ALAN JAMES RADDON X LLIO JAMES
This story begins on twitter…
@AlanRaddon: “@lliojames love to make a pair from your cloth”
@lliojames: “aaah yes, I’d love that! Where are you based? Maybe I could come and visit with a few samples?”
@AlanRaddon “Aberarth. Ring me”
And that’s where it all began. I rang Alan, and was amazed to hear that a shoemaker lived 20 minutes down the coast
For those who don’t know, Aberarth, it’s (in my mind) the closest thing you’ll find to a real life Llaregub. On a misty winters’ morning, I’m sure you can see Captain Cat in his window. The small village is tucked at the bottom of a dip, and if you follow the windy path towards the sea, you’ll find Alan’s house. After seeing his shoe gallery on the stairwell, we got talking about the process of shoemaking, when he started and why he started. He had a rummage through my samples and took about 50cm of the DYFI fabric. Few weeks later I got a text saying that my shandals were ready! Amazing!
