Nic Giolla Ein Product Development File

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Contents

Product Development..............................................3

ALIOTH..................................................................5

Plugging.......................................................6 Gussets.........................................................9

FINAL PROTOTYPE................................17

IZAR......................................................................23

Plastic Tubing.............................................24

Experimenting with Perspex......................35 FINAL PROTOTYPE................................39

Components...........................................................47 Rubber Heel...............................................47

Metal Heel..................................................49

Metal Treatments........................................55

Making Alioth Heel....................................57

Making Izar Heel........................................63

Amending Alioth Plate...............................65

NAOS.....................................................................67

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Product Development

The most enjoyable part of the process is being in the workshop with all the other students pot-tering away trying to develop our prototypes as best we can. It’s a time when we actually get to see what each other is working on, and to feel a little bit of a cam-pus atmosphere that LCF kind of lacks. There is always good banter with the tutors, technicians and students alike. The development of the prototype is the most stressful at times and there are major up’s and down’s but it’s why it’s the most fun and challenging.

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This is the original sketch of Alioth, however in the design tutorial we decided it was best to remove the fastening on the side and then there was no need to have that seam there. My main objective became to do my best to have as few seams on the bootie as possible. Paul Thomas said that this was not going to be possible, however I wouldn’t let him off the hook that easy.He suggested that I may had to have put a seam all around the plugged section as it was going to be im-possible to plug that section in all one piece on the front of the quarters, considering the deadening and blocking that it needed.

ALIOTH

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PluggingI made the patterns, split the section, blocked the two pieces together and then plugged the section. The top piece of the section had a lot of distortion in it because of the plugging. This is something that you just cannot allow for as the dis-tortion will be different each time depending on the mate-rial, how it’s split and how that particular piece stretches. This was something that I needed to work on.The other thing was that the PVA was not strong enough to hold the plastic tubing in place adequately. It moved and squirmed around inside the two piece of leather too much and made it difficult to plug effectively. Also because I could not put it into a press to help it plug as effectively as the samples it had a lot of wrinkles and it did not hug the tubes as I had hoped.

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It was suggested that I try using Neoprene to attach the tubing. I sanded the tubing to make sure there was a good surface for the glue to stick to, measured out the pieces and where they were to be placed and then applied neoprene to the bottom layer of leath-er and the plastic tubes. I then attached them once they had dried, the head of the wrinkle chaser need to activate the glue helped to mould the tubes into position. So not only was it more effective at securing them into place but also helped them take the shape of the last.

The problem of not being able to put the plugged section in the press, was overcome by wrapping the last and plugging with some foam and the rubber in-ner of a bicycle tyre. If it was wrapped tight enough it applied a good amount of pressure to the plugged section. As you can see in the image to the right, the plugging is much more defined.

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To overcome the issue of the distortion in the pat-tern, I cut out a large piece of leather enough to cover the whole section where the pattern would sit, and worked on that. I split it, blocked it and then plugged it. I then removed the section from the last glued the rest of the area with rubber solution and then folding it in half, cut the pattern.

I was glad to be able to resolve this issue without hav-ing too many seams in the upper. It’s kind of a back to front way of achieving the desired effect, one which would never be feasible in a factory, but for this pur-pose it works perfectly fine.

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I tried out a few different types of gussets, obviously the thread would be colour matched. The triangular shaped gusset gave the best stretch and this would be one that I would have chosen. I just didn’t feel that it was going to look that good. I really felt it would only detract from the design. I didn’t want to put a zip in the back either, as that style has been done to death over the past while. However I felt that it would be the best option to stay true to the design features that were most important.

I decided to put a reversed zip in the back to make it look like a design aspect rather than a necessary practical component

Gussets

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The fitting at the back was not quite right. When I adjusted the pattern to remove the seam at the sides, the pattern didn’t fit the last properly. Paul had a look at it and tried to get it to fit better. As you can see from the image on the right, he did various stitch lines, the pink one being the one that fitted best. He adjusted the bottom curve so it hugged the last prop-erly and also tightened the top line.

