As a gift to Sassy Feet! fans, you can now get 20% off your entire order at the Sassy Feet store by using the coupon code SASSY-HOLIDAY. You can also feel free to share this information with friends. The coupon is good for one entire purchase anytime between now and Dec. 25. Ho, ho, HO!
Great news! Destiny and I just heard from Beth Livesay, editor of Altered Couture magazine, that she wants to use FIVE pairs of our bridal shoes in their May 2010 issue. Well, actually, she wants to use four pairs of Destiny's designs and one of mine. But that's okay! I am so proud of her, I am probably more excited than if the numbers had been reversed.
Let me give you a quick tour of the shoes that will be in the article we're doing.
This is called Cinderella Dreams and it's the FIRST shoe Destiny ever designed. Not bad for starters, huh? (Big smile) It's an ivory ballet slipper with Venice lace that she highlighted with Bright Gold Lumiere paint and flatback Swarovski crystals. The embellishment on the toe is actually one half of a fancy clasp for an evening cloak (which I found at an amazing fabric discounters in San Jose -- it's called Fabrics R Us).
This little number Destiny calls Dancer's Delight. It was very simple to make. She started with a faux leather bridal shoe from Target and glued on three types of embellishments. First she attached two strands of silver leaf trim (made of polyester fabric) using The Ultimate glue, which is what we like best for gluing fabric to manmade leather. Then she added one large organza flower to the toe and several smaller ones to the ankle strap. These came from a scrapbooking store and were blessedly inexpensive!
This little bootie is the biggest hit when we go to Bridal Shows. It's another of Destiny's creations, called Better Than Chocolate. It uses Lumiere's Metallic Rust paint on the larger areas and a darker, flatter color of brown (from a line called Neopaque by Jacquard) for painting the little pointed edges. A 3"-wide brown organza ribbon tied in a big poufy bow tops it off.
Here's another boot the young women love, especially if they are doing an old-fashioned wedding. It's my design, called Kaylie's Bridal Boot. It started out a dark pink. I painted it with Lumiere's Pearl White (it took three coats, I have to admit). Around the top I glued a piece of ruffled satin trim. (Obviously this sassy little ruffle is only going to be visible to the bride -- and later the groom, one supposes -- but who else really matters?) To create the glittered appliques, I simply snipped them out of some embroidered net and and glued them on with The Ultimate. The final touch? Pink Swarovski crystals glued into the centers of the flowers.
Now for the piece de resistance. Destiny's Diva Couture heels, which just got back from a Wearable Art exhibit at LAX in time for us to submit them for the magazine deadline.
She used Petal Pink Glitter It! paint on the body of the shoe. Then she added a rhinestone button and three German crystal drops to the toe.
The best part -- I think -- is what she did to the heel and back of the shoe, however. She used auto-detailing tape to block off narrow white stripes, then painted the heel pink before removing the tape. At the top of each pink stripe she added a dot of pink glitter. Then she glued a line of good-size Swarovski crystals to the back seam line. Shoes fit for a diva, indeed!
In case you didn't know, Destiny and I have a sideline doing custom bridal shoes (plus bridesmaid and flower girl shoes). We call the business Silk Forrest Bridal, and you can see more photos of our shoes in this line at www.silkforrestbridal.com. P.S. The flower girl shoes are especially adorable!
I had a wonderful experience last week while working with Barbara Jo, a new client who wanted me to custom paint and embellish some shoes for her. A friend had told her about Sassy Feet and she was thrilled because she has to wear very special shoes with orthotics in them to fit her delicate feet. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a lot of choice about the style of her shoes, so you can imagine her delight when she discovered what Destiny and I could do.
Barbara Jo and I had just decided that we'd keep the shoes the color they started out (black), but add some really fabulous embellishment. I'd pulled out three trays of embellishments for her to look at, some I'd purchased and some I'd created myself. She was going through the trays and picking out her favorites when I ran upstairs to get something to show her. When I came back into the studio, Barbara Jo had combined two very different embellishments and was holding them up against her shoe. They looked great! And it would never have occurred to me to combine these two pieces.
"Cool!" I said, "you just designed your own shoes!" The embellishments she chose were two pairs of sterling silver lightning bolts and a button stack I had created using a white stick pearl as a topper. I sealed the sterling silver so it would never tarnish, then stitched down the embellishments. Nice job, Barbara Jo!
