Fantasy
Footwear show at Clarke & Clarke Arts + Artifacts, Mercer Island, WA
Barbara
Matthews
I
spent over 40 years in a research career, which involved data gathering,
information processing, statistics and modeling -- the opposite continuum from
art. I learned the value of working in
teams that made the effort fun and synergistic. Now expressing myself
artistically by producing shoes for the Fantasy Footwear show provided a
way to honor my earlier occupation. Work boots seemed natural, but certainly
not stuffy old practical boots, these needed to impart some levity.
I work with wool roving to create felted
fabric. I found the most luscious roving in a mixture of burgundy, gold and
green. First
the roving is pulled in short tuffs and laid first one direction and then
another in a square, sometimes in three layers. The
idea is to encourage the fibers to tangle together to such an extent as to form
a piece of solid fabric. The process involves rolling the pile of roving into a
roll within bubble wrap, rolling it back and forth, back and forth, hundreds
and hundreds of times. The process is
meditative. Finally, after rolling, opening, repositioning the fabric, and re
rolling the roving the piece begins to shrink, a half an inch with each turn of
the fabric. That is the felting process
working. This piece became the focus fabric
for the boot.
I
repeated the process with complementary colors. Now with the fabric pieces in
place, how do I make a boot?
Yes, it is possible to find a shoe pattern
on online! This one on Etsy from TallerDeCalzado2 in Spain. My initial
prototype helped me judge the final size of the piece.
Pieces cut from my felt and sewn together, the boots
were taking shape. Among my stash of my
own work was a piece of hand dyed silk that would suit as lining and a Kumihimo braided cord that could serve
as the laces. Hand stitching on the sides brought the sense of levity into the
pieces. Grommets for the laces; sole and
heels to finish.