The bootie has really strong curves when it’s still on the last, I keep forgetting that I was supposed to make it a peep-toe, I need to now amend the patterns to do that. It’s kind of a shame that I won’t get to make full use of that strong toe line.

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Once I had stitched the uppers altogether I realised a number of things. I couldn’t have a side zip for entry as I had planned because of the rubber tubes that I intended to have laced through the plugged tubes and under the sole. If I was not having a zip in the side, then I didn’t need to have the seams that were there. I decided to just extend the pattern piece so that it was just one whole piece with a zip on the back seam.

Below: The bootie is a comfortable fit on the foot, the back curve could be adjusted a little to be a straighter. I don’t like how visible the closed seam at the front is, the stitching is visible and this needed to be fixed.

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I had to change the toe of the style as it was originally designed as a peep toe. I also had to check that the lining fitted properly. I didn’t want a stitch line of the front of the vamp, as there were no other visible stitches on the upper and I thought it would look out of place. Because of this I had to glue the vamp and vamp lining together. I was advised to use neoprene, how-ever this made it quite difficult to secure accurately as the neo-prene stuck to itself a lot.

The front line on the mock-up was way off, it’s all toe and no peep. It was also really loose fitting on the foot, which didn’t look good. I took a picture of each pattern change on the foot and made a new pattern to make it fit better at the toe.

I amended the pattern by changing the curve on one and then added an extra 5mm on the other to see how it looked. I pre-ferred A. as it didn’t show too much toe, I then changed the pattern and mocked it up again.

A. B.

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When I took the boot off the last, I had also noticed that the lining had crumpled inside. I thought it may have been to do with the fact that I didn’t have the top line secured to the last and then I pulled the upper tighter on the last than the lining. When I spoke to Gee about it, he said that it was more likely to be my patterns. He suggested that my lining was not fitting, because it was a bagged seam on the top line when I pulled it down after bagging, then the lin-ing didn’t sit where it should have and caused problems.

I made another mock-up which was too tight at the cone, and the lasting allowance wasn’t long enough either. I don’t know what happened, it was just the lining that didn’t work and then other things went wrong. It may have been something to do with the bagged seam added to the front, as I’m not sure I made the appropriate allow-ance changes.

Gee helped me amend the patterns, we tested the patterns by making a simple PU upper to check the fitting. It took two attempts before it worked properly, but we got it sort-ed in the end.

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I mocked up the new patterns and the peep toe was perfect, not too much toe this time. The front line fits to the foot a lot better and the top line seemed to fit nicely around the ankle too. The lining didn’t crease either, which was a great relief.

Another amendment I made to the design was to change the closed seam at the join of the vamp and quarters. When it was lasted you could still see the stitches a little which I didn’t like, I changed this to a bagged seam, folding the quarters onto the vamp. I like that there are no visible seams on the upper at all apart from at the back, considering at the start it looked like I was going to have loads on there.

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Final PrototypeThe making of the final prototype was pretty straight forward as everything went to plan. I slit the top layer off the leather, blocked the two pieces together and then plugged the quarters.

I then wrapped the plugged section up in foam and rubber tubes to assist the plugging process and then cut the pattern from that. I stitched it all together and lasted it.

The lasting went really well, and there were no prob-lems with it.

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I decided to put a tow puff on the front section even though it was a peep toe. The last has a really strong toe shape and I wanted to keep that strong shape on the vamp.

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Instead of using neoprene I used a water based glue, that Mick gave me, on the vamp. It was much easier to use as the shoe was lasted while the glue was still wet.

As the metal plate covered the whole back section, it was only necessary for me to cover the front section. Cling film was placed on the front of the shoe where the leather sole was to help mould it to the shape of the bottom of the shoe.

The final thing to do was to make the heel cap and then attach every-thing together.

