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.
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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:

WIP- Cycling Shoes, continued + lasts!

Update on the cycling shoes- I've made up a fitter on the newly remodeled last- I think I'm pretty happy with it, but tomorrow I'll try it out on one or two of the folks at my bike shop- I should be able to make up a working sample on this last. I'm not exactly looking forward to fixing the mate to this last since it was a pretty dramatic alteration. I'd hold out to be able to have it copied by my last maker- but I'm not feeling that patient!

This morning I got confirmation that my last samples are indeed on their way! I'm pretty ecstatic to see them later this week.

So, expect to see some pictorial updates by the end of the week.

In other news, my neighbors and I are starting to get organized for an open studio day on Halloween - once there are details, I will post.

Last Progress

I talked to my last maker yesterday and he thinks he'll get my samples out today (fingers crossed!). According to his measurements the "Princess" measures quite a bit wider than I calculated - that's why I'm getting samples - at least it's some information I can compare with the process I use.

Also yesterday, I threw a heel stiffener onto the fitter model for the bike shoe last, so I can get a little bit better information off of it. A few of the guys at my bike shop tried it on. The results were interesting and also caused me to reexamine my assessment of the fit on myself.

Today, I experimented with some ideas I had for taking measurements from the foot and the last and apply better information. After fairly extensive reshaping of the last it measures true to a 10D:



This weekend I'll redraft the patterns and make a new fitter. If all goes well, I still need to reshape the mate to this one. Hopefully I'll have some WIP to show off on Monday or Tuesday.