Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

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Smoky Pollack

Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#1 Post by Smoky Pollack »

Just wanted to alert some of you out there that there is a 3 hr video available from Denes Szabo in Redding Ca. He is a very nice guy. I ordered the videos and found them very instructive. His phone # is (530) 244-3745. He is willing to talk to you and explain what the videos are all about.
Smoky Pollack, email:sssmoky@hotmail.com
judy mce

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#2 Post by judy mce »

Would anyone have a snail-mail address for Denes Szabo... phoning and time zones can be a problem for me;and the hotmail address quoted does not work. Thank you.
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gcunning
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#3 Post by gcunning »

Andy, I moved this discussion over here.
There is a show in Ca. in two weeks. A master shoe maker by them name of Szabo (sp?) will be there teaching a class. If you would like more info you can e-mail me in private.
gcunning@wf.net
Gary
Dick Anderson

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#4 Post by Dick Anderson »

I worked with Denes at one of his classes last summer and it was a great experience. Any chance to spend time with Denes will be worth your effort no matter what level your shoemaking is at. You are welcome to email me if you would like to know more.
Sarah Davison

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#5 Post by Sarah Davison »

Denes Szabo
6447 Mullen Pky
Redding, Ca 96001
Anonymous

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#6 Post by Anonymous »

FYI: The folks at shoeschool.com have started selling CDROM videos on shoemaking. Pricey, but the guy seems to know what he's doing...
Lisa Cresson

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#7 Post by Lisa Cresson »

Sara,
Thanks for the mention of Denes Szabo. Do you have any other contact information? And I am looking for 2 or 3 inch blackcloud soleing which appears to not exist.

Regards,
Lisa
relferink

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#8 Post by relferink »

DW,

Posted here by lack of a better category. Did not want to interrupt the side seams thread with unrelated isures.
Great idea to be able to ad some video. Glad I don't have to go through dial up. I did get the movies you posted on the test area to play after I saved them to my disk and changed the extension from .unk (the way it downloaded) to .wmv
My camera makes MPG by default, any reason to use wmv? Is it smaller to send over the Internet? Are you using any special software to edit the movies. I would want to to that and would like suggestions on cheap or free software.

I've been using Picasa by Google for my pictures, it works nice to get them to the right size and resolution for posts and it's FREEImage.
Something like that for videos would be great.

Keep up the good work, it's highly appreciated even it it's not always expressed out loud.

Rob
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#9 Post by dw »

Robert,

Yes...that's the mod I was referring to--I have to edit a file within the forum software to accept, recognize and upload .wmv files. Right now Discus simply doesn't know what to do with this file so it classifies it as UNKnown.

I use .avi for best quality and I'm planning on using .wmv for the web and for publications, simply because they are small (heaven help those still on dial-up!). But also because WinXP Pro comes with Windows Movie Maker (does XP Home come with it too?) and WMM will do most anything you need...for free. I also have Nero Vision that came with my Nero 7. I like it but of course it's not free. I looked at a lot of software--downloading trial versions of everything I could, but either they were just too complicated or didn't work on my computer (and I didn't feel like fussing to find out why) or just way more than I needed. So I went back to WMM and am pretty satified with it.

I download from my camera using firewire and straight to .avi--that's the cleanest signal you can get...period. Then the video can be converted to mpeg or wmv in Windows Movie Maker...if necessary or desired.

But, of course, the biggest reason for using wmv on the forum is that most Windows users have a version of Window Media Player on their computer (comes with Windows) and WMP will play .wmv's as a native format (it will also play avis from what I understand, but avis, being so clear are bigger files by almost tenfold, if I remember correctly)

As an aside...the biggest surprise and disappointment I came had when I got my 3ccd Panasonic (pretty recently) was finding out that image stabilization would reduce sharpness by over 30%!! I guess that optical based image stabilization works better--only 10% loss--but I can't tell you how disappointed I was in my first shoot. Once I got wise and turned IS off I was surprised again by how good it could be.

If you're thinking about attaching some video anytime soon, let me know, I'll make sure that the Forum recognizes wmv's. I was hoping to get to that this weekend but...well you know how that goes--maybe, maybe not...que sera, sera.

Tight Stitches
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relferink

Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#10 Post by relferink »

DW,

I did find Windows Movie Maker on my machine (XP home) Never knew it was there. As I mentioned my still camera also makes movies in the .MOV format (apple but windows media player will play them as well) but Movie Maker does not recognize the format. I did do a search on open source video editing software and came up with some promising options. I will keep the board posted if I find something worth writing about. I am a fan of non-Microsoft software. Not a firm rule but so far I have found good alternatives for Microsoft office, Microsoft windows (with the exception of my business financial software that still needs windows to run but Apple is working on that one) Internet explorer, outlook and in fact most Microsoft programs.

I'm still playing with my new camera and the movies. A nice one I made the other day from a big turkey in our yard is hard to watch since I held the camera sideways and unlike pictures there is no easy way to turn the movie (unless you use Movie Maker).