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I am pretty happy with the final prototype for Alioth. The metal pieces were difficult to make and finish properly, however I managed to finish it to a standard that I am happy with. Its better that the plate covers the whole area from the back as it allows the tubing to curve quite naturally into the holes. If the plate and heel were separate then it would have meant that the holes would have had to have been brought further forward and this would have compromised the aes-thetics of the shoe.

I’m really pleased with the leather too, it’s super matte which is what I wanted and it makes the metal and rubber pop a lot more as they’re not competing with the leather.

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This design is a little bit of a random one to be honest. I really love the idea of it and I love the way this sketch just flows so nicely. How-ever, trying to achieve this in a realistic, highly evolved prototype is going to be tricky. I had to try to figure out how to attach the tubes to-gether and attach it to the upper effectively. What I really want to avoid is the A-Level art project look.

IZAR

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Plastic TubingThis is my first attempt at making the tubular structure. I arranged the tubes around the shape of the last, and taped each section into place as I made my way up the structure. I like the contrast of how it curves nicely to the heel and it falls loosely at the front.

There are a number of possibilities for attaching the structure to the upper. The tubes could be sewn together at the back seam, maybe with a leather strap at the back or on each side.

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The tubes are quite rigid and hold their circular shape quite well, I though it would be quite good to try and make them follow the contours of the last a little better. Heating the tubing really helps to mould it into shape, so I decided to put it into the Heat Setting Machine, how-ever it got stuck at the end of the conveyor belt and was overheating. The rubber tubes changed their properties almost and became really rubbery and bendy. Where the inner tube had been wrapped around it, the tubes had melted together quite badly. The plumbers tape I used to hold it all together also melted, it looked like quite the mess. I think the heat is a useful way to mould it into a better shape, but it needs to be a little more controlled.

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This particular tubing is PVC, so John suggested I use a product called PVC Weld to fuse the tube together. It’s a solvent that dissolves the PVC, you rub the two sections against one another and then they fuse together.

I used it left, as you can see it is quite messy and dis-solves anything it touches, for this reason I have to be super accurate which is not that easy, as I have very little of the tubes actual surface area touching each other.

Also, if there is a kink in the shape of the tube, if they do not quite meet, the PVC weld will not pull them together in any way, as you can see left.

John suggested that I may be able to buffer the plastic a little to reduce some of the mess from the PVC weld, however it didn’t really work. The brush couldn’t get into the hard to reach places in the inner curve of the tubes.

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I also tried to use some of the chemical cleaners and thinners that they have in the making room. I thought it may re-move some of the excess solvent, some it worked a little, but not enough to prove very effective.

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George put a larger needle in one of the post ma-chines, so I tried stitching directly through the tub-ing. I though it worked really well, I quite liked the effect, however it was really difficult to finish it on either end. I pulled the stitch through to the back of the tube, knotted it and melted it a little. This is the tidiest way to finish it off but it’s not perfect. I quite like this effect, but decided to evolve it further and see what the other possibilities are.

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I tried it on the foots to see how it would look draped around it. I quite like how it almost orbits the foot like something galactic. I like how the colour of the tubing changes with the light and the colour that is set underneath it.

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I tried out the stitching on the back in an aim to hold it together tightly at the back to create the nice curve. The stitching kind of ruined the seamless lines. I think it’s best to just do stitching on the sides rather than the back.

I carried the three stitch detail through to the struc-ture, it’s better to keep it secure and also makes it more of a design feature than a necessary addition.

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I looked into other ways of binding the tubes together, as I thought that the stitching was a little untidy looking. I used hand stitching thread and catgut to see if either of these would prove effective.

In the first image, I pierced the tubes with the thread and knotted it on either end. It worked quite well, but kind of looked like I was trying to hide it very ineffectively, the catgut looked ok but the black thread looked a little bad.

