bags. While making one of these for a recent order, I thought about how I make conscious artistic decisions about which fabrics to use and how to arrange each piece of fabric. Using batik cotton fabrics introduces interesting variations in colour tones and patterns and different effects are achieved according to the placement of each piece. The aesthetic of the finished "rainbow" is as important as the practicality of the finished bag and workmanship involved in making it. A selection are shown below and more can be seen here.

Rainbow patchwork messenger bag

Large rainbow patchwork messenger bag

Messenger bag with rainbow patchwork flap

So I believe that there is artistry (as well as craftsmsnship) in making bags, although few would, in my opinion, be worthy of a placement in an art exhibition. Ultimately, I'd like to combine my new-found love for creating artistic textile collages with making more exclusive bags which could be legitimately sit on a plinth in an exhibition while still having the potential for being used.

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