Shayla Su: Decorative Ceramic Handbags

Shayla Su is a really cool artist. Her medium is ceramics and we have completely fallen for her hand-built handbags. She says she was inspired to create them while walking the streets of Venice seeing handbags there she could not bring home. In her words . . .

“When we visited the ancient city of Venice, Italy, in 2003, it was with the intention to view its art and architecture. Instead, I became enthralled by the myriad handbags displayed so opulently in Venice's shops – their sculptural nature was a revelation. Since I couldn’t take them all home with me, I found a lasting way to bring their beauty into my life.”

When we were in Venice last Spring the art scene became completely overwhelming for us. We were really following the glass path, but handbags did come into focus for Karen. It took us until we got to Florence, however, for her to find the one she wanted to bring home. I kept telling her she could have only one, not the hundreds we saw, which was always a difficult conversation. Suffice it to say I spent a lot of time in Italy on the couch. Just kidding. Anyways . . .

Back to Shayla Su. She has a little one running around her house and has therefore been on maternity leave for some time now. This recently created a dilemma for us as we want to sell her handbags but she isn’t planning to make anymore anytime soon. After a brief discussion amongst the principals at the Red Elephant Gallery, we decided to jump in and pretty much bought her inventory. They really look fantastic so please visit Shayla Su’s portion of our site for your share of exquisite colors in the handbags we have.