The next shoes I want to share with you were painted and embellished by Lynn R. She started with a pair of yellow sandals. Lynn wrote me, "First I painted them with (Lumiere) Pewter, Pearlescent Turquoise, Pearlescent Emerald and Pearlescent White. Then I added beaded fringe, silk flowers, buttons and dragonfly charms. Like em?"
The answer was a definite yes! I especially liked the heart painted on the inner side and where she'd placed of the beaded fringe. Take a close look.
Next, I got an email from Demaris, who's a jewelry designer, about some Xhilaration flats she found at Target. (They're still available, just $16.99). She had bought these shoes four months earlier and finally figured out what she wanted to to do with them.
She wrote, "They started out a pewtery-goldish color, that's still on the toe. I was going to wrap and make a bow out of this cool blue, silver and black plaid ribbon. But I just got an order of Swarovski crystals in and loved this blue, it almost matches the Pearl Blue paint. So, inspired by your "Orchid Sunset" shoes [these are flats that transition from purple through violet to burnt orange, going from heel to toe -- they are in my book Sassy Feet!] and up for a challenge, here's the outcome.
" I started out with the Pearlescent Blue at the back and did what you did by sponging varying shades of blue mixed with Pewter until I got towards the front.
"Then I realized that I had some beautiful shell buttons that that would look great too. I messed around with a few different bead mixes on top and decided on two pewter rondels and one crystal per button. Thank God I had exactly six buttons left! Can't wait to wear them with my jeans!"
Last but WAY not least, I want to show you a pair of boots done by a most prolific DIY shoe designer, Sandy from Pennsylvania. Sandy is always sending me interesting questions and photos of what she's been up to. Recently, she got into an online dialogue with Maria Daines, a British musician who is devoted to rescuing abused animals, and decided to create a pair of vegan "leather" boots for her. She said she especially enjoyed adding chain to the boots -- she chose double chain in antique bronze, which she got from artfire.com.
Sandy wrote, "The chain is on the outside of the boot with different textures and colors of animals attached to it (silver, gold). The other animals and fire hydrant are plastic buttons that I got from Homesew.com. The feathered splashes of paint really pulled it together.
"The words 'Shelter Me' (on the toe) are from Maria's CD. The printing is not perfect at all, but I wasn't going for perfect. The back of the shoe is Metallic Bronze, the heel is Metallic Bronze and Metallic Rust, like the straps on the boot, the feathered splashes are also done in the Metallic Bronze."
Sandy opted not to paint the whole boot because she thought it might be a hassle to paint the slouched area. I think she's right. And I think she did a great job color-blocking the boot instead. I know Maria will be touched and delighted with this gift.
That's it for this week. Those of you with digital cameras, keep sending me photos of your shoes and purses! I love seeing all the great ideas and color combinations you come up with. Email them to me at margot@sassyfeet.com.
One thing I've learned living the Life of Destiny is nothing is ever as scary as you think it will be once you arrive. We spend a lot of time getting nervous, excited, preemptive, and worried when big events are in our near future. I was so nervous about doing those fabulous jewel-toned pumps (see my previous post) for the fabulous (and very sassy) Vicki Leon. My worries, of course, were unfounded as Vicki was thrilled and the pumps turned out wonderfully. In fact, it all turned out so wonderfully that I was asked to do another pair! All right!
This time the shoes weren't meant to be as high-profile as the last. These were her comfy, broken-in, well-loved leather lace-up shoes that she planned to wear while tromping around the cobblestone streets of Italy. The only problem for VIcki was that they were starting to look well-loved. You guys all know that is no problem for us!
Vicki handed over her "spats" to me for a funky makeover, but she wasn't really interested in the pearlescent, luminous finish of Lumiere paint (the brand we usually use). She wanted a matte finish on her leather lovelies. We have just the thing. If Margot and I want a leather paint that covers as flawlessly as Lumiere, but dries to a matte finish, we use Angelus leather paint. It comes in a lot of colors and has always given us great results.
I started by prepping the surface with a deglazer made by Angelus. Once the surface was prepped and completely dry I started by painting a custom mix of purpleish-pink on the upper leather panel. I let the shoes dry about 10 minutes in front of a heater, which shortens the drying time. Then I painted on another coat. Next I used Angelus black to paint the tongue and toe. I only needed one coat of black.
