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Change Embellishments, Change the Look

I bought this pair of beautiful Steve Madden suede slingbacks a couple of years ago when I was still fooling myself that I still could walk in high heels.... Turns out, Destiny is the only high-heel diva at Sassy Feet! So I have several pairs of beautiful, unworn high heels that I have decided to put on ebay.

Fine, make a little extra money, always welcome. But I kept putting it off. There was really nothing interesting about doing this. More procrastinating. Then I realized I could embellish the shoes before I put them up for sale! Suddenly all my creativity came alive and I was really excited about the project!

I pulled all sorts of embellishments out of our Sassy Feet stash and tried them on for size, as it were. Today I want to show you the various choices I came up with, then show you the one I ended up choosing.

First I tried two different colors of an embellishment I purchased years ago at a FABULOUS embellishment shop in London. It's made of nice heavyweight rayon twisted cord. My assessment? Attractive, but nothing special. I kept looking.

Then I found some more interesting items. From left, an oversize brass mesh rose painted blue, a section of gray folded and rolled fabric trim that looked like flowers, and an embroidered and beaded piece of embellishment with an organza backing. The last one would have needed some stiffening to make the section extending beyond the vamp stand up and not get in the way of putting one's foot in the shoe. Hmm. More looking. 

The last contestant was an embellishment that Destiny created, which (shhh!) is listed on etsy as a pretty cool pendant. As I looked at it though, from a number of angles, I decided it looked a lot better from straight above than it did from the side. So, who was the winner??

It was the soft gray rose, which perfectly echoed the ultrasoftness of the suede. I glued these in place using Fabri-Tac, our glue of choice for attaching fabric to suede (unless we're going to stitch it down).

And here they are on ebay, size 9.5 if you're interested. They got two bids the first day they were up!

Here's a quick rundown of the other Steve Madden shoes I put on ebay, with their links (just click on the photo). I'll tell you next week how I created the little rose of metal chain on the brown suede platform sandals. It was a triumph of risk-taking and ingenuity, if do say so myself!

This last pair with the zippered ruffle across the instep appeared in Altered Couture magazine. To read the article on our website, click here.

By the way, it WAS a bunch of work to take photos, edit them, and list the shoes on ebay, but it was worth it for the fun of embellishing and seeing them online! 

Sparkling Into 2013

Margot and I always like to see what's trending in the shoe world. Obviously spiked, studded, and GLITTERED are currently king, well maybe queen. You know what I mean! Personally,I  love the glitter. I'm not sure what it is about glitter that gets me so, but I'm always looking for ways to use it.

Glitter is so in right now, it's even on a show horse's best-dressed list! Katie Notopolous spotted some glammed-up horse hooves at President Obama's inauguration last week and included them in her Swag or Drag list (they were obviously Swag). Those hooves are inarguably awesome.

I'd never seen glittered hooves before. But hooves are just like big toe nails. Why hadn't I thought of this? Apparently, the bright people at Twinkle Toes picked up my slack and created Hoof polish.

We may not have been smart enough to think up a glitter for horse hooves, but we WERE smart enough to figure out how to glitter shoes by creating Glitter It! Glaze. And glitter them in a way where the glitter stays on instead of leaving a pesky trail behind wherever you go. 

I'd like to share with you my favorite glittered designs from our work.

Diva Couture: crystals, pinstripes, and Petal Pink glitter!
Featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Altered Couture Magazine.

Our do-it-yourself Ruby Slippers 

Glitterati -- Accepted into the illustrious Wearable Expressions 2008 juried show! 

Lastly, our Bourbon Street Beauties. Perfect for any Mardi Gras party. Featured on Crafty Manolo's shoe blog

 

Going All Out for New Year's Eve

I know that isn't the most fascinating shoe you've seen all year, but hey, you try to find a New Year's greeting that's no longer under copyright AND has a shoe in it!

Today, besides wishing you a richly creative and interesting year to come, I want to show you a shoe that one of our fans embellished to wear on New Year's Eve.

Her inspiration was this Christian Louboutin hidden-platform heel.  It is covered with crystals, triangular spikes and taller cone spikes. Plus it has the Louboutin signature red sole and underside. It is called Highness and it costs ... **trumpet roll** ... $3,995!

