Sassy Feet! blog

More Shoes -- and Bags -- From Our Fans

I've been hoarding photos of painted shoes and bags that our fans have been sending me, and it's time to stop keeping them to myself. Enjoy!

This pair is called Beetleboots and they were sent in by costumer Cherries Jubilee of Cherries' Orchard. They are painted in several colors of gleaming Lumiere. Dragonflies and other bugs hang from the laces. One boot has a vintage watchface painted on the toe, the other has a collection of cool steampunk-y gears. 

Sandy painted these black Uggs for a woman in Pennsylvania who runs a wolf sanctuary and a B&B, a place Sandy and her husband love to visit. The black wolves are leather appliques, and the stars and moon sparkle with Glitter It Glaze.

Ronnie sent in this photo of some wingtip oxfords he painted and glittered with a distressed effect. The colors on the front fade from Pearlescent Blue to  Metallic Silver on the side. In the back, they shift from Pearlescent Violet to Metallic Silver on the side. Next he added Ultramarine and Fuchsia Glitter It Glaze on the vamp with a light layer of Neopaque Black over them to mute the glitter effect.

Ronnie says if you add the black while the Glitter It is still slightly wet, the glitter tends to accumulate in small chunks, which he thinks is a pretty cool distressed effect. Last of all, Ronnie painted stars in the area where his laces will go. 

Barbara found us after a Google search and loved the post I wrote last year about putting metallic leafing on a pair of worn-out Danskos. She said she's thrilled with the results!

Laura wrote that she loves having fun, funky shoes, "but with my back as lousy as it is, I refuse to get anything other than comfortable supportive shoes, and those don't tend to come in funky and fun." So she took an old but favorite pair of shoes that were starting to look a little frumpy and sad.

Well, they aren't frumpy anymore! Laura says she's so excited by how these turned out, she predicts she'll soon have a closet full of glittery, jewel-toned shoe! (P.S. These were painted in Crimson and Pearlescent Violet, then glittered with Really Red and Royal Purple Glitter It Glaze.

Angela, a friend from my wearable art group, sent these pictures of some slides she painted for a lawyer friend in the hopes it would add some pizzazz to her legal life. She experimented with a Metallic Olive Green background and Pearlescent Violet zebra stripes, but didn't like how they turned out so she kept going. She ended up with this wonderful melange of the green and violet with Metallic Bronze and Pearlescent Blue, applied first with a paint brush then with a cosmetic sponge to get the little lines and dabs. (I did a blog post a while back on using cosmetic sponges to get cool effects -- here's the link.)

Angela also turned two of her friends on to painting on leather, with these results:

Linda wanted to tone down and update the look of this woven leather purse

Debbie transformed these Chinese Laundry slides with fabulous results!

Lauren started thinking about doing some wedding boots last year and we swapped emails answering her questions and encouraging her to plunge into painting cowboy boots (her eclectic choice for bridal shoes). She fell in love with painting them and has done SEVERAL pairs since, but she has now gotten back to her original plan. 

She writes: "I finally get to say "I do" on November 23, and I will be sure to share the pics from the day, but I was too excited not to share now. The wedding was originally scheduled in July of this year but I took a job that took me to London for the Olympics, so of course I had to paint a Team USA pair! I've included a pic of those as well."

I want to close by saying that it has been suggested I write shorter blogs, and I promise to start doing so next time, but I just couldn't postpone showing any of these!

Erin's Mixed-Media Loafers

These loafers -- well-loved but a bit dull -- started out their second life when they were purchased in a thrift store for $5 by my favorite mixed-media artist, Erin Perry. They were plain tanned leather with that natural unfinished-leather look, and very, very comfortable -- essential for an artist who leads a double life as a librarian!

With Erin's consultation, we came up with a design that would use multiple-color sponging and quirky embellishments. I started by prepping the surface, then brushing on a coat of Lumiere's Halo Violet Gold using a nice soft fan brush.

Next I used a sea sponge to sponge on two Lumiere colors, Super Copper and Metallic Bronze. (To learn how to sea-sponge, see this post.) Sea sponging gives you a soft dappled effect. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see how the subtle undercoat of Violet Gold shows through a little and gives the pattern more depth.

Erin liked the effect, but wanted something with a little more zip! So I used a technique we developed when painting ourleather couch (!), sponging with a George Forman synthetic sponge.

Here's a closeup. I used Neopaque Black for high contrast and got a nice speckled effect using the Foreman sponge. This type of sponge has little points that stay crisp no matter how much paint you get on them. For tips on using this kind of sponge, see the notes at the bottom of this post.

The next step was creating suitablly artistic embellishments for these formerly boring loafers! I started with a base of square, wavy-cut stone beads. I topped these with bronze disks that I'd colored with Staz-On ink, applied with cotton swabs. (Staz-On is permanent on metal once it fully dries.) Next came little enamel number plates, beloved of mixed-media artists. They have little holes on the sides so they can be attached to a page or collage with brads, so I covered those holes with black flatback crystals. The whole thing was glued together with E6000.

I also glued a dome back button converter on the back of the embellishment so I'd have little loops to use when attaching the whole thing to the loafers. I did that by stitching them on with Fireline and a nice strong, triangular-tipped leather needle.

Whew, I thought, and TA-DA! Finished!! My beloved mixed-media artist, however, is also into assemblage (adding 3-D stuff to mixed-media collage), so she thought the shoes needed something more. The answer was CHAIN.

She dug around in my chain stash and found a couple of short pieces of embossed copper chain, then convinced me to use E6000 to glue them onto her loafers. I agreed -- rather reluctantly, because I thought the chain might work its way loose when she wore the shoes and the uppers had to flex and bend with her every step. But she's worn them a fair amount now and the chain has stayed in place.

Here are the finished shoes. I guess you could call them assemblage on the hoof... as it were.  Erin's happily wearing them this weekend at a workshop in the San Juan Islands (I'M ONLY A TINY BIT JEALOUS) with HER favorite mixed-media artists, Lynne Perrella and Anne Bagby.    

Creations From Costume College

We thought you'd like a peek at some of the shoes created by the wonderfully creative souls who took our class at Costume College earlier this month.

First, though, I must confess that although we got some good shoe shots, we did not do a good job of getting people's faces or names. We're sorry! We were rather overwhelmed with doing a 3 hour class for 24 people -- all brimming with energy and ideas -- in the space of just 2 hours and 45 minutes -- including complete clean up of the room. It was like sprinting instead of jogging!