The second image shows how I wove the tubes together with both threads. This proved to make a nice feature out of the binding. Both are quite effective, however on the structure itself, I think the clear one looks best as it ties in with it a little better. It is more subtle and has a better finish to it.

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Sue came into the making room to talk to me and see how things were coming along, and in the process of discussing the trials and errors that have occurred, I realised that one of the errors had produced the de-sired effect. The sample that I had put into the heat setting machine for too long had melted the tubes together at the back. They didn’t distort at the back but they did fuse together quite well. I am now going to try and do that, but in a controlled manor and see if I can achieve the same flawless effect.

I think that the reason I overlooked this in the first place is because at the time of this happening my ob-jective was to simply mould the back section to the shape of the last, rather than trying to fuse the tube together. I kind of wrote it off as an error, but always kept it out on the desk with all my other samples. It wasn’t until I spoke to Sue about it that it dawned on me, but I guess it’s all part of the process.

I got the heat gun from John and it worked a treat, it melted the tubes enough to fuse them together seam-lessly which makes me super happy. The only thing I need to make sure of is that I don’t compromise the shape of the tubes or leave any indentations on the surface. Other than that it’ll be totally fine. This has been a fantastic result for me, I had felt that up until now it’s been a little A-Level craft project looking, but now I think I can achieve the slick look I need.

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I am finding it difficult to resolve an effective way to finish the ends of the tubes. I have tried to taper the end by cutting it and sanding it, I have also explored the idea of making them separate rings, instead of a coil. The tubing holds such a strong shape that it is difficult to fuse it together without it bowing at the join. It is an extremely difficult material to work with, to control it and get it to look professional.

Tony suggested plugging a piece of perspex into the ends of the tube to make the join more secure, which worked really well.

Upon further thought I realized that having rings, with a join on each of them would look kind of untidy al the way down the inside of the structure. I decided to stick to the coil idea.

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I decided to try and see if melting Perspex around the last would work. I cut lengths of perspex and heated them up in the oven in the 3D modelling room, it took 6mins at 100C to make it soft enough to mould.

I initially moulded it around a can to get it into a circle, and then using the heat gun at 640F to mould it to the shape of the last.

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Experimenting with Perspex

The Perspex has a nice glossy finish to it, which against the super matte leather that I have, would have looked really good. It is quite difficult to mould into shape effectively, I would really need to create a shape to mould it around and on top of as gravity also has an effect on it, as seen in the image above.

It was worth looking into, however I think it’s better to stick to the plastic tubing as it’s easier to control.

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I wanted to check the shoe on the last before I started on the real one, as the inside curve swung quite low and I didn’t want it to show the arch of the foot too much. I’m pretty happy with the shape of the top line, I think it’s a nice swooping curve, which I wanted. It will work well with the curves of the tubes also.

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Sue had mentioned that she wanted to see more tubing in the front section, this would be super hard to do without a lot of effort and the outcome would probably not be that great. I thought I’d revert to the original sketch a little more and try and wind the coil up the arch of the last and then around the back as before.

I also tried to wind the coil up leaving a space be-tween each one so that I could wind it back down and have one join at the bottom and make the two ends meet instead of trying to finish both ends dis-creetly. This proved pretty successful as I plugged the ends with a Perspex rod to secure it.

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Final Prototype

Things did not start out the best with this prototype, while sewing the upper together I discovered what my sheep skin lining tore like paper. It was a bit of a disaster, however it was better I realized then rather than when I went to last it. Luckily George came to my rescue with a lovely black calf skin that I could use as my lining.

Both the upper and the lining were quite thick, so when I sewed them together the lining seemed as it if didn’t fit. Gee checked the patterns and there was nothing wrong with them, Darren reckoned that it would not be a problem when it was lasted so I carried on.

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Lasting the court shoe was pretty straightforward, however the lasting allowance somehow disappeared though which made it quite difficult to last. I was lucky though as I went to Mick for help with the lasting, so it was lasted really well regardless.

