Disclaimer: This post contains an old attempt at shoemaking, during the beginning of my journey. I really didn’t know what I was doing at this time, and the post is left online for archive purposes only. Please do not “learn” anything from it, as the post is certainly riddled with mistakes. It’s just a documentation on some of my thoughts as a beginner in this venture. For a more updated view of my shoemaking, please see my latest posts instead.

Made with the same pattern design as Upsala, Aros is a far more classical shoe what with the upper leather choice.

This post is a display of the finished shoes – in the construction post, I describe in detail how they were made.

I find the specific shade of brown on this upper leather to be very pleasant, and oddly, very rare for shoes. It’s not quite medium brown, it’s certainly not tan, and by no means it is chocolate – nor is it cognac, rust or copper. To be frank, I don’t quite know how to describe the specific shade. As the uppers on these shoes represent the soil of the viking graves of Olde Upsala, I envision the color as “historical brown”.

Asphalt in cloudy weather is perhaps the ideal backdrop for shoe photography.

My experiments with heel finishing continues. While there’s certainly room for improvement, I do like how these heels turned out. I also like the pattern design feature of having no seam at the back. The beading is still chunky – I should do something about that on my next pair.

The leather outsoles were decorated at the waist with a Tarrago acrylic paint dye in cognac (#49). The pigment at the front and on the heel top lifts is just Saphir Medaille d’Or 1925 shoe polish in tan. The finish turned out a little rough – I’ll work on this for my next pair.

The outsole stitch was made at 7 spi.

And here’s Aros in the wild, on my own feet.

Specs:

Construction: English welted
Uppers: 3 oz calf side
Lining: 2 oz vegetable tanned crust baby calf
Insoles: 9-10 oz veg tanned calf side from Tärnsjö Garveri
Outsoles: 9-10 oz veg tanned butt
Toe/heel stiffeners: 5 oz latigo tanned shoulder
Side stiffeners: 4 oz vegetable tanned crust calf side
Rand: 8 oz veg tan from Tärnsjö Garveri
Welt: natural welting leather from Leather & Grindery
Shank: Metal, from Leather & Grindery UK
Heel lifts: 8 oz veg tanned butt from Tärnsjö Garveri
Top lifts: Prime Leather 1/4 Rubber
Sockliner: 4 oz vegetable tanned crust calf side