Once upon a time a marvellous triangular amethyst cabochon ended up in my possession. It was stunningly mesmerising to the point when I couldn’t figure out a good enough cast for it. Inspired by a previous successful project it became clear that such beauty will definitely look gorgeous on high heels.
Captivated yet? Then let me take you through a process of handcrafting an elegant high heel shoe pendant with filigree straps and a wonderful amethyst triangular stone.
Sole
This is no secret that you have to start somewhere, preferably from the beginning (silly grin face). In the world of shoemaking, even silver ones, the starting point is the sole. I couldn’t find a decent blueprint of such shoe so I drew one myself. It might not be exactly proportional but in the end of the day I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s feet.
I have a sheet of silver 1mm thick which makes an excellent base for silver shoes. The only thing you have to do is to saw the sole out of it. And then do some filing, burring or sanding depending on the tool of your choice.
When you are happy with the shape of the sole it is a good idea to make both surfaces flat and polish them. Believe me it is going to be much harder once the sole is bent (wise wizard face). This is also a perfect (and probably the only possible) moment to brand your jewellery piece with a steel punch. In my case I stamp SL as an abbreviation for Slavik LTD, which is the trademark I still contemplate to register officially.
Would you believe that crafting a heel itself is one the most complicated operations in this entire process? Well, you should. Unless you are good in melting and casting silver, it is going to take a lot of effort to carve a good stiletto. It is still an enormous struggle for me and would appreciate any idea you might have for simplify its manufacturing process.
Decoration
The centrepiece of all this is the amethyst I mentioned in the beginning. The saddle for it appeared to be straightforward – a flat 1.2mm wide stripe ring with filigree basement will hold the stone firmly. Even though it fits tightly I added another loop of 0.6 wire around the saddle and three chunks of the same 1.2mm stripe to make sure the cabochon is not going anywhere.
The idea is to set the stone in the front side of the shoe. In order to do that the saddle needs to be solidly attached to the shoe sole somehow. And it must looks elegant of course. So I bent a piece of 0.6mm wire into a kinda-monkey-looking shape leaving enough space in the middle for a saddle. This shape provides 5 connection points to the shoe which should be enough to ensure the structure stability.
Fine silver wire is very flexible and needs reinforcement to keep the shape. I added few wire loops above and beyond to solder the saddle in the centre. The blank spaces were practically asking me to fill them with filigree. I am not strong enough to reject that so ended up with putting filigree in every strap.
When the monkey-shape was soldered, cleaned and polished it was time for a final assemble. This is by far the most thrilling phase of the silver shoemaking process. Mostly it’s due to the complexity of the shape it is extremely difficult to control heat dissipation while soldering pieces together. And lack of such control leads straight into previously soldered pieces start to live their own lives with twists and shifts.
Happily this time I got lucky to have all parts attached together with no bigger adventures. Which let me focus on the most satisfying operations in jewellery making – setting the stone. With a saddle prepared earlier it is a matter of levelling the cabochon and carefully bending the prongs to hold it tightly.
Exhibition
Once stone is on its rightful place the whole thing was meticulously polished and bathed in the ultrasonic cleaner. A final touch with attaching a jump ring on the back and voila – the elegant silver high heel sandal with filigree elements and a gorgeous triangular amethyst is ready to reveal itself to the world. Either as a necklace or a piece of art! 🙂
This piece is still available for purchase. If you are interested please visit my Etsy Store or send me a DM in my Instagram to talk business 🙂
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