Day 5 : Here’s a Quick Way To Make Homemade Leather Print

The marathon week is came to an end and today I have the last tutorial from this series for you. I hope this week was beneficial and real kind of a marathon for you, it was sure a race for me, making those tutorials every day and I'm sure my family will appreciate the fact that it is all over now. Although it was not a simple task, I really wanted to make things more clear, and that each chapter from the book will be perfectly explained in details. I will continue to explore the chapters from the book in the community page at Google+, so we could move on, and I do have exciting plans for the near future  but let's keep it till the next post.

Day 4: How You Know You Made The Correct Pattern Or How To Avoid Most Common Mistakes?

Today my post is dedicated to a very important moment in the process of making patterns. Surely each of you wondered what is the right way to attach adhesive tape to a cardboard that you just taken down from a last . Many of you have asked me about it, and today I'll show you the most accurate and easiest way (this is so simple that you would not believe!).
In fact, this is the first condition for correctness of your patterns, even before the gold points (2nd paragraph from the book), when the basic pattern is attached in the right angle, matching height of the heel. No matter if you can find the right golden points and drew correctly your design by them, it will not save from the future problems with the pattern if you attached the adhesive tape pattern to the cardboard incorrectly.

Lets begin:

1) The most important thing is to determine the correct height of the heel of your shoe. I already showed it in the first post of our marathon week in the "boot construction using the gold points", but as my Russian grandmother says ,"Repetition is a mother of teaching". So to determine the height of the heel, put a pencil under toe area of the last and measure the height from the heel to the ground .

2) Draw on cardboard two perpendicular lines and mark the height of the heel on the vertical line (point D). After removing adhesive pattern from the last, attach it in the way that the end of the heel at the point H1 coincides with the point D, and Point F connects with the horizontal line. 

Remember to attach the pattern in such a way that in the distance H1F would not forme folds, otherwise your pattern at this point will be less than it should be, and upper will be hard to last. For example, the pump pattern will be open at the sides.
You're probably familiar with this phenomenon, and it is precisely because the pattern is shorter in the bottom than at the top, so the sides of your shoes are loose, too open, and it have nothing to do with you lasting skill.



3) After making the necessary additions to the pattern for lasting,

 cut out your pattern out of leather or paper, as I do it and pull it on the last. You will see that the pattern is well fit your last. 

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Well, now after reading the entire post you know how to avoid unnecessary mistakes, but I know you have more questions on a subject, so post your comment bellow.

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Attention : Blogpost Email Not Delivered?!

This is not the third day tutorial and don't worry it's coming later today and it is one that you don't want to miss, I promise.
I'm posting now this mini-post because I got an important email from a couple of my subscribers, saying that for some time they don't get my post delivered to their email. I checked that right away, and apperrently there was some technical issue with feedburner.com (email service) delivering some of the email. Hopefully now it all is fixed, but if you still don't have post delivered to your email, please let me know.
Another important issue that is happening now, is getting the RSS feeds of my blog through Google Reader now is finished as Google reader is no longer operating. My suggestion to you, if you like to read your RSS feed is Bloglovin  and you can follow the blog by clicking the link bellow and follow.

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Another great way to always get notifications about new posts is Shoemaking & Creative community on google + and you are welcome to Join.
As I closed my Facebook "Making Shoes" page, I'll be updating news and other shoemaking ideas that can't be included in  my post on Google +, so you have a good reason to join. 

  
Hold on till evening : today tutorial will be 

"How you know you made the correct pattern or how to avoid most common mistakes?"

See you later!

Sveta Kletina

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You can find more information about me at :

www.sk-shoes.com

http://pinterest.com/svetakletina/my-designs-timeline/

http://svetakletina.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/SKDEZIGN?feature=mhee

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sveta-Kletina/221543161271318

Day 3 : How To Transform Your Sandal Last Into Platform Sandal Last

Today is the third day of our marathon and the theme of the day is : How to convert sandal last into a platform last.    

