The First Ever Polymer Clay Handbag

This story starts with a simple google search that led me down a path that I am now eternally grateful for; "Polymer Clay Purse, does it exist?"

A year ago when the pandemic hit and we were all forced to adapt to full days within the same four walls, I began seeking outlets that would prevent me from succumbing to the air of crazy rising in my room. The gyms closed so fitness went first, then I had to leave my university program due to the financial struggles that hit most of us, so my community of students was also lost. As an architecture student, the loss of a place to dump my creative passion was what led me to seek refuge and expression elsewhere. And as a life long artist and fashion enthusiast, this desperation hit right at the peak of the polymer clay craze that swept social media art spaces all of last summer.

Every form of jewellery was and has been made using polymer clay. I watched in awe as makers of all ages, although predominantly teenagers as this peaked on TikTok, created intricate designs from mouldable, bake-able clay. So i dove head in and bought some Fimo and Das to start. And as I'm never one to half-ass anything, my first projects were snake earrings, even though I had the option to just make simple beads. And just like that, I fell in love. With the flexibility, the range, the long list of things i could conceptualize making. And for a long while the basic types of polymer clay satisfied my creative urges. Infact until the beginning of this year when I made the discovery that got me curious, i was enthralled by regular polymer clay. But due to my late night art supply shopping, and the fact that google ads follow you everywhere, I discovered that the brand Fimo had made a type of polymer clay that apparently acted like leather... Leather!! Honestly i didnt believe it at first. Yeah science has pretty much figured out how to make anything, but leather out of clay?? I had to see it to believe it. So again, i jumped head first and bought a few to work with.

All the research on how exactly the Fimo brand was able to create this can be summed up into "The clay has microfibres". And as frustrating as the lack of information is, I too would hold the formula closely to my chest if i had stumbled onto something this great. If regular polymer clay excited me, the leather clay felt like a whole carnival. It took a lot of trial and error to get the right result, but even the process of failing was exhilarating for me. I was touching and playing with a material that i could bake into fabric, and even now i am still not over it. But as usual, my brain likes to push for more. And one of the first things I thought as i was squeezing the baked clay in my hand and watching it spring back like actual leather was "Has anyone made a bag from this?" Well, Yes. Sort of. The clay had been sewn into small pencil cases and flat purses, with the parent company Staedtler even releasing tutorials on how to do it. But the voice in my head kept pushing "Has anyone made a BAG though?" And according to several hours of Google research, i found nothing. At first this was disappointing, because i was new to the material and thought I needed guidance. The clay is more flexible than regular polymer clay, so that also meant stickier and weaker, hence requiring extra care. But the disappointment didnt last long because one of the core driving forces for my creativity has always been If its never been done before, go do it. So i made a plan and went for it.

First i decided it would be smart to go for a simple design, a classic baguette bag. Then i decided to play with the colour brown and a pattern design inspired by naturally curving vines. And after stalling because the fear of messing up had me frozen, I finally went for it. Using hard iron-on interfacing to create structure, recycled gold buckles, and a polymer clay beaded handle, I created what is apparently the first ever Polymer clay hand bag. And in my humble opinion, and for a first trial of a brand new technique, I did great! Not perfect of course as the biggest problem I had was the baking process which left everything that was not ideally supported fragile and weighed down by itself. Due to this some of the finishing I attempted backfired on me. But again, absolutely none of the failure during the process could shake my pure delight at the fact that I HAD JUST MADE A LEATHER BAG OUT OF CLAY! And the detailing I was able to achieve because it was a mouldable is incredibly promising as I already have a list of patterns to try on the next bag i make. Because there absolutely will be a next one. And hopefully a bunch more after that. Where do scissors come into the story? Quite literally everywhere because the clay bakes into leather fabric and doesn't tear or cut neatly unless with sharp cutting tools. And along with stepping up my creative tools to dive deeper into this path i have stumbled on, i also hope to discover more things to do with this clay. This is only the first poly-clay handbag, and I know it will not be my last.