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The heel was attached through the shank and was kept in place be-cause there was a groove made in the top of the heel to stop it spin-ning around while on the shoe. Because of this, the leather sole had to be wet moulded around the last and the heel.

First we cut out a piece of leather that was 10mm larger than the sole pattern. Then we wet it and attached it to the shoe with the heel plated on top of it and screwed into place. This left a mark that we could follow to cut the space for the heel to go.

We cut the hole and then soaked it again, once done, we attached it to the last and wrapped it in cling film to prevent any marking on the sole.

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Darren marked it up once it was dry and then sanded it back a little to help me prepare it for finishing. Ian then helped me sand it back further and finish it off with a buffering wheel to bring the edges up to a nice spit polished shine.

I then applied Neoprene to the last and the sole and attached the sole to the shoe.

I created the tubular structure around the shoe then by weaving the tube up with gaps in between it and then feeding it back down on itself and joining it at the bottom with a Perspex plug. I used nylon display wire to weave the rows of tubes together on either side and up the back. It was pretty effective, however I do feel it is a little bit art projecty looking. I think I resolved it as much as I could to make it look how I wanted. I think if I had time I would have looked into the use of another material or method. However the material that I chose was the PVC tubing and I think that I resolved it as best I could.

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I think the court shoe by itself looks pretty nice. The topline has a really nice curve to it and it quite high cut on the front and back but quite low on the sides. I did this so that the curves would compliment the shapes created by the tubes. I think it looks nice with and without the tubed section. I’m quite pleased with the way the shoe turned out. I think the tubed section could have come up a little higher at the back, but I also quite like how you can see the severe curve at the back, so it doesn’t bother me too much either way. The actual realisa-tion looks quite similar to how it does in the original sketch, so I’m pretty pleased with that.

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Rubber HeelI got some rubber sheeting from Pentonville Rubbers and using a knife from the workshop cut out a number of heel pieces. They stacked together nicely and I kind of like how they are a little unbalanced.

I will glue them with a strong adhesive and maybe put a metal rod in the middle for extra strength.

The rubber heel will feature on Chara and Avior and on the lower heel will feature on the flat styles Naos and Pollux.

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I went to see James the metal work guy that is going to make my metal components. We had a chat about the designs and he cut me some pieces the length of the heel and roughly the shape of the plate to give me an idea of the weight of the components. The first two he cut were made from metal, the heel was 12x12mm and the plate was 12mm thick and roughly the correct size. They were super heavy; way to heavy for the actual shoe, there is no way they could be used. Initially I wanted a 10 mm thick plate, however I realised I need to reduce it because of the weight. Also, the rubber tubing that I was going to feed through it was a lot smaller than I had initially thought. James mentioned that the metal would rust over time, even if kept in normal conditions. The parts with the shale on it would not rust, however I cant get a lacquer to put on the rest so it wouldn’t rust. However, this may leave it shiny, which I don’t want. James suggested using aluminium as it is a lot lighter, but this makes it weaker and doesn’t look as good as metal. If I use a smaller metal plate at 6 mm it may be harder to drill through, but James suggested we drill through a 12mm plate and shave it down to 6mm.

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Metal Heel

I got in touch with a guy from back home that is a metal engineer in west London. I sent him some sketches of what I wanted done and so I went to visit him to get some samples made up.

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The metal heel was super heavy, far to heavy for a shoe. To combat that, James suggested we get a hollow square rod of metal from B&Q. He suggested that we could fill it at the top, or attach a metal plate at the top in order to secure it to the shoe. This would be a better solution as it would not weigh down the shoe when worn. We went to B&Q and got a 16mm x 16mm metal rod that was hollow and a 6mm x 6mm rod that was hollow. I thought it was be good to see the different sizes of heel, to make sure what size I wanted. James is great to work with, he has really thought about the components and is using his expertise to help me to resolve the best solution.

