Rock Rags is my passion project. My goal is to build a career in which I can design, ideate, and fabricate prototypes or end products for the athletic and/or outdoor marketplace. I'm an athlete, an artist, and a lover of the outdoors. A project in which I can merge any combination of these is one that I want to be a part of.

 

For years, I have been accumulating my old track and field meet shirts, off-cuts from personal sewing projects, and various trims and notions from creative reuse stores in both Philadelphia and Portland. It was after an evening spent cobbling together a chalk bag with friends that I decided to combine my interest in climbing and my love of crafting functional products or clothing out of salvaged and upcycled materials.

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Inspired by topographical surveys and the vertical layers of a crag, these chalk bags introduce vibrant color and texture to a climber’s ensemble. I have used donated shoelaces, lanyards, and various fabric strips to compose textiles and introduce the associated closure components and

attachments for climbing accessories. Each bag has its own character, imagined through color blocking, free-motion stitching, quilting, fraying, and patchwork techniques. The Rock Rags emblem has been inked onto each looped tag using a hand-carved linocut stamp. I sell my bags on Instagram, Shopify, Etsy, and pop-up art markets in Portland, Oregon.