Tools used in shoe making (burrowed from Beth's blog, hope she doesn't mind!)

Hammer, obviously used to hammer in nails and similar things



Brush, maybe used to brush the leather?



Shoe making in the 19th century

Information and pictures taken from 'The Book of Trade, or, Library of the Useful Arts' by J.Johnson, published in 1807
Part II

At the time when this book was published (early 19th century) shoe-making was a fairly profitable business; some shoe-makers owned huge shops with large window displays showing off their designs to rich men and women. The shoe-maker himself would buy his leather in half-hides and skins; keeping some for his business and selling the rest on to other shops. He would always be very knowledgeable in the type of leather he was using.

This illustration shows the master and the journeyman shoe-maker in the process of making a shoe. The master (pictured in front) is cutting out an upper leather of a shoe by cutting around a paper pattern. He has placed a weight at the corner to stop it slipping; also on his right are a pair of pincers made from teeth, used to grip the leather tight to stretch it. To his left is a hammer to beat down any rough parts standing up inside the leather. In the background is the journeyman shoe-maker. He is joining the upper leather to the sole of the shoe. Next to him on the bench are an awl (used to make holes in the leather), a knife and a stone used to sharpen his tools. On his right are a hammer and a lapstone, and on the other side is a large bucket of water. In this bucket he keeps a number of wax in balls; all these materials are necessary in his trade. The leather is sewn together with wax-coated thread and a hog's bristle instead of a needle (this guides the thread through the holes made by the awl in the leather better).

Journeyman were highly skilled at making women's shoes; these required greater ingenuity due to the finer materials and smaller stitches. Women were employed to bind the shoe together and sew together those made of higher quality material such as silk or satin.

However these old fashioned-techniques of making shoes by hand were revolutionised in 1883, when an invention by Suriname-born Jan Matzeliger was patented in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was an automatic shoe-lasting machine that made it possible to make 150-700 pairs of shoes a day-14 times more than a person could! It went into production in 1885 and cut the prices of shoes in half-meaning they were now affordable to the average American.

(Information courtesy of Dean K. Anderson and Stamponhistory.com).

Pincers used in shoemaking (the far left one is 18th century, the second left is early 19th century and the other 3 are modern).

Old cobbler's tools from 1880-1910, found at Charles Roberts' Wagon Works at Horbury Bridge, Wakefield. Not sure what they're exactly for but they did repairing as shoes then were expensive to replace. 

An old cobbler's tool made of cast iron with a large wood block base.

Campaign Lesson 14th Dec

This morning with Mrs Haythorpe was just spent tidying up our blogs; editing them, labelling posts and posting photos of our assembly and workshops at Browick Rd. Sadly we have not received any donations-I am quite disappointed as I know we have worked hard to raise awareness and I am worried we have failed our charity shops, who were relying on us. However this doesn't necessarily mean we have failed our unit so hopefully we can still get high grades.
In the afternoon with Miss Brogan we started to make our video journals. Beth, Laura, Charlotte and I went in a group of 4 to start filming. We asked each other what we thought of our Artefact and Campaign units, what we had enjoyed and not enjoyed and what we had been working towards. They're still not ready but we have made a start and next term we need to link it all together.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Artefact Lesson 14th Dec

I had a fairly major disaster in the lesson today! After being left for a while my Modrock shoe had dried and in order to make a heel and carry on with the work I was required to remove it from the shoe last by cutting it off with a knife. To do this I cut off the sole of the shoe so I could remove the top part and then use Modrock to stick the two parts back together. However the sole was very flimsy so I covered it in more wet Modrock to try and get it to stay together, which didn't work too well! It was extremely difficult to get the two parts together and eventually the top bit fell apart. It would have been impossible to fix so unfortunately I was forced to start again! After all my hard work! Anyway, this time I'm making it out of tissue papaer in the hope it will be easier. So far I have covered it in cling film and stuck a few ripped up pieces of tissue onto it with PVA glue.

Pictures from Browick Rd

These pictures aren't from my group but we were all doing similar activities so it doesn't matter too much.

Playing a game with the Year 2's.


Talking to the Year 2's.


Talking in groups.



Showing their performances.

