In the spring, i oversaw an independent study course in theatrical footwear topics. My student, Grier Coleman, recently turned in all of her research and projects, and i thought i'd share with the readership her final project, which was to make a pair of "blue-footed booby feet."

This image was one of the primary research images Grier used, a ( Read more... )

Our graduate acting program is presenting a production of the play Kid Simple, for which i offered to build a pair of satyr hooves as an example for the "fantasy shapes" project in my shoe class. The "cloven hoof effect for human feet" is a fairly common types of fantasy-footwear project, as any number of shows call for devils, demons, goats, pigs ( Read more... )

Our unit in shoe class right now is on modifying shoes on some basic structural level to achieve a new silhouette or shape. As i've mentioned before, i do the projects a step ahead of or along with my students, so that they can observe my process as well as one another's. So, here is one of my pairs of shoes that i've completely remade:

( fabulous shoe action )

In shoe class, our second project addresses the concept of footwear add-ons: spats, gaiters, pattens, spur leathers, anything that could be created to change the look and function of footwear, that is not actually permanently attached to the shoe itself ( Read more... )

Recall from my last post on shoemaking resources, this semester I am teaching a class in shoe topics. Finally, a post about our very first project ( Read more... )

See, normally, i teach four classes on rotation in crafts artisanship topics--dyeing/painting, millinery, masks/SFX, and bricolage (essentially an "everything else" class that covers jewelry, parasols, gloves, body padding, macropuppets, etc)--which our MFA students take during their first two years of study ( Read more... )