Stupid Seminar!

Just got back from this really stupid seminar. A few of us signed up to it, a talk on setting up your own business. Im not really interested in setting up my own business but I thought it might be useful to go just out of interest. The woman who started the shop and brand Beyond the Valley was the main speaker. It was like a seminar for children! The first bit of advice she gave was to get some industry experience first, and in order to do that, to send CV’s and examples of work to companies that you would like to work for! That’s got to be the most obvious piece of advice EVER! Anyway it was funny to go and laugh at other people asking ridiculous questions at least!

A Weller, Weller, Weller!

Atalanta Weller came in today to give a talk to us about her career etc. Was a bit awkward at the start, she seemed quite nervous, and at the end it went silent for a bit too long and was pretty uncomfortable! Interesting though, didn’t know that she started out working for Clarks, I wouldn’t have expected that. Good advice about working in the industry in several different types of brands before even thinking about setting up a brand. Was nice to talk to her at the end as well, as I have met her a couple of times before at London and Paris Fashion weeks.

Also looking at my research a bit more, was interested in the idea of using some kind of rubber to seal the seams, like on old diving suits. I did a bit or ringing around and spoke to Pentonville Rubbers, and they said because they only do sheet rubber, they couldn’t help but they recommended Tiranti’s modelling shop. Went there and had a chat with the guy and he said I should try liquid latex. Bought a big bottle of it and some acrylic paints, as he said you can mix it wirth acrylic paint to get different colours! SUPER excited to try it out!

Oh also got my concept development back last week… was kind of disappointed…I got a good grade but being 3 marks off a first was a bit hard to hear. Especially since ALL my best mates at uni got firsts for theirs. Wish I could go back and do a little bit more. Not quite sure what let me down, but they said I hadn’t put enough initial research into it which was SUPER annoying, because I had done loads I just hadn’t put it in as I didn’t think we had to put very much in… : ( oh well… a bit late now. Just need to make sure I pick up the marks in the next bit.

Oops!

Haven’t written for a while been so busy with Christmas! Had a really good break and was nice to recover from concept development. Didn’t get much work done over the break to be honest, woops! Continued with designing which was fun, nice to do some of the creative stuff now!! No more writing woop woop! Kind of terrified to get my mark back now… Today we had a ‘materials review’ with Paul which was good, got some good contact names for things like leathers, heels and metal stamps. Also really randomly, got to go and meet a Norwegian cobbler yesterday with Julie! He had come over for a couple of weeks and was making some shoes at the John Lobb workshop near Piccadilly. Was such an odd guy, but really interesting to see the skill that goes into making handmade shoes. Such a cool opportunity! He was showing us how he carves his own lasts as well, which I was blown away by! The precision it takes seems impossible! So much skill.

Also over Christmas, my mum gave me the dental wax and I had a go at playing around with moulding toe caps! So difficult! Took them to show John today and he suggested some other techniques to try and also we worked out (because Im a bit stupid) that before we cast the toe caps, I have to make the upper so that we knoe the toe cap will fit properly. He explained to me the casting process (not quite sure I completely understood it!), but really excited about doing it!