Assembly Plan for Browick

My group for the assembly (Freya, Chloe, Sam, Jacob and me) are going to be playing some toys and their owner; a boy who has outgrown them. I am a teddy bear, Chloe is a cat, Jacob is a robot and Freya is GI Joe. We are sitting on a shelf in Sam's bedroom, shivering and complaining about how we never get played with. To interact with the children, we thought that we should tell them to shout every time Sam comes in (sort of like panto) to make them laugh and to get them more involved. We then freeze in our toy positions when Sam enters, hoping he will play with us but he soon leaves without touching us. After that we start to get upset that he still hasn't played with us and start to suggest that maybe he should take us to a charity shop; then at least we will go to someone who wants us.
Sam then enters again and we hear his mum shouting at him up the stairs to sort out his old toys-telling him to take them to a charity shop or throw them in the bin. The toys are obviously horrified as they don't want to go in the bin. Sam picks them up one by one (we have to pick ourselves up and act like toys) but when he picks up Jacob the robot his arm falls off. Sam announces his intentions to put us in the bin to the audience but they persuade him to take us to the charity shop (good news for the toys!) Obviously he has to fix Jacob as you can't take broken toys to the charity shop. He then leaves to tell his mum his plans and the toys celebrate his decision. A happy ending for all!

Letter to Charity Shop

Wymondham High School

Folly Road

Wymondham

Norfolk

NR18 0QT

14th December 2010

Children's Society

30 Market Street

Wymondham

Norfolk

NR18 0BB

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing on behalf of my group of the Creative and Media Diploma students at Wymondham High School. Some weeks ago we visited your shop and said we would try and raise awareness and collect some good quality donations for you. Unfortunately we have been unsuccessful; we have tried to raise awareness by putting up posters, sending out leaflets, putting on a performance and workshop for Year 2's at Browick Road Infant School etc but so far we have received no donations. We apologise for this disappointment, but hopefully we have raised awareness so people will maybe bring in their own donations and they will be aware of the need for good quality donations.

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Meyer-Funnell     Year 10 C&M Diploma

Artefact Lesson 30th Nov

I spent this lesson working more on my shoe-I still haven't finished Modrocking and now I have to make the heel. It's taken much longer than I expected it to since I have never used it before but now we have a bit more time than I thought we did-I thought we had until the end of term but it turns out we have till the end of January! I need to now update my plan. Hopefully next lesson I will be able to start applying the jewellery and get it looking like a proper shoe-very exciting!

Success of campaign so far: donations, raising awareness and profile

So far, for our campaign we have looked at various campaigns and their techniques used to raise awareness, chosen a charity shop and considered how to improve donations, made posters, radio and TV ad storyboards and performed to an infant school trying to educate them about charity. Despite all our hard work our donations are virtually non-existent; our posters haven't really been noticed and I don't think we have raised enough awareness. We are trying to rectify this situation by targeting staff rather than pupils for donations and hopefully our cardboard monster will be better noticed in the staff room.
Our performance also didn't produce plentiful donations but we have succeeded perhaps in a better way-we have hopefully convinced children to donate! Little children are easily influenced and I think if we keep spreading the message we will get them to donate.
The important thing though, is to raise the profile of charity shops. Even if we don't directly receive donations ourselves, we can always take our old toys and clothes, or persuade others to take them themselves. We won't fail our unit if we don't get donations but it's good for the charity shops to get publicity and let people know they need good quality donations. So far we haven't managed to do this so much but on the 14th December we are holding a stall trying to sell donations and we may be able to inform more people about how donations of better quality are needed.

Reflection on Theatre in Education Performance

The performance on Sunday went quite well; obviously without several key people it was more difficult and in our workshop there was just 4 of us with a class of 30 Year 2's. I am slightly disappointed because it could have been much better and our assemblies could have been a lot more entertaining and interesting but it didn't make as much sense as some people had to play more than one role and at one point they blanked completely.
The workshop was trickier than I had expected.Our updated plan was with Chloe (who wasn't there) so we were basically doing it all from memory. We played some games which the children seemed to enjoy and a couple of activities on sharing but I was concerned that we weren't actually doing so much about campaigns and charity and to the Year 2's it was just a bit of fun. However, our questionnaire at the end (again this had to be improvised) appeared successful-we asked them questions about charity and charity shops, what they do and what makes charity shops different from normal shops and we got some positive feedback. They were able to name some charity shops and famous charities like the RSPCA, Children in Need and Comic Relief.
Unfortunately it was partly unsuccessful due to lack of donations. The children didn't bring in any toys so we have nothing to take back to our charity shop, but the only way we could think of raising awareness was to send out letters to the parents. Parents get so many letters from primary schools asking for money or doantions, especially towards Christmas, and sadly I think our letter was ignored.