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.
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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.

Organizing the Studio, Organizing the Blog!

I am still tweaking it and deciding what is going to stay on the about me page, but check it out. I've made an entry that talks about the kind of projects I am particularly keen to work on.

I've created a new page describing my three primary last styles. All of my lasts are available for doing custom work, including ones not showcased on my lasts page.

I may have mentioned that I wanted to build a new cutting table and possibly a divider wall? Well, as a birthday present, I was able to purchase the materials - yes! Consequently, the studio was shut down for a couple weeks(!) while I was building. I'm still cleaning (oh, the dust!) and organizing, but it is really very cool that I'm finally able to give things a proper home.

This is the new cutting table - it is very much overbuilt, but I can really heap abuse on my studio furnishings, so this is a good thing. It has a very large shelf underneath that will someday have drawers to protect rolled up leather:

Two of the legs have heavy duty casters so I can move it wheelbarrow style:


These are not the most brilliant of pictures, since the quarters are close, but I built a dividing wall to separate the "clean" from "messy" areas of the studio. One side is paneled with smooth white paneling that works as a white board to take notes on:


And on the back side, it is paneled with peg board to hang my tools over my shoemaking bench:


While the inevitable scrapes and bruises are healing, I'm putting everything away and creating task areas, such as a dedicated dye/airbrush station for working on my custom dyed pieces.

Along with everything else, the small leather goods were put on hold during the building, but I did pick up a fantastic piece of leather from Horween - it was a splurge, but it will make some really nice pieces.

This coming month is turning into a really busy time! There's some really exciting stuff I should be able to announce soon, plus I should have a few more items on Etsy soon, so keep an eye out.

State Two

The elaborate new text stuff is delayed - boo! Though I have made some good progress on it.

This is a picture of some wallet prototypes I'm working on:


They look pretty good in the picture, but I need to troubleshoot some more. I'm happy with the patterns, but I need to either 1: change the leather, 2: use a different machine than my collection, or 3: both. These are some of the items that I'll have up on Etsy soon-ish.

On a related note, I'm going to visit the tannery when I get back from a trip to Michigan - I'll be looking at new leathers for the small goods projects and shoes. I'm also looking for leather for the bike shoes and the studio dyed/colored leather investigation since one or both projects will be coming off of hiatus.

So, I'm getting back up to speed, and the studio- while still a work in progress- is becoming functional.

Fit Models Needed, Happy Accidents and Other Projects

(Edit: I've changed the e-mail attached to this post and site!)

Over the weekend I finished putting together two styles of fitter shoes on the flat last. They were delayed because I need to make some last minute changes to the last after pulling over what was supposed to be the first fitter.


So, I need two to three people to be fit models - from last weeks post:

My sample size is equivalent to a ladies size 8 in a medium width (edit: if you happen to be at a shoe store that uses one- get yourself measured on a ladies Brannock Device). I get about by bicycle and If you are within eight or so miles from Garfield park or downtown Chicago, I will travel to you (if you are in close proximity to a CTA train, I might travel further). The initial measuring and evaluation process should take under an hour, and subsequent sessions will likely be only a few minutes depending on whether there are multiple styles to evaluate.

There are multiple stages in the fit process:

1) Determine if a candidate is suitable as a fit model. This involves measuring and evaluating a persons foot - persons who have known issues should inform me of those prior to the "interview" with your feet (please keep in mind that the lasts I design have a fairly generous foot-bed at the ball). If a person falls within the needed range, we move on to step 2.

2) collect data by trying out a fitter shoe/sample on multiple fit models to be used in adjusting the sample last.

3) After a base fit is established, follow up sessions will be used to evaluate individual shoe styles.

Compensation will be discussed on an individual basis. If you are interested in taking part in this, please send me an e-mail at this address with "fit model" in the topic:

curious@riotgeer.com

I'll continue developing designs for the "collection", but until I can do fit evaluations, the flat last will be put on the backburner. I'm pretty excited about this last, so I'm hoping to get some responses for potential fit models soon.
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I thought I'd share some details on the fitter. I designed the lacing placket on the tied shoe on a whim, and I really like it. I think I can incorporate it into a collection of styles I'm developing for this last:


I like happy accidents that can inspire details in a project. While lacing up the fitter, the lace got twisted and caught on the toe- this could be a neat detail if I can work it into a toe cap or some-such so it is functional:

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Other items:

While I'm setting aside the flat last development until fitting, I'm going to try to make progress on the bike shoe.

I'm also working on some small cut and sew items that I can make up for sale. The small bags got stalled in a big way (ridiculous technical details - blah), but I'm hoping to make some progress while working on other new items.

The leather ties have been languishing in Etsy oblivion - I haven't gotten any feedback on them and it's frustrating. They are kind of stand-alone items right now - they need other similarly styled offerings nearby to grab attention. Something else to figure out - input on how to market them or even other items (related or not) you'd like to see would be greatly appreciated.

That's all for now - time to get to the studio!