Bike Shoes Progress

Things are certainly coming along with the shoes I'm making for the Bike Chic fashion show - here's a look at them so far:


The shellac isn't as nice as the trial I did last year, but I think for now it turns out how it turns out, so they are ready for soling, which starts tomorrow.

The fittings are this weekend, so that is my deadline - maybe I'll have a chance to make up the red ones before the show?


Oh, and visit my Etsy Store and buy things!

These Could Be Yours Now...

They're made of leather and they're for sale!

Small Things!

My headache finally went away late this morning - it's been one of those ones that's not excruciating in the way I imagine a migraine would be, but it sort of clouded everything and made me swear alot. I blame the wacky weather we've been having this Spring. But the good news is I've finished with the fun stuff! I have a pile of small leather items to put up on Etsy:



There really was a pile and there is even photographic evidence because sometimes I'm easily amused... but I can't show it to you now because that camera isn't at home. It also has all the nice pictures of what's about to be up for sale. So tonight and tomorrow morning I'm working on a spreadsheet for costing the items - I'll edit the pictures tomorrow sometime and get the listings up.

I'll be introducing two styles of wallets and two types of single loop key fobs.
The first is the same as ones I did last year, but using Horween leather:


And the second one is the Bondage fob:

Instead of the "D" ring I usually use for the snap to attach, I used a steel "O" ring - not the most original name, but it'll work.

So, I'll leave you with the prototype wallet and say goodnight:

Appearing Soon!

I wanted to let people know what stuff to be on the look out for coming up really soon.

On June 9th, Chicago is presenting the Bike Chic: Commuter Fashion show as part of it's Bike to Work Week, being put on by Bike Chicago.

A while back when I found that a friend, Seth Meyerink-Griffin, was possibly taking part in a bike fashion show, it seemed like an ideal time to take my bike shoe explorations off of hiatus.

Well, Seth is doing the show! As of now, my participation is kind of unofficial, but I will be providing the shoes worn by his models for the Bike Chic show. The shoe lasts I was modifying recently are for one of the pairs of shoes being modeled.

Here are a couple images I'm basing my designs off of - just a couple quick sketches from my sketchbook. These aren't the final designs and I'm working with Seth to keep the color story coherent, so this is just a little something:


Bike related things have been at the forefront of my brain for a while now, and I'm happy to have found something to spur new activity on the bike shoes.
__________

In other news, I've had a delay with the hardware for the small leather goods, so I can't finish them up before I go out of town for family stuff. Final assembly will happen Monday and Tuesday, and I'll be listing things on my Etsy site in the evenings as they are finished.

I will be doing a new style of single key fob, as well as the old ones, but in new leathers. I am introducing two wallet styles - one is a chain style with the double looped fob, and the other is something to put in your pocket or bag and can be outfitted with a grommet for a chain if desired. Here is a shot of the prototype chain wallet with fob:

... and here's my little assembly line:


So that is all for now. I'll definitely put up a post when I get the Etsy listings up and running, but I also have had some things on my mind that I'm pulling together. They're related to current projects and I'd like to get some feedback on them, so I'm going to put some of them to text while I'm on the train.

They Will Be Shoes!

I am working on some shoes for something upcoming (tease!) and I'm working on modding a pair of athletic lasts I've had floating around for a bit. The project is coming up soon enough that the lasts and shoes need to be good first time out, so I'm taking it slow and steady.

The technique for reducing the vertical height of the last uniformly from the bottom of the last uses a flex-shaft, drill bit and a stop-collar:



I've drilled two different depths, so when I rasp down the remaining material, I will have to blend the curves:



A little tool I've had for many years, that has proven to be invaluable to me, is this little miniature spoke shave. I use it to make fine adjustment and smooth out the bottoms of lasts:


I have a great deal of shaping left to do, so I'm expecting to be working on it most of the week between other projects and studying/research:

Dye!

I had one of those happy accidents that can yield some really neat results. When mixing dye for a project, I got this sweet acid green that contrasts really neatly with a tipping of orange when it's applied to a textured leather:


I'm experimenting with finishing techniques to keep the brightness and high contrast - otherwise, it results with the color close to what I was actually shooting for (but am less excited about):


Bikes have been on my mind a lot lately, so here is my photo album from the 2009 NAHBS... just because everything is so very, very pretty: