At the birth of industrialization, desperate to preserve
their way of life, bands of craftsmen in Europe threw their wooden shoes
(sabots) into the cogs of Mill gears, hoping to literally grind the wheels of
change to a halt. Their protest survives still in the word saboteur.
Across the Atlantic, similar independent shoemakers around Lynn MA (soon known as the Industrial Shoe Capital of the World,) worked in
small shops adjacent to their homes called “Ten Footers.”
craftsmen were the last of their kind in the region to produce a
complete shoe by hand, using age-old techniques and simple tools.
They determined their own pace of life and the conditions of their
labor; they fit their craft seamlessly into the rhythm of their
families, engaging men, women, and children.
Ten Footers were ubiquitous.
The atmosphere and the work in a
Ten Footer defined the shops as community gathering spots, fostering
social conversation that bound the neighborhood and promoted discourse.
As large mills materialized craftsmen moved away from their art into
an industrial life of assembly. By 1890, the Ten Footer was obsolete.
Industry grew, creating a disparity of wealth and classes. The
Individual Shoemaker, and his knowledge, were no more. By 1990, the
cycle of large-scale manufacture had eliminated shoemaking entirely in
the Greater Boston area.
Shoecraft was by all determining factors a good, true, decent way of
life both for the cordwainers and for their communities.
I endeavor to establish a
new generation of the Ten Footer, to reinstitute a vernacular way of
life, a deliberate use of space, and a preservation of tradition.
Project winner of an Awesome Foundation Grant February 2017