The Crispin Colloquy

The following photos are my frist attempt at making mules. The first pair were for my wife. They're twisted bull hide with a wedge sole. The second pair was for my daughter(the soldier), they're red water buffalo. I'm starting a pair with more of the cowboy boot look to them,leather sole and stacked heels.

Mike

Morning folks, Here is a pair I am taking to Sheridan for the leather debut. shane

Here's a pair of boots for a tattoo artist. We traded for a painting for my shop. The bottoms are rough-out, Stevenson-Paxton leather, and the tops are a burgundy calf that I oiled and waxed.

So here's a picture of the aforementioned boots.

Ostrich foot, Kangaroo tops, and collar of milled tooling leather done in a Victorian Ornamental design, fillegreed, and colored silver.

Paul

Here is a pair I've (finally) finished. It's an oxford with a one-piece/seamless heel/counter, and what they call a swans-neck facing. The one-piece counter gives a very nice line to the shoe. The leather is some crinkle-finished calfskin I picked up to practice with. I did a plain toe to force me to improve my blending of the toe puff; in the pair picture, you can see the right shoe -- the second one of the pair I made -- is much better than the left, in terms of maintaining the lines of the last and blending the toe puff. Handstitched outsole at 10 spi with a square awl.

Unfinished shoe to show the outsole stitching.

Same view of finished shoe.

Side shot


The pair.

Hey, finally some new post from me.. the first is my new developed last, I call it 801 (I could call it any other name too

The leather is French boxcalf, cognac.


The second is the same upper design, but a traditional Budapest last. You can easily recognise the (heel to heel) thick, traditional goiser stitch.


If you want to look from closer, here is some link:

http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oxfordbudapest3copykk3.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oxford8023ep7.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oxfordbudapestjw4.jpg
http://img381.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oxford8012qh7.jpg
http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oxfordon801in7.jpg

This is just another of my plain-Jane full wellingtons. I know it gets boring but I make a fair number of these (although I think my next six pairs are fairly ornamental dress wellingtons) and I think they are not only the most elegant of boots but the most difficult to pull off well.

Everything has to be just right because there is no garish colour or ornate design to detract (distract?) from the simple lines of the boot. The cannot be leaning forward or back, the side seams must be straight, and they need to sit on the last like they "growed there."

I have also, and more importantly, learned a lot from making this style of boot...ideas and lessons that have made my dress wellingtons that much more refined and clean.

Anyway here's another pair...French calf,grafted, inch five-eights heel, med. rnd. toe, kangaroo inlay


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,

Very respectable pair of boots,i always admaired your crimping results, very smooth,without wrinkles,i assume you are a mastero at it by now,i enjoy looking at your work and please post everything you make, if you wish.

Regards Nasser

Here is a picture of the bicycle shoes I was working on. I had to go back an re-work the patterns a bit (hence the slightly different style-lines).

I still have some bugs to work out on subsequent pairs, and they are not technically finished (soles need stitching).

Erick

Finally finished these brogues. The uppers are Garlin-Neumann burnishable buffalo. Color was added using an airbrush and topped off with Kiwi brown shoe polish.

I lased these wet and the color from the heel counter bled through very badly. That's why they're so dark in the heel area. Next time I won't last wet!

I backed the medallion with black, which shows up a little too prominently. I could have feathered the color out a little better in places too.

That aside, I'm pretty pleased with this first attempt using this coloring technique (that I've been working out for a long time).

My mailbox gets its fair share of mangled shoes with notes asking for the recreation of a favorite pair of shoes.

A friend offered the throw away pair as "pattern material" since they virtually fell apart on her feet after more than 15 years of service.

As a birthday surprise, I recreated the mules with the upgrade of Poron-cushioned insoles.
Full grain pig suede vamp and insole. Grain side pig lining to the vamp.

Here's a pair of brown oil stuffed boots that I just finished.....J.

Here's a photo of my last student--Marlene Fischer and the boots she made while she was here.

She was from Switzerland and came to me almost direct from Serge and Marquita Volken's place.

Nice gal, very talented and a good sense of humour. She and Stephan...who flew over the last weekend of her course, are now somewhere in Montana or Wyoming camping and seeing the northern plains.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

(Message edited by dw on July 17, 2008)

Opps sorry here's the photo


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

As promised, here's a photo of my saddle shoes...