So enjoy the shoes and forgive us, especially those of you who see your wonderful work here. (Feel free to comment below and take credit for your creations!)

These transition-painted shoes were created by dabbing the color-transition area with a cosmetic wedge to blur the lines between Pearlescent Magenta, Pearlescent Violet and Pearlescent Turquoise. But the design didn't stop there!

The lively young woman doing these shoes (and wearing a darling polka dot apron) added contrasting polka dots!

These shoes were done by someone who said she wouldn't be able to "do" the class well, that she wasn't at all creative.... Hah! This photo doesn't do the colors she chose justice, they are much warmer and gleaming. We think she did a great job!

Several of the students chose to do color blocking, where different areas of the shoe are painted in different colors. I love the colors she chose for this shoe -- the browns are actually dappled in slightly different shades -- you can see the cosmetic wedge she used to create this effect in the background.

We thought these shoes turned out really well. They were black to start with and were simply painted with tiny triangles in a multitude of colors and clustered in different areas of the shoes and straps. "How did she get those triangles so perfect?" someone asked. The answer is, they aren't perfect, not if you look really close. But you DON'T look closely at shoes -- you see them from at least four feet away -- and from even a little distance, they look pretty darn precise!

Someone brought a billfold type wallet to paint -- she used multiple colors and a cosmetic wedge.

Rayna, who came with her grown son, Riley, chose to work on a handbag. It started out black, and was  painted Crimson on the front and back. Then it was sea-sponged on the sides and had fabric roses and velvet leaves glued on. Parts of the bag were left solid black for contrast.

I especially liked working with the woman who did this bag because when I suggested she add purple to her color mix, she tried it, didn't like it, and went back to doing what she wanted to! Never take a suggestions just because the teacher makes it. Do what feels right to you, ESPECIALLY when it comes to color!  (By the way, Riley painted a pair of sneakers in several colors -- different on each shoe. They turned out great!)

Now I'm going to hope that the folks who did these bags and shoes will comment and take credit. You can also send me photos of the pieces that didn't get into this blog and I'll post them next time! You know who you are....

DIY Shoes and Bags From Our Fans

Okay, we have now recovered from our wonderful trip to Costume College in Los Angeles, and it's time to share photos of the imaginative shoes and bags that our talented followers have sent in since our last fans' roundup.

Here are some sandals that Angela painted in a pattern that's a variation on crocodile scales. Love the coordinating toenail polish! Thought I'd put this photo first since it's rare that I get photos of painted shoes actually being worn.

This marvelous stamped shoulder bag (formerly solid black) comes from Kathy Guerts, a mixed-media artisan and teacher working mainly in textiles and jewelry at her Studio Amara in New South Wales, Australia.

While we're talking handbags, this one was done by Mary Ann, a member of the Haute Couture Societe in Central California. The image is copied from the painting "Bride & Groom" by Modigliani.

One more handbag, then we'll get back to shoes.

Here's Jean showing a black bag that she sponged lightly with gold Lumiere to go with the jacket she's wearing. Jean (like Angela, whose sandals top this blog) is a member of Peninsula Wearable Arts Guild (in the San Jose, CA, area), a group I belong to -- and which has been inspiring me for nearly seven years now!

Another member of this group is Judi, who not only sent me a pair of sandals that she color blocked, but some pink and silver shoes painted and embellished by Dana, her eight-year-old granddaughter. Judi writes, "Dana loves to paint -- anything!  And she really got into the shoe decorating. I think this is just the start."

These charming boots (plus the boots and men's shoes that follow) are the brainchildren of a very imaginative and talented costumer who calls herself Cherries Jubilee of Cherries' Orchard. The pair above is called Blue Willow boots because they are painted to look like classic Blue Willow china.

This one is from a pair called Gothic Charm School. She used vintage black lace to embellish the top and (patiently!) glued pink Swarovski crystals onto all the little black buttons. 

When Cherries Jubilee sent in these pictures, she wrote, "I painted these for my partner to wear to the next Steampunk convention -- I think men should have some foot fun, too." These shoes were inspired by Nicola Tesla, who invented alternating current.  "He was directly responsible for the turbines that lighted New York in the 1890's and was a very dapper character in New York society.  I created a fantasy logo for his electric company, too, and put it on the back of the shoes."

Now we come to the last section of this post, which might be called "What We Did at My HouseThis Summer." The great glitzy-glittering hightops above were done by my daughter Bronwyn, who brought a pair of black Chucks with her when she came to visit for a week from Missouri. She glittered them with our Sassy Feet Glitter It Glaze in Sparkly Silver and Starlet, then asked me to machine-stitch a line of black topstitching thread down the center of each lace -- a marvelous touch for this study in black and white.

Last of all are four simple pairs of sandals that I painted at the request of Bronwyn's other mom. The two pairs on the left are leather, the two on the right are fabric. The orange and blue ones were painted with Angelus leather paint, the black and pale violet sandals were done with the Neopaque (Black) and Lumiere (Halo Violet Gold) paints that we carry in our online store. The black sandals were also embellished with steampunky pewter buttons from Treasure Cast.

That's it for now. Thank you to all the artisans above who shared their work with us. Feel free to send in photos of your own painted and embellished shoes to margot@sassyfeet.com. Destiny and I love seeing what you all are up to!

A Cornucopia of Shoes from Our Fans

 I love it when people send Destiny and me photos of the shoes they've been doing. I invariably discover designs and techniques that never occurred to me!

First are some wedding boots that Lauren created with emailing advice from Destiny and myself. Lauren had never painted shoes before, but that didn't stop her from taking on this project! "I was shocked how easily the lines and stitching held the paint," she wrote. "The snakeskin (the lower section of the boot) painted flawlessly, and I adore that it held the texture so evidently beneath the Copper paint." Each boot took about six hours, Lauren said, "Not a quick project, but relaxing."

Here's another take on painting cowboy boots. These were done by Heather, who started them in a class Destiny and I taught in the Silicon Valley area. These boots started out a well-worn sand color and ended up not only new looking, but quite dramatic.

At the same class, Angela partially sponge-painted these booties to coordinate with a longtime favorite Papaya! handbag. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you'll see she added some subtle "stitching" along the seamlines. I went to the Papaya! site to see their designs, and they don't seem to be doing handbags anymore, but they have some nice totes and other accessories.

We have quite a few Sassy Feet followers in Australia, and lately I've been in touch with Kathy Guerts, who is a mixed media artisan and teacher working mainly in textiles and jewelry from her Studio Amara in New South Wales, Australia. Kathy sent us several photos and some great descriptions of what she's done.