My only snafu came when I did the laces, which needed A LOT of coats of yellow. I lost count on how many I did to cover the laces evenly. It did work eventually, however. I don't think the problem was due to the Angelus paint, because the other two colors went on flawlessly. I think the problem was the nature of the color yellow. It's a light pigment, like white, and sort of translucent. The final touch was to add some black "blocks" on the laces to tie them in with the shoe. Once all the painting was done, I brushed on an Angelus sealant/finisher.
I wasn't there when Vicki picked up her shoes, but I heard she was very, very pleased! Phew! I managed to pull it off again. I'm so glad she loves them. And to think, a Sassy Feet! pair of shoes were touching the cool cobblestone streets of Europe! Wow. How wonderful!
Back in June I sent out a press release with LOTS of photos to 30 women's fashion magazines telling their readers how to glitter up their old dress shoes for the holidays. (In the world of glossy magazines, everything has to be in six months ahead of the publication date.) Along with the release I sent before-and-after photos of five dressy shoes, which, frankly, took awhile to create!
I heard back from one of those magazines, All You, which said they'd run a piece about glittering your shoes in their December issue. Hurrah! Sassy Feet makes the national press! Sort of.... Here's the cover and the "article."
It helps to have a magnifying glass to read it! Well, as they say, ANY press coverage is good press coverage, so I'm grateful. But, I'd like to show you the photos of the shoes, which would have been much more effective conveyors of information!
Here they are. The photos on top are the befores (duh).
Above, black fabric heels painted with Metallic Silver Lumiere, then glittered with Sparkling Silver Glitter It! paint.
At right, black patent leather slingback peeptoes painted with Pearlescent Emerald Lumiere, then glittered with Shamrock Glitter It! paint.
Above, black manmade leather kitten heels painted with Crimson Lumiere, then glittered with Really Red Glitter It! paint.
At right, black faux croc peeptoe heels (not painted since they were already a good color over which to apply the glitter paint) glittered with Starlet Glitter It! paint. This is a particlular gorgeous color of glitter as it has little holographic bits in it that subtly reflect the colors of the rainbow. Hard to see in the photo, though, even if you click on it to enlarge it.
And last but not least, who DOESN'T need sparkly gold pumps for the holidays? At right is the "before," a genuine leather peeptoe, which I painted with Bright Gold Lumiere (True Gold or Brass would have worked equally well) then glittered with one of our most beautiful shades of glitter paint, Antique Gold Glitter It!
Now here's your reward for reading all the way to the bottom of the blog. If you order a bottle of Lumiere ($5.19) and a bottle of Glitter It! ($6.99) before Dec. 31, I'll include instructions on how to use the paints and ship them to you in a first-class package for about $2.30. (This won't work if you order additional items as the package will be too heavy. Also, no need to order sealer when you've got Glitter It! on top of your paint.)
How to get this cheap method of shipping? Just pick Media Mail shipping (which is normally only good for shipping books) AND add a note to me that you want your package to go first class.
Total cost to redo some holiday shoes? About $14.50 (plus tax if you live in California).
Here's the palette of glitter colors you can choose from. And, at the bottom of the page where you order Glitter It! paint is a chart showing you which colors of Lumiere paint work best underneath which color of Glitter It! No excuses now, get glittering!
Me, I'm going to glitter some black high-tops with Starlet for a private New Year's Eve dance party at home. (Hear that, honey?)
I have a thing about high-top and low-top sneakers. I really like to wear them -- they make me feel like a kid again -- and they are great to paint and embellish. The Lumiere paints I recommend for use on leather work beautifully on fabric.
Also, you can often find great deals on Converse lookalikes at Payless. That's where these gray plaid low tops came from. I bought them for myself (as opposed to buying them to use as a sample shoe for Sassy Feet techniques) and wanted to do fabric collage on them. As it ended up, they became a combination of painted and collaged.
I started with packet of 12 different purple and blue cotton prints from my local quilt store. There was an 11"x7" piece of each print, more than enough to do a pair of sneakers, high or low top. I started by using my pinking shears to cut out narrow 7"-long strips. Then I arranged these so there was good contrast between each strip. Here's what that arrangement looked like, shown with a measuring tape to illustrate that the strips are slightly different widths.