Heather wrote to us in early December for tips on recreating this design, and I want to share with you our dialogue and her results.

Dear Margot,

I have never embellished shoes before.  I wear a size 13 so it is hard to find fabulous shoes in my size.  That being said, I purchased some Payless shoes made of faux suede. 

I also bought flatback rhinestones and metal studs on ebay to glue onto the shoes to create my own version of the Louboutin shoe in the top picture.  Those shoes cost nearly $4000 and my version will cost a total of $70. 

What is the strongest glue I can use to apply all of the stones and studs that won't melt the fabric and will stay on strong?  Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, Heather,

What a great project!  You can glue flatback rhinestones to faux leather (which is actually fabric) using Gem-Tac  glue.  As to the spikes, that's a whole 'nother challenge. You might try a glue gun, which I don't usually recommend for gluing stuff onto shoes because it's not flexible when it dries. But since the bottom of the spikes aren't flexible either, it shouldn't matter.

Whatever glue you decide on for the spikes, test it first with a single spike and a similar (polyester) fabric. Let it dry completely then try to pull off the spike.

Happy embellishing!
Margot

Last week Heather emailed me this picture. Wow! 

Dear Margot,

This is the final shoe. I have been gluing on rhinestones for countless hours but they are turning out beautifully! I used G S Hypo Cement on the smaller stones and a glue gun on the larger studs and spikes. I thought you would like to see!

I am going to a masquerade with a Mardi Gras theme on New Year's Eve.  That will be where I showcase them. I have a sexy metal laser-cut mask embellished with rhinestones, a gorgeous textured shimmery black dress and fishnets. 

Heather

I got a kick out of noticing that Heather had painted the undersides of her Louboutin "dream shoes," as she called them, in that startling Louboutin red. Then, the other day I came across a product on the Internet called Walk on Red that is made for coating the bottoms of your shoes red! It's made by Angelus, which makes excellent leather paint, so it's probably a good product. 

Now, I have to mention that Christian Louboutin recently won a lawsuit preventing other manufacturers from making and marketing shoes with red soles, so I don't recommend going into production with this stuff. But one or two pairs of Louboutin-lookalikes, just for special occasions? I'd risk it!

P.S., dated January 1 -- I just got an email from Heather, who discovered a glitch in her process:

Dear Margot,

FYI, the glue gun felt sturdy, but, the spikes are coming off already. If I had to do it again I would have found a way to screw them into a sturdy ribbon or strip that could be glued onto the shoe and then rhinestoned over that so that they would stay.

Normally the manufacturer would have screwed the studs onto the leather upper, but, since I had to improvise I should have known this would happen. I will most likely fill in the lost stud zones with rhinestones because they stay on perfect!  I am getting lots of compliments though ;)

Hi, Heather,

What a good idea to screw the studs onto something you can glue to the outside of the shoe!  (I did just see a tutorial online where a young woman takes a hand drill and drills holes into her shoe so she canuse screw-in spikes.... If you did that, you could always cushion the flat screw heads on the inside by gluing suede or faux suede over them.)

You know, sometimes "mistakes" make us think of new solutions, ones that turn out even better than the original idea. 

 

Meet Jazzy Glam Flapper Girl!

Here's the next installment of our adventures getting ready for Costume College 2012 in Woodland Hills, CA (set for August 4-5). Having done men's shoes from the 1920s, we decided to do women's shoes from that era as well.

This project was my baby so I started by looking through our collection of purchased and donated shoes for a style that would fit the era. This pair, a gift from Gabrielle, curator of the illustrious juried Wearable Expressions shows in Palos Verdes, CA, called out for flapper treatment. Some gold glitter maybe, and something jazzy and fancy hanging from the ankle strap?

I started by choosing  which areas I would do in gold. I prepared the surface for painting and applied an undercoat of one coat of Lumiere's Metallic Gold. When that was dry, I patted on two coats of our Glitter It Glaze in Antique Gold, a lovely warm shade. When that was completely dry, I sealed the entire shoe with Pledge with Future, which gives the leather a good shine and keeps the glitter sparkly for a long, long time.

