#1 awesome husband

Hands off ladies, the best husband ever is mine... all mine.

We finally received Bunker the CNC machine in our studio several weeks after we had expected it - then it still needed to be wired and set up, which my husband volunteered to do because I made him. Unfortunately, the kid has been sick and/or working vast overtime hours at his "real" job, and has not been able fulfill my demands. So finally, in a fit of panic after a good yelling at from a third party, I asked him very sweetly to FINISH IT NOW, AND I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE TO STAY UP ALL NIGHT!!! Which he did - Monday night, I picked him up from work, bought him pizza, and stayed up all night with him until the job was finished. He finally pulled everything together at 7 am Tuesday morning (it works!), then I drove him home for a quick shower and then back to work. Wow, my hero. Here's to you, C!

This was taken at the Critic's Choice Awards last year. We attended the after party because we provided the official gift bag shoes. Let me tell you, contrary to what US Weekly will have you believe, the huge stars do not go to the after parties... Brad and Angie, George, the whole crowd attended the awards, but could we hobnob with them at the party? No. Siamak did literally rub shoulders with Cuba Gooding, Jr., and the cute young girl from Bridge to Terebethia, Anna Sophia Robb, was *really* staring at my shoes in a way that I could not tell was good or bad. But that was all the excitement. No need to ever attend a Hollywood after party again, that's checked off the list.

Anyway, back to shoe production drama... now I still have to figure out the programming thing to get Bunker to help make us all some fabulous shoes for the summer. So back to work. I just wanted to brag about my hubs for a bit. :)

me, former architect

Here's a bit about how I got into this gig. While you're at it, check out this house. Wow.

happenings in mohopland

Oops. It's been a long time since I've been back here... things have been particularly crazy here lately.

My new studio - which I love - was a bit on the dirty side when I moved in. So I spent about a month cleaning it, literally scrubbing every square inch, buh. (My cousin Abby helped out for a few days too, bless her.) It still needs a lot of work, actually, but at least it's no longer making me shudder. So excuse #1 for not posting in a while is that I've been spending all my spare time cleaning.

Excuse #2 is that I've had an insane cold, not like anything I've experienced before. For two full weeks, I've been totally exhausted and my head was in a thick fog where I can't think at all - it has been SOOOOOO annoying. Today is the first day that I feel like my old self, although I'm still blowing my nose every 10 minutes. Gross.

On top of this, my wood supply burned down at the lumberyard, and my new machinery arrived nearly a month late... good times. But there's nowhere to go but up from here, eh?

There has been fun to be had in the last few weeks, though. Siamak (that's my husband, I call him C) and I went up to Minneapolis in February to visit my new CNC machine. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Controlled, basically it's a computer-run cutter that I'll use to carve my new collection of shoes. The machine was manufactured by a really neat family-owned company outside the Twin Cities, and we went up there to get a little lesson on using it before it was shipped to us.

The CNC has two cutters so I can carve shoes twice as fast :) Since it's kind of two machines in one, we've named it Bunker (left head Chang, right head Eng) after the "original" Siamese twins. Ben at the factory (above left) was a doll, patiently teaching C and I how to use the machine (that's me at right). There's SO MUCH to learn, it's a little overwhelming. But I'm really, really excited about Bunker, because it'll really increase the variety of shoe styles that I can make, as well as our production capabilities.

So I'll be trying really, really hard in the next few weeks to add new shoes, but I'll also be learning how to use Bunker, and it's the start of sandal season, so I probably won't be able to post as much as I'd like...

our new studio

A few days ago, my landlord - who, by the way, I haven't actually seen in over a year - sent me a lovely email informing me that rent was going up. Substantially and immediately. Blarg. [seriously, fellow, are you not aware of all the "for rent" signs around town?]

So I had to look for a new place, fast. And I found one! I now have about three times the space I had in my old studio, so there's room for us to grow, yay!

I've been packing my old studio and cleaning the new one all week, so things have been extra crazy. The new place is kind of a mess, but the price was right - it's just going to be a lot of work to get it to the point of being my super cute dream workshop.

It has lots of amenities that shoemakers dream of, such as three (3!) walk-in freezers and four shiny chili cauldrons:

This is the 'before' shot of the main space. The windows have a nice Chicago skyline-ish view - I can see the Hancock and Trump, but the Sears is blocked by Circuit City.

