Hands on my art

Spanish package holidays are not usually life-changing experiences. Especially if it's not actually your holiday. But when Carla Ballantine's mum returned from a break abroad last summer she had a major impact on her daughter's future. And it was all down to a cigar box handbag.

"It was really unusual," says Carla, 30, of Bootham. "It had a Fifties pin-up on the side showing her stocking top. For some reason, mum thought of me. And she was right. I loved it."

She was running an antique jewellery business at the time under her brand name Sugar Jones, but was not happy sitting behind the counter all day. Instead, she wanted to make something using her hands and her talents as a graphic designer.

"The shop was draining my time, my energy and my resources, so I decided to give it up and concentrate on getting my creative life back," she says.

"I love retro things. Fabulous design for me is all in the detail. If I do something I do it right. So I started researching cigar box bags on the Internet. It was completely new to me and I was hooked."

Cigar box handbags, made from original wooden cigar boxes, are not a new fashion phenomenon. They have been popular in America since the 1950s, and have enjoyed a massive resurgence in the US in recent years.

Carla bought a couple of boxes off the Internet and began to work on them. She used her skills as a graphic artist to create unusual images to give each a unique look.

She made vintage bead handles and attached delicate metal clasp locks. And, finally, she lined them with luxurious fabrics.

"I couldn't put a price on them because there was nothing else like them on the market here," she says. "They were immediately snapped up by friends. Looking back now I realise they got a real bargain.

"I sell them as pieces of art. As I make more, I hang them from the picture rail in my dining room. People simply come in and choose the one that takes their fancy.

"They are pieces of art you can put your lippy in."

Carla has now made 35 bags. Each takes her about 12 hours to make and sells for between £120 and £300.

The collection, which includes Bollywood bags, pin-up bags, taxi bags, VW Beetle bags and - wait for it - Chopper bike bags, is now on display at the Gateway Internet Caf in Swinegate. The exhibition, called "cigART", runs until April 3.

"I can create anything I want," says Carla. "The freedom is incredible.

"When I was a graphic designer I had to work for clients, often producing work they liked and I didn't. Now I get out of bed every morning eager to get working. These bags are me."

She is now working on three boxes with a wedding theme: two for the bridesmaids and one for the bride.

"I didn't want to go all hearts and flowers and cute cupids, so I've gone for a whole Billy Idol White Wedding thing instead," says Carla.

She has to import most of her boxes from America. One local tobacconist puts boxes aside for her, but this is not enough to cater for demand for her bags.

The response to her cigar box creations has been overwhelmingly positive and she is now considering launching a whole range of fashion items under the Sugar Jones label.

"I discovered Sugar Jones in an old Osmonds annual," explains Carla. "She was a leggy, blonde Seventies comic book character with a massive ego.

"I wasn't keen on her image, but I loved the name. How fantastic would it be to be called Sugar Jones?"

She created her own character - a svelte, sexy Betty Boop-like girl with large, heavily kohled eyes - and began using her to brand her work.

She started by printing up dozens of Sugar Jones postcards and pinning them up in bars and clubs all over York. When she returned two weeks later, every one had disappeared.

"People really loved her," says Carla. "Some had taken her home and stuck her on their fridge, others had posted her to friends in America and I know of at least one person who framed three postcards and put Sugar on their wall."

She is concentrating on her bags for the moment, but is looking forward to expanding her home-based business in the future.

One thing is for certain, whatever her label is on, Carla will always make sure that Sugar looks her best.

"I'm a bit of a perfectionist," she says. "Clothes, jewellery, curtains and even light fittings - everything has to be just right.

"Second best is not an option.

"When you're creating collectors' items of the future only perfection will do."

Updated: 08:35 Tuesday, March 09, 2004