Happy New Year

And here we are in 2013. We hope you had a fantastic festive period and a wonderful New Year. We certainly did with 12 days off work which is very rare and very welcome. We had our first day back yesterday which was, as you can imagine, a bit hellish. Needless to say, we have not done much shoemaking this week, so we do not have much to share with you.

What we can show you is some of the work which we have stacked up waiting to be done. So here goes.

First up is a pair of deer skin Derby shoes with a green shrunken calf facings detail. This is a second pair, so we can get on and make them straight away without the need for fittings.
The deer skin is very soft and because it is from a wild animal (culled in Scotland) it is uneven, with slight blemishes which gives it an interesting patina.

Next is a pair of our classic black Oxfords with a red kid lining. The customer designed the toe medallion. These are for a fist fitting, so we will brace them to a piece of insole and see the customer as soon as possible.

Next up is a pair of Derby boots in chocolate brown grain with shearling lining and purple slip beading on the top edge.

Love the slip beading, very stylish.

And these are going to be very warm winter boots. With a rubber sole? Not sure yet, will have to check with the ticket.

This is a pair of ladies pumps which are ready to brace for a first fitting. We have made a fitter upper because we anticipate a few problems with this customer in terms of fit and her fist pair will take some time to perfect. Once we have it right however, she will be able to order many more pairs.
We often make a fitter upper if we are expecting a difficult fitting stage or if the leather is particularly delicate.

And lastly, a third pair for a very good client of ours. He already has a pair of these and wants another. Obviously we are happy to oblige.

He is having a rubber Dainite sole, so we have to last them and welt them including the seat. We then send them to a company which stitches on the sole. You can't stitch on a rubber sole by hand unless you have a hollow awl which makes a hole. If you use a regular awl, the hole just closes up when you take the awl out.
They will look like this.

And that is it for this week. We wish you all a very prosperous 2013 and hope you will continue to read our blog.

And we also hope that you will continue to comment on what you read - we are always glad to hear from you.

Until next week, happy shoemaking!