If you follow our blog, then you'll know that once or twice a year we have an official playday at the Soft Star workshop. This is a day when we stop working and are encouraged to embark on the creative project of our choice. Soft Star owners Tricia and Larkin cover our customer service and the rest of us are given free use of the tools (and some materials) in the shop. We're also given a small budget in case we want to purchase anything new to use.
There are no requirements for what we make or for what experiments we conduct, as long as it interests us and we have fun doing it. That means our projects don't have to be related to shoes in any way. The purpose of our playdays is to encourage creative thinking, develop new skills and to see what we can learn. It also helps us keep our workplace fun, which is one of Soft Star's core values.
Yesterday was our spring playday. At the end of the day, we all had a show-and-tell to share our projects. We're now delighted to share them with you.
Founder Elf Tim made a Soft Star bike seat cover.
Elf Cindy made a tooth fairy pillow, with a pocket for a tooth!
Elf Elizabeth H. made a leather dog collar, as well as a doll to display it.
Elf Emily worked on two shoe designs: a high-ankle Dash RunAmoc and a step-in sandal.
Elf Hava used old leather scraps to make a stylish coaster, which can also double as a hot pad.
Elf Hava also made a classy bracelet from our scraps.
Not yet done, Elf Hava also experimented with split leather patterns for our Merry Jane.
Still going at it, Elf Hava experimented with using different vegan materials for our moccasins.
Elf Elizabeth K. impressed us all by whipping up two new boot ideas: a lace-up boot version of our Portlander and a slip-on fringe boot.
Elf Jana sculpted a model of an arch to show people in our workshop why we don't use arch supports in our shoes.
Elf Jana also made a braided leather hairband.
Elf Tesla experimented with scratching, sculpting and dyeing leather to make ornate flowers.
Elf Jodi also made leather flowers, and dyed them herself using fresh raspberries and blackberries!
Elf Keita made several beautiful wallets from our leather scraps, including our snakeskin-print leather and our wild elk leather.
Elf Martin turned leather scraps into simple keychain fobs.
Elf Martin also worked on a sandal design.
And Elf Martin made a 6-pack carrier that can be mounted on a bicycle.
Elf Patty made leather checkbook covers.
Elf Rob experimented with branding our logo on different leather and sole materials to make cute keychains.
Elf Rob still had some time left, so he also made... this.
Elves Dina, Sarah, Melody and Brad teamed up to make a leather tree mural. Each leaf is imprinted with the initials of our staff. They dubbed themselves "Team Awesome."
Related Posts:
- See Our Winter 2014 Playday Projects
- Winter 2013 Playday at the Soft Star Workshop
- Playday 2.0 – Vote for Your Favorite New Shoes!