CLOG maker Rick Rybicki is very particular about his art.

He chops down trees to get the raw material to hand carve the soles. He hand picks the leather, dyes it and irons in wax for the uppers. Then he carefully hand sews the leather to create the perfect pair of clogs.

"I call them reproduction footwear - a bit like reproduction furniture - and they have to look right," said Rick, who is celebrating 20 years in business.

"In the old days they would use kip leather which was very waxy, but that is not generally available so I use veg-tan leather and by ironing in the wax it creates the same look."

BJ Rybicki Clogs is based in a small shop on Dale Street, Todmorden, but it is a far from small business.

Each pair of "traditional Lancashire clogs", as Rick, 45, calls them, takes about four to five hours to create and are custom-made. And they adorn the feet of the famous - ballet dancer Wayne Sleep and comedian and singer Mike Harding to name but two.

Rick confessed the first pair of clogs he made were horrible, but he didn't give up and soon picked up the skills.

At first he would buy in soles, but they didn't suit his standards and so he started carving his own.

He said: "Deciduous hardwood is the best like sycamore, beech, silver birch and ash and I use poplar and willow for dancing clogs.

"People come to me and tell me they need shoots cutting from a tree and there is my material. I spotted some guys clearing the railway embankment of overgrown sycamores and offered to remove the debris for them - more pairs of clogs."

A quarter of Rick's trade is mail-order and he has always got six months work ahead of him and later this year he is planning to branch out and become mobile, taking his skills to fairs to demonstrate the art.

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