 The sole surface of the platform last is always must be flat, it doesn't have curves which are true, as our foot has them and so as most of lasts. Therefore, to work with platform you must have a special last with flat bottom. In today's tutorial I will show you how any shoe (I show an example of sandal last) can be transformed into a last for platform shoes.

1. Note the curve, which is on the last, which I mentioned before. 

2. Now this curve should be removed, that is to make a flat surface of the sole. For this, I must grind the bottom of the last with a file, holding the hand 90 degrees straight so the grinding will be even through the all surface, so you wouldn't get one edge of the last lower than the other. So grind slowly and constantly check if it's even by applying the ruler to the last as shown in the picture below.

Day 2: How to adopt your design to Golden points by bending some rules?

 

Knowing the gold points is surely makes your life as designer or shoemaker much easier but knowing them, memorizing them will not solve your problem unless you making the same boot over and over again. You must know how to use this knowledge, to create your own formulas, because each design that you may have will extend the possibilities that those points gives you, and you need to know how to fix it. One thing for sure, it comes with experience and creative approach, not to mention other aspects that are influence your design, like type and correctness of the last you use, type of leather, it could be too thick, to stretched, no stretched the best advice I can give you is, learn it, use it, make it your own.

Here are couple questions and answers that emerged from the book:

•  How to stay in the safe area (golden points) but exceed the classic last borders. (from chapter 2 , 4)

Visually divide the last into equal segments, so you will be able to work in the last proportions:

For example: Let's say I want to make asymmetric Channel shoes with geometric forms in the pattern. To do it I visually divided the last into 4 even segments, that are created by lines LM,KK1 ( middle of the last length), FC.

By creating volume in the heel( 2 segments- LM, KK1) I need to make this volume equal in other two segments KK1, CF according to the geometric forms of the pattern.

As you see, by doing this I work according to the rules of Golden points and I divide the last into proportional segments that are helping me to extend the boundaries of the last and in the same time staying in the last proportions. That's what I call bending the rules.

•  Selectively chose the gold points that you need to work with your design 

Shoemaking Marathon Week: Day One

After a lot of writing and answering questions for the past week, I decided that few actions need to be done. A lot of questions regarding the "Shoemaking & Techniques for Creative Footwear Design" book evolved in areas and directions that I didn't thought of them , but it is alright and I'm here to explore the book more thoroughly.
Because, nobody wants to read this post for an hour, and because I didn't wrote everything yet, and still thinking of how to explain some of the questions that you asked me or you may ask in the future, we will do it a whole week.
Here is what we will be exploring for the next three days:

* Day one: The most asked about chapter is chapter 2, the "Golden points". So, for the day one (today) I will be doing tutorial on" How to properly construct the Boot pattern according to gold points". 

* Day two : (Hello chapter 2, again) " How to adopt your design to Golden points by bending some rules". This one is for those of you who struggle with strict rules of pattern making. When your vision of design is way different from what the golden points are, and you know that if you break them, you will have some issues with your shoes. I will show you how to fix it in more creative and professional way.

* Day three: Since the chapter 6, (How to build an entire collection just with 2 types of lasts) "made the day" for some of you and that fact made my day as well, I wanted to extend this chapter ideas and that's what we going to do on the third day, " How to transform your sandal last into platform sandal last".

This is the schedule for next three days, and the rest will be updated, you are welcome to add your own questions that you had from the book, and I will try to include them as well.

Shoemaking & Techniques for Creative Footwear Design

Finally my book came out. On the way of its creation was a lot of technical difficulties, especially at the last moment, and I sorry for this delay. But today finally I present to your attention my "Shoemaking&Techniques For Creative Design" book and I'm so excited , as if going to school for the first time, because it's my first  book, in which I share with you my thoughts and knowledge about shoe design that I gain through the years, working as a shoe designer and making my own collections.

Here are few screenshots from the book:

This is just a short glimpse for the 47 pages book. I talk a lot about design techniques, few approaches to the subject, so you would be able to find your own way. Actually it is very difficult to label yourself as one kind of designer or a shoemaker as I see it, because to create you need to have the passion and urge to try different techniques, different methods and thats what I try to do in this book.
One of the most important chapters in this book is the "GOLD POINTS" for creating correct patterns and for me, knowing that it is kind of restricted area for most designers just because they lack this information, gives a great pleasure to share it with you. I explain all the points in the book for different types of shoes and how to use it in shoe design.

