Weird careers: my life as a shoemaker
When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and I took a year off to put off any decisions. Well that year turned into the rest of my life and for a while, I became a shoemaker. How on earth did I make such a weird career choice, you ask? I didn't, it just kind of happened. I have a natural aptitude for craftsmanship and pattern making so I didn't need training and I just figured it out as I went along. I have very short, wide feet and it has always been difficult for me to buy shoes that fit. An acquaintance sold me a set of leatherworking tools and I decided to make it a project to make myself a pair of shoes that fitted. The result was not bad and I started taking orders. Eventually, I started selling my wares on flea markets. The living was rather precarious but I survived. This was in the early 1990s. Today, we take the cameras on our phones for granted but back in the day, taking decent photos was a expensive and complicated process and I don't have any pictures from those days.
The picture below is of pair of shoes where I had to hand carve the soles from wood. Not too difficult, but the challenge is to make the left and right of the pair closely resemble each other. When there's an angle grinder, there's a way
I get bored rather easily and I had gotten tired of doing flea markets and I was frustrated earning so little for skilled work. Luckily, my craftsmanship started to catch the eye of a couple of local designers and I started working on fashion shows and film shoots, making all sorts of leather items besides shoes and I also did upholstery. It was great to give up selling on flea markets in 2004 because the commissions were much more interesting and technically challenging and I got to work on projects that were shown internationally. This often entailed working crazy hours under very high pressure but was it fun at the time, apart from designer egos and coke-head film-industry people who weren't very good at planning.
The global financial meltdown of 2008 saw many budgets slashed and work dried up to a trickle but I carried on doing the odd bit of film work. At the age of 40, I decided it was time to stop being a luddite and embrace the tech world. I stopped being computer-illiterate, learned Drupal, Wordpress and content creation and found the complete break from the past quite refreshing.
After 45, I found my tolerance levels for coke-heads and drama queens significantly reduced and stopped doing film work. I still do the odd commission but I can't say that I miss it that much because working in those environments generates a very high-level of burnout and destroys interpersonal relationships. I've worked freelance my whole life so I'm used to the financial ups and downs. Steemit is a project I'm enjoying, trying to be creative at my own pace at home instead of struggling with crazy people.
This is utterly fascinating! Suddenly I understand more about the clown and the lives you’ve watched fade early. My husband worked in film and theater for years and also had to back away for the sake of sanity. As a composer, I scored many of his projects but man was it a brutal experience.
I’d love to chat about your background and possibly pick your brain a little, if you’re willing.
It's a very brutal environment. You're welcome to DM me on Steemit chat
Cool. I’ve Never used it. Let’s hope I don’t break it. 😂
You won't, Steemit chat is straightforward. Discord, not so much. Look me up with the same username
Wow!
All I can say is WoW!
You are truly a talented shoe maker!
Thank you!
Is it hard work making shoes?
It's time consuming and you need to have very strong hands but I wouldn't call it hard work
It is rare these days to meet a shoemaker artisan. It might just give you a perspective on modern day world that is helpful to us all!
My great grandfather, Jake McFarlane, was a boot-maker in Scotland, just outside Kilsyth [near Stirling]. The barn next to the cottage by Banton Loch on the Colzium Estate, was his workshop. He made boots for all and sundry, and did his best to keep everyone in boots even amidst pretty extreme poverty conditions. It was a big deal for him the day one of his sons took him into the big city [Glasgow] to show him a boot-maker factory and the writing on the wall for the end of his boot-making days.
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I couldn't help wondering if he was watching over when two of his great great grandchildren, being educated in an experimental Waldorf school for 16-19 year olds, were taken out to the Middle Eastern Bedouin nomads, to be guided in the making of a pair of shoes for themselves [an awesome rite of passage senior year requirement for every student in that school]. This is the school connected to Ruskin Mill in the Ruskin Valley in Gloucestershire, England. Ruskin Mill make their own kind of hobbitty [super-warm felted] slippers to this day!
Very hobbitty! Perhaps your great grandfather was looking on. My great grandmother used to repair shoes, she had her own tools
That was very interesting story. I hope you do not mind to resteem this article :)
Thank you, I don't mind
Wow, that's a great backstory man, really interesting and it is clear that you are your own man, and carve out your own existence and do not let others dictate your path - kudos to you, and your work looks great too.. Better to be working for your self than those'coke-heads and drama queens' as you so humorously put it :)
Thanks for reading. I'm a woman though ;)
Oh god! Sorry about that, the name 'nik' threw me :)
No worries. I'm a believer in short names
I do have to apologize for my bent humour, sorry.
we were wondering if you have done a post or would on dlive on how to make a shoe.
I dont know if this is feasible with tools and materials but it would be fascinating for all of my family and im sure steamit community.
Nothing to apologise about! Shoemaking is a very time-consuming process, even a simple project would would have to be broken into segments but I will give it some thought. Thanks for the idea
Wow this is a really cool insight into shoe design - I can't imagine what goes into shaping the leather and the soles for such unusual forms. But anyway, congrats on leaving behind the coke-heads and drama queens!
I sometimes miss the work but I don't miss the people
A great trade to know and very creative... 8 }
Thank you
That is a great article and interesting journey, thank you.It makes sense because you have a creative eye with your other post.
I know what its like working at flea markets, i was making tereriums and selling them as well as art pieces on drift wood with living plants. i will post an example later today.
Any how the novelty wore off.
Funny about the foot comment you posted a picture with your foot in thong the other day and i said to my wife i dident know your foot had a twin half way around the world in South Africa. Funny i always stir her about her feet. Dont worry there is plenty for her to stir me about.
great article and photo's thanks.
Show us your wares! Sometimes I think Steemit is a giant flea market too