Maccha Moon Bag - Blue Moon

A hand-felted wool shoulder bag shaped like a crescent moon, worked in deep blue and carried on a handwoven dhaka strap. The body is felted from natural sheep wool, firm enough to keep its curve when the bag is empty and soft enough to sit against you when it is full. The strap is the part worth looking at twice. Dhaka is Nepal’s own handwoven cloth, worked on a handloom in geometric patterns the weaver counts out by hand instead of following a printed design, which is why no two lengths of it repeat exactly. It is the cloth of the dhaka topi, the cap that forms part of Nepali national dress, and of the shawls and blouses brought out for weddings and for Dashain and Tihar; Palpa in the west and Terhathum in the east are the weaving towns people know it by. Using it for the strap means the part of the bag that rests against you is the part that carries the tradition. Because the body is felted by hand, the depth of the curve, the shade of the blue and the thickness of the felt come out a little different every time — yours will not be identical to the photograph, and that is the point. The strap adjusts with a slider, so it wears cross-body or on the shoulder. Ships worldwide from our Vancouver store with live carrier rates at checkout.

Every piece is worked individually, so colour, thickness and finish vary a little from one to the next. That variation is a feature of the craft, not a flaw.