G'day everyone,
As you can see by my post count I'm a long time lurker that cruises the forums nearly everyday keeping up with all SZ related news.
I thought it about time that I contribute to the community with some of the things I've been working on, in this particular instance shoes.
A few months ago I decided that I'd start making shoes. The idea was to make them for myself, my partner, my family and my friends if they trusted me enough.
I promised myself that I would stick to the traditional ways and do every single thing by hand. (had no choice really)
I bought the equipment, the leather, studied various shoes I own from ccp, guidi, layer-0 etc. and also youtubed "shoe making" to death.
I was ready to go. Initially I thought to myself;
Im just going to make the first pair as rough as I can, make all the mistakes now so I can avoid doing them later and basically throw the shoes out when I'm done. I ended up making a pair of slip ons from vege tanned cow, (used throughout all the shoes in this post) hand stitched and opting for a Norwegian welt. Here is a picture:
All in all a lot was learned, I wore them around for 2 weeks trying to break them without luck so I guess I was doing something right.
Impressed by my efforts my mate (another fellow SZ'er) asked if I could make him a pair of shoes. After a few discussions we agreed on a desert boot. I was using the same leather, but this time going for the english/goodyear welt done entirely by hand. Again it was a learning experience, a few minor mistakes were made but nothing too bad. Here are the progress/finished shots of the desert-ish boot;
The infamous welt.
After hand dying/distressing achieved by soaking in water and shaping when soft.
Finished product with hand braided jute laces.
As you can see by my post count I'm a long time lurker that cruises the forums nearly everyday keeping up with all SZ related news.
I thought it about time that I contribute to the community with some of the things I've been working on, in this particular instance shoes.
A few months ago I decided that I'd start making shoes. The idea was to make them for myself, my partner, my family and my friends if they trusted me enough.
I promised myself that I would stick to the traditional ways and do every single thing by hand. (had no choice really)
I bought the equipment, the leather, studied various shoes I own from ccp, guidi, layer-0 etc. and also youtubed "shoe making" to death.
I was ready to go. Initially I thought to myself;
Im just going to make the first pair as rough as I can, make all the mistakes now so I can avoid doing them later and basically throw the shoes out when I'm done. I ended up making a pair of slip ons from vege tanned cow, (used throughout all the shoes in this post) hand stitched and opting for a Norwegian welt. Here is a picture:
All in all a lot was learned, I wore them around for 2 weeks trying to break them without luck so I guess I was doing something right.
Impressed by my efforts my mate (another fellow SZ'er) asked if I could make him a pair of shoes. After a few discussions we agreed on a desert boot. I was using the same leather, but this time going for the english/goodyear welt done entirely by hand. Again it was a learning experience, a few minor mistakes were made but nothing too bad. Here are the progress/finished shots of the desert-ish boot;
The infamous welt.
After hand dying/distressing achieved by soaking in water and shaping when soft.
Finished product with hand braided jute laces.
Comment