Another exciting chapter, (they all are useful and exciting in my eyes!) is the "Building an entire collection just with 2 types of lasts". I explain the differences in types of lasts and their properties that will help you to reflect it in creating entire collection just with one or two lasts. Using this knowledge and creative design techniques that I present in this book, you will be able to do it.In the book I present one of my past collections that was made only with two lasts, and it looks very different in every model.  
 As well, this is the first time I share new technique that I had developed, the "Freehand Pattern Construction Technique".  It is result of my long time search for easy and more affordable ways to create shoe patterns that would allow me to create complex and interesting designs and patterns. I actually use it to create all of my collections and in this book I share this technique with you.
The book also contains a video tutorial for Freehand Technique and I will show you how to build a 3D pattern in most shortest and easiest way. In the video I'm making 3D element of a rose in the toe area, here's the pic.

I look forward to your feedback and to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you all for support and for great online friendship.
I will run this book with a discount of 20% for the next 2 days, specially for readers of this blog.

The book is in online PDF format, and it's will be downloaded directly from my blog. You will be able to find it here on this post and in the "Full shoemaking Guides" tab at the top of my blog (navigation bar).

Here is the book :

                                                                                          buy                  

Table of contents

Introduction  3

1. Classic models of shoes and why you need them.               4

2. Must know pattern points or the secret of making correct pattern from the first time.                                                                10

3. Don't wait for a muse, rely on design process techniques. 21

4. The bad the good and the ugly- 3 Methods of footwear design.                                                                                                    24

5. Shortcut to creative footwear design - Freehand Pattern Construction Technique.                                                          34

6. How to build an entire collection just with 2 types of lasts.                                                                                                                                                         35

You can find more information about me at :

www.sk-shoes.com

http://pinterest.com/svetakletina/my-designs-timeline/

http://svetakletina.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/SKDEZIGN?feature=mhee

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sveta-Kletina/221543161271318

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Shoemaking with Freehand Pattern Construction Technique

Today we going up a notch,  and I want  introduce you to my "FREEHAND PATTERN CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE"  that I developed . I work with this technique and for a very long time , this is the only way I design and construct my patterns, do to one important reason, I can build almost any design that I desire with this technique. Try to think about this technique as you just purchased  a 3D printer and this machine can make your wildest designs.  

 It will be an almost impossible to explain all the technique in this post, but I just wanted to open your mind to the possibilities, because I sincerely use it in my work . In my opinion this is the best approach to shoe design, because it gives me much more possibilities in making creative patterns for shoes.   It promotes an understanding of the shoes as a whole object, which is based on engineering laws, and does not consist of separate parts, as in decorative  design .

I describe the design through pattern more particular in my book and how I use this method to make more creative designs. Here is a short tutorial that is just a little taste of what you can do with "FREEHAND PATTERN CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE". In this tutorial I will show you how I transform pump shoes into half pumps- half boots.

Have a nice week!

If this post was useful for you and you think you can integrate it in to your work, share this post to fallow shoemaker and post comment bellow.

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Here is a Method That is Helping Shoemakers to Make Correct Patterns

You familiar with this situation, when you do something and just cannot complete it because of constantly emerging desire to supplement and improve. My book now at the last editing stage, and will appear on the blog in a few days. Due to the delay, in this and next posts that will come out this week I want to show you a few snippets of it, to somehow compensate you for your wait. Each tutorial - is a small excerpt from the whole and vast parts of my book. Today, using pumps shoes as an example, I want to show and explain, an absolutely important knowledge in pattern making and shoe design, using critical points to make correct shoe pattern.
 You want the shoes sat well on the foot from the first time? No loose ends on the sides! No falling out fingers on the sandals! No too high or too low  topline in throat area! No irritating bubbles on the leather!  No, too tight shoes!