My name is Marj Wilson. Recently I was asked how many times I had reinvented myself. I would need to go a long way back to answer that question. In the long ago 1950s, I was a fabric designer, dubbed one of the “Young Designers” of whatever year that was by a long defunct magazine–Living for Young Homemakers, if memory serves. My works were in shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Worcester Art Museum, and cited in The New York Times magazine, among others. I primarily designed placemats and silk-screened the long bolts of linen fabric on tables designed by my dad. When I became pregnant with my son, the paint was deemed a health hazard, and I was forced to abandon the business to be a full-time mother, then an art teacher and eventually a professor of art and art education, a position (at Penn State) from which I retired two years ago.

At that time, I renewed my interest in, and love of fabrics, dabbled in quilting, bought a wonderful new sewing machine and began to accumulate an array of the amazing Japanese fabrics sold by online shops, some as far away–and thanks to the web–as close as Australia. Why Australia? They are surely closer to Japan than we, and my friend Jane–who lives in Australia–sent me some of the amazing fabrics you can see in my pieces. At some time early in the year, I searched for a versatile seasonless bag, and finding none that I liked, I decided to make one for myself. I found a wonderful pattern* which I have continued to adapt and reinvent in countless mutations. I am intrigued and excited anew by the illimitable ways in which, with each different combination of fabrics, each unique embellishment, a whole new entity emerges. You can check them out at marjwilsobags.com.

*adapted from a pattern by Design and Planning Concepts