Make it Yourself Project #01

Naoki Fujimoto and Aya of KULUSKA, a unit of designers and craftsmen active in Kamakura. The leather slippers that they designed are special slippers that “travel the world”. He traveled the African continent, the world, and Japan, and finally reached the US President Obama.

Why did the slippers reach Obama? First of all, what does slippers mean when they travel around the world?

There was KULUSKA's challenge to create a manufacturing experience for everyone, the FabLab * network that spread around the world, and the encounter with "open design." We visited the workshop space "LIFE & CRAFTS LAB" of a house surrounded by greenery in Kamakura and asked about the story.

One day, one email arrived from FabLab in Kenya to FabLab Kamakura.

I want to create products using leather that can be obtained locally to create work for local people. We asked if you would like to provide a creative drawing of a laser cutter and hand-sewn leather slippers designed by KULUSKA under a Creative Commons license (CC license).

Naoki: At the time, I met Jens Divic, who traveled around FabLab around the world, in Kamakura. He heard from him that he had seen some great slippers in Kamakura. He told me that he could open the design data if he could help Kenyans.

(Photo by KULUSKA)

Aya-san: They modified the slipper data and made sandals with a sculpted crack pattern on the bottom side, based on the concept of "you can always feel the African land when you wear it." In addition, we have created a system that allows local people to freely modify the design of sandals using free software.

Local people can form ideas using local materials. I didn't travel, but the two guys told me that the slippers seemed to be traveling.

DyvikDesign “ Making Living Sharing – a FabLab world tour documentary ”

There was even more surprise to this story.

KenLab's FabLab members presented leather slippers to President Obama's grandmother, Sarah Obama. On the slippers, President Obama's face was engraved, and on the bottom was the original by KULUSKA logo, along with the AROFablab logo that made it.

And at the White House Maker Faire, held at the White House in 2014, the Obama delivered a laser-engraved Kuruska leather slipper with Aunt Sarah's face to President Obama.

The reason that KULUSKA's open design slippers were born was the design of slippers for use in welfare workshops.

Naoki was looking for ways to simplify the manufacturing process so that anyone with or without disabilities could easily cut and join leather. So I asked, "There seems to be a laser cutter in FabLab Kamakura."

Naoki: At first I was hoping I could mark with a laser cutter, but I can cut it and make holes. I hadn't used any Adobe software or PowerPoint at the time. I started by scanning hand-drawn patterns and designed while exploring the “just right” between handicrafts and laser cutters.

This encounter triggered Naoki's digital software, and FabLab Kamakura members began crafting while learning about craft. The result was a workshop kit, such as the leather slippers that first appeared, and key chains that could be made simply by screwing down the screws.

(Photo by KULUSKA)

A leather slipper that has given the Kenyans a chance to freely create products by granting a CC license to their designs. "What kind of things will be born if we try it in Japan?" Such thoughts came to Naoki-san and Aya-san's heart.

So, this time, we will share the design data as "Traveling Design-Open Design Project", and we will hold a workshop while traveling around Japan. Starting from Kamakura, I visited various places such as Sendai, Hiroshima, Okayama and Gifu.

The basic contents of the workshop are as follows.

1. Participants download in advance the development diagram of slippers of the size that they want to make with the application

2. Modify the slipper design data on your home computer

3. On the day of the workshop, bring in the data and laser cut at the venue 4. Process with your own hands and stitch together

Naoki: Because we think about design, we sometimes hold it on the day. We recommend free software INKSCAPE and Adobe Illustrator for those who are new to digital software. You may be asked to adjust the data while receiving questions from the participants in advance.

Aya-san: The basis is to make use of local materials and take advantage of local ideas. Therefore, the tendency of things to make depends on the creator, the creator, and the place. For example, in a workshop held in Sendai, some people added handicrafts such as embroidery. Some people use their own parts, such as studs and races.

The interesting part of the workshop is that the participants are inspired by each other and change what they make. Under open design, you can exchange ideas comfortably on the premise that you respect each other.

(Photo by KULUSKA)

They started working as a unit in 2006. KULUSKA means "nap on the table".

Naoki studied fashion and leather craft before working on fashion shows and performing arts. Aya-san worked as a designer in the world of advertising, music, and apparel.

Naoki: At that time, people around me often heard that I wanted something that fits my body or something that matches my mood and taste. Orders and semi-orders have come to be accepted in order to respond to "I wish I was there" and "Just right" that cannot be selected from mass products.

Aya-san: We can make it, but what if everyone can make it? Of course, the work of professional designers and craftsmen is important, but I thought it would be interesting if there were more people who could think on their own and make their own. The answer we thought we could do was to make it together. If you make it yourself, it will be an opportunity to know the origin of things, and it is recommended because you can repair it.

In 2008, they came to Tokyo from their local Hiroshima. We will be relocating to Kamakura soon after receiving many stimuli in Tokyo.

Aya-san: Until a little while ago, I think making things by myself was "natural". The style of living while creating. When I come to Tokyo, my life in Tokyo is exciting and fun, but I want to continue to create places where nature remains. Kamakura has sea and mountains, and the flow of time is slow, so I thought it would be natural to think slowly and make it slowly.

Naoki: I was attracted to the openness of the people. In addition, there are many people who are doing business or doing business on their own, which is inspiring. The environment where they could work in teams with such people was also good.

In the summer of 2014, KULUSKA himself, not data, visited Europe. From Italy to Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. I traveled while touching on manufacturing in various places and holding workshops. The two who made things together with people from Japan and the world in the wake of open design recall, "I didn't think the world was so close."

Currently, KLUSKA is traveling between Kamakura and Okayama as an operating member of "Green FabLab Tamashima β" which is preparing for Okayama Prefecture. I asked the two who decided to travel and design each day literally what they wanted to do.

Aya: Handicraft and digital fabrication. Self-sufficiency and energy. I don't want to pursue only one of these, but I want to work together to live together.

I want to make use of the "process that anyone can make" that I have cultivated so far to create work in the community through welfare workshops and co-creation with local people. I hope that we can create a system where we can pay for what we need while sharing. Open design with the image of “free, free” is a little revolution.

Naoki: It may not be necessary for everyone to be a creator, but I feel that the creativity itself is fundamentally in people. From now on, I want to gently push the backs of those who want to make them.

Aya-san: It is our pleasure to be able to support everyone 's inherent “power to create”. I also want to hold an exhibition where a huge number of slippers born through open design meet together.

Naoki: We're also working on domestic and international FabLabs and documentary films telling about the changes in manufacturing, so we hope to have them delivered this summer.

KULUSKA feels like it is fun to talk about the future. It seems that their activities still keep an eye on.

* What is FabLab? … An experimental civil workshop network with a variety of machine tools, such as 3D printers and cutting machines, with the goal of creating “almost anything”. The aim is to expand the possibilities of free manufacturing by individuals and to foster a culture in which people who use what they use create their own.