Hey-y-y, finally, I have gotten round to doing the first post on my Making Nice Things blog 🙂  Welcome to JK Mullett/Keira James’ Art and Craft. There is much more to come.

I’m just starting work on my fourth pair of handmade shoes. At some point, I’ll post images of my first three pairs, but for now I’m going to detail all the steps I go through putting a pair of shoes together. I’ve had a fair bit of experience making shoes since I started about a year ago, but it’s still an entirely experimental process – some things I know well enough to do right first time, others I’ll get wrong and I’ll need to find other ways. There’s no other way to learn.

Right, a month or so ago I picked up this bit of timber from a local builder’s yard. Obviously, this bit of wood is past its prime but I think there’s enough solid, undamaged wood on the left side to make a pair of wooden soles. This is how my shoes start out:

Naturally, I’m far too lazy to mark these rough blocks out properly, so I use a reliable enough method of measuring: I know my feet are smaller than my boots, so bigger than that is big enough:

Next I simply sawed the plank across and along the bigger-than-boot marks, which was fairly quick but hard work. It wa actually the first time I’ve used a large handsaw & I found it a little unweildy, but I’ll have plenty more practice before I can put my works into production. There were a few podially-privileged friends living in the splinters so I had to be a bit careful to get them out of the way. I’ll have to find another use for the off-cuts besides being a spider habitat – perhaps carving them into jewellery, shoe clips or other accessories.

In the next few days I’ll plan out exactly what shape these big blocks will be carved into to turn them into usable, comfortable footwear. Two blocks is a far cry from the sculptured form I have in mind for the finished products, but you have to start somewhere.

I’m considering a hybrid of these designs: a closed toe cap with the double-D-Ring fastening strap, and my first attempt at hand-carved detailing on the wooden heel and around the toe area. I’ve plenty to go on since I’ve spent bloody ages sketching out designs. I’ll post finished designs up here as they get, y’know, designed.

That’s all for now.

– K.J.