No, I don't have any tattoos

Months and months ago I suddenly developed a strong compulsion to purchase and wear super high top sneakers. And then, as my compulsions often do, it developed into a need to purchase, MODIFY and wear super high top sneakers. I was on a mission. I searched high and low across the entire internet to find affordable high top sneakers. Allow me to describe them - I wanted white sneakers that look like keds or converse sneakers but that laced all the way up to mid-calf. They needed to be canvas because the modifications I wanted to make were going to be tattoo-like embroidery.


I like tattoos sometimes. In fact, sometimes I love the way they look. I don't particularly understand tattooing yourself with a heart or a star or a flower... but, it's your body. I do understand tattoos with meaning. I also understand extremely beautiful tattoos. I occasionally search flickr for tattoos. I've found I have a "type". If you're cute with a pixie cut and a mess full of brilliantly colorful tattoos - I'm a fan.


So anyway - I finally, after days of searching, I found the perfect shoes. $15 and exactly as I had described. I ordered them and waited. I don't know why I ALWAYS do this to myself, but I come up with a new craft Idea, I get my materials in hand, and sit down to do it - I'm elated, motivated, excited and impatient. I imagine finishing in days and admiring my work, possibly ready to pump out multiples of that same craft. The sad, sad truth is that instead, I tend to start and peter out. I get distracted by another idea or a variation. On the off chance that I finish what I started, I usually don't have the discipline to do it again right away, so that's why what I'm about to show you is astounding considering how far I've progressed.

Don't get me wrong. It's taken me over 6 months to get this far, on and off embroidery. I've stabbed my fingers so many times they've become a little rough, and I've even stabbed through my nails a couple of times.

My goal was to make the most awesome, special pair of shoes ever. I wanted to fill every canvas surface with things that are precious to me - things that make my heart soar, things that make me happy.

I now know that filling every single iota of canvas with embroidery was perhaps a little ambitious and I settled for decorating each side (Left and Right) of each shoe with a different motif. After careful consideration and some sketches on post-it notes, I decided on the following: A hot air balloon and rainbow, A unicorn and castle, an Octopus and cupcakes, and a 1955 pink and white Ford Victoria.

I will possibly throw in some additional things - balloons? sewing machine? knitting needles? Pirate flag? We'll see... But for now, here's how it started.

I got an amazing red Hot Air Balloon vintage applique from PA Fabric Warehouse, and I decided that that would be the base for my embroidery. It would act as a little helper - assisting with my first really serious embroidery attempt. I stitched every single inch of it on with matching red thread and then embarked in filling in the balloon. I then added a cloud and a (painstakingly annoying) rainbow. Here's what it looks like now:

Here's a close up of the rainbow:
Except for the applique, that was pretty much all free hand.

Somewhere between finishing the hot air balloon and starting the rainbow, I decided to start the other shoe. I don't have an "in progress" photo, so you'll just have to believe me that it's a conglomeration of various sketches I found (by other people) over the internet through Flickr and Deviant Art. I adjusted things as I embroidered, and this is how it turned out:

And here is a close up of the embroidery:


I am almost certainly not finished with this yet. I will definitely add yellow banners to the turret roofs in a reference to my favorite poem in the world. In fact - I may add more references to it if I can manage. Here's the poem, it's not short, brace yourself:

The Haunted Palace

I.
In the greenest of our valleys,
By good angels tenanted,
Once fair and stately palace --
Radiant palace --reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion --
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair.

II.
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow;
(This --all this --was in the olden
Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odour went away.

III.
Wanderers in that happy valley
Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne, where sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.

IV.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.

V.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

VI.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh --but smile no more.



Ah - Goosebumps. Awesome. This embroidery, of course, would be a representation of the older, magnificent stage of the haunted palace.

Still to come?: An octopus holding cupcakes and a pink ford victoria. Mmmmmmmm.