caldera

Caldera student, Sade, joined aspiring designers from all over the world in the Pensole footwear design camp. Pensole is headed by D’Wayne Edwards, Footwear Design Director for Nike’s Brand Jordan (pictured with Sade).

Sade’s project is to design a boot that derives from the Wellington boots of South African miners, who worked in horrendous conditions during apartheid in South Africa. They were not allowed to communicate with each other verbally, so they developed a way of communicating by making their chains clink and slapping the sides of their boots. This evolved, after apartheid ended, into a dance that the community did on the streets and at celebrations, in wellington boots. Her boot is designed to be acoustically excellent for this dance, as well as be lighter, closer fitting, breathable, offering better balance (all to make the movement of dance easier), and also to be made in the colours of Oprah Winfrey’s girls’ school uniforms (green). She envisions Oprah helping to get the boots produced and distributed…

She did this as part of a two-week design workshop that D’Wayne Edwards taught at U of O White Stag building, at which there were diverse designers from age 14 to 55 from all over the country and a few from abroad. A great aspect of the project is that all these designers will now be friends and can develop their own network…

U of O course description:  This studio is open to students with previous design experience but little or no  footwear design experience. Due to the intensive nature of this course, this exciting  footwear design program is open to students through instructor approval only.  Students selected to participate in this two-week summer fellowship attend class for  four hours each day, then are expected to commit four hours to out-of-class work.  During this program, students experience what it is like to have a summer internship at a major footwear corporation and acquire the skills necessary to jump-start their  footwear design careers.

Check out this great story in The Nugget about the Oregon Ballet Theatre residency at Caldera.

TWIST, Caldera, and Steven Smith Teamaker came together in spring 2010 to support underserved Oregon kids as a part of Caldera’s Art & Design, a year-round, long-term project joining innovative arts mentoring with creative professionals. A group of Caldera high school students from Central Oregon and Portland worked closely with teamaker Steven Smith to design this unique blend.

The students each created their own blend of chai, using various black teas and spices. They then conducted a secret taste test to find the blend they liked best. The final formula (concocted by student, IDK) became the signature “Caldera Chai” blend. After Steven re-created the blend for a 100-box series, the students and the Smith Teamaker team packaged all of the tea to be sold at TWIST and  TWISTonline.com.

100 percent of the proceeds from sales of Caldera Chai benefit Caldera!

Click here to see a short film about the production of Caldera Chai.

The “Friends of Caldera” is a membership society for donors that contribute $1,000 annually. Pledges received by May 1, 2010 will be matched by the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund!

Please join us for an informative and lively reception to learn about Caldera and our newest projects, meet Caldera students and hear about the Friends of Caldera campaign.

Featuring: Dan Wieden, founder of Caldera and a Caldera student

in Bend: Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm, tbd Loft 856 NW Bond Street Bend (Please RSVP to rene@tbdagency.com Or call (541) 388-7558)

in Portland: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Wieden & Kennedy 224 NW 13th Avenue Portland (Please RSVP to matt.hansink@wk.com Or call (503) 937-7510)

Click here to view or print a pledge card.

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The Support of Many is a brief video about Caldera’s programs for youth in both Portland and Central Oregon.

Call (503) 937-7510 contribute and become a “Friend of Caldera”
Caldera’s Development office will be happy to structure installment payments.
Caldera is a 501(C) 3 nonprofit organization and contributions are tax deductible.