Then I got out my Fabri-Tac glue, which I prefer for gluing fabric to fabric and which I squeeze into an 89-cent glue applicator so I can get a finer line of glue and not kill my hand gripping and squeezing a big bottle. Next I started snipping pieces to fit the height of the shoe.
No measuring, I just glued one end of the strip to the place where the rubber sole met the fabric upper, then glued my way up the strip until I reached the top of the shoe and snipped off the excess (which I saved to use on another part of the shoe) with sharp little sewing scissors. I worked from the back forward, overlapping the strips and being sure I had glue on the entire back of the strip I was gluing.
I worked my way all around the sneaker like this. When the main part of the sneaker was done, I then fabric-collaged the Velcro straps, the tongue, and the part of the sneaker they were fastened to. And guess what? It looked terrible! There was too much collage, too confusing to the eye. So I pulled off the fabric, wiped off the glue, and when the shoe was dry, simply painted that area with Lumiere Pearlescent Violet., which created a wonderful contrast in texture to the fabric.
There were two more steps to this project. First was to cover the raw edges of the cotton strips so they would be protected from the friction caused by slipping my foot in and out of the shoe. For this I used fold-over elastic, which can be purchased very cheaply from a few online stores, including www.sewzannesfabrics.com and www.faysfabrics.com. It comes in quite a variety of colors. I attach the elastic by stitching it down at the beginning, gluing the middle and stitching down the end.
The last element in this design is the toe. I decided not to leave the original white rubber toe. However, all but the most expensive specialty paint will peel right off of rubber, so I had to think of something else. That something else was... more fabric collage! You can use either E6000 or Flip Flop Glue by Beacon to attach fabric to the rubber toe -- I think I used Flip Flop Glue, since it was less sticky and therefore easier to work with.
I have to say, I love how these low-tops turned out! They look great with jeans and go with all the blues and purples I love so much to wear. Plus, they are absolutely one of a kind. If you like the fabric-collage look, drop in to your local quilt store and see if they have any pre-cut packs of color-coordinated prints. Or rummage through your stash. It's really fun to mix and match prints. If you're ambitious, you could even use this technique on a purse. Hmmm..... Maybe I'll try that next. Stay tuned!
You may have noticed in reading this blog and looking at my DIY shoe designs that I like to play! I like trying new, sometimes outrageous things and seeing if they work. I'm no longer in my teens or twenties, but a fair portion of those age groups' saucy energy is still running through my veins.
It was in this spirit that my collection of boot bracelets was born. It all started with some gorgeous copper chain and a hand-wrought copper embellishment made by a southern California artisan. They looked like the perfect thing to wear around the ankle of my cowboy boots.
So I got some copper jewlery findings (split rings and a lobster clasp -- more on that stuff in a moment), measured around the ankle of the boot, added a scant inch for ease and drape, and made a bracelet for my boot. I ended up making a bracelet for each boot, but the second one is purely optional.
The nice thing about boot bracelets is that they are an embellishment you can change whenever you want. Sort of like jewelry for your feet. First let me show you some closeups of several of the bracelets I've made, then I'll give you some how-to tips. Remember, you can enlarge any of these photos by clicking on it.
These two boot bracelets are simple beaded strands. On the left, triangular beads of brecciated jasper are interspersed with tiny gold and green beads. On the right, batiked beads of burnt bone are separated by little freshwater pearls used as spacers.
Here on the left are two strands of 4mm rolo chain hung with a decorative brass keyhole and a giant key (the latter is from from a scrapbooking store). To the right, large gold chain is embellished with a metal bow (a brass stamping painted red with metal paint). Some rolo chain hangs from the bow along with a gorgeous gold-and-Venetian-glass heart.
At left, even chunkier gold chain (this time, it's "frosted" with embossing) holds a hand-colored brass stamping in the shape of a heart. I used colored pens that were guaranteed to work on metal to color in the flowers on the heart, then I brushed on a sealant. On the right is another cowboy-boot bracelet, this time using oxidized copper rolo chain and a concho with the same finish.
Now here's the piece de resistance (in my not-so-humble opinion). It features three strands of tiny metallic finish cube beads with a "centerpiece" made from a green and black belt buckle topped by a batiked bone bead.
