Month: February 2021

In 1989 we were still having a regular stall at Riverside Market in Brisvegas. Lots of new fantasy styles were on the bench with moons and star inlay and colourful suedes….we made everything in suede in those days. We finally worked out that we needed shoe lasts to move forward with our shoemaking. Remember we were completely self taught at this stage so we had to work out how to use them. A few months later we made boots for our first opera production for The Queensland Lyric Opera Company…they must have been desperate! LOL The head of costume found us at the markets. Unfortunately we don’t have any photos but it was memorable! They wanted curly toed slippers…I can’t remember what Opera it was. Having been used to offering only pointed toed boots up until this stage, we initially made all of the boots pointy too. We had to re-last the toes to make them rounded squares. Considering we only had pointy lasts, that was a learning curve. We learnt a lot early on about adjusting last shapes and working with what you’ve got.
Around halfway through 1989 Adrian moved to Melbourne and Jackie went travelling with her then boyfriend (now husband) Russell. It was the start of a big adventure for both of us. Adrian started working in Melbourne on new designs and developing the art of shoemaking further, eventually having a regular market stall at the St Kilda markets with his friend Elke who made amazing suede jackets, vests and bags, and Grant Hunter (RIP) of Farout Footwear.
Jackie and Russell started travelling through Indonesia and would end up in England early in 1990.

1988 saw us still having a permanent weekend shop at Paddy’s market in Brisbane – the Dragon’s Lair. We made lots of suede boots and accessories to order and sold other people’s creations too, like earrings, candles, juggling balls and clothes. It was very exciting for us to get a large commission from Kelvin Grove Performing Arts College in Brisbane for their Commedia dell’arte troupe. We had to make colourful boots to match costumes of the characters such as Harlequin, Pantalone and Columbina.
For the ever-curious, Commedia dell’arte is an ancestor to the theatre profession. Conceived in Italy, it soared in popularity across Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. Oh, and from memory, we charged $50 per pair. Still using the humble domestic sewing machine at this stage and hadn’t discovered shoe lasts yet!
Also during 1988 we had a stall at Riverside Markets again with our dear friend Kez. We developed a larger clientele and made boots for lots of the local Brisbane Alternative scene. Once we realised we were actually becoming bootmakers, we had so much fun creating new original styles. We made lots of pointy boots, crossing fantasy with groovy eighties alternative fashion. Designs like our Jester Boots, Elf boots, and medieval inspired calf high boots were developed this year and found their way into the underground nightclub scene of Brisbane at the time – much to our delight!                                                  The medieval re-enactment groups continued to order boots and challenge us to try new techniques. We also developed our first business cards in this year. Our catch phrase was “Made to order for Elves, Witches, Wizards, Minstrels, Mystics, Gypsies, Jesters and other kindred spirits”

 

We, Adrian and Jackie first met, at the Griffith University in Brisbane – Nathan Campus. Adrian was pretending to study environmental studies and I (Jackie) was studying modern Asian studies (majoring in Indonesian language). Clearly, it was destined that Environmental sciences and Asian Studies would lead to a long, decade-spanning career in shoemaking.
While academically disparate, what we shared was creativity. We were making similar things in our spare time….hand painted T-shirts, fimo jewellry and candles….hippy shit basically! Our first stall was an Orientation week Market at Griffith Uni.
On April 11 1987, we opened a stall at a craft collective space in Newstead/Teneriffe called Pierrot’s Arts and Crafts Centre. It wasn’t anything luxurious or cutting edge, it was a warehouse with the floor divided into stall spaces. Our first shop! We loved it and met lots of other cool people making and selling their own wares. We eventually shared that space with our beloved friend Kez, a silk painter (among other things), who told us about the medieval fairs.
I got a domestic sewing machine for my 21st birthday and the first thing I made on it was a pair of half black, half purple suede pointy boots to wear to our first medieval fair stall. Adrian hand-stitched his from “elf green” suede. This was just meant to be part of our costumes, but we got hooked. We made extras and put them on the stall – and the rest is history. We took orders that day for different versions of what we were wearing. We just said yes to all the medieval re-enactment people’s requests….threw ourselves in at the deep end. It’s a great way to learn. It was so exciting unravelling the mystery of shoemaking. There were no other shoemakers around in Brisbane that we knew of…..no books and definitely no internet. Necessity is the mother of invention! It was around this time we named our business Pendragon Boot Company. We had just read the Mists of Avalon and it seemed to be an appropriate name bridging both the real and magical worlds.
Later that year, we migrated to a stall space in Paddy’s market Teneriffe (Brisbane), aptly naming it “The Dragon’s Lair”. We shared it with Kez and her daughter Tracey. We sold lots of suede leather accessories and boots. The best of times…. We didn’t know then, that we would  still be “Pendragon” over 30 years later. These early boots were very primitive (we had no idea what we were doing!)