Do you also think that shoes are beautiful or it’s only me? Well off course not all the shoes are pretty – just check these freaky predator teeth shoes on Virtual Shoe Museum for example.
Suede inspiration
Apart from the obviously weird ones, more common shoes can totally bring a lot of unexpected inspiration. Like when browsing random Pinterest posts I noticed these beautiful green suede pointy toe stiletto sandals with an ankle strap. I admire these elegant lines and they make me want to create something similarly eye-catchy.
Backbone of the shoe
As I am not much of a shoemaker I rather try to catch this inspiration into silver. There are clearly 5 main parts to be crafted and then assembled together:
- sole
- heel block
- pointy toe
- back heel locker
- ankle strap
The most logical starting point is the sole which is pretty much a back bone of the shoe. I use a 1mm thick sterling silver plate and cut out a sole with a jeweller saw.
It takes ages to saw like a pro. Until that you have to refine the edges with a file or with a Dremel-like tool. I prefer doing it with a file as it gives more control and fine results.
Once you are happy with the shape and the situation not too rough around the edges you polish. Based on my previous project like High Heel Filigree Sandal with Carnelian Stone and Butterfly, High heel strappy sandals silver earrings with garnet stones and High heel filigree sandal with amethyst I can tell you that it is totally worth taking enough time to refine the sole to the mirror-like surface. It will be intrinsically harder to run this operation on a later stages of the project. Been there, done that – don’t recommend.
High heel mule
Unfortunately pictures of a heel making were lost in a process. But essentially it is fairly straightforward – you solder a big ball of silver on one side of the wire and burr it until it looks like a heel. I’m sure I described it in details in my previous high heel jewellery projects High Heel Filigree Sandal with Carnelian Stone and Butterfly and High heel strappy sandals silver earrings with garnet stones.
So I have a blank high heel mule. What’s next? Obviously the decoration. It is the very first time I challenged myself to craft a close toe tip. It might sound easy but bending silver wires in a such sophisticatedly shaped element requires hours to get it right. I used some wax I salvaged from the little babybel cheese snacks (yummm). I put a piece of paper on top of the sculpted wax and cut it to use as a pattern. Then I made a closed outline out of a 0.8mm wire and filled it in with the filigree filament. It was an easy part. Then it took me some bending, hammering and fitting to make it look nice on a shoe.
Back heel locker
Every time I have the mule done my inner voice whispers: “It kinda looks nice already. Let’s maybe stope here, hmm?”. Perhaps I could just add a jump ring and present is as a mule charm, but would it be a true fun? Not for me at least.
So the next element is the one that is supposed to hold the back of your foot from moving sideways while cat-walking. Some of the babybel wax leftovers were reshaped into a back part of a foot and placed on the mule. Then a paper pattern helped me shape a nice outline for the back heel locker.
I thought of reinforcing this elements with thicker wires as it will hold an ankle strap. But I’m a risky dude and decided to see if it would do fine as is. After filling it with the filigree and hammering it into shape I realised that the element is surprisingly strong. Probably because of curved edges act as stiffeners. It seems safe to solder all things together and get to the ankle strap crafting.
Ankle strap with buckle
I love the way the ankle strap looks with a buckle on that first pic from Pinterest. hence even though the buckle in my case will not have any real function I still want it there.
I start with making a simple ring out of 0.8mm wire and shaping it into a long rectangular. This rectangular is then filed with the filigree wires and closed into a ring. As my shoe is the right one I have to put a buckle in a way it looks right on a right shoe.
The biggest challenge here is not to melt the delicate buckle while soldering it to the strap. This is because the difference in how the heat dissipates in different components under the flame. After couple of failed attempts I actually left the buckle loose on at the strap. I did however solder it closed so it would go anywhere but it still can move around a little along the strap.
Final result
Once all the soldering is sone there was a lot of cleaning, sanding and polishing to ensure the fine look. But looking at the final result I realise it was all worth it!
Thank you for going through the crafting journey with me. If you are a shoe lover or you want to make one crazy happy – drop me a custom request and I will be thrilled to craft something unique for you.
Sold!
After quite some time sitting at my desk this incredible shoe has finally found its owner! A French lady contacted me few times asking about all kind of details and finally she said:
“J’ai craqué et je vais commander votre pendentif. Je le trouve trop beau.”
“I cracked and I’m going to order your pendant. I find it too beautiful.”
Thank God there are still people with great taste! 😉
I hope she will enjoy wearing it!
Beautiful feedback
It took exactly 10 days for this shoe to get to its new home (kudos to Poczta Polska for a good delivery job). Based on the beautiful review I am incredibly proud to state that my artwork is appreciated!
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