The story behind this piece starts with a trip to Target!!!
I have to say I Love Target. It’s probably one of the only stores
left where I can still go and
actually buy DVDs from. On one such outing to a nearby target store I separated
myself from my mom to go perusing through the DVD isles while she took her time
going through the rest of the store!
Once we regrouped my mom showed me these two shoe clips that
she had found. The idea of shoe clips/brooch is nothing new but its not really
something I have seen that often. A couple of stores sell them from time to
time or you can find handmade ones on the Internet. Target had a couple of
different designs but the ones my mom found had big chunky stones on them but
every one of them was missing a piece. Since she really liked them we looked
all over and were finally able to find a pair that was fully intact. We went
exploring in a couple of other Target shops but we couldn’t find anymore of
them!
Finally I gave up and told my mom that I would make her a
pair using her favorite medium: Pearls!!!
The shoe clips are very easy to make, it is exactly like
making earrings you just have to make an identical pair in certain size so that
it would not be too big for the shoe. My only problem was finding the actual
clasp that I could use to make the pair in to shoe clips.
I was able to find a couple of people on Etsy selling
individual pairs for a couple of dollars but with the added charge of postage
they would usually come up to about 6-7 dollars for a pair which to me was a
bit excessive. Since we were planning on a little trip into NYC that week
anyway, I decided to hold back and check out the bead shops in the city. I
might be able to get lucky and if not I could always order off Etsy.
We went straight into the Toho store on Sixth Avenue. I have
fond memories of this stores from way back .the first time I ever came to NYC
was during my last year at UNI and I stumbled on to this store by accident trying
to find shelter from the rain and I ended up buying a couple of things as
samples for my final collection so this store still reminds me of that time
even though it’s been a couple years since I have graduated!
At first I really didn’t think I would find any of these
shoe clips in the store and I kept going round and round looking into all those
little plastic cubes holding beads and such but just as I was about to give I
found them for $1 a pair. I am so glad I held off ordering them off the
Internet. I bought a few pair and my mom chose a couple of other cabochons she
wanted made into more shoe brooches and then we were off!
These shoe clips are some of the first pieces of usable
accessories that I ever made back in February when I started beading. Before
this I used to make just beaded patches and sew them onto different things like
my beaded gloves. Also At that point in time I only had a few different types
of beads and I used nearly all of the in this piece.
The good thing about these shoe clips is that you can
transform any shoe. If you are in the mood for fancier pair of shoes you can
slap these pieces on and if you are not you can just simply take them off and
you have your pair of plain shoes back and they don’t leave any marks or dents
on the shoes and you can put them anywhere on the shoe to change things up!
LIST OF MATERIALS
USED:
- 20MM CAT’S EYE BLACK ROUND CABOCHON
- 2MM WHITE PEARLS
- 3MM WHITE PEARLS
- 3MM DARK GRAY PEARLS
- 4MM WHITE PEARLS
- MATT METALLIC SILVER DELICA BEADS SIZE 11/0
- HEMATITE GREY METALLIC SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
- SILVER SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
- WILDFIRE THREAD
- LACY'S STIFF STUFF
- E-600 GLUE
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