Handbags for every woman

WL woman uses highest quality materials to make women’s handbags in memory of her son

By Jim Hart

The West Linn Tidings, Jan 25, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jayne Dearborn is inspired to create one-of-a-kind handbag designs in a room that is a memorial to her middle son, Max Dearborn, who died of leukemia in 2001.

Jim Hart / West Linn Tidings

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For those people who want to stand out in a crowd with an exquisite handbag that looks like no other, Jayne Dearborn has an answer.

One of West Linn’s newest home businesses, Designs by Jayne incorporates fine materials into inspired designs, creating what easily could be considered artwork instead of something practical.

A true artist, Dearborn has taken her work beyond a hobby or a fun thing to do; it is her passion.

Dearborn, who has lived with her family in West Linn for 12 years, has been creative all of her life.

She was heavily involved in sewing, painting, drawing, embroidery and other arts and crafts between ages 5 and 18.

Following the death of her young son to leukemia in 2001, Dearborn tried to find something that would help her heal from the loss.

A return to the creative endeavors of her youth was the answer.

One day she walked into a fabric store and was instantly transformed into the creative person she had been.

“While I was in there,” she said, “I felt like a kid in a candy store. I saw these beautiful fabrics and trims, and I just was so excited. I hadn’t felt that excited in years.”

After putting a few designs together and asking for criticism from other women (and her husband), she was thrilled to find her designs appealing.

She was healing from the grief, and she believed that she was getting help for the transition and for the designs from her son, Max Dearborn, who died five years earlier.

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