I'll concede that this last boot bracelet was a little hard to make, since the strands of cube beads could not all be the same length if I wanted them to drape properly (the top row had to be shorter than the middle row, the bottom row longer). The bone bead was glued to the belt buckle.
Did these shots give you some ideas? I hope so. Now here's some how-to.
If I'm stringing beads for boot bracelets, I use Dandyline or Fireline, which is basically ultra-strong braided fishing line that you can easily knot. It's also strong enough to use without a beading needle, so you can just poke the strand through the hole in the bead. I start with a length that's TWICE the circumference of the boot, plus 9-10." Leaving aside the clasp and any other findings for the moment, I just string the beads and hold them up to see if they will be the right length once both parts of the clasp have been added. Then I string on one end of the clasp, wrap the thread around it a couple of times, and feed it back through all the beads I've already strung, so I end up with a double-strand of thread.
When I'm back at the beginning, I adjust the ends so they are even, then I thread them through the other end of the clasp and tie TWO surgeon's knots. Lastly, I feed the two thread tails back thorugh a couple of beads before cutting off the ends. (What I DON'T do is use crimps to secure the threads of my boot bracelets -- they are simply not sturdy enough for life on the street.)
Here are some photos showing two types of clasps I like to use. The top photo shows a large lobster clasp (I use 15mm or larger, available at jewelry supply and beading sites/stores), the bottom shows a hook and eye type clasp.
If I have to use other findings, like a ring to connect a chain to a clasp, I don't use the even-popular jump ring (the kind that looks like a circle with a cut in one side so it can be opened) because these usually aren't strong enough. Besides, if you end up using beading thread and try to loop or tie it onto a jump ring, sure as shooting that thread will slide out the tiny cut in the ring, no matter how tight you think you have it pressed together. Instead, I use largish split rings, where the circle overlaps itself -- like on keyrings.
You can let your imagination be your guide when making boot bracelets -- you can hang all sorts of cool and unexpected things on them, BIG things, too, like that keyhole, which actually came from a hardware store specializing in architectural stuff. If you need help figuring out how to do the beading or attach things, look online or in your local library for beading and jewelry-making tips. And feel free to send me photos of what you've done (preferably on a boot). I'd love to see them!
Apparently one of the big trends this season is animal-print clothing and accessories, and I have to say that even in my non-urban corner of the country, I see women carrying very cool oversize handbags with a giraffe-hide pattern done in black and white and highlighted with dark red trim.
I couldn't imagine myself being able to paint a giraffe pattern, but I thought I might have some luck doing zebra stripes, especially if I had a pattern to trace onto the shoe. First I started with a shoe that had plenty of flat space for working on. These black slip-ons of manmade leather are a perennial at Payless, where I've bought several pairs over the years. (They also have a really nice leather version -- unusual for Payless.)
First I painted the shoe Metallic Rust, because I wanted my black stripes to have a tawny brown background.
Next I went hunting online for patterns of zebra stripes. Wow, what an adventure! Too many choices, many of which were stylized, geometric or otherwise Not What I Had In Mind. So I decided to look for stencils and found one I really liked by a British company, Stewart Gill.
I purchased the stencil and tried to use it to draw lines on the shoe with a chalk pencil. I have to confess that this didn't work so well! I ended up with a whole lot of little lines and I couldn't tell which were the background and which were the stripes....
So I gave up and decided to use the stencil as a visual guide and just wing it! I found a paint brush in my toolkit with long thin bristles called a #1 Script Liner. It seemed to me this would help me draw long lines, and I think it did, but an artist friend, Lisa Hoffman, just laughed at me and said I would have done just as well with an ordinary brush. Geez... I LOVE having special tools for special uses! What a wet blanket!!
Anyway, that's the brush I used and here's the result.
I confess that after doing the black stripes, I went back and did some touch ups with the Metallic Rust, but not a lot. It turned out to be a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. I'm famous for saying, "I can't paint," meaning I can't paint a tree that looks like a tree or a cat that looks much like a cat. But I'm willing to admit now, I sure can paint stripes!
As you can see from this photo of the front of the shoe, I decided my stripes would run at a diagonal and I started them not at the very toe, but partly up the upper (where the orange arrow is pointing)and worked up and down from there. I did this to establish the angle I wanted the stripes to go.
I spent a fair amount of time looking closely at the stencil, noticing where the stripes forked, how they varied from wide to thin, and how some of them tailed off in the middle of the pattern.
