It's time again for one of our favorite days of the year at the Softstar workshop: PLAYDAY!
Once or twice a year, we set aside a day to stop making shoes for a few hours and let our staff work on any creative project of their choosing. The projects don't have to have anything to do with shoes--though they often do, because our staff is always dreaming up new shoe creations they'd like to make. The goal of these playdays is to encourage our staff to explore their skills, spark new ideas around the shop and, most importantly, to make our workplace fun.
At the end of each playday we have a show & tell, in which every Softstar elf shows what he or she made, and talks about any skills or lessons learned in the process. Our employees have a wide range of skills ranging from leatherworking and sewing to sketching and designing... and some of our office workers rarely pick up a pair of shears. It's always exciting for us to see the variety of finished projects.
Feel free to let us know in the comments below which projects you like best. And sorry, but these are not for sale on our website.
Ali made a leather earring holder, plus a fringed coin purse and a variety of leather jewelry.
Elizabeth worked on a sandal design and made a leather top hat.
Emily made a seat cushion out of sheepskin scraps.
Emily also experimented with a Chukka-Moccasin hybrid.
Hava made a ruffled leather purse and a tasseled leather belt.
Heather upcycled leather scraps to make coffee cup holders.
Jodie used leather scraps to make page corner bookmarks.
Karen upcycled old size tags to make a "beaded" curtain.
Katie made a hand-tooled leather coaster, and also experimented with motifs made from salmon leather (supplied by a local fisherman).
Keita made a suede leather backpack.
Ken made a "Ducky" Merry Jane shoe.
Kylie made a snakeprint bicycle seat cover, a Superman dream catcher and a couple leather bracelets.
Lauren A. made a leather portfolio.
Lauren F. made a decorative leather bracelet.
Martin made a leather jigsaw puzzle.
Patty worked on leather quilting patterns.
Rob modified a Dash RunAmoc and made a bracelet out of round leather scraps.
Sarah made a sandal with snakeprint leather straps.
Stephanie made a greeting card decorated with leather flowers, a braided leather necklace and experimented with a design for a leather placemat.
Related Posts:
- Spring 2016 Playday at the Softstar Workshop
- Time to Play! Elves Have Fun and Get Creative at Spring 2015 Playday
- Time for the Elves to Play Again! See Our 2014 Winter Playday Projects