Kathy says these black espradilles had been sitting in her cupboard for some time and not been worn. She started their transformation by going through her stashes (notice the use of the plural -- a woman after my own heart!) and choosing fabric scraps that would work with black as her base color.

"I also found some gorgeous Czech vintage glass beads which were begging for my attention," Kathy wrote. "These formed another inspiration for my shoes and so I arrived with the black, cream and rust color scheme. I used scissors and sometimes pinking shears to cut shapes which were then glued down with Helmar's fabric glue straight onto the material. Then I added lace and trims. That's it. Very simple, yet I hope you would agree the shoe now has a strong personality of its own." I do agree, and I love how many different things are going on -- harmoniously - -in this design.

Kathy also sent photos of a "cork clunker" she upcycled. "I generally find brown shoes quite boring.These shoes with their ugly cork wedge cried out for some loving. After prepping the shoes with 100% acetone, I sponged Lumiere on the front and sides. After this dried I did the soles in the same way. I followed this by dabbing circles in silver, purple and blue in a random pattern all over the shoes.

"When the paint was thoroughly dry, I  applied masking tape strips diagonally across the front of the shoe. Taking the same small circular sponge tool, I dabbed paint on in between the masking tape strips and in some areas over the strip. When the paint had dried, I gently removed the strips. This gave me the stencilled effect. The next part of sponging was the purple all over the cork wedges.

"I now needed to add one final point of attention. I found an old necklace and  twisted the cords together, then sewed them onto the shoe following a diamond shape already there. I used the remaining cords by tying them up and knotting them on the ends and sewing this at the top center of the vamp. Voila, a new shoe!"

You can't eat just one -- or two. About a week ago, Kathy sent photos of another project that I'm delighted to share with you.

These black hightops got stencilled, stamped and glittered (on the heel). Then Kathy glued on lace and made her own laces from strong yarn that she doubled up.

Next comes a pair of walking shoes transformed by Mary Ann. These are color-blocked, and Mary Ann said she chose pastel colors that would go with her clothes. She topped them off with brightly colored peace-sign shoelaces. I love the cool-tone effect of the shoes with the HOT laces tying them up!

Our last pair of radically upcycled shoes comes from Sandy D., whose work you have seen here before! (If you want to see her earlier DIY shoe designs, use the search box at the top left of this page and type in Sandy.)

These are a pair of purple suede flats from Coldwater Creek that Sandy needed to wear to a wedding. She used Lumiere paints to give them interest and pizzazz. She also painted each shoe slightly differently. I love the way the Lumiere made those purple pompoms shine!

Thank you, all you talented women, for sending in your photos and telling us how you created your Sassy Feet!

 I was shocked with how easily the lines and stitching held the paint, and it was the perfect accessory to accompany the soon-to-be hubby while watching football on Sunday   

The snakeskin painted flawlessly, and I adore that it held the texture so evidently beneath the copper. I am not done, certainly but I am stoked to get finished to start my next pair!!! One boot was about 6 hours though, and I'm not quite finished and haven't sealed them yet. Not a quick project, but relaxing  

The pink that came in the starter pack is SUPER similar to the Cooper on the boots (uppers painted halo gold pink, snakeskin in copper - true gold?) but it worked well and was a good lesson learned. I want to try something with the angelus paints next, but the lumiere paints are just beautiful!!!

Eye Candy, Great Ideas from ASG Artisans

 Apologies for being out of touch lately -- I was preparing for a big class for the American Sewing Guild in Riverside, CA, as well as keeping my "day job" editing clients happy. The class was last weekend and I'm now back home and caught up on things like laundry, dishes and email. Now, to share the wealth!

First, I want to honor Jacquina (at left), who brought a lovely lavendar faux suede bag to paint -- then announced that she didn't know what to do with it because, she said, "I'm not creative." Next thing I know, she has picked out a fabulous length of wide metallic trim and is holding it over the lavendar. This brought out shades of green in the trim (which had just looked brown to me before it was laid on top of the lavendar).

I suggested Jacquina might want to sponge the bag so as to leave some of the lavendar showing, and I pulled out a paint chip of a color that's violet with a little gold in it (Lumiere's Halo Violet Gold). The next thing I know, Jaquina  has selected three other colors to use with it -- and they look perfect! I tell her she's going to have to change her "press release" -- she certainly IS creative!

 

This is a simple pair of Payless flats that Gwyn painted so they transitioned from a rich gold-orange at the toe, through burnt orange at the sides and into a deeper crimson-orange tone at the heel. She did this using smart color choices and plenty of patience when dabbing and lightly stoking in the paint to make the transitions. I love how these look!

Here is another pair of color-transition shoes, this time going from Pearl Blue on the toes to Grape on the top and back half of the booties. Betty painted these and finished them off with bead-and-pearl embellishments that she placed just "north" of the line where the boot will bend when she walks. That way, she didn't have to stitch down the embellishments to keep them from popping off. Instead, she glued them with The Ultimate. I think they came out beautifully.

Darcy took a pair of plain Mary Jane style comfort sandals and gave them a racy coat of Crimson. Then she added tiny Pearl White polka dots in specific areas marked off by the original stitching on the shoe, as if she were doing color blocking. We all smiled when we saw how cute these turned out!

Sea-sponging was a popular technique at this class, and a subtle example of how it was used is shown above. On this pair of lace-ups, Christina used light sponging on the toe and back as part of a color-blocking scheme. What you can't see is that the tongue of the shoe is painted green. There was much discussion about what color the laces should eventually be, green was the winner. Lumiere was used to paint those, too.

Another version of sea sponging, at right, was done by Annell on a pair of simple sandals. She chose a colorful array of Lumiere paints -- blue, purple, crimson and one of the golds. The result was rich and eye-pleasing. 

Here's an example of a simple embellished shoe painted in Old Brass (I think) with the heels (sorry, the photo doesn't show them) painted a contrasting dark brown. These were done by Barbara. One of the things that makes this shoe special is the placement of the embellishment. It extends up over where the foot will be so as to change the shape of the front opening and add interest. Adds a nice touch!

Last of all is a pair of gorgeous wedge sandals painted by a young woman named Amber. She had no questions, asked no advice, just sat down and painted them in luscious colors. She even invented the color-collage treatment on the t-straps and ankle straps without consultation or coaching. (I love young people -- they just go ahead and DO things!) I will let the pictures of her wedges speak for themselves.