No worries on getting the forum ready for movies in a hurry, I love the idea but to actually having to “starâ€
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#11 Post by dw »

Robert,

I too use as much non-microsoft as I can. But at some point---when you're looking at at least $100 for a reasonable alternative, for instance (and more like $500-$600.00 for the top of the line)--one comes to the conclusion very quickly that some software by Microsoft is pretty dern good. Image

And I think that it's a pretty objective conclusion. Microsoft has it's problems and Windows does too, but all things being equal, WinXP performs well within expectations for any operating system and some of the aplets are actually market leaders...for a reason.

I've never used Word but I always liked Access (for the limited usage I put it to as Guild Membership chair). I have never liked Outlook or IE but Windows Media Player is just about as good as it gets--in terms of what it's bottom line functionality is, as opposed to bells and whistles.

But the same thing can be said of other players like Adobe. I own and use some Adobe products but not many. For every lick of functionality that Illustrator provides CorelDraw will match it at one-quarter the price. And while PhotoShop is unquestionably the king, for everyone but professional graphic artists, Corel PhotoPaint will never let you down...again at one-quarter the price--ifn fact, you can purchase CorelDraw, PhotoPaint, a 3D app, a trace app, an OCR, and a font manager all in one package for roughly half of what you'd pay for PhotoShop alone.

I have looked at and tried almost every freebie there is and while many of them are very good, most of the time...especially when you want your work and your output to be as good as you can make it...they all just fall a little short of the mark. And what else would you expect? That's why they are free.

That said I have Open Office on my computer although I use WordPerfect. I have Opera and IE and use Mozilla. Have Outlook and use Poco--and if I didn't have Poco, I'd use Thunderbird in lieu of Outlook.

Bottom line...I guess you have to decide how much your photos or movies mean to you. For my photos and illustrations...going in my books, as they do...I want them to be as good as my limited intelligence and knowledge can yield. For my movies...personal enjoyment and perhaps some "shorts" to post on the Forum or in a book...I can live with a lot less than Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier.

Just rambling...

Tight Stitches
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#12 Post by petra »

Hi... I am wondering if anyone has seen or knows of the Footwear and Leather Training Videos made by Wilson Gracey?
thanks,
Petra
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#13 Post by farmerfalconer »

Can anyone reccomend an in depth video on measuring feet, transfering the measurments to the last, and then fitting them up? This is one area where I have a hard time learning from a book. (Plus measuring my own feet accurately is hard.)

Thanks,

Cody
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#14 Post by kemosabi »

Our own Lisa Sorrell has some good youtube videos that cover the basics of measuring and transferring to a last, especially for someone who has some experience to know what she's talking about.

Also; I imagine DW covers this in his videos, but he would have to confirm that as I haven't seen them yet.

One thing you'll run into: Each maker has their own approach to measuring and fitting.

Cheers,
-Nat
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#15 Post by dw »

kemosabi wrote: Also; I imagine DW covers this in his videos, but he would have to confirm that as I haven't seen them yet.

One thing you'll run into: Each maker has their own approach to measuring and fitting.

Cheers,
-Nat
The truth is that I'm not entirely convinced it can be covered successfully in a video or in text. We can talk about the basics and we can do our very best to codify it in such a way as to avoid the smoke and mirrors that all too many makers rely on, but in the end it comes down to each maker's muscle memory/tension and his evaluation of each foot he measures.

Of course, it starts with the last and some lasts model the geography of the foot better than others. For instance, a forepart that clips the toe or a heel seat that is way too wide for the proportions of the last is going to make getting a fit difficult without a lot of experience and perhaps even destructive modifications/work.

The other thing is that every measurement you derive from the foot can, and to some degree, must be found and replicated on the last.

I say "to some degree" because while it is nearly a must for pull-on boots, shoes can be made on lasts that are a bit larger in the instep than the foot itself measures. We have the laces for adjustment and even when we are lasting we can compensate somewhat.

That said, I have taken to making all my shoe lasts right to the same measurements I would use on a boot customer's last and simply lacing the facings together tightly. This generally works out such that when the customer laces his shoes up there will be a gap of about 1/4"- 5/16" at the top of the facings--just bout right. It also keeps the facings straight. And if you do a fitters model, and need to re-do it, you're not guessing at how far apart the facings were when you originally lasted it.

I mentioned muscle memory--I would guarantee that no two shoemakers...no matter how experienced or well regarded as fitters...would get the same numbers off the same foot even if they both measured in the same place. We pull, and feel, the tape measure differently. And we take that muscle memory to the last with us.

I take six measurements off the foot. Almost no one takes that many anymore and even the lastmakers don't distinguish between an "high instep" and a "low instep", nevermind the difference between a long heel and a short heel. I am also very...extremely...careful about heel seat width and tread width.

And it goes on and on...even if you had a instructional sheet in front of you, you have to understand the geography of the last you are working with to know where to plug in the measurements from the foot. It's tricky, it's not as straight-forward as we would like it to be....Sabbage helps.

I've always said that shoe and bootmaking was dead easy--the real art and measure of a maker is his ability to fit the foot.

Anyone who tells you he never has a misfit is either lying or doesn't have a high enough standard of fit.
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Re: Intstructional video for handmade mens dress shoes

#16 Post by farmerfalconer »

Thanks, I'll watch the videos on youtube to at least give me an idea.

Cody
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