Handmade beaded handbag

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Years ago I bought a big bag of blue crystal-like beads and made 2 handbags as gifts for 2 of my friends. I've kept the remaining 1/3 of the beads and never had the time to do anything about it. I dug them out one fine day and decided that I must finish up the beads and put them to good use.


After several hours of weaving and dismantling and reassembling, over and over again, I finally made myself a summery handbag that I'm happy with. The beads to make the hook for the loop are from my collection of old and used beads, often cut from old shoes or broken beaded accessories. Some leftovers are from my other beads projects such as bracelet and necklaces.


I can fit in it a wallet, a mobile phone, a book, a pair of sunglasses, a hat, a foldable umbrella, a spare canvas shopping bag (just in case), keys, a tube of E45 and a lipstick. So when I don't feel like carrying my big handmade multi-compartment bag, this would come in handy. Sweet!

Here is how I started the basic weaving process. 4-bead pattern gets a little tricky when making 3-D turns. I've only learned the basic pattern weaving once from an old beading book, but that did not come with a bag design manual. So I did spend many hours figuring out how to make those 3-D corners. What I did was weaving the beads into a long and wide enough piece then folded the sides to add new beads to tie them into 3-D.

This diagram is also the same basic process for the blue napkin rings.

Comments

  1. Anonymous10 April 2010 at 18:56

    That is very creative of you, exactly how long did it take you to make that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mad About Sustainability10 April 2010 at 20:10

    Thanks :D
    I think I spent about 2-3 hours each night weaving in front of the TV, and it must have taken me about 3 nights to finish it. That included me changing my mind over the design and the shape, dismantling and reweaving over and over again. As I didn't have a blueprint to follow through so everything depended on my spontaneous thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jin10 June 2010 at 21:22

    How do you do it? Do you have a manual?? I would love to make my own bags!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Living Sustainable Life11 June 2010 at 21:03

    I've just added the basic weaving diagram for the pattern. Unfortunately I don't have the full manual to the whole bag, because it was designed totally on impulse :D

    ReplyDelete

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