From old and unwanted to fun and stylish

By Erika Weisensee
The Portland Upside
September 2009

What happened to those old paint-by-numbers? Suzanne transformed them into useful handbags.

Eugene native Suzanne Keolker began sewing when she was a kid. She’s still sewing as an adult, yet in a new way—a green way, in fact.

About 10 years ago Suzanne pulled out her sewing machine and made her first tote bag out of an old vinyl banner. Today, she rescues items from landfills and transforms them into unique, useful and chic accessories.

Suzanne, now a Portland resident, turned her hobby into a business which she named Mugwump, after her childhood nickname. She makes tote bags, purses, pouches and other items from an array of would-be landfillers like old shower curtains, lawn chair webbing, kitchen contact paper and classroom wall maps.

As a former elementary school teacher, Suzanne loved going to SCRAP, a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting reuse through its programming and community store. That’s where she found the old orange banner. After making the first tote bag, she kept going and before long used up the whole thing.

“It’s tricky to sew with vinyl,” she says, “but I fell in love with it.”

From that point on, she began looking at things with a new eye, wondering what she could make out of the many items that people just toss out. As her creative passion grew into a new business, she eventually left her teaching job, though she still substitute teaches.

At Splurge, an artist’s co-op on NE Fremont Street, Suzanne’s creativity is on full display. Her creations include retro-chic handbags made out of discarded placemats and vintage board games, old book pages turned into pouches, and out-dated maps transformed into wallets and business card holders.

“Finding the materials is half the fun,” Suzanne says.

As her business has grown, so have the number of people who find things for her. Recently, for instance, a friend tipped her off. His school was cleaning out a storage closet and had a bunch of old classroom maps.

Suzanne’s customers enjoy buying accessories that are not only attractive but environmentally friendly. When she began selling her items a decade ago, she had to educate people about what she was doing. People didn’t always get the value of taking trash and making it into something useful. But the idea of reuse has definitely caught on.

“I don’t have to explain it anymore,” Suzanne says with a smile.
_____

Suzanne sells her items at the Portland Saturday Market and at retail boutiques in Portland. For more information visit www.imugwump.com

Erika is a writing mom. She lives in Milwaukie and teaches writing at the University of Portland.