For Silver Spring’s Kristina Huddle, cork is useful for more than wine stoppers and bulletin boards—it’s a sustainable material for handbags and accessories.
“About eight years ago I got a small piece of cork fabric and was so intrigued by it—the feel of it,” says Huddle, who describes the texture as slightly squishy, bouncy and buttery. “Everybody that I showed it to was just loving it.”
Huddle’s home-based business, Bozie’s Bags (a nod to her childhood nickname), combines her lifelong love of sewing with providing a sophisticated, environmentally safe alternative to vinyl and leather. Cork fabric is a vegan product, is water-, scratch-, mildew- and bacteria-resistant, and can be spot cleaned. Although Huddle, 54, is not a vegan, she is an animal lover who prefers an eco-friendlier material for her products.
“I like the sustainability,” she says, “but the light weight and the fact that it’s washable are very practical.”
Huddle discovered cork fabric through a Google search for environmentally friendly materials. Since Portugal is the world’s largest cork producer, she says she began importing ethically sourced Portuguese cork fabric made from the cork oak tree, which can be shaved every nine years without causing harm.
Huddle is so enthusiastic about cork products that she and the assistant to the ambassador of Portugal connected on their mutual love of all things Portuguese when she visited Huddle’s booth at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market. From there, the Portuguese Embassy in Washington, D.C. invited her to present cork products at a 2023 European Union Open House event in the District and again this past May. To highlight aspects of the Portuguese culture and economy, Huddle gave a cork presentation, sold her products, and donated goods for gift bags.
Customers appreciate Huddle’s variety of sizes, shapes and colors, and often field questions from curious friends. “The cork is so unusual—it’s a conversation piece,” says Silver Spring customer Michelle Bouchard. “The quality of her work is amazing; I have purses that I use daily, and they last for years.”
Longtime customer Suzie Friedman met Huddle seven years ago, when their kids attended James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring. Over the years, her purse purchases have expanded.
At a wedding in Tampa last year, Friedman’s cork handbags turned heads. She brought a roomy, cranberry-hued satchel and a minimalist hunter green “Abigail” crossbody purse. One for lots of items; one for essentials.
“One of the women that I knew was like, ‘Tell me about these bags,’ ” the Silver Spring resident says. “I told her about the bags and she ordered a few—she was able to design and choose her own pattern.” Customization is a feature of Bozie’s Bags, with clients able to select a particular color of cork fabric for their order.
Huddle, a mother of three and now an empty nester, worked as a social worker for 20 years and enjoyed sewing cotton bags for her daughters’ American Girl dolls as a creative outlet. She started Bozie’s Bags in 2014, but kept her day job until 2016, when she went all in with her small business.
Huddle’s most popular items are the Abigail crossbody bag ($45) and the Jackie wristlets, which sell for $35. (She names bags after people in her life; Abigail is one of her daughters’ names.) Products are sold on Bozie’s Bags’ website, at the Olney Farmers and Artists Market, Locally Crafted in Gaithersburg, and area festivals and craft shows. Prices range from $15 for a simple card wallet to $150 for larger bags and backpacks.
“They’re beautiful bags, and they aren’t expensive, or I don’t think I’d own five of them,” Friedman says.
Huddle says she sells about 1,750 bags and accessories annually, personally sewing each one. When it comes time to make new inventory, she whips up a variety of bags in batches of 40 or 50.
“It’s definitely my go-to for a gift,” Bouchard says. “There can be anything from a small gift for under $20 or a large bag like the one I got for my sister—a new bag for her laptop.”
Working from a studio in her basement, Huddle creates bags with either of two industrial sewing machines. Two part-time employees help cut fabric for purse liners a few hours a week. The small business has grown exponentially over the past five years, and Huddle says she’ll need to make adjustments.
“I can’t keep being the only person who sews these bags—it’s not sustainable,” she says. In order to expand her business, she is considering becoming a distributor of Portuguese cork fabric in America, selling it online to fellow artisans in addition to creating her unique bags.
“I believe cork is something that should be more readily available here because of its wonderful properties,” Huddle says. “I’ve loved bringing it to the States.”