Next I found some fabulous multicolored glass fringe (with a black satin ribbon binding) in our stash -- we DO have an amazing stash! -- and thought it would be great to use on the ankle straps. I also decided to make tassels by rolling a short piece of the fringe (in a slight spiral) and stitching it together at the top, where the satin ribbon was. Last touch? Stitch on a Swarovski 12mm Rivoli button in a color called Volcano.

 

I stitched the tassel to the shoe using a leather needle and dark-colored Fireline beading thread for extra strength.

I used Fabri-Tac glue to attach the satin ribbon binding the the leather ankle strap, turning under the raw ends a little bit to make it look neater. (Fabri-Tac is what we like to use when gluing fabric or fabric trim to unpainted leather.) I also stitched a Swarovski button at the center front of the ankle strap.

One of the best thing about this shoe is that you get a lot of POW!! for not very much work!

 

Glittery Makeover for Canvas Slip-ons

It may be May, but where I live -- on the central coast of California -- not every day is sandal weather yet. Which is why I raided my local Payless store recently and scored two pairs of black canvas slip-ons for painting, embellishing, and keeping my toes warm on foggy spring (and summer) days.

Here's a before and an after of the first pair I did. Payless calls these Gilly Canvas Slip-Ons and they cost $17.99. I decided they needed pimping up!

I started by looking at the lines of the shoe to see if they would give me some ideas about what to do with them. Here's a photo that I've lightened considerably so you can see the detail clearly.

I decided to do something unusual with the trim around the opening and to experiment with a few things along the way. I started by taking this slip-on right out of the realm of ordinary with a coat of Starlet Glitter It Glaze.  Starlet is a holographic glitter that looks beautiful over solid black. It is a mixture of black and silver glitter that reflects tiny fragments of color along with the silver. I hope this closeup gives you an idea.

Next was a little experiment in color mixing. The leather/fabric paints I prefer, Lumiere, seem to lend themselves to tinting with a VERY LITTLE bit of flat black from their sister line of leather/fabric paints called Neopaque. I have had beautiful results mixing Lumiere's Citrine, Pearl Turquoise and other colors with Neopaque Black, so I thought I'd try darkening the Pearl Magenta and see what happened.

The result was a toning down of the pink and a slight heightening of the violet undertones. I painted the binding around the opening of the slip-on in the tinted Pearl Magenta, then took the Neopaque Black and made little stripes. I liked the idea of painting pinstripes on pink -- a conservative line on a non-conservative color.

At this point (sorry there are no interim photos!), the shoe looked okay, but the toe looked really long, an effect that was exacerbated by the canvas extending so far up over the instep. I took my problem to Destiny. She recommended painting a toe cap, like on a sneaker, and suggested it be striped in a different direction.

We also decided to go for broke and add some pink Swarovski crystals while we were at it. Part of our motivation was that the folks who make our Lumiere paint have just come up with a new product that is a 3D paint that works as a glue for beads, crystals, etc. We have had a heck of a time finding a glue that would successfully hold stuff like this to shoes (which bend and flex and make beads pop right off) so we were excited that this might work!

We used the Lumiere 3D Black. It went on a little blobby, but we were able to press the Swarovski crystals into it. I think they will stay on, since the 3D Lumiere gives them a slightly flexible cushiony nest to sit in.

Finally we turned our attention to the back of the shoe to see what kind of pizzazz we could give it. Here's what we ended up doing -- a different version of the striping and more crystals.

Both Destiny and I ended up pretty happy with this makeover -- now I just have to do the right shoe....

Hightops for Our Favorite Girl

 Her name is Ellen, and she's a hoot! She also LOVES hightops. So it was a no-brainer for Destiny and I to decide to create some custom hightops for her.

We knew she loved blue, so we went to her site to see exactly what shade of blue we should use. I figured it would be the blue of her amazing eyes. As it turned out, her Ellen's true blue is more like bluebird. We decided to do a shoe that used both shades. We would glitter the body of the shoe with our Ultramarine Glitter It glaze, then we'd embellish the toe using Swarovski crystals in "Ellen's blue."

Destiny went online and searched until she found Ellen's shoe size (it's an 8.5), then we ordered a pair of Converse hightops in a royal blue. Since they would already be blue, we could apply the Glitter It glaze directly onto the shoe and not have to paint the shoe blue beforehand.

