St. James Art Fair & Fashionable Reading

So I went to the St. James Art Fair this weekend. I think it's like Louisville's own holiday considering how massive it is, the renown, the huge number of people; they close down like 3rd and 4th street for the whole weekend and some schools even get out for it. It's held in St. James Court--the nice, historic part of Old Louisville. In addition to artists from Louisville, there's tons of artists from all over the nation. There's a variety of artwork from paintings, photographs, sculptures, metal work, jewelry, clothes, and other accessories. Just about everything imaginable. You get to walk by all the beautiful, historic mansions--including my favorite, the pink house--it's haunted too!


The past two years, I've bought prints from artist Vincent Flemming. He paints gorgeous fantasy images in oil. Most of them include fairies, unicorns, and dragons and books.

This year though, I discovered and had to have a book purse! I spotted the Twilight purse hanging up from a distance. I thought, "oooh that looks pretty, let's see what else is in that booth" (note: I dislike the book, but the purse was beautiful). I poked my head in and lo and behold, I saw a purple Shakespeare purse! Then I saw a Wicked (the musical) purse! I was squeeing like a little kid and babbling excitedly to Dustin.

The artist is Karla Staley and here's a link to her site. She makes purses out of playbills, book covers, record albums, game boards and magazine covers. Her Harry Potter purses are actually touring with the Magic of Harry Potter exhibit that was in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry! The purses normally sell for around $52 dollars, the museum gift shop was selling them for $100!

She's really nice; I talked to her about how the purses were made, and she told me she was stickler for quality. She uses real book covers, though that means she has to take the pages out of them. She promised if I had any problems with the purse to contact her and she'd repair it. She also does custom purses! I bought the purple Shakespeare sonnet purse. As you can see it has a gorgeous double, beaded handle, and is an "open clasp" style. I can adjust the "string" part to allow for expansion. It's pretty awesome! I'm asking for another purse for my birthday. I'm also looking for a copy of one of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness books that's big enough to be made into a purse.

St. James is so fantastic; it's a place to find and buy unique stuff no one else has. I love seeing and drooling over all the gorgeous artwork! If only, I was loaded and had a huge house. One of my favorite events of the year! Already, I've received so many compliments of my purse! Plus, it's a great way of expressing my personality as a reader and English major. I was telling the artist I should create a collection of classic literature purses; and she was like, "Please do!" :)