As I worked, I didn't think the stripes were actually very good, but once I got done, WOW! My very own tawny zebra shoes. I'm pleased.
I also fiddled around with a photo of the stripes I painted in my paint program so you could get a taste of how cool zebra stripes look in black and a brighter color.
Check these out! And you could paint both the stripes and the background in colors instead of sticking with black stripes. If it's helpful, click on the photo with the arrow, print it out, and use it as a guide for painting zebra stripes. Better yet, experiment on your own and discover how easy it is to do.
I'll have to keep that in mind myself -- I still have to paint the left shoe in this pair....
I had a wonderful opportunity last year to create shoes to go with a very classy outfit that was to be worn at an art opening at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose. The outfit was a black dupioni silk suit, chic, snug and pencil-skirted. It was to be topped by a stunning neck piece made by my friend Leilani Bennett, a very talented wearable artist and teacher.
Leilani used two patterns of kimono fabric, green dupioni silk, delicate green and black seed beads, and a focal piece of cinnabar to create this Asian style neck piece.
My task was to create shoes to compliment the neck piece. The shoes I started with were discovered in a thrift store for $3 by the talented woman who was making the sleek black suit. They were beige ankle-strap sandals with a light blue insole, and were begging for transformation!
I started by clearing the decks, so to speak, and painting the shoes black with a rich gold insole. That enabled me to start considering design ideas without being distracted by the original colors of the shoe.
Then I considered Leilani's neck piece. She had given me some of the kimono yardage in case I could work it into my shoe design. I began to play with the idea of making kimono-covered cording as Leilani had done on her neck piece. I dragged out some old notes from a sewing class I'd once taken, and gave it a try. It worked! (If you want to try this, I'd recommend looking up directions in a sewing book. I looked online to see if I could give you a link to good instructions, but none of the ones I found were all that clear.)
Once I had a couple lengths of cording to play with, I started arranging them across the toe of the sandal. They created nice clean lines, like the cording in the neck piece. But they weren't enough to make the shoes really special. So I dug though my stash of embellishments until I found some oversize replicas of Asian coins. I dabbed these with Citrine colored Lumiere paint to match the green cording on Leilani's neck piece. Technically, Lumiere isn't formulated to adhere to metal, but it will stick well as long as the metal doesn't get scratched, so I took the risk. It didn't seem to me that positioning these coins high on the toe of the shoe would put them at much risk for being scratched. Next I used one of my favorite design tricks, which is to break up the very predictable shape of a circular embellishment by adding a diagonal line across it. For the cross piece I chose one of Paula Radke's rectanguar lozenges in dichroic glass.
I also decided to make it look like the kimono-covered cording was coming up through the opening in the coin and looping over the dichroic glass to hold it in place. In reality, I had glued down the glass with E6000 and used a piece of the empty fabric tubing to wrap around the glass piece. (It was empty because I cut out the cording inside, which would have made the fabric too thick to fit through the hole in the coin.)
At this point I set the embellishments aside and played with positioning the cording across the toe of the shoe. When I found an arrangement I liked, I glued the cord in place using The Ultimate. Before I cut off the ends of the cord, however, I squeezed a fine line of Fray Check across the area I would be cutting. Once it was dry, I cut at an angle to follow the line of the sole. This is one of my best embellishment secrets: Apply the Fray Check BEFORE cutting the fabric!
I also took a stitch with twice-doubled upholstery thread to make sure the ends of the covered cording didn't come loose. I figured if I centered one thick stitch, it would just look like part of the design but provide extra security.
Finally, I secured the embellishment in place by stitching the fabric tubing on the underside of the coin to the cording on the toe of the shoe.
Whew, after all that explanation I bet you'd really, really like to see the finished shoe. Well okay, I guess you've earned it....
It may sound like this was a lot of work, but it didn't seem that way at the time. I got tremendous creative satisfaction from doing these shoes and I felt really proud seeing them in action at the museum show.
Overall, splattering paint is a very simple style to execute, but a few tips and techniques are involved. You'll need a prepared surface (purse or shoe), a LARGE drop cloth, clothes you don't particularly care about, two heavy (and CHEAP!) brushes (see animated photos below), some Lumiere paint, and two cups of water (one for thinning the viscosity of your paint, and one for cleaning your brush between colors).
