Prescott & Mackay in Finland

Finnish students’ work after the 5-day class

These shoes are made by students who took P&M’s Five-Day Intensive Shoemaking course in Jyvaskyla, Finland this summer. Well, we haven’t started a satellite course in Finland yet – it was Jamk University Of Applied Science, School Of Business And Service Management who invited Melissa, our principal, to teach there. We are thrilled by the finished shoes: they look so well finished, original and creative. 

JAMK in Jyväskylä region and Central Finland

If readers don’t know about Jyvaslyia, here is some background information. The city is the home town of Aki Choklat -  one of our lecturers at P&M. Aki is so successful in the footwear industry that he is a household name there. Once the University heard that he lectured with Prescott & Mackay, 2 years ago they invited him and Melissa to give a short presentation to the students about P&M’s work. They then invited Melissa back to teach the 5 day intensive shoemaking class this summer. Aki also held a session there on Slow Design.

Students at the course

The course was open to both University students and non University students so there was was quite a varied mix of people attending. Some with fashion training and others with more broader craft skills. But they were all very accomplished makers one way or another so each brought their own skills to the task of shoemaking, even though  none had done it before. So the standard was very high and as a consequence they pushed the bar as far as the general level of work they produced during the 5 days.

One student's work: vintage effect

The students were all very creative in choosing what materials to use. Jyvaslyia is 3 hours north of Helsinki and availability of leather and woven fabric is not as wide as perhaps somewhere like London, so many of the students breathed new life into vintage pieces by recycling the leather from clothing or picking off details to use as surface decoration on their shoes. The effects were very original and inventive. 

The course content was very much the same as the Intense Shoemaking class that P&M runs in London and San Francisco (and soon to be Melbourne, if you don’t know yet, check the class schedule about how to make shoes in Australia here) apart from the course started at 8am – very early! But according to Melissa, it gave her plenty of chance to explore that part of Finland which is fascinating and make full use of the warm hospitality the Fins extended to her. Apart from Aki, Jyvaslyia is also home town to another famous Fin – Alvar Aalto – who designed some of the most architecturally recognised buildings of his era and spent much of his career working on projects based in the surrounding area. “So that in itself added an extra touch of interest to what was for me a very pleasurable trip to Finland,” said Melissa.

one student's work: taking advantage of vintage material

What do you think? Leave us a comment if you like our Finnish students’ work! 

 

Tags: Aki Choklat, Finland, Five Day Intensive Shoemaking Course, Footwear Design, how to make shoes, Melissa Needham