Yoga Mat Bags...or Carry On, Weekend Bag
or a Travel Duffle for your stuff...
Fantastic Multi-use Duffle for YOU....
Alice's Tapestries began in a basement of Washington Park in Denver, Colorado in 1995. Alice had made tapestry bags initially for her two beloved grandmothers who had a great influence over her life. Their birthdays fell within days of each other, and so falling in love with a tapestry fabric from the well known Denver Fabrics, Alice made two bags which were loved and carried by her grandmothers to the end of their lives.
The following year 1994 Alice made a group of bags for her friends, sisters and Mom. They loved them and their freinds wanted them. It was work to put them together so...
...as Alice tells it "I had just made 15 of them and had little interest in making more. It took me months to finally make one for myself. When I did I wandered about the planet, as one does, and store owners, people on the street all commented. But it was a great art and craft store in Santa Cruz, CA. that wanted to know where I had gotten my bag, and that had me sitting up and paying attention. It was a very nice store with high quality craft and art. She told me that if I made more she would buy them. Really?! It was another year before I launched the line. I hired a freind and excellent sewer, Kelle Brooks, and together we designed a line of bags ranging from cosmetic bags to duffle bags."
"We built inventory and I learned the business... I remember not caring what anyone thought or said. I was going to make these bags and sell them, period. And I did. Initially, I called on any store in Colorado that I could. I learned from some that they were too expensive and went on to the next store. I knew the towns that I could count on. Telluride, Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs. Needless to say, it was a gorgeous journey. The mountains and the scenery were breathtaking and it was a joy to go from store to store meeting the owners and wandering the mountains and mountain towns."
"One by one, I collected stores, traveled to my home town, borrowed my parent's car, loaded it up with bags and again went from store to store. Making sure my travels always led me to Annapolis to dangle my feet in the water when I was done. I rarely stopped. A woman on a mission. So this is what it felt like to live your dream. Wow. Nice. I met hundreds of people all so nice and astoundingly, I gathered checks as I went. Eventually, I had my bags carried in 600+ stores over the course of the business. Museum stores, boutiques, high end department stores and occasionally a store from overseas. My bags traveled far and wide. Friends and customers would order them by the half dozen and send them to family in Europe. I loved to think of the bags being carried in Paris and London."
"Each bag was decorated as one of a kind. Though, if I was particularly enamoured with a button on a particular bag, I would make a few. Originally I bought buttons for the bags... the coolest ones I could find. Then feeling stifled, Stephanie Parnell, my beloved assistant of many years and I found a woman who taught us how to work with Polymer Clay... all bets were off. On my portfolio page you can see the where the buttons evolved to. Interestingly, the buttons started getting bigger and bigger in my need to express design and color, so that particular joy led me to painting. You never know where it is going to take you. Life, art, choices...."
"Once I started making my own buttons the bags really took off. I still hear from people that have bags a decade old lamenting the loss of their button, wanting to know if they could get another. Yes, of course! Warming to the heart to know they are so cared for and loved. It is why I do what I do. Once someone asked me years ago if it was hard to let them go because they were so beautiful. 'No', I replied. I want them to go to good homes. "
This journey has been blessed. Before I founded Alice's Tapestries my father used to say I was a member of 'job of the month club", which I did not ALWAYS find funny. I was forty when I started and had held countless jobs. Mostly sales jobs, which clearly came in very handy. I worked for TRW, Inc., and sold auto parts in the aftermarket in five states, I ran a classic car dealership on Hilton Head Island, I wrote for a newpaper, I sold paper, cars, nutritional products, did multilevel marketing(particular misery), and I had a training company. I either eaked by or I did well, but most importantly I lived my life. Never in a million years did I think I would be an award winning handbag designer and be called an artist. My gratitude for my life is profound and touches me deeply. All the people I met along the way... the ones that stayed and the ones that drifted off... bless you all for being part of my journey.
Alice Monroney is a native of Washington, D.C. and fondly says she was 'born and regulated' there. She now lives in Tesuque, NM. outside Santa Fe.
Alice Monroney's family history is well documented. She is the direct decendent of two signers of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Chase and Oliver Wolcott. Oliver's father Roger was Connecticut's Royal Governor. Alice's great uncle, Henry Bacon, was the architect for the Lincoln Memorial. Her great uncle was George Bancroft, American historian and Secretary of Navy, her great grandfather was Thomas Peabody Mellon and first cousin to Andrew Mellon, the founder and benefactor for The National Musuem of Art in Washington named for Andrew's father. Lucius Tuckerman her great grandfather was one of the founders of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Alice is researching her family for a book about a family throughout American History. Her grandfather was Sen. A.S. Mike Monroney (D-Ok), and her father was a reporter for The Washington Post.
