A pair of good shoes, like a good partner, is magic. Everyone has his/her own definition of what is ‘good’, and mine is a well combination of comfort and appearance. Good shoes support your whole body weight without any complaint, walk with you as far as they can and never make you feel tired, while at the same time get you envy eyes from people. It’s not easier to find shoes like that than finding a right partner. Some people may have never found THE right shoe in a life time.
一雙好鞋就像一個好伴侶，作用很是神奇。對什麽是“好”，各人有各人的定義。無論是你要選擇“買”一雙好鞋，還是“做”一雙好鞋（象我這樣），面對眾多選擇你都不得不排個優先次序。對我來說第一最最重要的是舒服，其次是外表，然後才是可持續性啦場合啦等等等等。又舒服又漂亮的鞋子踏踏實實地支撐著整個人體的重量，陪你走很遠很遠的路也不會覺得累，而且還能邊走邊得到讚賞的眼光。只是找到這樣的鞋的難度不亞於找一個最合適的伴侶，有的人也許一輩子都沒有找到過一雙真正適合自己的好鞋呢。
I’m lucky that I can learn the crafts of shoemaking in London. I’ll start to post what I’ve learnt in the evening shoemaking class at Prescott & Mackay here. If you also want to learn about the crafting skills of handmade shoes, follow my shoe diaries from today!
我很幸運，能在伦敦学习传统的英国手工制鞋技艺。從這周開始我會把自己在Prescott & Mackay上晚間課程的學習心得記錄在這裡。如果你也想知道一雙純手工皮鞋是怎麼製作出來的，就來看我的制鞋日記吧！
The course started from the beginning of September. I always appreciate the small class size of P&M – five students altogether. In the first week (the first night) we were taught by Melissa (the principal of the school) and Morven (a young shoe designer and shoe maker). Don’t be misjudged by Morven’s young look – she makes shoes for those wax figures in Madame Tussauds London. Have you seen the yellow objects in the picture below? LAST is the name – they are the most important equipments for shoemaking because most operations are based on them. Your shoe will look basically in the same shape as your last. Melissa (pictured) explained to us how to match the height of heels with a last – a key factor for the comfort of a shoe. Can you tell from the picture that the height of the last and heel doesn’t match?
P&M學校總是小班上課以保證教學質量，第一周我見到了一起上這個課程的另外四個學生，來自各個行業，有出版編輯，有建築師。第一周校長梅麗莎親自給我們上課，另一位老師Moven很年輕，可別看人家年紀小，倫敦的杜莎夫人蠟像館里的那些名人蠟像們穿的手工皮鞋可都是她做的。看到下面黃色的東西了嗎？它們叫做last—鞋楦，為標準人腳尺寸，一切操作基本上都基於它，鞋楦是什麽形狀，做出來的鞋基本就是那個形狀，因此是做鞋最重要的工具之一。梅麗莎給我們講解鞋跟高度與鞋楦的搭配，原來這就是決定一雙鞋是否舒服的重要因素之一。你能看出图中示范的鞋楦其实与鞋跟高度并不搭配吗？
Match your heel with your last!
We all chose our preferred last shape, and the next step will be making shoe design and patterns. Making patterns has a very interesting preparation step: taping the last. Taping tightly against the last and the angle of putting tapes are significant to the correctness of shoe pattern, so make sure you pay enough attention to it. I gave this step a genius nickname: mummifying a last. 
我们纷纷根据各人喜好选择了自己喜欢的鞋型，接下來我們要做鞋的設計紙樣了。做紙樣有一個很有趣的準備過程——給鞋楦貼膠帶。膠帶貼得好不好和紙樣的準確性可是關係很大的哦，所以可不要小看了。我把這一步笑稱為“鞋楦的木乃伊化”。下边是我近乎完成的木乃伊……:)
half-finished taping for the last
Week 2 was about the design. I’ve been expecting this course for quite a while and have already drawn my design in my mind for many times. Look at my design, can you imagine how the real shoe will look like? 
第二堂課的內容就是設計鞋款了。我因為期待這課程很久了，早就在腦海中勾畫出了自己喜歡的圖樣，因此往木乃伊上畫設計圖的時候分外地快。看看我的設計，想像得出完成后是什麽樣子嗎？;)
my shoe design drawn on the tape
When the design was finished, we cut the tape and carefully tore it off, then stick it onto pattern paper. The first version of the pattern was done!