I did the glittering, then we turned our attention to doing the toe. The catch about painting or embellishing the rubber toes of hightops is that paint peels off and gluing small things to them is iffy. However, we discovered awhile back that we could successfully glue fabric to the toe. So now we cut out fabric to fit each toe, embellish or paint it, then glue the piece over the toe with Flip Flop Glue. (For step-by-step info on how to do this, see our post entitled "No More Big White Sneaker Toes." )

In this case, we used white Ultrasuede (the real stuff -- we figured Ellen was worth it!) as the toe covering and size SS20 Swarovski flatback crystals in a color called Blue Zircon. The only challenge in buying the crystals was finding a site that wouldn't charge us a huge shipping fee for them. We lucked out with www.artbeads.com, which shipped them to us at a low first class rate.

We played around with the idea of doing something special with the shoe laces -- painting them or doing fancy machine-stitching on them, but decided that it would make them too fussy for Ellen. That left just the round Converse logo over the ankle to deal with.

Destiny thought we should paint over it with the "E" that Ellen uses in her signature. She cut out circles of Ultrasuede, glittered the background with Sparkly Silver Glitter It glaze, then "painted" on an "E" using a toothpick and the Ultramarine Glitter It we'd used for the body of the shoe. (See her post called "Couture Kids" for details on how -- and why --to paint with toothpicks.) I glued the circles over the Converse logo, let them dry and tested them by trying to pull them off. 

They peeled right off,even though we'd used Flip Flop glue, as we did on the toes! I guess those logos are made of a different material.... We finally decided to try cleaning the printing off the logo using 100% acetone and painting directly on the surface. We tested how well our Glitter It glaze would stick and it seemed surprisingly stable. Destiny went to work with her two shades of glitter, a fan brush, and toothpicks.

That was it! Ellen's hightops will be shipped out this week, and let's hope the folks who open her mail will let her actually see them. Who knows, they might even make a special guest appearance on her show!

Much More Than A Silver Lining

When Margot told me about her simmering idea for metal leafing on shoes, I was dazzled by her ability to envision yet another unexpected application for this wonderful DIY craft she's pioneering. Putting it shortly, I wanted in!

She had already done gold-toned mixed metal leafing on a pair of clogs (See: Rescuing Some Old Friends) and had a bag of silver (and some coppery red) she had yet to try. So, she sent me home with the all the sterling supplies and a pair of faux-straw patterned wedges to transform.

First, I painted a coat of Speedball metal leaf sealer (photo on our previous blog, as mentioned) onto the faux-straw wedges and allowed it to fully dry. Then, I applied a coat of adhesive. After about 30 minutes the adhesive was tacky enough to start applying the leafing.

 I used a pair of tweezers to pull pieces of leafing from the bag and laid them onto the wedge. An old, junky soft paint brush works exceptionally well for burnishing the metal leaf smooth. Every so often, I would add a chunk of coppery leaf in random spots. After the whole wedge was covered, I inspected it for places I had missed. There were a few, so I brushed on a bit more adhesive, let it sit and applied more leaf. When all the spots were covered, I was applied another coat of sealer over the whole wedge.

Since the wedge had coppery koi-like "fishscales" within the silver, I chose to use Metallic Russet, Pewter and Black as my paint colors for the upper and insole. I used the larger, straight-edge brush in our kit to paint Black on everything but the undersides of the straps and footbed. (Since the main body was fabric, I didn't need to do any prep.) If you aren't as steady with a paintbrush as you'd like to be, you can use blue drafting tape to mask off the areas you don't want painted.

Now for the insole! It was made of faux leather, so I prepped it t with a cotton ball dampened with 100% acetone). Then, using a fan brush, I painted the insole with two coats of Pewter. Allow the first coat to dry before applying the second. Metallic Russet was applied (2 coats, again) to the inside of the straps using the straight-edge brush. As an accent, I used a small round brush to paint some gear-shaped accents on the footbed.

The pièce de résistance was an excellent, handstacked-button embellishment created by Margot that had a very steampunk look about it. It was stitched on with a leather needle and Fireline to the gathered toe strap. I added a swarovski crystal to the center of the clockworks to finish it off.

