Hello,
This is my first post here so let me introduce myself before I ask my questions.
My name is Jack and I am a sculptor. Work has gotten painfully slow lately and while visiting a friend who owns a clothing store I went with her to see a distributor about the upcoming line. As I watched and listened I thought that possibly a good secondary source for income might be to come up with handbag designs that are more sculptural.
Returning from the trip I signed up for a sewing class and began a search for material to use. To start, I'm focusing on evening bags. From my sketches I carve the bag out of foam with a high relief, flowers, geometric designs etc. That surface is covered with beads and stones.
My questions to you are:
1) Does anyone on this board make handbags as a business that I could ask some technical questions?
2) These bags will need to be a hard shell with a relief but I want to try and keep them as light weight as possible. I have tried fiber glass and a casting plastic. The fiber glass I don't enjoy working with and the casting plastic appears to be weak structurally when having a thin wall for weight concerns. Any suggestions for a strong, light weight material to use?
3) Does anyone have suggestions for purchasing wholesale beads, stones?
4) Related to the beads, any suggestions concerning glues to permanentely hold the beads to the hard shell?
5) Does anyone have a suggestion for a book to purchase related to handbag construction.
6) I live in the Los Angeles area. Might anyone know of any class's offered here specifically for handbag construction? I have called around to several schools and have found none.
Any comments, suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Jack
This is my first post here so let me introduce myself before I ask my questions.
My name is Jack and I am a sculptor. Work has gotten painfully slow lately and while visiting a friend who owns a clothing store I went with her to see a distributor about the upcoming line. As I watched and listened I thought that possibly a good secondary source for income might be to come up with handbag designs that are more sculptural.
Returning from the trip I signed up for a sewing class and began a search for material to use. To start, I'm focusing on evening bags. From my sketches I carve the bag out of foam with a high relief, flowers, geometric designs etc. That surface is covered with beads and stones.
My questions to you are:
1) Does anyone on this board make handbags as a business that I could ask some technical questions?
2) These bags will need to be a hard shell with a relief but I want to try and keep them as light weight as possible. I have tried fiber glass and a casting plastic. The fiber glass I don't enjoy working with and the casting plastic appears to be weak structurally when having a thin wall for weight concerns. Any suggestions for a strong, light weight material to use?
3) Does anyone have suggestions for purchasing wholesale beads, stones?
4) Related to the beads, any suggestions concerning glues to permanentely hold the beads to the hard shell?
5) Does anyone have a suggestion for a book to purchase related to handbag construction.
6) I live in the Los Angeles area. Might anyone know of any class's offered here specifically for handbag construction? I have called around to several schools and have found none.
Any comments, suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Jack
Last edited by a moderator:
