Home – How I Got Here

spad fam no car
This is a very cool family photo.

This is a spot for me to post photos of my  work (past and present) in a variety of mediums.

My most recent work is handbags, purses, totes, pocketbooks, etc. (call them what you will)

It all started with a pair of really cool Italian dark gray suede pumps with black suede toes and heels.  I made a crude little bag of dark grey flannel and black velour  – I may have that little corpse somewhere (salvaged from my moving truck fire).

cab
The driver ran out of space in back so he strapped a mattress to the cab – duh!
sc00088ec6
Yup – I lost everything; losing the family photos still hurts. For those who asked, it was Burnham Worldwide Forwarders and Stevens Van Lines, Inc. of Michigan)

Which lead to my quest for a purse to match this pair of shoes and resulted in this little burlap bag (an engineering feat since I used a standard home machine!)

purse for via spiga shoes
Via Spiga brand shoes.

Plus shoe making school (it is in my blood) a gift to me (which was grand but waaaay too labor and equipment intensive)…

This is me "lasting" my shoes. Alan & Jayne are the REAL DEAL since the 80's. If you are really interested, this is the place to go. No more than six to a class for one week! SInce 2011, they have always answered my questions and provided information based on their real world experiences as shoe makers.
This is me “lasting” my shoes. Alan & Jayne are the REAL DEAL since the 80’s. If you want to learn how to make shoes, this is the place to go. No more than six to a class for five days. Since 2011, they have always answered my questions and provided information based on their real world experiences as shoe makers.

 

finished shoes 1
My finished product – yes I do wear them!
shoe shop
My Grandfather came through Ellis Island and owned a shoe shop on the East Coast.

macaroni shop 3

My other grand parents also came through Ellis Island; they had a macaroni shop on the East Coast.

So, I took a trip to Europe (Happy Birthday to meeeee) and a week-long intro into leather working (I will not mention the school-I paid for a one-on-one session; they added a 2nd student- SOOO not cool man)

florence arno 1
The Arno at sunset.

And then, I saved my pennies for this lovely machine (thank you Harris!) which through many hours of learning, yards of thread, countless broken and dirty fingernails, and the Internet has lead me here and to my creations.

machine front view 1
Consew 228R post machine.

Thank you for looking.

🙂