The Department of Small Works

Plenty of readers contact me about getting into working with leather. I try to talk most of the people out of it, as it is a really expensive hobby, unless you have some ambitions about doing more than just one belt. But I totally understand the fascination, as it was that fascination, that got me started and that fascination, that keeps me going despite all the failures and let-downs, that I still experience.

A reader contacted me some time ago wanting help with shoemaking. He wanted to make shoes for himself. To me that sounded crazy, and to be honest it still does. However the guy comes across as being really set on the idea, and when you have that feeling, he might just be able to accomplish something.

This was a really long intro for something, that isn't really directly related to, what this post is really about. The post is about a project called "The Department of Small Works", which a friend of mine led me to some time ago.

This project was a result of a long, long bike ride around the British Isles, where Nick Hand depicted and interviewed some of the last real makers of a lot of different things like shoes, hats, bikes etc.
The webpage doesn't look like much, but if there's one thing to be learned, it must be, that it doesn't matter much, when the book looks pretty damn good.

If I can connect the intro with this, then I would like to say; HC this is for you - Bespoke shoemaker Deborah Carré of Carreducker.