You may know Angie Crabtree from her trade-show demonstrations as the artist who does paintings of gemstones and jewelry—but do you know she’s also a handbag designer?
Crabtree has until now made hand-painted bags mainly just for close friends and collectors, but on Saturday she’s opening orders for a line of 50 leather bags, each printed with one of her diamond paintings so the bag looks like a giant version of the sparkly gem. Every bag will be signed and numbered for authenticity and collectability, Crabtree says.
“Handbags felt like the most natural next step because they sit directly between fashion, sculpture, luxury, and identity—all themes I already explore in my artwork,” she tells JCK.
“People carry handbags almost like emotional objects. They become part of someone’s self-image and daily ritual. That fascinated me. A painting lives in one place, but a handbag travels through cities, restaurants, airports, parties, ordinary moments.”
While she’s keeping this first release small, she has options to go bigger, and has ideas for future gemstone forms, colors, and shapes.
“I see this as the beginning of a larger universe rather than a one-time project. I honestly don’t know what to expect yet, which makes it exciting,” Crabtree says. “If people respond well, I’d love to continue exploring the world around it.”
When she started making hand-painted bags for acquaintances, it was a way to shift her mind from her intricately detailed gemstone paintings into other areas of creativity.
“At the time, I was spending so much of my life painting diamonds and gemstones on canvas that I became interested in the idea of turning those images into something people could physically carry and live with,” Crabtree says.
“I’ve always loved fashion and objects that exist somewhere between art and design,” she adds. “Instead of a gemstone hanging on a wall, it became something sculptural and functional moving through the world.… I think there was something playful and surreal about carrying a giant diamond as an actual object.”
Hand-painting bags was labor- and time-intensive, so Crabtree started looking into how she could create the bags without the high costs, literally and physically. The challenge was not just printing an image onto a bag but designing a bag that physically became the diamond. That’s what pushed her deeper into leather and form.
She loved the idea of creating something a little more democratic than fine art. Not everyone can buy a six-foot painting, but more people can participate in her world she is building through a handbag or accessory.
“I became interested in translating that same visual language into something more accessible and refined, through print and leather craftsmanship,” Crabtree says. “I wanted to create something that still felt collectible and artistic but could exist in a numbered edition. The printed surface actually allowed me to preserve a lot of the detail and luminosity from my original diamond paintings in a way that surprised me.”
She didn’t want the printed bags to feel mass-produced (this isn’t fast fashion, y’all), though after years of making everything by hand, Crabtree says there’s something exciting about seeing her artwork created on a larger scale.
“This is probably the first product I’ve made that feels fully merged with my identity as both an artist and a designer,” she says. “It also feels personal because I obsessed over every detail for years. The proportions, the leather, the shape, the way the print wrapped around the form, even the charm attached to the side. I wanted it to feel slightly surreal but still elegant and wearable.”
Top: A “diamond” handbag by Angie Crabtree (photos courtesy of Angie Crabtree)
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