this has been very hard without a sole...

Into the shed to make some soles out of wood.

Using a jigsaw, which I almost got the hand of by the end, I cut out the shape of my sole in a solid piece of pine.

Test 1:

When given the 'walking test' this sole didn't really hold up, literally. Not surprisingly, it didn't move with the foot and that includes lifting off the ground simultaneously with the heel- a big problem because it causes strain on the shoe upper...

I then cut a line just after the arch and before the ball of the foot to create flexibility. Incidently, I snapped the sole just after the heel but decided to trial it anyway and discovered that this extra break in the sole is actually necessary. I used strips of leather to tack the pieces of wood together, in a prototype I would use one single piece, covering the entirety of the sole.

Test 2:

This sole was far more successful in the walking test, quite comfortable too. But I did learn the importance of the break positioning. This must have been not quite right because it pushed my foot off the back of the sole. Also I wonder what would happen to these shoe if you walked over gravel, would stones get stuck?

The next experiment was to join multiple soles together, creating a thick base. Starting with just two, I used wood glue and a clamp to join them. My jig sawing was a little inaccurate so the two soles didn't quite match. But this just meant I had to sand off a bit more in some areas, hopefully I didn't change the shape of the shoe too much...

walking in this shoe was tricky, just like the first experiment but worse. So I cut off the under side of the toe and heel to create more of a boat, rocking-horse like shape. Now they're very reminiscent of Vivienne Westwood's shoes. But quite functional to walk in.

I tried emulating the same technique on a single layer of wood but not only was this really dangerous (on the rotary saw), it did have the same effect because the angle was too small. I even tried chiseling out a section for the ball of the foot, and while this increased comfort it didn't make walking any easier.