Tiny Shoes

Did you know that miniature shoes are BIG?
I learned that tiny little shoes are quite popular when I began to research ideas for the challenge proposed by CréationFimo's Tewee.  Today, on the francophone blog,  Parole de pâte , you can see the many creations of those artists who participated in Tewee's miniature footwear challenge.
I am not a miniaturist in any sense.  Usually I work big, think big and create BIG.  This challenge was totally not in my comfort zone, but what better way to learn than jump right in with both feet?
First, I looked for examples of tiny shoes.  I learned that some artists do nothing but make miniature shoes. After this I looked for regular sized shoes that would inspire me.  I found some delightful sites:  If you like shoes made of flowers and veggies this is the site for you! How about fairy shoes?  I watched a helpful video about how to make shoes with fondant cake icing.  Someday I would love to make a necklace like this one.
Next I set about making little feet for my shoes to use as a support during curing.  I sculpted these little feet with Apoxie Sclupt epoxy clay.

I made these little shoes on the black epoxy clay feet, but they were not easy to remove after curing. I did cover them with corn starch, but that wasn't quite good enough. They stuck and I had to carve away the back portion of the shoes. 

I decided that making a Barbie foot would work best since they are made the right shape to play dress up - easy to put plastic shoes on and off Barbie's feet.  

I messaged my friend, our next-door neighbor, asking to borrow one of her daughter's Barbie dolls, but she wasn't at home.  She is so kind; she promptly called her husband with my request.  Within minutes her hubby came to our house carrying a Barbie doll for me.  My 21-year-old son answered the door, and I have to smile thinking of how two men must have looked passing off this beautiful blond Barbie.  

I continued to think that I needed to cure the shoes on a "foot" and I knew better than trying to bake a Barbie, so I made a mold and polymer leg cast for both feet and legs.  

 

As you can see, the left foot stuck in the tiny boot I made and had to be extracted in pieces.  Since my idea of having little feet to cure the mini shoes on was working so poorly, I decided to try again using no feet at all.  

I decided I needed a metal surface to use as a support during curing.  I have oodles of little cookie cutters, so I came up with a combination of shapes wired together that would support an arched, high-heeled shoe. 

The cutter above on the left used to be a half circle, but I bent it to accommodate high heels.  The smaller cutter is a tulip shape.  I could have made my own form from scratch, but this was a quick and easy fix for me.  Here is how it works:  

I drew the imaginary shoe on the photo above and right.

  The first shoes I made on these cookie cutters were simple slides.

I also wanted to make some butterfly sandals.  So I began with the sandals here: 

I used small round glass beads to hold up the ankle straps while curing.  You can see the small indentations left by these beads where the heal of a Barbie foot could be placed.  To these sandals I added butterflies from a cane I made a year ago.  

And, then I wondered what to do with these little shoes.  I embedded metal figure-8 wires, that I could use to attach these butterfly sandals to some sort of jewelry.  Here are the earrings I put together with each of my tiny shoes collection: