A walk in the wilderness: Carmel Walsh

http://www.yatzer.com/1964_a_walk_in_the_wilderness_by_carmel_walsh

Mojito shoe by Julian Hakes

Chanced upon this very interesting piece - not sure if I would classify it as a shoe but it is certainly novel.

http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/23/mojito-shoe-by-julian-hakes/

Convertible shoes

When I decided to make adaptive products one of the ideas that excited me the most was that of convertible shoes.

Shoes as an object are fascinating in the various roles it plays in the psyche of its wearer. They are of course a necessity- ideally comfortable and long lasting. At the same time they are a luxury - things of beauty and vanity. One of the most important accessories that can make or break a "look" but unlike jewelry or scarves or even bags (to a lesser degree) utterly indispensable.

As a designer it is a challenge to package all these roles of the Shoe into one composite - so it can assume the role required of it by just making a few adjustments to the existing framework. A adjustable shoe is economic - you get 3-4 shoes for the price of one - ecologically beneficial since it allows the same materials to be constantly re-contextualized and though it may be a difficult concept to introduce I hope its inherent playfulness will grow on the consumer.

One of the first things which come to my mind is to bridge the great divide between the Heel and the Flat. The above mentioned roles of the shoe is often mutually excusively divided into these two categories. The heeled shoe automatically summons up an image that is feminine, sexy, dressy and more formal while flats conjure up a more commonplace image of comfort and practicality though hopefully still smart and funky. As a shoe aficionado I cant imagine calling a flat shoe a thing of beauty knowing that something as utterly gorgeous as the stiletto exists and it this addition/subtraction of symbolic value that comes with the addition/subtraction of heels that I find a really interesting premise.

Of course once I started doing my research I realized that the convertible shoe as a design concept has been doing the rounds for a few fears now. From Karl Lagerfield and Lanvin to Shiela's Wheels a U.K based car insurance company have all dabbled in it with some interesting results. While the research makes it a greater challenge to make my designs original its sort of comforting to know that some really fantastic designers have faith in this crazy idea too and maybe in the next decade it wont be so crazy anymore!

Image courtesy http://trendsupdates.com/wear-remove-and-carry-these-convertible-high-heels/

Week 2: Sourcing and Sorting

Most of week 2 involved collecting and sorting waste yarn and waste fabric.

• Monday 19/7

1. Revisited the tailors at New Market and collected phenomenal amounts of waste fabric - two whole sack fulls.
2. Explored the shoe market near Park circus which is quite a discovery. They sell soles, inner soles, uppers, velcroes, zippers etc all separately - it is like my dream come true. I pick up three different shoe soles and fastening glue which i can use to experiment with. Shoemakers I meet there tell me it is possible to make the shoes myself - and they can provide me with some tools etc. I also meet with a couple of "mochis" i can get back to in my prototyping/production stages.

• Tuesday 20/7

1. Make a trip to Phulia and visit Bai lou's weavers who I will be working with in the production/prototyping stage. I also take a look at Bai lou's range of waste yarn and collect some samples of old Bangalore silk and high twist cotton yarn.

• Wednesday 21/7

1. Started sorting the fabric out into piles of colour families - the blues and greens, the reds and oranges, beiges and whites, pinks and purples, blacks and shiny metallics and zari borders etc. It is an epic task and the room is a royal mess!

• Thursday 22/7

1. Continued sorting and segregation.

• Friday 23/7

1. Went to the Weavers Factory and met with Moneka who is back in town and gave her a brief of what I intend to do at the factory the whole of the following week. I want to set up the desk loom so i can start creating some weave samples in double cloth and I am told to explain the warp and drafting to Naresh da, who will set it up by Tuesday morning.
2. Back at home I start experimenting with surfaces.

• Saturday 24/7 and Sunday 25/7

1. Continue material exploration with fabric scrap. Ideation for surfaces and tailoring swatches.
2. Meet with some ladies who could help me with crocheted and knitted samples.

Mallikbazaar

Images taken at Mallikbazaar - the trading ground for used car parts and a very inspiring place to just walk around in and just get ideas of shape texture and material use albeit the fact that its dingy and quite awful in the monsoons!

Weavers Studio Factory - the set up.

Some of the waste yarns I will be using in the course of my project - segregated colour-wise.

Also a glimpse of the weaving unit and some of the weavers who will help in my sampling and production stages.

Week 1 : Settling and Sourcing

I got to Kolkata on Saturday the 10th of July armed with a plan and a timeline that I was confident was pragmatic and well thought out. Of course, once I started on it things promised to be not as easy or as fast moving as I had hoped. I had set two days at the beginning for sourcing since a month ago i had already spoken to all the tailors etc I planned to collect stuff from. But a month can be a very long time and of course they never thought I was coming back in spite of my solemn promises that I would - and i went back to find out that i was in fact still on square one!