I wish I'd had the time and presence of mind to photograph ALL the shoes and bags done in the class -- they were all amazing!

Next week I'll share with you some fabulous shoes -- and a pair of bridal cowboy boots -- sent in by our fans around the world, including a mixed media artisan  from Australia whose motto is IMELDA, EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

A Gift for You, From Me

I came across this quote the other day and it struck me as absolutely right. It also gave me the idea for this blog post. I am going to give you the gift of contagious creativity by showing you my favorite things I created this year.

Some of these have been in this blog before, others will be posted later along with how-to instructions. For now, just enjoy seeing the projects -- and maybe do the same thing for your friends: Share the cream of your creativity and spark theirs!

A mahjong minaudiere created for an art show outside Detroit.
I made the fabric by arranging vintage mahjong cards, scanning
them and printing them on to Inkjet fabric.

Zebra print booties that I embellished for Destiny

 

A shoulder bag made by felting an old Laura Ashley sweater and using part
of a felted flower scarf (reinforced with FireLine) as the strap

 

A bootie that's been partly painted and partly fabric-collaged. It has
a fabric-covered heel, hand-dyed silk ribbon laces, and
a button-stack embellishment

 

 
Another minaudiere, this one covered in ribbon-embroidered
velvet and red suede trim. It is embellished with old-fashioned
keys, a tassel and a square glass bead.

 

Comfy black slip-ons "unzipped" to show a triangle of startling blue.
The large-gauge zipper was cut and glued in place.

 

Resin donuts (55mm) from Natural Touch Beads dabbed with various colors of Lumiere using a cosmetic wedge. Fun -- and easy -- to do and they make great shoe and handbag embellishments!

 

Last of all, here are creative projects from some of my favorite people. These are by no means their most amazing creations of 2011, however. To see others, click on the links of the names.

Erin Perry created this tiny (5"x5") copper-clad and ephemera-
embellished shadow box to display a charming resin
reproduction of a vintage shoe.

This is my Sassy Feet co-consipirator Destiny Carter displaying:
1) her new blue-streaked hair -- an art project in itself, and
  2) a beautifully dimensional beaded necklace by Debra Jurey.

That's it for today. May the new year bring you LOTS of creative satisfaction and joy! And may you share it with us by emailing photos to me at margot@sassyfeet.com.

Zebra Goes Urban

Sometimes I create a shoe design just for the sake of going over the top. It's good for my spirit to throw caution to the winds and come up with something that I'll never wear in this lifetime -- though maybe I will in the next!

I guess that's one of the things I enjoy so much about DIY shoe and handbag design -- it gives me a chance to let my imagination soar, invent whole new lives for the shoes and bags I play with, and envision a life where I would wear booties like these little beauties.

I bought these Steve Madden zebra-print booties a couple of years ago on sale. I knew I'd never wear them -- high heels and I aren't on speaking terms anymore -- but I couldn't resist them.

Now, hair-on hide or fur is something you can't paint. The hair would get all gummy. You could tint the white hair with transparent Pinata inks from Jacquard -- in fact, Destiny and I contemplated tinting each white stripe a different color. But then I went to a couple of re-use stores and came home with multicolored chain (formerly a belt with the word ROCK spelled out in dangling fake-crystal-covered metal letters) and big triangular chrome washers.

I played around with the chain and the washers, and decided to hang the chain in swathes from the washers, which I would anchor with a spherical silver bead.

 

The chains are held together by a large split ring underneed the triangle. This is secured to the bootie with the same ultrastrong beading thread that I used to stitch the triangle and silver bead in place.

That was all I had been planning to do to this bootie. But I am not very good at putting away my "toys" and sitting on the craft table near where I had been working on this bootie was a cellophane bag with a lavish sprig of red velvet leaves.

Well, who wouldn't be tempted to take a few of those out of the bag and hold them up to different parts of the boot to see how they''d look?

They looked fabulous (if I do say so myself....), so I glued them down using E6000. Still, it wasn't quite enough. The leaves needed some sort of focal point.

I went rooting around in my stash and found some little black iridescent-beaded appliques in the drawer labelled BLING. (Don't let anyone tell you impulse shopping is all bad -- without it, my stash would be pathetically thin!)

I glued the applique to the leaves using Fabri-Tac (my choice for gluing fabric to fabric) and the rest is zebra-bootie history.

I call this pair "Urban Zebra" and they are dedicated to Destiny, who will one day convince herself they fit and walk off into the urban sunset wearing them.

Keep Those Shoes (and Purses) Coming!

I continue to be astonished and delighted by the photos of shoes that you send me! Such imagination, such great ideas and color combinations! I want to show you several of them today.

First is a pair of clogs that Mary from Texas painted for a friend who is a quilter. These are the first pair of shoes she's painted and she did them with the colors from a Lumiere Exciter Pack. All I can say is WOW!

Next come a couple of creations from Laurel, who took a class from me at ARTS Obispo, a wonderful organization in nearby (to me) San Luis Obispo, CA. Above are a pair of booties she began in class and later finished at home. The color of paint she used is Pearlescent Violet. Coincidentally, Laurel's booties were identical to a pair that Destiny and I had just finished embellishing (at right). It was great to see Laurel's photos and see how she'd worked with the design. Interesting that all three of us were inspired to hang an embellishment from the underside of the bootie's cuff.

A few months later, Laurel created a purse for an ARTS Obispo fundraiser -- using a shoe as the base. She sent me an email describing what she did: "I made my wristlet purse by sewing and embellishing the top of the purse with beads and sequins. With the magic of adhesives, I sewed and glued fabric to shoe. The green lace ruffle is custom-made using netting, re-purposed net (for the great lime color), sequins and beads.  The bag has a self-fabric wristband and closes with a zipper."

Some people don't even have to take a Sassy Feet class, they can just have their grandmother attend, borrow her paints and use their abundant natural talent. This wallet is by Taylor T., a teenager from California's Central Valley. She painted it while she was on vacation at the beach, a very accurate view of which is pictured on the wallet.

This sweet pair of flats was done by Adrienne, who obviously has a talent for working small, since she was able to paint eight stripes of Lumiere on each of the straps crisscrossing these peeptoe flats!

Last of all come sandals from Mary W. of San Luis Obispo, who also took my class last summer at ARTS Obispo. She had a wedding to attend and was planning to wear a gray-and-white print dress. She painted her sandals in Pearlescent White and Pewter, and has included a sample of the dress fabric in the background. (And yes, this IS a color photo.)

