Musings of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
Make something with your hands every day. “Its a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when […]
Read More CreateMany years ago, in Morocco, I was able to tour an ancient tannery and see some of the process of creating beautiful leather. I use leather for many projects and although I do some brain tanning myself, I purchase all of my truly “tanned” leathers from others. One very important lesson about tanning I learned […]
Read More Vegetable Tanning: Not a “Lost” ArtIf you are looking for a topper or small camper with some class, check out Casual Turtle Campers. From the website: The idea for Casual Turtle Campers was conceived by Peter Pavlowich in the summer of 2010. On a road trip to Colorado, he noticed an abundance of truck campers but a profound lack of […]
Read More Casual Turtle CampersHere’s another excellent video of Robin Wood, wood turner and traditional craftsman. Visit his website to learn more about this remarkable man and his admirable career choice. As he explains, his job is easy to describe while so many careers are just about impossible to explain what one does and we create fancy titles to […]
Read More Robin Wood, Traditional CraftsmanOriginally posted on 74 FOOTWEAR DESIGN CONSULTING:
Its fair to say that my personal interest in woven Mexican Huarache footwear extends to everything woven. As far as I know despite all the technological advances in history, woven Huaraches just like woven baskets cannot be made by machine and have to be made by hand. In someways…
Originally posted on 74 FOOTWEAR DESIGN CONSULTING:
There’s been a noticeable increase in crafted products over the last 5 years. From Artisan Bread, Chocolate and Beer to handcrafted bicycles, bags and belts. Crafts have been celebrated in books, documentaries and Design fairs. Artists like Joana Vasconcelos have adopted crafts such as crochet and lace for their…
I don’t buy a lot of tools but this past week added one old, one new, and created one to add to my pile. I found this old shoe anvil at out local pawn shop/junk store last weekend and couldn’t pass it up. It will help with my ever increasing level of shoemaking and might […]
Read More New AcquisitionsThanks Dave, for pointing this out to me. Great stuff!
Read More Slow Handmade Shoes in BrazilA real treat from the Sifting the Past blog. It is worth checking out if you are interested in researching the past through images of the period just prior to mass industrialization. The Townsend’s have a couple excellent websites including an interesting 18th century cooking blog with videos. There is so much in this painting […]
Read More The ShoemakerOriginally posted on Huarache Blog:
Nestled into the Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca is the small town of Yalalag. Yalalag is very precious town, not only for it’s strong Pre-Hispanic traditions, but also because like only a handful of other small towns in Mexico, most of the Yalalag population is still dedicated to the traditional…