Navy French Calf over blue boar, full welted, plantation crepe sole and heel.

In the final analysis, there's lots wrong with these but fit is not one of them. I found out I couldn't use my curve needle machine down in the medial waist with the last still in the shoe...almost damaged the saddle and the stitches got too close to the edge of the welt. I deliberately set the stitches long as I was sewing through the crepe as well as the welt and midsole. I used a full welt both because I had not done one before and so that I could attach the crepe with the stitching.

I found out that grinding the surfaces of the crepe only worked somewhat. I had some bad gaping on the heel layers until I added rubber cement on both surfaces.

The saddle is perhaps a bit too far back and the heel stay could have come around and forward more.

The saddle was crimped (that worked good) and the lining was crimped and full cut.

This is a harder style to make than it looks.

Anyway...here it is



Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

(Message edited by dw on July 17, 2008)

(Message edited by dw on July 17, 2008)

Here's a pair of boots with Taurus shoulder from Hardke as the foot and an oil-stuffed upper that I got from Stevenson-Paxton.....J.

I just finished this pair of Full Cuts last week. Delivered them to a very happy customer.

The leather is actually Mocha Beaumont. She wanted Mahogany, but what I had left of that side was dismal. So I stained it with Fiebings Cherry Stain before I began assembly. The color held up well (I let it dry a day or two) and didn't wash out when I soaked it for lasting. When it was all assembled I worked it over with Obenauf's Leather Preservative, which is a bees wax paste.

This makes the forth pair of Full Wellingtons I've made and they're all this color! Would somebody please order BLACK!


Paul

Hello all,

Well I finally got the 'low volume slip-on' shoe finished, that was the subject of so much input and discussion a few weeks ago.

Let me repeat once again how much I appreciate the help you all provided in getting me through it.

Here's some pictures:


The leather is glazed WB. For linings I used a German veg tan I got from Mark Staton. Nice stuff. I made my own combination heels.

For top line tape I used balloon string given to me by the Walmart manager. It is under the turned edge. There is a top bead piping (preshaped ala DW) around the quarter curve and across the tongue. I chickened out trying to turn the edge because of the tight curve at the base of the tongue. I think I need to stitch a box here. I will on the next one.

My sole is cemented on a rand welt. I then channeled and layed a row of stitch impressions with my spacing wheel. Because this gentleman is quite elderly and overly sensiting to his feet, I made these choices in constrution for flexibility sake. I'm not worried about how long they will last at this point. Maybe I should be anyway, but I mostly just wanted to get through this project with something that would fit.

So anyway, That's pair number one for this fellow. Again thanks for your help.

Paul

And while I'm in the neighborhood, I'll post another I finished last week.


The fellow loves cats. And so he wanted a cougar on the tops. A paw print on the vamps and a prickly pear cactus inlayed to acknowledge Arizona as his home. All that set in tourquoise cowhide tops, with navy buffalo calf.

The cougar tooling and coloring was contracted out to a local leather friend, Jim Smith, who recently won some prizes for his work at the SW Leather Workers Trade Show in Wickenberg AZ. last March.

Paul

Here is a picture of my flag boots: /image{flagboots.jpeg}

DRWalkerII

I'll try this again. Here is a picture of my

Flag Boots:

DRWalkerII

Here are my most recent efforts -- an 'austerity brogue' wingtip without gimping or brogueing.

The outsole was handsewn 10spi with flax thread. I tried to make -- and somewhat succeeded -- a beveled, fiddleback waist.

I would like to introduce 2 of my recent work now. The first one is made to my favourite last. I got the inspiration for this heel form from Janne, when I visited his workshop.


This is something very different, from my past. I learnt to make pointe shoes when I just finished shoemaking school (something like 20 years ago). This is a really ancient technology, SYMMETRIC last (no right, no left). The shoe isn't finished yet, I have to stitch a stripe on the top with a special modified patcher.

Here's a pair of full wellingtons done by a student of mine--Larry Donovan.

Black Beaumont, clump sole, full pegged outsole, inlay front/overlay back. 13/8ths inch heel.



Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Just finished these 3 eyelet derbys.

GN burnishable calf. They are inspired by some of Marcell's recent work, although I still have a way to go to achieve his level of quality.