Thanks to all who sent in photos -- it's wonderful to share your creativity with our hundreds of blog readers!

Bourbon Street Beauties

Ah, Mardi Gras! The ultimate party where people strut their stuff with delight and abandon! This year Destiny and I were asked to contribute some of our "shoe art" to the San Luis Obispo arts organization's Mardi Gras fundraiser, Walk on the Wild Side!

A dozen artists were asked to contribute, and they have assembled an art auction with fused glass shoes, a shoe-shaped purse, pottery shoes, paintings of shoes, even a found-object plant arrangement reminiscent of shoes. For a peek, click here and scroll way down to "Shoe Show."

Destiny and I altered the heck out of a pair of Victorian style booties, giving them a hint of brothel naughtiness and a lot of party attitude, but keeping them totally wearable.

I'm going to tell you how we made these and show you a lot of work-in-progress pictures, but first how about a peek at the finished product?

We started by looking at the architecture of the boot, and we asked ourselves, What is already there for us to work with? We looked at the different stitching lines and how the boot worked. For example, despite the buttons and loops down the front, the boot actually fastened with a zipper up the inner side. We came up with a plan for color-blocking the bootie, then chose paint colors, glitter colors, and embellishments.

The first thing we did was to cut off those tan loops! They were sort of utilitarian-looking. Besides, it's hard to get great results painting over elastic. I'll walk you through the rest of the steps, using more photos than words to show you how.

We chose three basic colors for the color block areas: gold, copper and purple (which looks more like blue in these photos!). We painted the three areas with Lumiere in Sunset Gold, Super Copper and Grape. Then we painted the tongue of the boot and the buttons with Neopaque Black.

To keep the black paint from smudging onto the gold, we cut little squares of card stock, punched a hole in the middle to accomodate the shank of the buttons, then cut a slit from the edge to the hole and slid these little "shields" over the buttons. This saved us a lot of time doing touchups!

The next step was to apply our Glitter It! glitter paint over the gold and copper areas. We used Antique Gold and Copper, and applied it by patting it on gently with a fan brush. (That "we" is a lie -- Destiny did the glittering. She's much better at it than I am!) It took two coats of glitter to get a perfectly even effect.

For a little extra sparkle, we then glued size 20SS (4.8mm) amethyst-colored flatback Swarovski crystals onto all the buttons, using E6000 dabbed on with a toothpick.

Having the basic design done, we dove into our stash to dig up exciting, quirky, colorful and outrageous trims and accents that would give our bootie some real ZING! We brought a big basket of possibilities to the craft table and started holding up various combinations, sometimes tacking them in place on the bootie using earthquake putty (a common household item here in California!).

Our first decision was to combine orange guinea-feather pads, two squares of perforated purple suede and two black beaded appliques into a pair of embellishments we would attach at a jaunty angle to the top of the boot. We glued the various pieces together and when they had dried, glued the whole thing to the bootie.

When we were pawing through our pile of trims, Destiny's eye had been caught by a pair of gold-embroidered appliques, which she thought would look great on the toes of the boots. She touched up the lower edges of the appliques with the Grape Lumiere paint so there would be touches of purple in three places. We fiddled around with the placement (using earthquake putty), then glued the appliques down using E6000.

Next -- WHAT? THERE'S MORE?  Yes. When you are altering or upcycling shoes for a really special occasion, when you want them to truly be wearable art, don't stop too soon. Always consider whether you could add something else that will really make the design POP!

We added three more things! First, Destiny painted little black zebra stripes on the heel, with gold edges, to echo those on the appliques.

Next, we glued ruffled nylon net around the top edge of the bootie. And finally, we laced up the buttons with very narrow black double-faced satin ribbon.

At this point, we conceded that we were done. Even with our fertile imaginations (and huge stash) we could think of nothing else that our Bourbon Street Beauties needed!

This is my very favorite kind of project, one we do together, where our different skills, gifts and tastes find a way to weave themselves into something entirely new and unexpected -- our version of laissez les bons temps rouler!

Our 'Altered' Shoes in Print - AGAIN!

One of my favorite proud-moments is seeing Margot's and my name in print.  Before Sassy Feet!, the only time in my life I had ever seen my name in print publicly was in third grade when my grandmother wrote a very sweet (but extremely embarrassing) article called "Keep An Eye on Destiny" that was printed in the local newspaper.  But to be able to walk in to any Borders or Barnes & Noble, head to the periodicals section, pick up an issue of Altered Couture magazine, and see our shoes and how-to articles in its pages is still as exhilarating today as it was the very first time. It's almost surreal! 

Our lux creation of embellished, dark red ankle booties, "Ruffles at Midnight," scored us another article (and that sense of excitement) in the Spring 2011 issue. 

Since these shoes were already in great condition and a wonderful intense and sexy red, Margot and I elected NOT to repaint them.  All the better to embellish you, my dear! So, we went "shopping" in Margot's extensively awesome stash and scored ourselves black swirled soutache braid, a length of cascading stretchy black ruffles, and embellishments we made ourselves from two big black vintage buttons, two hand-hammered copper rings, two white flower-shaped vintage buttons, and two Italian silver swirling buttons.

We started by measuring two lengths of soutache braid and, using Fabri-Tac, we glued it around the cuff of each boot, starting from the zipper and clamping it as we glued. We also used Fabri-Tac to glue the upper edge of the ruffled fabric (it's actually sold for sewing tube tops) to the underside of the cuff. We glued down the edge of the ruffles at the zipper, too, so they wouldn't get caught in the zip.

The last thing we needed was something that drew your eye and went "KAPOW" - a focal point.  Margot used an oversize black button as a base, then attached the copper rings using E-6000. Two white buttons were glued on top, lining up the holes of the white and black buttons. Then she threaded a quadruple-length of Fireline through the button holes to use in attaching the embellishment.

Why? Because once she'd glued down the final swirly silver button, those handy little holes wouldn't be useable. Before gluing the top button, Margot gleefully lopped off their shanks using her big metal shears. Then she used E6000 to glue them down.

Once everything had been clamped, set-up and cured (at least 24 hours) we stitched our hand-stacked embellishment to the cuff, slightly off center from the side seam. Not everything can be symmetrical.

What stunning results -- if we do say so ourselves... -- and without a lick of paint.  We're pleased Altered Couture agreed!

 

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!

Taking a Design and Running With It!

