ashley watson's recycled leather bags: really good redux

anyone can re-use old things to make new things, but only the few do it artfully, making the most of the former to craft the new object with panache.
vancouver accessories designer/artist ashley watson is an exception...she is truly one of the few makers who get the redux right. she trolls secondhand shops for discarded leather jackets and other leather clothing, which she then turns into amazing handbags, wallets, and other small leather accessories, each of which is absolutely one-of-a-kind as a result. ashley makes each of these pieces herself, by hand, and has been doing so since 2006.

(photos from ashleywatson.net)

i like that ashley's bags have a hand-made, organic feel...but also like that they look extremely well-constructed. she makes the most of the construction lines and details of the original leather garments, putting them to use to create the form of the bag, working with, and not against those details. though each of her bags and other pieces is "new," it also has an inherent "history" that the most recent owner of the current incarnation of the leather can potentially ponder.
intrigued? do check out the rest of ashley's bags, as well as her wallets, and belts.

favorites and...stuff.

(more here at the ye olde flickr favorites page)

***

it's set to be a crazy couple of weeks at chez royal. pete and i are moving in two weeks (yikes! but yay!) and the packing process has already begun. and i have a lot of work to do the next couple of weeks (away from home at my new part time gig, and at home with other worky-work), so...i'll try my best to check in and post here and there but no promises. :)

i'm excited about the move, though! not excited about the actual moving process (does ANYONE like that??) but more about being in the new, clean, fresh, bigger space. i'm already fantasizing that i am there! mostly mundane, home-body-ish stuff like drinking tea in my bright new kitchen, new (and new to me) pieces of furniture i'd love to acquire, how i am going to arrange my stuff (even plants and vases!), and the like.

***

so, besides moving (as if that isn't enough to think and obsess over, right?!) i'm obsessing over thus:

-wearing brash, bold, big earrings (vintage?) in two holes of each ear (proving more is more)
-thickly framed plastic eyeglasses is bright colors (nerd cool!)
-long, fitted knee length shorts
-finally getting to wear my sundresses!
-san francisco's wild parrots. i have seen them twice in the last week: a few of them chirping away on a telephone wire down the road from our house, and a whole flock of them swooping toward telegraph hill when i was up near north beach this past week. i'm taking it as a good omen. if you haven't seen it already, i highly suggest checking out the documentary, the wild parrots of telegraph hill. i saw it on PBS's independent lens a couple months ago, and i desperately hoped to see the pretty birds in person one day. i finally got my wish! they are so vibrantly green and colorful and overtly chirpy. they completely delight me!
-picadillo!
-riding my bike! i've been doing that more lately. will do it even more when i don't have to ride uphill anymore (right now i have to ride up a massive hill to get home...so i usually pop it on the front of the bus)! hah! sometimes i wish i lived in the netherlands or somewhere flat and easy to ride. if i did, i'd have a bike like one of these!
-the indie sex documentary series on the IFC channel. titillating and fascinating.

***

before i forget!: if you're in SF, you should go to the opening of lisa congdon's solo show, the tenderhearted at the candy store, this thursday, september 6th. be there or be square...lisa's amazing and so is her work.

loan ceases aegis originationsdottie loaner rebel movie quote aloan ak acpe studentamone loan scamfunding alliance nys loan fha rateprivate hard cltv 65 money loan100 commercialloans2002 rutherford sloan cabernet sauvignonadvance suga loan fee scamloans accorn

(thrift) finds.

some (mostly) recent (mostly) thrifted acquisitions:
from a secret east bay button mecca:

looks latin american in origin to me. i like the animals, natch:

from kridaracraft's etsy shop...a tiny thai patchwork bag that i absolutely adore:

the black one is my most recent liz claiborne bag...i seem to have amassed a small collection of such over time. as my online pal swan diamond rose recently said in the comments on this photo over at flickr, these old liz bags seem perfectly right right now.

there's just something about their bright colors and the geometry of triangular liz logo that seems relevant again.
i was happy surprised to find out the bust of this crazy lace number fit *me* in the bust area. shock and awe!

i don't plan on wearing it as is, even though i'd like to (these girls need a bra!)...so i'll probably pair it with a tank top or perhaps even some kind of button down something or other.