Here's the exterior shot. I have basically the entire second floor of this white building. This is the view from the Circuit City/Midtown Tennis Club parking lot on Elston.

I met my new next door neighbors today. They're awfully sweet, except for the part where they mentioned that my space reminds them of the Saw movies. Yeah, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

new shoes! 12th pair

Oops, it's been a week since I last posted a new pair. This is supposed to be Fresh Shoes Daily, not Fresh Shoes Whenever I Get Around To It. So I'll get back on the ball.

However, I do have a good excuse. I'm moving to a new studio, yay! More on that in the next post. More importantly, it's time for new shoes!

I love this shot. It was taken by the spectacularly talented TS Harrington. We have the sandals tied in the basic ankle tie, then wrapped UP the leg, goddess-style. This look uses about 5 yards of lemon satin ribbon per leg - that's 10 yards in all, or 30 feet of ribbon. It's not always easy to find spools of that much ribbon in the fabric shops, so I'm hoping to carry similar ribbon in the next couple of months.

The secret to making sure the ribbons stay up is to wrap them all the way to the top of your calf as shown. That way, they're secured where your leg tapers right under your knee, and gravity can't do its dirty work and drag them down as you walk. If you'd rather have the ribbons go up to your mid-calf or so, I recommend double-sided tape to keep them up. Otherwise, you'd have to tie them really super tight, and that would be uncomfortable and give you muffin calves.

do the ribbons really stay tied?

A few people have asked me lately whether the ribbons really stay tied. If you're anything like me, your tennis shoes come untied every 10 minutes unless you make a kindergarden double knot, so I understand the concern.

However, the ribbons really don't come untied on their own. Most of our ribbons have enough 'tooth', and the surface area of the knot is great enough, that it just does not happen. However, I do often tie a knot before I make a bow when using satin ribbons because they are a little slicker. So there you go.

new shoes! 11th pair

Here we have the basic ankle tie again, shown with our 5/8" black and silver metallic ribbons. We laced the first and fourth loops, then wrapped the rest around the ankle. For a streamlined look, the ribbons were tied in a knot with the ends tucked in. The ribbons were used in the length they come in, 66" per shoe.

new shoes! 10th pair

Oh man, I love these ribbons so much. I wish I could find a source for them, but I just found a few yard of it online, and have no idea who the manufacturer is.

A variation on the basic ankle tie for a sophisticated look. The first three loops are laced, then the ribbon is simply wrapped over the top of the foot and tied behind the ankle in a knot or bow. Depending how big you'd like the bow or loose ends in back, as well as your shoe size, this look uses about 56"-72" of ribbon per shoe - about 3 1/8 to 4 yards total. This is another style that works great on lower heels as well.

new shoes! 9th pair

Continuing with the basic ankle tie theme:

These ribbons are so cute, with their red scalloped edge on one side. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I found these ribbons. This is another look that works really well on the lower heels as well. We've laced the first and third loops, crossed the ribbons over the front of the foot, around the ankle, and finished with a bow toward the side, easy-squeesy. We're using about 60" of ribbon per shoe, or 3 1/3 yards total, for a size 9.

the cpsia

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a new law that requires manufacturers to test all components of any products for use by children 12 and under for dangerous substances such as lead and pthalates. Sounds great, huh?

The problem is, testing is required for each component of each item produced and will cost thousands of dollars for every different product (including each colorway, and each size). Clearly, small and micro businesses can't afford that, and the penalties for non-compliance are steep, up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have lots of friends who make children's products by hand, and this law, as written, will put them out of business. These are great businesses that make their products in the US, with materials that are obviously safe.

It would make more sense if each manufacter of children's products needed to get some sort of certification from the manufacturer of their components... say, for example, someone who makes onsies would need the manufacturer of the snaps and the manufacturer of the fabric to forward something that says the materials are compliant. But to have every component tested on every size and color of onsies made is just silly. The properties of the snaps do not magically change between a size small and a size medium, sheesh. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the law was written very quickly as a reaction to tainted toys from China, and did not take into account the realies that small, handmade manufacturers face.

I believe an amendment to the law is necessary. To help push this along, please take a second to vote for this at Change.org. I would love to make sandals for tweens, and doing so would be breaking the law (it becomes effective in early February) - please help us small manufacturers out!