This pair of wedges is now fit for any time-traveling, sterling silver, steampunk princess!

Our Version of Shoes Fit for a Princess

The British are revving up for the royal pomp and ceremony of the marriage next month of Prince William to the common but extraordinary Kate Middleton. To get in on the P.R. action, Footwear News asked five top shoe designers to suggest shoes for the bride to wear.

You can see the creations by Manolo Blahnik (at right), Giuseppe Zanotti and others by clicking here, then choosing the IMAGES tab or launching the slide show. In the accompanying article, each designer explains what they did and why. Of the shoe pictured here, an ivory silk pump with organza lilies of the valley and pearls, Manolo says, "It represents springtime and everything fresh and new, which is what Kate Middleton is all about."

This is all well and good, but poor Kate is going to have ACHING arches before the day is one-quarter through. Destiny and I have some alternate suggestions for the bride!

First is Destiny's Cinderella Dreams, a lovely little off-white flat juiced up with lace, Swarovski crystals, dabs of Metallic Gold Lumiere paint, and a whopper of a gold-and-rhinestone embellishment. If we were trying to be relevant (and pretentious) we would say that the shape of the lace echoes the arched windows in Westminster Abbey, if you looked at them standing on your head.... I guess that was a stretch, but other than being beautiful, these shoes would keep a smile on Kate's face through her long, long, long day.

My candidate for Kate is an adaptation of a famous Salvatore Ferragamo design. This mid-heel shoe started out black. I painted it Metallic Gold, then draped it with gold chain, including a lovely angled waterfall of chain around the front of the ankle strap.

It was something of an engineering challenge to create that waterfall, but I LOVE the results. It's called Gold Standard.

Last of all -- and returning to the somewhat painful realm of high heels -- let us suggest our Pale Gold glittered platform heel dripping with gold crystals. It is truly fit for a princess -- because it took HOURS of painstaking, unpaid labor (mine) to stitch on the crystal mesh!

If any of you want to recommend these fabulous shoes to Kate, just email her the URL of this post and tell her she ought to order by April 10, for an April 29 wedding!

We Can Top That

Margot and I always look for ways to put the perfect finishing touch on our designs.  It's easier on some shoes because they have interesting aspects built in, like decorative stitching or a unique shaped heel. One of the quickest ways to add an extra touch of excellence to any shoe design is adding little ruffles or trim -- and every pair you modify has a built in spot for it: on top! Here are some boot designs that were taken that extra step by adding a little something wonderful on top.

Simply wrapping the throat of this boot with decadent rhinestone mesh cup chain made a popping visual impact on this black boot. So much so, only a bit of thin chain was needed around the sole to complete the design.

After a couple coats of luminous Pearl White, the addition of dusty rose ruffled ribbon to the upper edge of Kaylie's Bridal Boots not only highlighted the beautiful appliqué but gave it a winter wedding feel.

 

The black marabou cuff around the top of these work-booties creates a wonderful and sexy contrast (as does the stiletto heel!) to originally industrial design.

 

The patina-like hue of this feather pad, along with the Metallic Rust-rubbed upper and bronze beaded medallion, help Fandango achieve it's Andalusian feel.

 

The gossamery white lace trim is the perfect final touch to these Burnt Orange boots. The lightness of the trim mimics the hand-painted Pearl White design on the toe and helps bring it all together.

Trimming the tops of your designs can help achieve that final something you were searching for, or make the dramatic pow you wanted without having to do a lot of painstaking work.  Your beholders' eyes won't realize how easy it was to accomplish, but they'll revel in how marvelous you are for creating it!

From Blah to BLING!

I realized the other day that I've done lots of glittered shoes, but not a single glittered purse. Time to try it! I dug through my stash of thrift-store and hand-me-down handbags and picked an old leather clutch purse that had a nice shape but was sadly worn out. The leather had hardened a bit and the inside looked dried out.

I started by painting the outside in Lumiere's Citrine. It took one coat, plus some touchups. If I had been only going to paint the purse, I would have done two, maybe even three full coats because white is a hard color to paint over. (Oddly enough, black is a lot easier to cover.) But I knew the glitter paint would hide a multitude of imperfections.

