Lost on the Midway

The latest project at the Art Garage is altered shoes. We are making two shoes "Walk the Straight and Narrow" and "Walk on the Wild Side" I was so enthusiastic about it - after all - how hard could it be? I've been altering books for a few years now - what's a couple of shoes?

Well, let me tell you - first it's 3D. It has curves - like people do. So, I reasoned - it can't be any worse than draping a pattern - can it? No...I did get a successful pattern after a few tries. It had to be so exact - shoes don't need ease. I cleverly thought I'd cut the cloth on the bias to give me a little stretch. Things I learned....

• Shoes don't like to be covered in cloth. If a shoe wanted to be gingham, it would have been born gingham.
  
• Paint the shoe BEFORE you cover it.
  
• Gesso BEFORE you paint.
  
• Put in the innersole AFTER you collage.
  
• Get a GOOD glue.

I really went at this ass-backwards. I did things to the shoe as they occurred to me instead of having a plan. My concept for this "Straight and Narrow" shoe was County Fairs/State Fairs. My shoe went to the Fair and got "Lost on the Midway". Its bow got a bit tattered and it got dirty (walnut ink spray). But it had a really good time and got a blue ribbon for something or other.

I collaged the inside with a bunch of images from Fairs. I put "Big Tex" on the heel - an icon of the Texas State Fair. I also used some rusted steel stars and a few collaged images on the outside of the shoe. And what would something lost at the Fair be without a bunch of ANTS climbing on it!

Being a novice at polymer clay, I went at it like everything else in my art - I looked for instructions. There are no instructions for making polymer clay ants. This a very odd take for me - because I really HATE bugs. So I, eek, looked at a bunch of pictures of ants. It took 2 batches of 4 ants each to identify all the 'won't work' elements. But I finally got it down and produced 8 pretty respectable, if largish, ants.

If anyone really wants the instructions - leave a comment and I'll get back to you. The problem I'm left with is how to glue down the ants without making a mess. I think I'll let that go a while.

The next shoe will not have a cloth cover - I'm going to limit myself to paint and glue and embellishments.