So the first week was almost entirely about settling in to a completely alien work space - where I had to discover bazaars, tailors and potential shoemakers - and sourcing all the material I needed. Here is a short re-cap:

• Monday 12/7

1. Met with Darshan at Weavers Studio and presented my research and proposed timeline. She was leaving town the same week so she wanted me to get started at Weavers as soon as possible- so that any difficulties could be ironed out before she left.
2. Very hopefully went to collect waste fabric from all the tailors I had met and spoken with earlier. None of them had any fabric kept aside and asked me to come back after 3/4/5 days. Frustrating to know that you are off schedule on your very first day! Nonetheless, I would have to come back.

• Tuesday 13/7

1. Went over to the Weavers factory, and acquainted myself better with the space and resources that were going to be available to me. One of the managers Moneka was not in town so I met with the other, Monolena, and asked her to keep aside all the waste from her unit by the end of this week. I wanted to collect all the waste fabric scrap yarn etc. into one space so that I had a clear picture of the material I had at my disposal - since while working with waste it is paramount that material cannot be replicated - that would be self defeating.
2. Spent some time in the weaving unit talking over technicalities with Naresh Da the master weaver. I figured that none of the weavers there were too comfortable working on the desk loom but decided to start my sampling on it anyway since that way i could experiment on the loom as well not just on paper. He also showed me the wastage yarn and excess yarn i would be using. A pretty wide choice of colour and material - from linens and cottons in earthy rusts and pinks to bangalore silk and matka in lovely greens, blues, silvers and jewel tones. Looks exciting!

• Wednesday 14/7

1. Did some research in the Weavers Studio library and sorted out some technical issues with Darshan. For example in the usual course of things they do not allow material being taken in and out of their factory but my whole project revolves around integrating material from different spaces to create something new altogether so I have to be able to do that. We agreed on it, only all the samples I made at the factory I would have to leave a copy with Moneka for their archives.
2. Met with Bappa from Bai lou. He was also leaving town in a couple of days so wanted to fix my agenda with Bai lou for the next couple of weeks. We decided not to involve the Phulia weavers in the sampling stage but instead go there once things were ready for production. Meanwhile I could go one of the days to check out their waste yarn and take what I think I may use.

• Thursday 15/7

1. One of the most disastrously frustrating experiences so far. Following the advice of my review panel I decided to get my hands dirty sooner rather than later and sat with some fabric and yarn I had collected to make some swatches. Sat around all day without really achieving much other than two very unwieldy samples till I decided I need to go about this in a far more organized manner. Collection and segregation is imperative before I can begin with exploration - the nature of working with waste demands that. So I give it up for the day and update my blog instead.

• Friday 16/7

1. Continued the research I had begun in Bangalore of scouting second hand markets for interesting objects and to get a feel of the role of that object in the whole system of material things. Visited Mallikbazaar the scrapyard and trading ground for old car parts. Incredibly interesting space - inspired by some of the shapes and curves I spotted. Also marked out interesting objects i may integrate textiles with to make sculptural products: radiators, car wipers, bendy car lamps. Picked up some steel wool they use in engines to filter grime, its got a very delicate fragile look and maybe i could recontextualize it to make some lovely jewelry!
2. Wanted to figure out the shoe situation as soon as possible. I had a basic idea of making modular shoes and my task was to find a place or person I could get it done by. I just needed someone to construct different soles in the standard sizes to which I could attach the uppers which I would be designing. Went to Bentick street (of the chinese shoe makers) on popular recommendation but they only make customized leather shoes and are unwilling to experiment with a design student with slightly crazy ideas. Ditto at the shoe shops at new market who custom make shoes. Panic!!

• Saturday 17/7

1. Went over to the Weavers factory to collect all the scrap Monolena had kept aside for me. Scrap in the true sense - just odds and ends from swatch cuttings mainly in georgette, cotton and some in tussar. Did get a few slightly bigger pieces but not too many since the studio already re uses most of their waste fabric as edging and patchwork etc. So the challenge truly is to make use of material no one has any use for and goes straight to the bin. Sounds very noble but I am super apprehensive looking at the bags of "khuchro kapor" handed to me. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get more substantial stuff from the tailors!
2. Discovered a market known as Chora Bazaar near the Sealdah station where they sell old furniture, antique knick knacks and hoards and hoards of second hand shoes. I was getting rather worried about not finding a shoemaker... maybe i could get second hand shoes pull them apart and put them together to create brand new pieces? The piles of old tattered and not so tattered shoes looked daunting and my very recent idea of reworking them seemed ridiculous. It would take ages and definitely three times the effort to rehabilitate these. Luckily one of the shop owners told me to make a visit to a morning shoe bazaar that sits near Park Circus from 6 am to 12 pm every weekday, telling me I would probably have better luck there. And so my sourcing efforts spill over to week 2.