Shoe blogs, fashion magazines and online shoe stores are FULL of inspiration and ideas for DIY shoe design. When I see something that interests me, I right-click on the photo and "save image as." Then I use the picture, which I name with the designer and shoe model, as food for thought in the weeks and months to come. Here are some of the shoes I've "saved" and my ideas on how to create them for yourself.

This is Taryn Rose's "Bonny" flat.  Painting just the toe of a shoe, particularly a pump or a flat, has been quite popular in the past year. This design adds something extra with its little gold studs.  To create a shoe like this, either start with a black flat, or paint one with Neopaque Black.

Then mark a straight line across the toe with chalk and paint the toe with Lumiere's Metallic Gold. Now find something (like plastic canvas for needlepoint, available at craft stores) to help you mark a grid for use as a guide to put the gold dots on the shoe. Afer you've marked the places to put dots, paint them using the Metallic Gold paint. When the paint is dry, add a tiny dab of Antique Gold Glitter It! paint to each dot to give it the shine of a gold stud. Last, seal the whole thing with Future.

I spotted these Stuart Weizman heels in October and knew they would be comparatively easy to copy. The secret to doing color-transitional painting like this is a cosmetic wedge and patience.

You can paint the separate areas first, then pour a little paint on a palette or plastic plate. Dab the rectangular end of the wedge lightly in the paint, then blot some of it off. Now you're ready to start dabbing lightly to make your transition areas. You usually need to go back and dab the original color and the second color several times to get a decent transition, but the paint will dry quickly and this doesn't take all that long.

To see a pair of color-transition flats I painted way early on in my shoe-painting career, go to this blog post and scroll down until you see the violet-transitioning-to-orange flats.

These Nine West suede heels are called Timepiece. They feature a black beaded and sequinned applique glued onto the heel so it extends up above the top of the shoe. (I couldn't find a side view of this shoe in red, so the photo below is of a purple one.)

All you need to do to create this shoe is to 1) Find the applique (try M&J Trim for starters; 2) Figure out how much you want sticking up above the shoe; 3) Glue a soft backing onto that part of the applique (to protect your heel from the scratchy back to the applique); and 4) Glue the whole thing down. If are gluing directly onto genuine leather or suede, use Fabri-Tac. If you are gluing onto faux leather or suede, use The Ultimate.

These glittered laceup shoes are by Christian Louboutin -- and come with a $595 price tag! You can get the same effect by getting your hands on a pair of laceup shoes, painting them Neopaque Black, glittering them with Starlet Glitter It! paint, then gluing down some black trim to create a trompe l'oeil piped seam.

Here's my last offering of cool design ideas to copy -- booties swathed in chain. 

 

 

There are two tricks to adding chain embellishments to boots. The first is finding the chain in the size and finish you want -- the stuff used in these boots has a gunmetal finish. 

The second is to create some sort of anchor to hold the chain at the back or on the inner face of the boot. REPORT, the company that made these "Ortego" booties, made a sort of belt loop out of the same fabric as the boots. You can make your own belt loop our of fabric or leather and paint it to match. If you use leather, I recommend stitching it on with a leather needle and FireLine, rather than gluing it.

I hope this post gives you lots of INSPIRATION for the New Year! Do something amazing with shoes and send me the photos!

Feather My Boots

When I start a new pair of shoes or boots, I begin with either a color I love or an embellishment I love. The boots I am going to show you today started when I came across some amazing feather trim at M & J Trim.

This multicolor 4"-long trim really caught my eye, and I thought it would look great around the top of a pair of boots. I mean, why not?? Faint heart ne'er won a  look of admiration for her shoes, after all.

I went hunting for inexpensive boots and I ended up with some booties with a foldover cuff -- perfect for hiding the satin ribbon to which the feathers are stitched. They were on sale, I think because they were white, not the most popular color for booties. Also, they were flat-soled and sort of Peter-Pan looking (until I got my hands on them).

I figured that the best backdrop, color-wise, for those flaming feathers would be black. Now, painting black over white is just about the most tedious paint job you can do. It takes LOTS of coats, three at least. I used Neopaque Black paint, then sealed it with Future (known now as "Pledge Premium Floor Finisher with Future Shine."

Once that was done, I used The Ultimate to glue the feather trim up under the edge of the cuff. Then I sat back and said to myself, "This needs something else!" I dug around in my stash of beads and miscellaneous embellishments and came up with a beaded necklace that had been my mother's. (I don't come from a family that passes on legacies of gold and pearls -- beads, peasant shawls and Japanese iron teapots are more our style.)

It seemed to me that these handily strung beads would look great draped around the cuffs. And the necklace was just long enough. I put a generous squeeze of E6000 on the beads adjacent to where I would cut the necklace in half, and when it was dry, I snipped.

Then I used dark FireLine thread and a leather needle to stitch the necklace just to the cuff (not all the way through to the inside of the boot). Had I planned better, I could have sewed the necklace down before I glued the feathers on. Then the #*$^#*% feathers wouldn't have kept catching the thread when I stitched.

But that's not my creative process. I rarely know what the finished shoes or boots will look like when I start on them. Even if I do know beforehand, I usually end up changing the design en route. Ya just gotta trust the creative process.

The result was quite satisfying! Frivolous and ethnic. But I wanted to try one more thing: a metal embellishment bent so it would fit around the heel, the way you see on some cowboy boots. I went to one of my favorite sites for embellishments, B'Sue Boutiques, and browsed through the brass stampings. I also looked at the brass filigree. I needed something that could bend, and if I'm not sure if something I like is too heavy to bend, I email B'Sue and ask her. These I bent using pliers.

These stampings are raw brass, which means you need to clean and put some finish on them. What I did was wash the stampings with warm water and dish soap, then dry them. I colored them using two shades of Staz-On ink, applied with cotton swabs. Staz-On is permanent on metal, but I am something of a skeptic, so I sprayed on Krylon "Crystal Clear" acrylic spray sealant from the hardware store afterwards.

To glue on the embellishments, I used E6000 and one of my secret weapons -- a giant racheting clamp from my local hardware store. (E6000 really works if you clamp the item you're gluing and let it dry for 24 hours.) Here's what the clamp looks like. It's an Irwin 4" Handi Clamp, and they sell them at Home Depot and some hardware stores. They are perfect for clamping embellishments onto the backs of heels.

Whenever I wear my fine feathered boots, people (women) stop and remark (positively) on them. Even teenagers, which makes me feel really good. Most of my wardrobe is quite unremarkable from a teenage point of view!

A Very Classy Class

I just got back from teaching a day-and-a-half class for the very creative women in the Fresno Fiber Arts Guild. It was a real luxury to have so much time! In the past I have been challenged to teach the same material in just three hours, which always leaves me feeling like my students get a bit shortchanged.

