Shoe Lasts

Isn't that a funny name to describe a wooden shoe mold, shoe lasts? I first seen the inside of a cobblers workshop from a page in the fairy tale story of The Elves and the Shoemaker, when I was a child. Even then, at the age of five or six, I could appreciate the tools in a workshop even though I had no idea what they were used for. There's something beautiful about an old wooden skeleton work of art made to fit the precise measurement of some ones foot. To me, shoe lasts, all look like they have a story to be told or secrets to behold. After all if you walk a mile in some ones shoes...

In Michaels home décor section, I found a wooden shoe lasts with a metal ring attached to it for hanging. I’ve had it for over a year and finally decided this weekend was a good time to decorate it. I thought it would be a fun idea to cover the shoe lasts in custom rub on transfers, a collage of rub on transfers. It’s a bit tricky in getting the transfers on a rounded surface and having it lay flat. After the rub on transfers were applied and then left to sit overnight, I dabbled acrylic paint and foundry wax on the shoe. I recorded the process and if the video looks good, I’ll edit it and put it on my YouTube channel. But for now, take a look at how the shoe lasts turned out.

I decided to turn two of my scanned art journal pages into rub on transfers, sized almost to 8.5” X 11”. (Be sure to click the arrows)