Every bag here is built on brass. Some are cast solid and worked by hand into a fish, a heart, a box pierced with light. Others are frames, a band of brass fitted to the mouth of a shell the ocean spent years building.

The metal

Solid brass, not plated. Cast, then hammered, pierced or engraved by hand. It darkens over time, fastest where your hand holds it. That is the metal behaving like metal, not a fault, and a jeweler's cloth brings the glow back. How to care for a brass bag.

What it holds

Some pieces are built around something else: glass stones held by gold pressed around each edge, freshwater pearls wired into the surface, a slice of natural blue agate cut and polished before it is set. Nothing is glued.

The shell pieces

A few begin with a shell instead of a mold. Conch and mother-of-pearl, framed in brass, iridescent in a way metal cannot be. Because the ocean makes each shell, no two are alike. The guide to shell clutch bags.

Made by hand in India. How a hand-cast brass bag is made and shell craft.