The folks at GO stopped in a few weeks ago and put together this little video, shows some of our process.

There is much useful information to glean from the leavings of hand work.

In hand woodworking the chips and shavings lifted by planes and chisels convey not only the type, size and shape of the tool, but also it’s condition- whether or not it bears a keen edge. We can also see something of the motion of the craftsman, whether they are using strong, sustained movement or short chipping movement.

The same is true in leather-work, we see the same in the leavings of our skivers and edgers. What is left behind should be beautiful and graceful, the sign of a confident and competent hand.

I think this kind of language in the leavings it an important thing to consider in broader life as well, you can tell a great deal about people and organizations from the forms of their excess, what is left as a result of their functioning.

Etwas will be showing at the Winter 2011 Project trade show in New York. Please join us.

The show runs from Jan 16-18th.

82 Mercer Street,
New York, NY 10013

http://project.magiconline.com

These are visual language, and there is a lot to be conveyed here, but there is also a language of action in the shoe, in our choice we convey not only what we are doing, but affirming means of production. We are choosing how the shoe was made, interacting with someone and funding activity that ideally speaks to our vision of society.

This is a choice that is our right, and one that is limited by lack of use. We too often focus only on visual language, and so we have fewer companies to choose from, because it is easy for one producer to produce many visual forms.

Here are two leather soled short boots for the kind of people we are, those who would choose an expensive general item, rather than many cheap specialized items. We want a shoe suited to work, but also good looking, perhaps conveying respect for work, or the sentiment that we take pride in it’s aesthetics. This shoes classic form references the craftsman and the workshop, it’s construction methods speak of small, human scale industry, of good wages, of light and clean production, repairability, and reduced reliance on plastics.

Both are seeing a lot of popularity on the internet these days, and I hope it is a hard value that is driving people to want these things instead of a superficial desire to reference a labor and sustainability oriented image.

The first shoe is the whites semi dress boot.

Whites is a legendary company, known more in the world of forest workers than the world of fashion. They make amazing products that they stand behind. They don’t talk a lot about philosophy though, or rational, they are an old fashioned company that makes good things and hopes that people will talk about them. These are expensive shoes, but they will last forever. Both of these boots are constructed in a way that is considered reversible- they can be fully taken apart and rebuilt, any structural element can be replaced. The most common of these repairs is resoling, especially on a leather boot, and heel rebuilding.

The second shoe is The Wolverine 1000 mile boot.