Next I got out my Peridot Glitter It! paint and patted it on all over using a soft fan brush. This takes longer to dry than Lumiere, more like a half hour instead of 10-15 minutes. I added a second coat in the areas that seemed sparse.

At this point, here's what the purse looked like. It was nice, but not as spectacular as I'd hoped. It just didn't have a focal point. So I started rummaging through my stash of embellishments, beads, old coins, etc., etc. I came up with a number of different possibilities for creating a focal-point embellishment. Here's what I ended up with:

A large replica of an Asian coin on which I rubbed a little Metallic Olive Green and a little Citrine, topped with an open square of electric blue dichroic glass, and the whole thing topped off with a white glass moon-faced button. (Note: Lumiere isn't really formulated to stick to metal, but as long as the item you're painting is not going be somewhere where it gets a lot of abrasion, you can get away with it. Otherwise, you can use Staz-On transparent stamping inks or nail polish to color metal embellishments.)

 

I glued these pieces together with E6000, let them dry over night, then stitched them onto the purse with a leather needle and FireLine beading thread.

Last of all, I opened up the purse and looked at the dry, whitish gray leather inside. It needed something! I chose Lumiere's Indigo and swabbed it on. The dry leather absorbed quite a lot and gave it a slightly nicer finish (in addition to the nice color).

I was quite happy with the end result. I call it my Peridot Purse.

If you decide to glitter a purse, it might help to know that a purse this size took about 1/4 bottle of Lumiere Citrine and 1/2 bottle of Glitter It!

Might be fun to do one for the holidays -- we have a Really Red glitter and a Shamrock, not to mention a couple of shades of gold and a really sparkly silver. Just remember to apply the Glitter It! on top of a similiar color. Our glitter paint will make your shoes and purse sparkly, but it won't change the underlying color. You need opaque paint like Lumiere to do that. (Also, don't try to mix the paint with the glitter paint to save yourself some time. The paint will cover over the sparkle in the glitter and all you'll end up with is slightly bumpy paint.)

Any questions about using Glitter It!, just email me at margot@sassyfeet.com. We've had wonderful results with it -- it doesn't leave little flakes of glitter all over your clothes, carpets, car, cat, etc. My cats appreciate that, especially Mouse, pictured here at 10 weeks. (His sister, Sassy, was moving too fast to get a photo....)

Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me

I remember in the late ninties when a fashion epidemic of purses in the shape of women's bustiers hit the marketplace full force. For months, lacy, patent leather and fabric handbags hung from retailer shelves like tiny corsets on display. Then, as quickly as the fad erupted, it petered out again. 

That was, until a year or so ago, when Margot found one of these bustier beauties second-hand (sorry, no "before" pic -- it was just plain black with short handles). When she showed it to me I thought, "We could totally transform that into a pirate wench's bodice. How cool would that be?!" Margot liked the idea and set me to work.

First, I used some red stretch lace and cut out a new set of red lace "cups" for our girl using the existing cups as a guide. Then I squeezed a thin line of Fabri-Tac Glue around the lower perimeter of each cup line and pressed the edge of the lace down with my finger, working my way around.  At the bottom of the "U" I had to fold the lace a little bit, making little tucks to fit the roundness of the purse's breasts (for lack of a better term). I finished the cups by gluing (again with Fabri-Tac) a thin strip of flat faux-leather black cord around the edges of the curves.

To highlight the vertical seams below the cups, I glued down two strips of red velvet rickrack. This mimicked the boning an actual corset would have and gave the front of the purse extra detail.

On the back, I removed the original cheap ribbon used as lacing and cut five strips of the rickrack to repalce it with. Each strip was the measurement of the span I'd need plus about 3/4" to spare on either end. Globbing some Fabri-Tac on each end and pushing the ends of the velvet rickrack into the grommets with a toothpick, I  "threaded" it through like lacing.

I had bought a hot fix rhinestone skull months before, and had yet to use it, so I thought the center front of the purse would be the perfect spot.  I ran into a bit of a dilemma, though, on how to iron this onto such a bulky, curved surface. Margot stepped in with her ingenious brilliance and suggested I iron the rhinestone motif onto black fabric first (DUH), cut the fabric around the applique, and glue it to the front with Fabri-Tac, which worked wonderfully.

