My shoe making summer at Carreducker
Posted on
Following on from the patternmaking for shoes post I then spent the next 12 days on the Carreducker intensive shoemaking course. The course is all about traditional shoemaking techniques and everything is worked in your lap. I wanted to know more about these methods of shoe making and wanted the chance to see if I could then build on this at home. Either way I would come away with a nice pair of shoes having had a good time, or, I would confirm that I wanted to do more shoemaking in the future.
More shoemaking it would be. Adding my heel lifts almost proved to be my nemesis. I found this very tricky and did almost turn them into flat shoes. Here is a picture of my finished shoes with hand welted and hand stitched soles (check out my first attempt at mirror shine!). If you like traditional techniques then this is a great course to select. James and Deborah are excellent teachers with an excellent knowledge base. I would also recommend the pattern making course too as this helps everyone begin to understand how shoes come together.
We travelled up to Springline towards the end of August to get measured for lasts and start to choose a style of toe shape that I liked for my shoes.
I thoroughly enjoyed my shoe making summer and look forwards to more shoe adventures.
