Forest Hills Woman Featured at Shadyside Arts Festival

Jamie Murphy’s senses come alive as she creates art from leather, a material she shapes into handcrafted purses and bags.

Featured this weekend at the Shadyside Arts Festival, Murphy of started her homegrown business, Luna Jaze, five years ago after creating a bag for herself.

“I let the leather inspire me,” Murphy said. “It’s very much like sculpting.”

The festival is this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Walnut Street, or at the navigational address of 739 Bellefonte Street, which is right at the corner. Murphy will have more than 100 leather handbags, purses and clutches for sale, from prices ranging from $45 to $600.

“It’s going on 14 years and is one of the highest-end arts festivals in the area,” Murphy said. “There are more than 50 vendors who represent $115 million worth of art collectively.”

The Shadyside Arts Festival offers gifts that range from $25 to $30K.

“You can get whimsical art, really fine arts and the nice thing about it is that it’s gallery quality—and the artists are there to talk to you about their work,” Murphy said. “It’s a really professionally done event and they have both national and regional artists.”

Originally a painter who earned a studio arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh, Murphy said she stumbled into the leather bags business after making her own purse. After taking her new hobo bag that converted into a sling style out for a shopping trip, a man begged to buy it off of her shoulder—her first official sale.

“My daughter wanted a versatile bag for school, and it’s a really classic, slouchy bag that has pockets on the outside, and my other daughter wanted a bag she could travel with,” she said. “She is a photographer and she travels internationally, so I made a saddle bag. It just kind of snow balled from that and people started asking me for bags.”

Last year, she went live on Etsy, immediately selling out of the purses she had already made. She has been sewing ever since to get ready for this weekend’s arts festival, she said.

In addition to creating high end art through leather, she creates peace clutch bags from limited edition leather, while at the same time, giving back to the community. Five percent of the proceeds from her peace bags go towards the Braddock Library.

“A lot kids do not have access to computers and books and if the library is closed, what are we going to do in this country?” Murphy said.

The Luna Jaze bags come in all sizes, are organically shaped, come with credit card pockets on the inside and a space for a cell phone.
She also adds silver bangles and antique buttons to the purses, while some have Riri zippers, which are featured on Prada bags.

A Cancer sign, Murphy said she is always influenced by the moon, which is where the name Luna Jaze came from. Her family also called her “J,” which is where the latter half of the name comes from.

“With leather, you have to be precise,” she said. “It’s a very unforgiving medium, but the results are just—I can’t describe them—you’re using something that was a part of life at one time.”

The experience of leather is large part of the appeal, she said.

“The feel is so tactile and visual, and there is a smell that goes along with it,” she said. “You use all of your senses when you touch these bags.”

In addition to the Shadyside Arts Festival this weekend, Luna Jaze bags also are featured at Gallerie Chiz in Shadyside and can be found at www.lunajaze.etsy.com.