The original purse had flimsy looking hand straps that just sort of hung limply from the top edges, so I cut them off  as close to the seam as I could.  As a replacement handle we used a 24" choke-chain collar for dogs, which you can find at just about ANY retail or pet store (and it comes in many gauges, colors, and lengths). But because the chain was so heavy, we needed something heavy duty to hold it in place.

I made two leather strips to use as tabs and folded them over the large rings at each end of the chain. Margot helped me poke two holes in each side of the purse with something called a needle tool. We made matching holes in the tabs and lined up the tab on the inside the purse. Then we fed one end of a thick leather cord in through one hole in the purse and the hole in the tab that lined up with it. We brought the cord back though the second hole in the tab and out through the hole in the purse that lined up with it. Once that end was back on the outside of the purse, we tied it off with the other end in a nice non-slip surgeon's knot.

Lastly I strung a couple strands of skulls beads, tied them onto one of the big metal rings and pinned a silver shell brooch to the center of the bodice. Wow, what a transformation! This purse, hands down, gets the most attention when we are teaching classes and doing shows. It's such a hit, I decided to list it on Etsy to sell. If you're interested, go take a look!

Bling Like A Rockstar

Destiny here, surprising people!  I just wanted to celebrate my wonderful cohort, well partner-in-crime really.  However, she doesn't know I am posting this. [Gee, I hope she doesn't oust me after this!] The DIY, Shoe-It-Yourself Movement is a marvelous thing.  Not just from an artist's standpoint. Or a creative standpoint.  Or even a green standpoint, because it is very much all three of those things.  It is something more.  It's about perception.  Things are not WYSIWYG [wis-i-wig, "what you see is what you get"] in life as they may seem.

Margot introduced me to the world of wearable art.  All of my art had been with traditional mediums, like paint, canvas, pencil, paper, etc.  Margot welcomed me into this new idea that anything can be whatever you wish.  These shoes only come in green.  Wait, NO! These shoes are what I DECIDE they are.  Nothing just 'is.'

Her partner and I put our scheming heads together and decided how cool it would be for Margot to have a Glitter Sweatshop TOUR SHIRT!  She is teaching and talking all over the west this year, spreading such a wonderful, creative art form.  She is practically a rock star!  We sure think she is!

So, I went to work.  I quietly visited a local clothing store and picked up a black cotton tee shirt. Took the tee shirt home and painted "glitter sweatshop" in a funky hand painted font on the left breast in Pearlescent Magenta.  After a short dry time, I went over the letters in Glitter It! Glitter Paint in Fuchsia, because what is a Glitter Sweatshop rock shirt with out glitter, right?!  After that dried, I applied a shirt transfer with the "tour dates" onto the back.  I surprised Margot with it [much like this blog will surprise her when she discovers it], and she's worn it numerous times since.  I even tricked her into taking her own photos to post in this blog, ha ha. Nevertheless, I thought it was all pretty darned cool.

 

   

Why am I writing all of this? Life is DIY!!! You may not be able to help the ingredients you are given, but you can mix them how you'd like. Perception leads to creation, and art heals souls.  This philosophy has manifested itself in wonderful ways for me.  I have Margot to thank for much of that.  Looking at all things with this 'potential' eye is literally eye-opening.  It's not just art; it's a philosophy!

When 'Too Far' Isn’t Nearly Far Enough

Destiny here, thinking about the question of knowing when to stop. When I’m painting or drawing, there comes a point when I know that if I go any farther, the picture won’t get better, it will be worse. In designing shoes, it seems the opposite is true. What we’ve learned is that our shoes work better when we indulge in the joy of taking things “too far.”  Case in point: Practically Paisley.

One day I was rooting around in my closet thinking that maybe I should do some shoes for myself for once. I found a pair of open-work cork wedges in my closet that I hadn’t worn in months.  I saw the wedge as a potential canvas for some cool design. The upper portion of the shoe itself was plain black, with the open-work “straps” making dark lines against the foot. Maybe if I created a design on the wedge that was reminiscent of Pop Art (bright colors with heavy black outlines), it would combat yet complement the harsh black of the leather.

