Chelle Summer

The Inspiration Runs Deep

Michelle Rusk

My parents had a walk-in closet and when you entered it, my mom’s things were on the left. The first items hanging that I remember were a macramé plant holder (I’m not sure what happened– somehow she never had a spot to hang it in the house nor did we have many house plants although the gardens outside were expansive).

But on that same hanger was a bucket bag– Mom’s pool/beach bag. It had offi-white trim and was blue with sort of an ocean print on it. I remember things like anchors in the print. That bag is what inspired the bucket bags that started Chelle Summer.

I don’t know what happened to Mom’s bucket bag, I’m sure at some point she either threw it away because it was torn or she donated it. But I do know that it has remained in the back of my mind for many years and that, because I’ve never seen anything like it, I knew that I had to recreate something similar to fulfill that memory.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the measurements right on the bags and then I made other changes (like figuring out a base I was happy with) and finally moving to vinyl for the base and top trim. The bags now resemble, as much as possible, Mom’s pool bag.

In the same vein, the floral print on the bucket bag in the photo reminds me of my Grandma Zurawski. I can feel the red heavy carpet under my feet and the sound the floors made as you walked down the hall. I can smell the linen closet on the left and that floral terrycloth fabric reminds me of the towels she had. I have another bag I made to sell and women always stop and say it reminds me then of their grandmas.

“In a good way,” one said.

We don’t often realize what inspires us is somehow rooted in our past, in our memories. As I talked about last week, about the motels keeping me connected to my family members who had died, so do the objects I remember and those that I find to repurpose. The inspiration was born from living life, from the things around me.

They are what inspire me to make new items to be used and enjoyed. And tell new stories.