The Roman Shoe Project: Tiny Animal Tracks

One of the absolute cutest things I've ever seen at a Roman museum is this little leather scrap mouse.

Found in a box of leather offcuts or scraps, the mouse is about as long as my hand, and it has little tiny cuts that were made to look like fur. Was it meant as a toy for a child, or a joke from one leather craftsman to another? No one knows.

As my students learned to work leather in the beginning of our project, we read about this little mouse on p.91 in the new book 50 Objects from Vindolanda (I'll be reviewing it later this month) by Barbara Birley and Elizabeth Greene. The book is full of wonderfully intriguing objects that leave the reader wanting more.

As the students got started with leather working, they practiced casing (wetting) leather so that it could receive stamping. They designed their cuffs by tracing them and then sketching their ideas out on paper. This process helped them to familiarize themselves with the available stamps and experiment with the tools and process. One famous leather shoe, found in Vindolanda, and discussed on p.19 in the aforementioned book, contains the stamp of its maker! Probably what modern people might call a "designer shoe," the Lepidina sandal contains a number of decorative stamps and one that says "Lucius Aebutius Thales." It's probably the very first designer mark in history!

I was shocked at some of the cuff patterns and designs my students came up with - they are infinitely creative so I took some cute pics of them. I was also shocked at how loud my classroom became when 25 students started banging away at leather stamps with their hammers. You can hear 7 seconds of that in this short video. Imagine that times 1 hour. Enjoy!

When students were done with their cuffs, I tasked them with tooling scrap leather to look like an animal of their choice. And they came up with such cute lil cuties!! I'm constantly amazed at their ideas. When given the proper tools and instruction, young students can really do big things!