Evaluation

Overall I think that the overall product was a success even though there were a few difficulties I had to overcome. I found that when I started to make the product it was going to be a lot harder then I originally imagined as I have mentioned above.One thing that I may have changed if I had more time is the base of the snowshoe, I would have probably attempted to make my own base maybe out of wood, in retrospect I think the tyre was a good idea because looking at my apocalyptic situation there would have not of been the materials available to create snowshoes out of wood that is also why I thought it was a good idea to use a tyre as it could of been found off a bicycle. 

i am very pleased with the way it has turned out except for the fact that some of the rivets have started to pop out due to the tension put on them from the leather laces.

my idea

My idea for this project is to create snowshoes which are used in weather conditions such as snow. They allow you to be able to walk in deep snow without sinking. I decided to go ahead with this idea because if a situation like that were to occur then the likes of finding food and shelter and other such things would be impossible as travelling in the snow would not be possible. This is were my idea came from as I thought with these snowshoes would enable people to travel in order to survive to find necessities.

My Brief

My apocalyptic situation is that an ice age has occurred and effected and destroyed civilisation. The whole world has been completed covered in ice and snow, river banks have burst causing cities to become flooded which then meant that they would freeze over. the little that have survived have little means in order to survive, food has become scarce, travelling has become obviously a problems as the weather conditions make it impossible.  

issues during making

The making of the snowshoes was a lot harder to do then I originally thought as I came upon a lot of problems and issues that I had to overcome.  

• ·         At first before burning the holes in the tyre I tried putting the rivets straight into it but found  out that this wouldn't work as the rubber was just too thick, so instead I turned to burning the holes which took a great deal of time.
• ·         As I was lacing up the tyre and pulling it in to make it slightly narrower, the tension that was being put on the rivets started to cause some of them to pop off.
• ·         I also found that I could not pull in and narrow the tyre as much as I wanted, I think this was due to the fact that the leather laces weren't strong enough 

How it was made 

The first thing I had to do was create holes all around the rim of the tyre in order to lattice the area inside the tyre up. This would create a support for the person who would wear them.

Once I created the holes around the tyre which I created by heating up a thick nail burnt through the tyre creating a hole.

 I thought it would be a good idea to put a rivet in each hole, which I thought would give it more of a  finish but more importantly I thought that it would be able to withhold the tension a lot more than if there were not rivets as I thought the rubber may tear under the tension.

I decided to use black leather boot laces to lace up the inside of the tyre this was because i thought they would be able to withhold the tension put on them as they are quite strong and would not give way.

As I was lacing up it up I attempted to pull the tyre in slightly as to create more of an oval shape rather than a circular as like original snow shoes past and present.

After I laced up the inside of the tyre and pulled it together I had to create some sort of fixation on which you could attach a boot. 

I decided to use elastic as the adjustable straps so that it would give more movement when you walk. As you can see I created three straps, one at the back which slips over the ankle of the wearer’s boot, another before the heel which fits around the middle and one which holds the boot in place at the front. The two straps at the front I made adjustable so the wearer could adjust them according to the size and the shape of the boot.

Snowshoe process

Materials 
I have looked for different materials and objects that might be available or might be found during an ice age.

I thought of using a tyre of a bicycle or a tennis racket as the base for the shoe because after researching about snow shoes I found out that the base needs a large surface area in order to be able to walk in the snow, and these are the objects I thought would be good to use.

I have decided to go ahead and use the tyre as it a shape that is normally used unlike the tennis racket which is a very common shape.