Not these ladies! I stuffed them full of facts about painting shoes and purses, gluing on trim, and stitching on embellishments. And they showed me some things, too, with their fascinating designs and experiments (successful ones) in color mixing.

I took pictures during the class with the first cell phone I've ever owned that takes pictures, and although some of the shots turned out too fuzzy to use, there were some good ones. Hope they spark ideas for you!

Shirley sponge-painted the faux-leather trim on this nylon tote, using masking tape to protect the nylon area. At the bottom of the picture is the embellishment (one of my designs!) that she will eventually stitch to the top center of the tote.

  Lora created these "Coffee Queen" shoes, which featured broad, short stripes in Metallic Olive Green and Neopaque Black on the straps and around the base of the heel (which you can't see in this picture, sorry). On the toe, she tried painting the black lines of the lettering and the images using several different shape brushes, then gave up and used Sharpie instead. She's going to let me know if the Sharpie lasts over time.

Lora also wanted to use a rubber stamp over the coffee cup, so she cut out a mask for the area around the cup, then pressed her whole inked stamp onto the shoe. I think the result is wonderful.

  Susan, whose organization generously provides a room for the guild's meetings (and who isn't nearly as fuzzy looking in real life...), painted a pair of booties using color blocking, with different variations of color on each boot. The boots were originally black, and she left some of the black intact. Then she used Brass and Crimson on one boot, and Brass and Halo Blue Green (I think) on the other. In back of the boots, you can see a purse Susan was painting with some of the same colors.

We had the pleasure of having a granddaughter-grandmother combination in the class. Carol was the program coordinator for the guild -- who took WONDERFUL care of me during my stay. Her granddaughter, Sabrina, is 11, and her enthusiasm and creativity were a joyful addition to the class.

Sabrina painted several pairs of shoes (including some Midnight-Sky-glittered flats), but the ones she spent the most time on were these Payless flats that she painted Pearlescent Magenta then meticulously decorated with daisy-like flowers.

Carol painted a purse and a couple pairs of shoes, including these formerly worn-looking sandals. If you look closely, you'll see that among the Metallic Rust straps is one that's partially painted Super Copper. A clever touch, I think.

Ann brought a couple of belts to paint, in both cases using the original color and texture as part of her design. One medium-width black belt got a geometric treatment, a narrower belt -- purchased in the 1960s, I think she said! -- was painted in subtle flowing arches with highlights.

After finishing her coral-and-pink-sponged tote, Shirley worked on some shoes, and in the process she rummaged through my stash of goodies, which I bring to each class, and unearthed some gorgeous teal blue feather trim. The result was fabulous. In the picture below, she has clamped the trim on while the glue, which she has applied to the black backing, sets. She'll trim off the extra strip of trim once the glue is secure.

Last but by no means least is our Halloween fanatic, Valerie, who brought a pair of black "witch" boots to work on.

The picture above is of her sponged creations before they were quite finished. In your mind's eye, add purple, green and gold crystals on the tip of the toes and up the back seam -- plus fuchsia-glittered little bats right at the top of the heel. Wearing these, she'll no doubt get the Witch of the Year Award!

What DIY Shoes Are All About

The best part of what Margot and I do with shoes is teaching others how to do it. We get great satisfaction out of sharing something new and then, literally, seeing the lightbulb click on above our students' heads when they realize the world of possiblities that we just opened up for them. 

A couple weeks ago, my friend Beth visited from Chicago and I told her I would teach her how to "do" shoes while she was here.  She was very excited about this prospect. 

After she arrived, we took a trip to Payless to search for some cheap shoes to upgrade.  We saw this odd quasi-bootie/sandal/heel hybrid that we both had an immature chuckle over while it was sitting in its box. It was sort of silly looking, so we kept hunting.  After a few moments, we decided maybe it was one of those shoes that looked better on the foot than in the box. Beth tried them on. This made a ton of difference. They looked FAR better AND, as a bonus, had a very large surface on which we could create a design. 

When we got back to my house Beth was very excited to get started.  She loves color and wanted to incorporate a lot of it, but was a little bit nervous about "screwing up."  I gently reminded her that we could always paint over what we had done (which is one of my favorite parts of altering shoes with paint).  She thought a Day of the Dead sugar skull theme would be a good muse for tons of color.  I took one shoe and she took the other so I could walk her through the process.

She chose Pearlescent Magenta, Citrine, Pearlescent Blue, Pearlescent Violet, Bright Gold, and Pearlescent Turquoise as her pallete.

We started by prepping the shoe (which is faux leather) by rubbing it with a cotton ball dampened with plain acetone. Then we painted a base coat of Pearlescent Magenta on the upper portion of the shoe using a fan brush.  Two coats were needed to cover evenly. Next we painted the lower portion with  Bright Gold (2 coats again) as a base.

Beth had seen my blog about the shoes I did for the wonderful Vicki Leon and wanted that speckled look, so we broke out a natural sea sponge to apply the rest of the paint colors. On the upper portion of the shoe, over the Pealescent Magenta, we sponged Pearlescent Blue, then Pearlescent Violet. (It's best to let each color dry before applying the next, but it dries really quickly.) Onto the Bright Gold base on the lower part of the shoe, we sponged Citrine, Pearlescent Turquoise, then Pearlescent Violet, in that order. 

Beth created beautiful bows with some purple iridescent wired ribbon that we found at Lina G's trim store in Morro Bay. She added a bone skull bead (picked up at Beads by the Bay) to each one. Luckily, Beth knows how to handle a leather needle and swiftly stiched the ribbon and skull onto the elastic strap at the back of the shoe, using some Fireline as her thread.

As the final touch, she asked me to use a toothpick and paint a sugar skull design with Neopaque Black, Pearlescent Turquoise, Pearlescent White, Citrine, and Pearlescent Magenta. 

And damn they looked good!!  A whole new shoe! 

Now Beth says she can use her new-found skills to open a Sassy Feet franchise in Illinois, haha.  Or maybe she's serious. Sassy Feet! goes national?  AWESOME!

More Shoes by Our Fans

Over the past couple of months I've had some interesting email from other women who love to "do shoes." I thought I'd take this week to show you some of the cool things they've done. In some cases, they even sent "before" and "in progress" shots.

Julie sent a series of photos showing the paint job she did on a pair of Ecco shoes that were quite comfy, but never got worn because they were a light golden tan color. They are made of Nubuck, which takes Lumiere quite well. 