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I chatted with John, to ask his advise about my metal com-ponents and the different treatments I could apply.

John mentioned tempering as a method of treating the metal. It is the process of softening of the metal used on mild steel with very little carbon in it. This stress reliev-ing of carbon seals with can colour the aluminium a range of colours, such as black, blue, purple, etc.. He suggested I could also etch into the metal which may produce a nice effect, however I think I just want it to be block colour. To temper the metal I have to clean it up, heat it up and dunk it in oil. This seals in it and stops it from rusting, and leaves it a dark oily colour, which may be quite nice.

As well as discussing different constructions and treat-ments we discussed different wielding methods that would be appropriate for the heel. John suggested TIG welding (Tungsten Inert Gas) is much tidier and better for small components. He also mentioned silver braising/soldering and bronze braising as other effective methods.

John suggested that I attach a plate to the top of the heel and extend it to use this as a shank for the shoe. This is something to consider.

John also mentioned that I could use silicon wax (for cars), which would seal the metal from rusting, this may not be quite so shiny as a lacquer. I could also plate the metal with copper, silver or gold etc.

John showed me methods in which to clean up the metal rods, because the metal is hollow there are lines which run down through it from where it was pushed through a mould. To finish the heel properly I would need to sand this down and buff the surface after. John showed me how to file it down on a sanding machine and using t a hand file, so that it became an even surface without the tell tail lines. I then used a buffer stick and a few different grains of sand paper to bring it back to a smooth surface. I can then polish it on the wheel. Once this is done I can then apply any treatment to it.

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I approached Mick about helping me to last my shoes, as my patients and skills are not amazing, and I wanted the proto-types to have a really good finish to them to that they looked really professional. I discussed with Mick and Ian how they suggested I should get my heels made. Whether I should get the top of the hollow rod plugged and screw it onto the shoe that way, or if I should get a metal plate attached to the top of the heel.The most secure option is to get a metal plate attached to the top and then have another metal plate inside the shoe and screw these together. James reckons he can do it quite easily, which is great. The metal plate is quite a superficial addition so that can be simple screwed on.

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Metal TreatmentsJohn told me about a really good book called ‘The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals’, which outlines the various treatments that can be applied to metal.

There are a few that I think could work well on the metal components. I like the understated and slightly old used look of these samples.

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I went back to see James about the heels, and spent the afternoon working with him to create the Alioth heel. It took a lot longer than we had both anticipated.

When I spoke to James about the structure, we concluded that the best way to tackle this would be to make the metal plate and heel all one structure, as the space between them would be minimal and it would look better altogether.

James got to work, grinding down the surface of a 6mm thick piece of metal, he marked out the pattern of the shape we wanted and then angle grounded the metal into that shape.

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Making Alioth Heel

Once we had the shape we wanted to, James curved it to the shape of the bottom of the last. As you can see he did this by using a heavy object to create the dip and then perfected the curve by placing in on a curved pipe and hammering in into shape.

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James plugged and soldered the top of the metal rod. He then worked out the pitch of the heel to determine at what angle he should cut the top of the heel.

James had to drill the heel straight in from the top so he had to be careful not to drill too far or it would go through the back of the heel. Using a tap, he made a thread in the hole so the screw would be secure.

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James then screwed the pieces all together to se how they fitted. They all fitted well thankfully, so he then took it apart and drilled the holes in the side of the plate. He only drilled them in 10mm as they would have been dif-ficult to drill in all the way. This is fine as I can always glue the rubber tubing into place and it will give the same effect, as long as they are secure.

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Using a buffing stick I worked to remove the line down the middle of the heel on each side. I had to make sure to keep it straight when I was sanding it as I didn’t want to make the surface uneven. It took a long time to smooth it all out but it was important to finish the heel properly.

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John the madman, sanded the metal plate on the sanding machine in the making room. It was badly scratched up from the angle grinder that James had used on it so it needed a lot of sanding to bring it back to a smooth surface.

