It Took Me 9 Months to Decide On The Color!

I loved this shoe the moment it came out of the kiln but then I looked at it for nine months trying to figure out what to do with the surface.
 
I created this steampunk boot in October of 2020 – it was 1 of the first pieces we needed to do for class. And it needed to be to size, so yes, this is a size 7. (Well more like 6.5 now with the clay shrinkage). It’s even stamped on the botton in my Doc Martin textured sole.

The form actually came together more easily than I expected, considering how much I agonized over what to make. One of our assignments was to deconstruct a real shoe. Take it apart completely to understand how it was built. That process gave me the template and the confidence to just start building. I remember working on this at my garage table, which was my entire studio at the time, going a little nuts trying to figure out the structure. I had tried to make an inverted shoe, stelleto and dress shoe. This is where I landed.

Fast forward 9 months… how to decorate it.

Of course, the first thing we all want to do is glaze it with color and hope for the best. Something wasn’t sitting right though. Too much detail. I also thought I was going to put a palladium glaze on the rivets but I wasn’t not sure that will take away from the overlook. I loved the shape and I needed the form to speak for itself.

And as my instructor said “less is more” so I decided to do an oxide wash. (more about how to do an oxide wash here). I was so nervous! I hadn’t used washes a lot up to this point. I knew I liked the outcome but still wasn’t sure. Did I apply enough? Did I wipe off too much? Those are the questions that swirled around during the firing process.

I made the right choice.