Requiem Art

It may be easy for elves to make shoes for humans, but I assure you, the opposite is not quite as simple!

Recently, I sent a batch of custom Monster High dolls to KeelyVH to make outfits for (so look out for some collab customs soon!) but while I like customizing and she likes sewing, neither of us is big on shoe-making, and what MH outfit is complete without shoes?!

On short notice, this is what I came up with using Sculpey to suit wa-loli outfits:

Remember, my last attempt at shoe making had some problems. Like the shoes shrinking slightly and shattering when I put the doll feet in them. The above shoes are nice, they’ll go with wa-loli outfits, but they’re not perfect. And we all should know by now how I feel about perfect.

Several years ago, I picked up a book on making doll shoes, The Art of Making Beautiful Fashion Doll Shoes, by Timothy J. Alberts & JM Dalton King with Path Henry. The shoe styles are a bit dated, and the scale is more towards 1/4 BJD size, but the basics are the basics. Quite a bit of it involved casting, which I never got around to until recently.

Adam’s Doll-Related Blog is another good resource for doll shoe making, and he covers actual sculpting of whole shoes instead of just the bases. This is more my style. I know myself, and making tiny leather shoes with tiny leather stitching and tiny beads to fit 1/6 scale feet…no.

So I set out to make some shoe bases. My material of choice is Apoxie, because it doesn’t shrink, and is wonderful for carving and sanding. The initial product is somewhat sticky and melty looking and nothing at all like I’d want to put on my feet:

But that’s what razor blades and sandpaper are for! A bit lot of reshaping later, I’ve cut the shoes down to symmetric pairs like so:

Much better. Now, like I said, this is mostly experimental. Monster High feet are a wonky shape (<-understatement) and making rigid shoes that fit them… probably going to have a few more fails before I get to the sweet sweet win. I’m planning to make a bunch of bases, some strappy shoes with straps attached, some strappy shoes with straps separate, and some enclosed high heels. Then I’ll see which ones I can cast successfully.

To be continued!