設計完成以後，把木乃伊裹布按中線小心切割，撕下貼在紙樣專用紙上，就成了最基本的鞋樣咯！
the pre-pattern of my shoe design
Here came the second step: transforming the basic pattern to the Mean Forme. You will see only one piece of it but it actually relects both sides of a shoe: the inside and the outside. It took a lot of time to make the mean forme, but it will serve as the most correct reference whenever you want to trace your design back. So if we want to add tolerance or do any modifications, we need to make the third version of pattern. The picture below is my mean forme!
做完基本鞋樣，就要把它轉換為紙樣的“參照版”，用同一片紙板反映一隻鞋的內外兩面，術語是mean forme。做這個很耗精力，一旦修改了想改回去可不容易，因此做好了還不能輕易在上邊切割或者寫寫畫畫，而是要再度轉換、加子口變成紙樣的第三版。下圖即我的mean forme，各項指標都非常精細。我得到老師的讚揚，因為我做的鞋內面和鞋外面在接合處相差極小，即說明在之前的木乃伊操作中線條和切割都非常準確。
mean forme
It didn’t end at the 3rd version though. A fourth effort was made in week 3 to make the real shoe pattern, reflecting the real look of the upper of a shoe, and transforming the one piece pattern back to two pieces: one for the outside and the other for the inside. Of course there are other considerations that I won’t use too many words to talk about here. You can see my finished upper pattern below: what an effort!
第三版紙樣做好以後，還要做最後的一次轉換——真實反映一個鞋面該有的樣子，把用一片紙板表現的鞋內外兩面再度還原為兩片（內一片，外一片）。當然還有很多其他的考量，這裡就不多說了。下面就是我終於做完了的第四次轉換：當當當！我的設計紙樣出爐了！
my finished shoe upper pattern
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So far we have done 3/4 of the pattern making. Where is that 1/4? That’s what I have done this week ( week 4). A pair of shoes not only needs shoe upper, but also shoe lining! So we need to make the pattern for the lining here. According to different designs, the lining can look very similar to the upper, or not alike at all. The simpler the design is, the more the lining resembles the upper. Check my lining patter below, can you tell the difference from the upper?
紙樣到這一步算是完成了大半。為啥不是全部完成了呢？因為一雙鞋不僅有鞋面，還有鞋里子呢！鞋里的形狀根據具體情況的不同，可以和鞋面形狀很相似，也可以完全不像。越簡單的鞋子，鞋里和鞋面越相像。下面象小房子的那个是鞋跟纸样，旁边是我的鞋裡紙樣。你能看出和鞋面纸样哪裡不同嗎？
my finished lining pattern and heel pattern
Now the pattern is finished, I can start to cut my leather! The leather I chose is cream ostrich with coral pore as the upper, and orange ostrich as the heel. Leather has directions and defects, so make sure you mark your pattern on the leather carefully before putting your knife on it.
做完紙樣，確認沒有錯誤了，就可以裁咯！我選擇的材料是米色配珊瑚紅點的鴕鳥皮為主調，火橘色的鴕鳥皮為鞋跟。真皮是有方向性的，紙樣必須按某一方向排，而且天然的皮料難免有瑕疵。想像如果你做一個包包，皮子面積那麼大一塊，如果想要最後成品是完全沒有瑕疵的，那該是多么的費料啊！這也是好皮具價格高的原因之一。我的鴕鳥皮質量不錯，有少許污漬，都被我小心地避開了。
I am cutting my ostrich leather
Let’s check the other students’ progress. The picture below is from my Danish classmate. Very complicated design, thus more difficult to make the pattern.
以上就是四個晚上完成的活計咯。看看別的同學的進度吧：下圖是坐我旁邊的一個丹麥同學的設計，非常複雜，因此做紙樣也比我的款式難得多，速度也慢一些。
Sovaj's shoe pattern
These are what she’s going to use for her upper and heel. The turquoise material is fish skin which she brought from Denmark. The dark blue is very soft lamb skin. Very beautiful colour match – I can imagine how pretty the finish shoes would be!
這是她準備用來做鞋跟和鞋面的皮料。土耳其藍的顏色是魚皮，她專門從丹麥帶回來的；深藍色是非常柔軟的小羊皮。顏色配得很漂亮，可以想像完成以後一定很驚豔！
fish skin and blue leather
See you next week! 那麼，就下周再見啦。^^
Read more:
Makeing shoes in the evening – week 5 to 7
Making shoes in the evening – week 8-9
Making shoes in the evening – week 10
