My bags are really individual like I imagine we all are as people and I suppose the main theme behind them are an aggressive individual confidence. I'm learning to combine heavy leather with my steel work which is allowing me to accomplish more of my sculptural handbag ideas. In August, I'm meeting with a company to talk about bringing some of my forms to production so that I can attend trade shows.

I'm using steel, leather and fabric, I use steel because I really enjoy working with it, it does what I tell it to more than any other material. I don't know who my target audience is really, I suppose it could be anyone, I don't think there is one defining characteristic to describe my target audience. My inspiration just happens, it comes from God, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep and sketch out stuff, or just yesterday I saw a handbag on the dash of a woman's car that was passing me on the highway and a full blown design based on what I thought I saw just jumped into my head. I think what makes my bags so special is that I make them. The pattern, if there is one, the steel hardware, the sewing, all of that but each one has a name and a story to go with it as to why it exists and what it's purpose or use is.  In fact, until this year all my handbags were made in Spenard, Alaska my own self proclaimed New Fashion Capital of the World, so they were all signed Made in Spenard, Alaska.

It all started when I was working at Nordstrom in Men's Furnishings/Clothing. We were slow in my department, again, and I was watching all these women go crazy over handbags just across the isle. A woman I was dating at the time said "Why don't you make handbags?" I said because that's dumb, I don't want to make handbags. She said it's really all about the hardware, you could make some cool hardware for a handbag. My mind opened up and I realized what she was saying and I've been dreaming of handbags and designs and making drawings and bags since that day in 2004. To me it really is about the hardware and that is one of the reasons my bags have so much steel on them, it's like their skeleton or exoskeleton so that they come alive and take on their own life.

The only story I can think of right now is when I was trying to make my first or second bag and someone said I needed to make a paper model to work out my designs. Maybe they said pattern but I heard model. I cut out paper and was taping and trying to glue stick stuff together and what I ended up with was the dumbest looking piece of crap you could imagine. I was so frustrated, I thought forget this paper model stuff, I'm making real handbags, not paper ones! So, the next couple I made by just cutting out the material and fitting it as I went along.

What would make it all worth it is if I'm handbag designer of the day! Does it get any better?! I've sold a couple also and that sure makes me feel good when people like them enough to part with their money, it's encouraging. I've also given a lot away and they all enjoy carrying my works of art, but to get something that's in my head outside and created in reality, that's worth it all, just to see what used to be in my imagination.