Because the soles and eyelets on the shoe were tan, Julie decided to do an animal print. She chose leopard and sent along a photo she used for inspiration.

Below are the finished shoes. I love the contrast between the smooth texture of the painted spots and the matte surface of the Nubuck. The only glitch Julie ran into was that when she went to seal the shoes with Future, it left some dark spots on the unpainted Nubuck.

Yes, it's best to apply Future only to painted areas. Or you can skip it altogether if you don't want a shiny finish. (The manufacturer of Lumiere does recommend sealing with Future, but my experience is the paint adheres just fine without it, as long as I prep the shoes properly before I paint.)

Julie took this setback in exactly the right spirit. About the dark spots she said, "These weren't new shoes to begin with, so it just gives them a little more character."

Next are some really fun sandals from the prolific Sandy, who is now painting custom shoes for friends and other clients. She did these last summer and I'm glad to finally have a chance to show them to you. She used Citrine and a mix of Burnt Orange and Halo Pink Gold. On the footbed she painted tiny footprints -- with red toenails.

"Then I strung the beads on wire and then wired the whole thing to the shoe," Sandy wrote. "The middle just screamed for a gold sun and orange crystal to top it off.  The little flowers are material which I pasted on.  I wanted these to look like a throwback from the '60's, and that's what they feel like to me."

Here is a progression of before, during and after photos sent by Nadia, who's from Canada. She said reading our blog inspired her to design her own wedding shoes. "With supplies and everything, it cost me less than twenty dollars. I was quite pleased with that!!"

When I saw that Nadia had painted her shoes Crimson, I asked her what color her wedding dress was. Her answer? "Actually my dress is white, but I wanted a hint of colour and shoes sounded perfect!" I think they'll be a saucy -- and sassy -- surprise peeking out from under her white gown!

I want to show you one more pair of shoes before I close this post. They are from Adrienne. I asked her to write something about herself and her shoes, and here's what she said.

"I, too, am an artist of many media. I was inspired to do this because of two things. 1) I'm a certifiable shoe freak. My friends call me Imelda. I have a 3-shoe-month zappos.com habit.  2) I recently bought a purse from zappos.com from a line called "Anushka" which is Coach quality, but painted. Look them up, you're going to LOVE them. Put art, shoes and purse-painting together and TADA. I'm having a great time. 

"Thanks for the encouragement. I have some other ideas up my sleeve...I'll keep you posted, and THANKS for the introduction into a new field of artistic expression."

I'm the one who should be saying thanks -- to all the talented women who have taken up their brushes and beads and baubles and shared the beautiful results with us!

What a Talented Class!

This post is a few days late because I was recovering from a very exciting teaching trip to the Sacramento area. It was my first opportunity to teach members of an ASG (American Sewing Guild) group -- in this case the ASG Gold Country Chapter -- and let me tell you, these folks are hugely creative!

We had nineteen people, including their super-helpful special events chair, Jenny Lyon, who started small by glittering her Blackberry case with Starlet Glitter It paint, and before we knew it, she was painting a large purse Citrine! The range of people was great, from a young, hip 20-something woman to a pair of sisters in their late sixties. I even had my first male student.

I wanted to show you some shots from the day we spent together. Above right is Deborah painting a pair of "cage" boots. She finished them off with a ribbon fan encircling an ombre wired rose.

One of the things that interests me most when I'm teaching a class is to see the color combinations my students pick. Often they are something I wouldn't have thought of myself, but they look great! The booties that Carol (at left) is doing are a good example.

I bring 25 colors of Lumiere with me to each class, so there's lots of opportunity for coming up with fresh color combinations. And that doesn't include the colors that people mix.  This class was a standout in terms of mixing colors. They just started doing it without any nudging or instruction from me. 

Tecla (at right) worked happily at mixing Metallic Olive Green with varying amounts of darker colors until she got the exact shade of camouflage green she wanted for her sandals.

A student painting her sandals created a gorgeous medium blue -- not pastel-y at all, as I would have expected -- by mixing Indigo and Pearl White. She mixed an even lighter version for highlighting the edges of the straps, then sweet-talked me into sewing little Bali beads onto the point where her straps crossed. (Well, she was one of the ladies in her late sixties.)

Blue and green seemed to be very popular colors in this class. The green in these upcycled flats (Metallic Olive Green, I think) got a wash applied to it (a mixture of Lumiere -- looks to me like it was a metallic shade-- and about 25% water), then blue paint was lightened a bit for the contrasting areas.

This was a mixed class of people who wanted to paint purses as well as shoes, and a lot of folks did both. The purse below started out white, then got sponged with Pearl Magenta, Citrine, and (I think) Metallic Bronze. The straps, which hadn't been painted yet when I took this photo, were done with the Pearl Magenta.

 

At the end of the class, bling-lover and embroidery wizard Bobbi Bullard, who first suggested I come teach at their group, organized  everyone to put all their creations together so we could get a photo of the class's output for the day. Here is a closeup of part of the collection so you can see details of some of the other shoes that were done, followed by a shot showing the whole nine yards.

 

I count thirty purses and pairs of shoes. If you double-click on either of the group photos above, you'll see some very interesting color details and embellishments. And a big thanks to all the talented ASG members who made last Saturday such a festival of color and design!

Our Bridal Shoes Make the Big Time!

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!

Boot Bracelets

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!

Fabric Collage on Shoes

Before I got into doing shoes, I was a long-time lover of sewing. Still am, as a matter of fact. It's just that now my fabric stash is being used in the creation of one-of-a-kind fabric collage shoes. 

Last summer I raided my stash of quilting cottons and pulled out a number of Lonni Rossi prints in black, gold and red. I'd bought a half-yard of each years ago with an idea of making... something.  Now I wanted to cover a little suede bootie I'd bought from Newport News, which is a great source of inexpensive leather shoes.

With pinking shears and Fabri-Tac (a fabric glue I like for adhering fabric to leather), I snipped and glued my way around that bootie until it was transformed from dull blue-gray (picture at right, below)to glorious red and black.

I covered the collar of the bootie with black fold-over elastic, replaced the original laces with the same elastic, and added tassels and little brass bells for a final sassy touch. (Can you guess where the bells came from? A belly-dance store!) 

I've been showing this shoe and a couple of other fabric-collage shoes I've created to quilting guilds around Northern California and the quilters love it! If you love it, too, check out the little booklet in the Sassy Feet store about how to create fabric-collage shoes.