So I broke out a pencil and began to freehand sketch a floral design. Tulip-like bells, spiraling vines, sharp leaves, dots and teardrops. The design wrapped around the entire shoe. I filled in one color at a time: Pearlescent Magenta flowers, Pearlescent Emerald and Citrine leaves, Sunset Gold leaves, Pearlescent Blue teardrops, and Grape dots as accents. All of these were enclosed with a bold, black outline and set against a Pearlescent Turquoise background. 

I was pretty darned satisfied and was ready to stop there. I named them Practically Paisley after the swirling design and immediately emailed pictures to Margot. She loved the design! And a couple weeks later, she approached me about entering my sandals with some other shoes we had collaborated on in the exhibit Art2Wear Accoutrements: The Many Facets of Adornment Exhibition in Ontario,CA.

MY WEDGES? OF COURSE I WOULD! I gave them to her and we started talking about whether my paisley wedges were really finished. The black leather openwork did look a little boring compared to the wonderful design. Margot urged me to go farther with it. I painted the vertical straps Pearlescent Blue. Done? Maybe they need a little something more, Margot said. How about color on the heel? Perfect. I painted them Citrine. Done? Well…. The final touch was a coat of Grape on the insole. Then they were AMAZING! And they are now on display along with five other pairs of Sassy Feet shoes. (So much for doing shoes to wear myself, ha ha.)

 When you’re working on your own shoes, think about it this way. If you think you’re going too far, SO WHAT? Have fun with it. Shoes have to be blisteringly bold because they are waaaaaay down there, on your feet. Make ’em seen! Use them as a canvas to SHOWCASE your individual style. Mostly, know when NOT to stop!

The Ups, Downs, and Workarounds of Adding Bling to Shoes

In the late 1980s through the late 1990s, I studied Zen and learned how not to be so impatient with myself, others, and inanimate objects. This was really, really useful when I started applying Swarovski flatback crystals to shoes....

 First of all, I had to accept that just because a glue manufacturer or the people who make "hot fix" crystals (the kind you apply with a little heat wand) say their products will work on leather, it ain't necessarily so. I tested a bunch of different gem-adhereing glues that SAID they worked on leather, only to discover that most did a pretty lousy job.  I did find a couple that worked, though, namely Beacon 527 (formerly called 527 Bond) and E6000.

Actually, what I found were glues that worked only on the parts of shoes that didn't bend or get twisted while they were being worn. So, crystals glued to heels, as on the shoe above, worked fine. A line of crystals down the back seam of a shoe, like the ones my creative partner Destiny Carter put on Diva Couture, below left, worked fine. What didn't work was gluing crystals onto the strap of a slingback (below, right). As soon as I tried to slide the strap over my heel, the crystals popped off! It was very sad, 'cause they LOOKED gorgeous!

   

The problem was, although the glue I used dried clear and flexible -- like it was supposed to -- there's NOTHING flexible about the flat back side of a size 16ss Swarovski crystal! When the leather strap bent, something had to give and it wasn't going to be the crystal. So it was the glue.

Frustration, however, is the mother of invention, and when Destiny Carter was working on creating her Pirate Girl purse, we came up with a workaround. She had found a cool hot-fix motif of a skull  and wanted it front and center on her purse. (She got hers at Walmart; there's a wide selection of hot fix motifs, also called rhinestone appliques, online at Threadart.com) How were we going to do it?

That's when common sense struck: Hot fix motifs are made to be ironed onto fabric -- so that's what we did. We found black cotton fabric to match the black color she had painted the purse and ironed on the skull motif. Then we outlined the motif with Fray Check, let it dry, and cut away the extra fabric. Finally we glued the fabric to the painted surface of the purse (which was manmade leather) using The Ultimate. (The Ultimate is far and away the best glue for attaching fabric to surfaces painted with acrylic paint like Lumiere and Neopaque, which are the paints we use.)

When we were done, it looked exactly as if the crystals had been glued onto the purse itself. And they have stayed put over time. Ta-da! (If we do say so ourselves....)

The pink bag above right is the "before" of Destiny's purse. (You can find "bustier" purses like this on ebay.) Below it is the "after" version. If you want to know the secret of the wonderful chain she used for a strap, read the description in the Sassy Feet purse gallery.