This blog is changing homes.

Hi all. I haven't posted nearly as much as I'd like to on this blog. I'm still quite active with respect to shoe making, but I've found it hard to maintain multiple blogs, especially when there's so much overlap between the different projects. From now on, I'll be posting any shoe-related material at http://www.redcoverstudios.com/blog. I'll tag any shoe posts with "shoes".

In addition, I've often found that there are plenty of twitter updates that those interested in shoe-making might find interesting. Follow me at http://twitter.com/tmaiorana On twitter, I'll tag shoe content with #shoes, or #shoemaking

See you over at the other blog. Take care.

Looking for Lasts?

I met a fellow shoemaker today who has quite a few lasts that she'd like to send to a good home. Most of them are unisex-ish style, but you would be able to modify them quite easily. If you'd be interested in purchasing a pair from her, send me your size and I'll see what kind of inventory she has for you.

Making lasts is fun, but it's also really time consuming. If you are interested in making shoes, I'd definitely try to get a last from her.

Thanks for coming to Maker Faire!

Thanks to all of you who showed up to the demo at Maker Faire. I know I was trying to cover a lot in a short amount of time, but stay tuned for the blog post at Craft for more details.

Some of you asked about books on last making and shoe making. One of the best places I've found is Walrus Shoe. http://www.walrusshoe.com/books_home.htm They are great folks. And I just noticed that they now have a "Comprehensive Guide" to shoemaking. It's pricey at $125, but probably well worth it.

Also, for those of you interested in buying a stock last, I may be able to hook you up with someone who's looking to sell quite a few. Will have more details shortly.

Speaking at Maker Faire (Bay Area 2009)

I'm going to be speaking at the Bay Area Maker Faire in the Bay Area in May. This year, I'm going to be giving a demo about ways to make lasts. There isn't that much time, but it should be enough to give you an overview. Make it if you can.

Making Lasts and Rediscovering the computuer.

One question that continues to come up for people getting into shoe making is how to find/make lasts. Finding them is great, but it means that you need to 1) find a last. Not always easy. 2)Hope it's your size and 3)Hope that you like the style.

Granted, there's quite a few things you can do to alter a last, but still, sometimes making them may be your only option. I've altered the be-Jesus out of one last in order to get it to fit my needs, (both style and size), and I've made a pair of lasts , but they weren't particularly successful.

I'm giving it another go, this time with the instructions in George Koleff's great book. You can get it from the folks at Walrus and they are super nice.

At any rate, two things I've discovered so far as I'm working on this set of lasts. The first is that I miss working with real wood. MDF sands really well and it's easy to find, but I was looking at an antique last that I have, and it's just so much more beautiful when you can see the lines of the grain. And I can still remember the smell of the wood that used for the first lasts I made. Oh well.

The other thing that I've realized is how useful it is to employ the service of the computer. I'm a designer, so I live in Photoshop and Illustrator, but I've tended to keep those tools separate from my work with shoe design. However, in this latest round of last design, I started using illustrator to measure, plot and print patterns for the lasts. It's been a great tool. If you have it, I highly recommend using it. And by the way, it's also a great way to share patterns. Here's the insole pattern for the last I'm building.

Fluevog In Store Event

If you are looking to talk to a real-live shoe designer, check this out. I'll be there tomorrow. I'm also working on a low slipper inspired boots for guys. I'll post a few picts as they come. Here are my initial sketches.




Oh, and since I've recently started a company with a bunch of great folks, I'm also blogging here.

Modular Experiments

Sorry, I've been gone a while. I've been starting a business, so I'm pretty busy these days. However, I got an interesting email from a guy who has been thinking about the modular shoe stuff. I'd done quite a few experiments with that while I was in grad school. You can take a look at some of the explorations here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8170698@N06/sets/72157608446471342/