Truly Unique Bags

Wandering around the Internet recently I came across a fantastic bag shop, www.eco-handbags.ca. Their philosophy is “offering the conscientious consumer, chic, unique and fashionable handbags created from recycled and eco-friendly materials.” And the designers, from all over the world, really do make bags from anything and everything recycled – from 35mm slides to truck tyre inners to skateboards – you wouldn’t believe it was possible! Prices range from $12 (approximately £6) to $250 (approximately £125). Having spent literally hours on this site (I do love handbags!) I thought I would share some of my favourites:

Carpet Bags
These bags are handmade in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire from "Silkie" carpet that is apparently made from cotton and viscose (fibre from plant cellulose and therefore biodegradable in time). The bag pictured is $230 (£115) but they also do handbags for as little as £25! And the bonus of these bags is that because they are made from hardwearing carpet they will last for years and still look as good as new.

35mm Slides
The company that makes these bags, RedCamper describes itself as ‘a celebration of family, travel, summer vacations, road trips, tourist traps and countless games of I Spy.’ Maura Gramzinski founded the company after she inherited thousands of travel slides from her Grampa. To celebrate her grandparents’ sense of adventure she wired together some of the slides to make a unique bag, and as they say – the rest is history.

The bag in the image, 7 Wonders, has slides from tourist traps worldwide throughout the years. Also there is apparently only one slide that is duplicated to place in every bag – the naked lady slide, according to the designer her Grampa used to slip this into every slide show just to check everyone was paying attention!
Skateboards
I think these are amazing and still can’t quite work out how they do it! Although according the designer they involve a ‘very time-consuming, labor-intensive process’. I can’t say I’m surprised I mean really how do you make a skateboard into a bag!? Although I have only picked a few examples this site is truly amazing to look around and I could have gone on and on picking out bags to share with you. And not only does eco-handbags.ca have stunning one off bags but it also has interesting information on the designers and some of the good causes they are working for. I would definitely recommend whiling away a rainy afternoon browsing.