Oh, and don't forget that an open area is best to do this in, because the paint will splatter in a 360° pattern that will create some "friendly fire." General Rule: If you care about it, cover it
Get on your work clothes, lay out your drop cloth and set the target item near its center. Before you load your brush, check to see how thick the viscosity of the paint is. If the paint is too thick, it won't fling well from the bristles of your brush. But a little water goes a long way, so only add a few drops of clear water at a time, stir it in well and test your splatter on a piece of paper before adding more water.
Here's where a trick comes in: Different viscosities react differently when leaving the brush, so don't think you need to be completely consistent. A little variation will add interest and texture. (See the two right-hand photos at the bottom of this post for examples of what thicker and thinner paint will do when splattered.) Once you have your desired thickness of paint, pick up a brush in each hand. The brush in your non-dominant hand is what you are going to tap against. The upper brush -- the one in your dominant hand -- will be your paint-loaded brush. The two brushes will form a cross when they meet -- just pretend you are warding off vampires! Load your upper brush with paint, aim for your target, draw back a few inches, and whack the paint-loaded brush against the handle of the other brush. The impact will send the paint flying creatively through the air, landing in a cool, random pattern. You can practice on paper first if this much randomness makes you nervous. The first whack will always release the most paint, but don't be afraid to whack a second or third time for varied splatterings. (See the two left-hand photos at the bottom of this post for an example of the different effects of the first and second time you splatter.) Rinse your brush well between color changes, and repeat as often as desired. On the "Jackson Pollock" purse I splattered with Citrine, Pearlescent Magenta, Sunset Gold, Pearescent Blue, and Halo Violet Gold. Then I used Pearl White as a finishing touch to paint some geometric lines over the random splatter after all the layers had dried. I think this technique is way cool, and stress free. Put on some invigorating music to get into the mood and you'll want to splatter everything! There's a lot of beauty to be found in the random, abstract, and chaotic. As Jackson Pollock said, "The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through."
There's more to the story I blogged about last time, the trip to Santa Cruz. It's highpoint was a rendezvous with multimedia artist and mensch Lisa Hoffman, who was visiting from Colorado. She'd heard about Sassy Feet from my biggest fan, Erin Perry, and had professed herself interested in painting some kick-ass boots.
So we carried her off to Payless where she found some "textile suede" hiking boots for less than $40. These are actually men's boots, but she found a smaller size that fit, so she went with them.
Lisa has written about these boots on her blog, but I thought I'd give you some how-to information here.
Because these boots are made of faux suede (which is actually a fabric), she probably didn't need to prep the surface, but I didn't want to take any chances that there was some finish on the surface that would interfere with the paint, so I had her rub the suface with a cotton ball dampened with rubbing alcohol.
Next Lisa mixed the color she had in her mind's eye, an aqua that had more blue in it than the closest color in the Lumiere line, which was Pearlescent Turquoise. She started with the turquoise, added some Pearlescent Blue and Pearlescent White, and kept adding and stirring until she had the perfect true blue she'd been dreaming of. All of this took place at a desk in the motel room we'd rented -- we had to rearrange the furniture to get enough light for painting, but you work with what you've got!
The bottles of paint you see in the foreground are from my big bin of class supplies -- I'd brought all 28 colors, just in case Lisa went crazy and wanted to paint rainbow or op art boots!
There are only two things you need to be careful about when you are mixing your own colors (and you can mix any of the Lumiere colors and/or Black).
1) Mix enough paint to do two coats
2) Be sure to have a tightly closing extra jar on hand so you can save some of the paint for touch ups later, say if you scuff your boots or shoes. (Doing touchups with paint is what you do to painted shoes instead of using shoe polish.)
The photo above showing the paint bottles and the photo of Lisa, below, holding her boots show you what the boots looked like after one coat of paint. The photo at the bottom shows the finished version, after two coats.
Lisa also picked up some round white laces at a Santa Cruz shoe store to finish off her creations. Aren't they gorgeous?! They illustrate my favorite design principle: using the tension of opposites. The pearly true blue color creates a terrific contrast with rough-and-tumble shape of the boot itself. Perfect for a Colorado mixed-media artist! (Check out Lisa's blog and her work at http://lisahoffman.typepad.com. She -- and her boots -- are a real kick!)