The following year 1994 Alice made a group of bags for her friends, sisters and Mom. They loved them and their freinds wanted them. It was work to put them together so...
...as Alice tells it "I had just made 15 of them and had little interest in making more. It took me months to finally make one for myself. When I did I wandered about the planet, as one does, and store owners, people on the street all commented. But it was a great art and craft store in Santa Cruz, CA. that wanted to know where I had gotten my bag, and that had me sitting up and paying attention. It was a very nice store with high quality craft and art. She told me that if I made more she would buy them. Really?! It was another year before I launched the line. I hired a freind and excellent sewer, Kelle Brooks, and together we designed a line of bags ranging from cosmetic bags to duffle bags."
"We built inventory and I learned the business... I remember not caring what anyone thought or said. I was going to make these bags and sell them, period. And I did. Initially, I called on any store in Colorado that I could. I learned from some that they were too expensive and went on to the next store. I knew the towns that I could count on. Telluride, Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs. Needless to say, it was a gorgeous journey. The mountains and the scenery were breathtaking and it was a joy to go from store to store meeting the owners and wandering the mountains and mountain towns."
"One by one, I collected stores, traveled to my home town, borrowed my parent's car, loaded it up with bags and again went from store to store. Making sure my travels always led me to Annapolis to dangle my feet in the water when I was done. I rarely stopped. A woman on a mission. So this is what it felt like to live your dream. Wow. Nice. I met hundreds of people all so nice and astoundingly, I gathered checks as I went. Eventually, I had my bags carried in 600+ stores over the course of the business. Museum stores, boutiques, high end department stores and occasionally a store from overseas. My bags traveled far and wide. Friends and customers would order them by the half dozen and send them to family in Europe. I loved to think of the bags being carried in Paris and London."
"Each bag was decorated as one of a kind. Though, if I was particularly enamoured with a button on a particular bag, I would make a few. Originally I bought buttons for the bags... the coolest ones I could find. Then feeling stifled, Stephanie Parnell, my beloved assistant of many years and I found a woman who taught us how to work with Polymer Clay... all bets were off. On my portfolio page you can see the where the buttons evolved to. Interestingly, the buttons started getting bigger and bigger in my need to express design and color, so that particular joy led me to painting. You never know where it is going to take you. Life, art, choices...."
"Once I started making my own buttons the bags really took off. I still hear from people that have bags a decade old lamenting the loss of their button, wanting to know if they could get another. Yes, of course! Warming to the heart to know they are so cared for and loved. It is why I do what I do. Once someone asked me years ago if it was hard to let them go because they were so beautiful. 'No', I replied. I want them to go to good homes. "
This journey has been blessed. Before I founded Alice's Tapestries my father used to say I was a member of 'job of the month club", which I did not ALWAYS find funny. I was forty when I started and had held countless jobs. Mostly sales jobs, which clearly came in very handy. I worked for TRW, Inc., and sold auto parts in the aftermarket in five states, I ran a classic car dealership on Hilton Head Island, I wrote for a newpaper, I sold paper, cars, nutritional products, did multilevel marketing(particular misery), and I had a training company. I either eaked by or I did well, but most importantly I lived my life. Never in a million years did I think I would be an award winning handbag designer and be called an artist. My gratitude for my life is profound and touches me deeply. All the people I met along the way... the ones that stayed and the ones that drifted off... bless you all for being part of my journey.
Alice Monroney is a native of Washington, D.C. and fondly says she was 'born and regulated' there. She now lives in Tesuque, NM. outside Santa Fe.
Alice Monroney's family history is well documented. She is the direct decendent of two signers of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Chase and Oliver Wolcott. Oliver's father Roger was Connecticut's Royal Governor. Alice's great uncle, Henry Bacon, was the architect for the Lincoln Memorial. Her great uncle was George Bancroft, American historian and Secretary of Navy, her great grandfather was Thomas Peabody Mellon and first cousin to Andrew Mellon, the founder and benefactor for The National Musuem of Art in Washington named for Andrew's father. Lucius Tuckerman her great grandfather was one of the founders of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Alice is researching her family for a book about a family throughout American History. Her grandfather was Sen. A.S. Mike Monroney (D-Ok), and her father was a reporter for The Washington Post.
Alice in 2010 in Santa Barbara, California at her Great Grandparen'ts house built in 1913.
