I made this shoe for an Art Show at Westmont's Reynolds Gallery (the jurying is the 10th of May). Of course the theme of the show is "Shoes"....so I wanted to make something different. I'm a painter, 3-D art has never been very easy for me, so I needed to be inspired....
One of my favorite painting subjects are fish...I was walking thru a local Japanese market and I saw some lovely koi art, I don't quite know how I got the idea to use ingredients used to make sushi for my shoe, but it was all right there....I found dried kelp, seaweed (used to make sushi rolls), toasted sesame seeds and of course rice.
I used a high-heel shoe for the template, the kelp was a bit stiff, so I experimented with ways to make it pliable without converting it back into good old floppy seaweed. After a bit of trial and error I figured it out. Forming the soul of the shoe was much easier than the heel.
The entire shoe is made of 'sushi' parts, I was concerned about the smell, and had to keep it in a sealed container when I wasn't working on it, the cat's were a bit interested in it!! I did end up sealing it with a spray sealer.
The piece I enjoy the most is the part of the shoe that has the painting of the fish on it. I was stoked to find there was this piece of the kelp that was shaped like the toe of a sandal. It was the hardest piece to make pliable and form. As you can see it worked!
So this is my Shusi....wish me luck on the jurying. I'll let you know!
