My ceramic shoe sculptures are inspired by historical portraits of fashionable women. I draw on the colours, fabrics and decorative details within these paintings to imagine the shoes the sitters might have worn, even when their footwear is only partially visible or not shown at all. Each pair is conceived as a response to a particular image, translating painted ornament into three-dimensional form.
Trained in both ceramics and custom footwear, I combine these disciplines to construct shoes in clay using methods similar to traditional shoemaking. Decorative elements such as bows, ruffles, braiding and beading are modelled by hand and finished with layered glazes and precious metal lustres. Each pair is completely unique and built slowly, with attention to structure as well as surface.
Shoes provide a fixed structure that allows endless variation. Through them, I explore beauty, craftsmanship and the relationship between fashion and identity.
The video shows a very much speeded up view of the making of a shoe - this is 40 + hours condensed into 11 minutes.