student-made shoes – Simple Shoemaking

Beautiful felted llama-wool boots

Sharon Raymond — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:52:14 +0000

How could boots be more beautiful?! Marlice van Zandt made these by felting her own llama fleece, following directions in the video workshop (http://www.northeastfiberarts.com/feltbootworkshop.php) offered by Jennifer Hoag of Northeast Fiberarts. They were made by the resist method, meaning that a piece of plastic is inserted between two boot-shaped piles of wool batting; once this is complete, it is rolled up, wet with soapy water, and agitated until it shrinks. Then the felter puts her foot in it and agitates some more so it continues to shrink, until it fits! (only experienced felters are encouraged to take the workshop series, so this explanation is from a non-felter to others who haven’t tried this before).

a new pair of shoes from Sarah Shields

Sharon Raymond — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:32:08 +0000

A neighbor and her daughter are dedicated shoemakers, and are always creating something lovely.Here are Sarah’s latest, embellished with branches and leaves.

Angus’ Scottish shoes

Sharon Raymond — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:35:14 +0000

At a Renaissance Faire in CT a few years ago, I ran in to a fine leatherworker named Angus who surprised me with the news that he had made himself a pair of shoes by following the instructions in Crafting Handmade
Shoes. When I saw them I was amazed; they were made of vegetable-tanned leather that he had dyed black, then very skillfully-lasted. He added a layered vegetable-tanned heel and fastened them with beautiful buckles, to complete the artisan-crafted look of another time and place. Here is a photo of his shoes.

Cool topline

Sharon Raymond — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:07:42 +0000

I received a photo of the pair of shoes that was made during the last shoemaking “‘tutorial” (I’ll call it that since I teach one person at a time) I offered, and am sharing it with you. It’s a strange thing, how something like a pleasing line can create such a flow of uplifting brain chemicals – I felt such contentment when I saw the curve of the topline. It seems that the same part of my brain as finds resolution in hearing a beautiful musical chord was stimulated. I have to admit that there was one aspect of these shoes, that the photo doesn’t show, where I wish I had asked Linda to do things differently; we buffed the turned-out edge after cementing the natural rubber sole to the vegetable-tanned leather topsole. The rubber got kind of bunged-up, as we were trying to put a nice shine on the topsole. I wish I had buffed the topsole before attaching the rubber sole, and hopefully will remember to do it that way in the future.

Oh, and she didn’t plan to have little triangular punched holes on her shoes, just the “square spiral”. However, when I was demonstrating the sanding process, I knicked a little surface on the toe. Using the attitude that I was taught in a workshop of “don’t call it a mistake, make it a feature”, we added the triangles, and for me, the error definately transformed into a “feature”!

Well, you might think twice about coming to me for a shoemaking tutorial, as I am always learning (and re-learning) and experimenting right along with the student. If that’s within your comfort zone, I’m the teacher for you!