Yeah I know this doesn't how much. I'll get more 'in progress' types of photos when I get time. I'm cutting it close the way it is here before I have to start getting myself ready for work.
A few days in a row with shifts to fill has been plenty of motivation to at least start getting those incredibly comfortable flip-flop soles trimmed down to size. They're not yet shaped the way they're going to be but I'm in no great big hurry to make my cuts too deep.
If ever you've carved something out of wood (or stone for that matter) you know that once you've removed a bit of it ... it's removed forever. You can't jut glue it back on and have it be the way it was.
So I'm taking my own sweet time with these soles.
For tonight's shift I've got them in the thick brown felted wool boots. The soles are taped but not the sides yet. Those won't get done until the sole is in its final shape.
The time to work on these is extremely limited by the very job whose demands spur me to get them done.
This time I've dispensed with the leather strap ankle fastenings in favor of yet another experiment: leather laces that happen to be the same color as the boots.
heh heh
Not that you can see them anyway since the boot tops are turned down over them.
So we'll see how they hold up. I've got them criss-crossed five or six times (they're plenty long!) around my ankle and so far they're doing the job. We'll find out soon enough what will happen during eight hours of constant speed-walking.
My feet have plenty of room in them, especially the right one at the moment because i don't have time to even trim it down any more right now. That's the one I'm liable to walk out of if the laces give way, LOL!
I'm not ever going to pare these things down to a snug fit, not the ones I'm planning on using for shift work. I do have a pair that is snug to my feet which is fine when I want to show off my darling little feet - but those are not for these purposes.
These are for WORK.
Even when I get the inside soles the way I want them, the edges taped securely into place (to give them their final shape on the outside), the backs of the heels reinforced (to keep my toe-walking from pushing the inside soles backward), and the rubber coating applied to the bottoms and up the sides (for water-proofing and grip) - I'm still going to leave plenty of space in the uppers.
I want that space both for wiggle room for my toes, breathing room for my feet, and to accommodate the felted wool 'booties' - the liners that will add their comfort to the whole by providing a bit of cushion to the toe part and at my instep for extra arch support - those cushions will be built into the liners.
At any rate, I'm out of time so had best get on my way to the eight hour on the job trial of this particular stage of the development process.
People tell me I ought to market them but that's not exactly gong to work to well.
Mine are specifically designed for my specific feet and my specific gait and my specific ob. I'm doing my experimenting as I go along, testing and testing to see what works and what doesn't.
I reckon I could get outlines of peoples' feet and build them some boots that would without a doubt be a lot more comfortable than what they're probably wearing - but the individuality of their arches, their unique gaits (how their feet and legs move when they walk or run) and where they tend to put their weight ... these are variables a person can't get from a simple foot outline. AND I wouldn't know what they want them for necessarily.
These are for this job. I wouldn't want to run a footrace in them and I wouldn't want to climb a tree in them and I wouldn't want to ride a horse in them (thinking stirrups and boot-heels here). When I get my final pair finished I'll leave that pair there and wear them only for that job. Other pairs will be for other uses, each specially designed to fill the needs of whatever that use might be.
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