turning a painting in to a bag

Some might think it sacrilegious to cut up an original oil painting and turn it in to a tote bag. But that's exactly what I did. I first noticed the bags done by Leslie Oschmann on her website and blog called Swarm. She now sells them through Anthropologie for lots of money.

My girlfriend Julie, saw them and was immediately inspired to copy Leslie and make them ourselves in an afternoon workshop with friends.

This is the prototype for the workshop. I needed to find out how feasible these were to make. It turned out to be pretty easy but a home sewing machine isn't the best piece of machinery to pull this off. I think an upholstery or shoe repair shop is going to need to re-sew them so they don't fall apart.

side one

The handles are made from two men's belts from Marshalls.

side two

inside detail

I used upholstery webbing on the inside to provide stiffening and give the handle grommets something to adhere to.

This how it began.

The painting was signed M. Lubin '84.