Hey people,

Dani and I are soon to be Yarravillians, we have just signed on to a new lease on a house in Yarraville with 3 bedroom AND a garage.

Dani will be working from the 3rd bedroom (the first is for sleepin’ and the second is for my collection of awkwardly large bits musical gear and for me to sleep in when I’m in the bad books) … and I will be setting up the garage to be shoe making central. I assume there is some sort of man’s man rule against setting up a garage workshop and then filling it with pictures of high heeled shoes, but if I don’t tell any manly men, no one will know.

It has been about a 3 week turnaround from deciding to look for a new place and getting the keys, so it’s all a bit frantic at the moment around here.

We’re packing up things already, and looking forward to our first stroll to Ballarat St for a coffee and Smoked Cod pie at Hausfrau… mmmm…

On a nerdier note, I have also discovered that there is a little handful of people out there putting their years of practice making Lego and jigsaw puzzles to good use and creating something that was – until recently – completely out of the hands of the home craftsman… RAPID PROTOTYPING!

http://reprap.org/wiki/Mendel

For those of you who aren’t industrial designers, Rapid Prototyping = 3D printing = a machine that can create ANY form from plastic that you can imagine once you model it in a computer.
Luckily for me I am:

a. A nerd – with nerdy friends
b. Good at Lego and building model cars
c. Employed as and therefor quite good at being a 3D animator / modeller
d. About to move to a house with a garage
e. An Industrial Designer

… so with those powers combined I hope to make one of these bad boys before the end of the year, and then I’ll be able to manufacture my own heels and shoe parts at home in ANY shape, size or crazy assed construction that I want. Ahhh… that makes me happy, as I hate having my designs dictated by what I can find laying on the shelf at Lefflers.

this is the sort of stuff I’m talking about.. all printed in 3D from plastic… AWESOME.

Throw some hand-dyed leather into the mix and I’ll be equipped to make 100% custom shoes that wont be the same as everyone else’s.
So things like this will be possible, rather than “oh yeah, like that’s gonna work”…

Oh, and one last thing… Sydney ladies, I applaud you.
My god, we were there on the weekend and the ratio of jaw-dropping beautiful shoes to ‘crushed to death ballet flats with my foot hanging out the side’ was the opposite to what I’m seeing around Melbourne.
Granted, there are some very snappy dressers in Melbourne, but Sydney was killing it last weekend with the “I’m popping out for coffee in my Chloe’s” stakes.
Lucky for me Dani knows that my roaming eyes are locked groundward, so I don’t get a slap in the head for checking out the ladies when it’s ‘business related’ hahaha.

Anyhoot, back to packing for me….
Listening to : Beck – Bottle O’ Blues (not intentionally, it came on the iPod just now)

So, it’s finally started… TwentyTen, the year when – if all goes to plan I will…
a. Shave my head to combat baldness and never again concern myself with a “hairstyle”
b. Turn 30
c. Sell my first handmade shoe
d. Open a super-cool-and-casual-and-enviable store with the one and only Dani M
e. Release at least one of my proposed ‘albums’ and start some sort of proper band
… I’m guessing in roughly that order too. It should be fun!

Thanks to the modern marvel that is eBay I am now the proud owner of this bad boy

A Pfaff 493 for all those trainspotters out there, with the mechanism to attach a lining trimming ‘knife’ to the post,although it is not currently in action.

Even on “slow” it sews faster than anything I have ever used, so it will be hand-turned for a while until I get my nerve up. If anyone can see that I have threaded it wrong, please comment, as it’s 99% right, but has a few thread tension issues.

I have started the year by modifying a last for Dani’s orthotic-shod feet, as the shoes I’m making are all a little tight, so rather than go to town buying new lasts, I’m trying to build one up the old way.

After a day dicking around with the new sewing machine I managed to tape / draw / cut / trace / create the pattern for another pair of Oxfords. These will be identical to the ‘breezy’ ones, with a second pair in Black to follow.

And… seeing as I had to jam ANOTHER desk and piece of machinery into my corner of the studio space I decided to take a series of pictures and panorama them together (I should have just used a wide angle lens, but it’s all Blogging On A Budget © around here) so my hordes of fans can see what a little Tetris style cube I work in.
Everything is at arms reach… and not by choice.

Click on it for maximum bigness and see in great detail my lack of quality tools.

I have it here at super resolution -  if anyone wants to print it at 1:1 and pretend you’re really there.
Note the “Blue Suede Shoes” in the foreground that I’m making for myself…

That’s all for now, thanks for reading and here’s hoping for big busy and successful 2010 for all of us.

Listening to : Floor (their whole back catalogue)
These guys were awesome, the band is no more, key members are now in a band called Torche.
Downtuned madness. If someone wants to start a band like this, I’m keen.