The sanding machine was very effective, and it evened it out really well. The only prob-lem was that one of the holes in the side of the plate was at an odd angle and when the plate was put on the sanding machine, it wore through to the hole drilled in the side. It was pretty annoying that this happened, as there wasn’t really a whole lot I could do about it, or os I thought.

John made me a little metal component that I could attach some sand paper to and use with the power drill. It meant that I could sand the second metal heel much quicker. I also used it on the metal plate to make the grooves a little finer on it, which did make the hole larger, but I had to do it, to bring it to a good finish.

I tried to fill the hole with some metal filler that Mick had, but it wasn’t a great colour match. It would have to do though. I left it to dry and was going to sand it back the and try and paint it up to colour match it.

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We decided it would have been best to drill the plate through the middle of the shoe, through the shank and all. It ended up being a mammoth task trying to drill through the shank, as it kept deadening James’ drill bits so quickly. It took many at-tempts and sharpening of bits to get it drilled, but we got there in the end.

In hindsight I should have not bothered putting the shank in that shoe, as it had the plate there to support it, but We only resolved the design of the metal plate after the shoe was lasted. As the initial intention was to have a separate heel and plate, however the upper kind of dictated that it need to be all one as the holes needed to be further back, to accommodate the angle at which the rubber tubes would be coming at.

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James then did as before, with the oth-er heel, he puddle welded it, where he drilled a hole in the top of the heel and inserted a metal block into the top of it. He then welded the two together and angle ground off the excess.

He then drilled the hole in the top as before, using a cooling agent and lubri-cant to keep it cool so it didn’t overheat and damage the heel.

Next he made the thread by using the tap.

Making Izar Heel

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I showed James the metal plate and how it had developed a hole. He suggested that we remove the filler I had put into it and he would weld it and file it down again.

He covered the unaffected area with tape to protect it from spatter from the weld. he then ground it down after the welding, It fixed the problem quite a bit but because of my attempts to fill it, the metal filler I had used was resisting against the weld and causing it to bubble up a little bit. It didn’t allow the weld to be as effective as it could have been.

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When James ground back the surface after welding it, he left quite deep marks in it. It was pretty frustrating as I couldn’t really afford to sand the surface aback any more, in case it exposed the hole again, or even one of the others. I tried to use this triangular sander to see if it would gently remove the marks, but they were a little too deep and the effect was a little uneven.

John put it back on the rotary sander and smoothed it out again, it did expose the original hole a little more, but thankfully no others came to light. You can still see the hole, but there is nothing I can really do about it now.

I should have been a little more assertive about the finish of the metal with James. It was not a massive problem, but it did add to my stress levels a little. It’s all part of learning to work with people and how to communicate what I want to them effectively.

I wanted the metal components to have a brushed metal effect. I didn’t want to buff them on the machine, as they would have come up with a high shine. I think that would have been too much of a contrast with the super matte leather. When the components were sanded and finished, I applied a soft beeswax to help to seal them so that they won’t rust while on the shoe.

Amending the Alioth Plate

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Naos

I wanted to do a mock up of the plugging detail that features so heavily in my designs. It’s easy to design something, but the reality is always different, and not always works out as planned or imagined.

I decided to make Naos, as I had the flat last and could work on it along side the other two styles. I wanted it to be a classic style, with a modern detail, and I think in relation to the other prototypes this would sit better with them rather than Pollux.

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I’m not that happy with the outcome of this style. I bevelled the top edge of the leather pieces as I thought it would create a nice natural curve for the uppers to fol-low. It actually kind of deadens the shape of the toe, which is not what I wanted. I like the strong sharp edges of the toe and want to maintain that in the style.

I also think that the added plugging makes the toe look quite bulbous and long. It would be better if I moved the lacing further down towards the toe and made the top line more curved. This would make the style a little more femi-nine and I think it would look so much better in the collection.

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