(This is a Personal Passions and Desires Page).

ImpracticallyPretty Collection Finished 20131010

These are from the ‘impracticallyPRETTY collection’ that I have been working on over the last two months. Finished 20130805

I really love* making footwear, shoes, boots, spats and other foot and leg wear. A friend of mine in the spirit world – Michael** – helps me out. We have a lot of fun exchanging ideas (he usually extends mine and gives me images of things I didn’t even think possible). At the moment it is an experimentation of different ways of doing things and investigating what I like doing. I like that I can make shoes and boots for myself and others and I love trying out all my ideas. Many of my personal projects do not work out the first time but I learn so much in just engaging the process. It seems every pair of shoes or boots so far has something for me to learn within the process.

My dream of making comfy, beautiful, interesting footwear is in the infant stages***. I am looking forward to doing some more experimenting over the next couple of years with various different materials and making techniques. I want to explore fibres grown on the land and harvested and made here also.

At this time the shoes and spats I make are made from all sorts of materials (I am experimenting). They are mostly Vegan and often second hand/recycled/gifted fabrics that I am presently using up. I would like to get to a stage where the shoes I make do not have any toxicity in them at all and are made from totally natural, vegan, recycled, (mostly) plant based sources. (I still love wool, so maybe wool too for a while yet). I love experimenting with fabrics, colours and designs and trying stuff out.

At present the glue I use is toxic and some of the fabric made from petro-chemicals, so the product is not eco-friendly, brings up emotions and poses questions for me about how I can do things differently.

I feel this is a journey, an adventure of discovery and exploration and that I will work out many things as I go along. At the moment I am slowly practicing skills, researching and trialling to see what I like and what wears/works well.

We’ll see what comes of it. I have many ideas and have not made much time to create them into realities yet.

I also love sharing ‘how to’. So if you are interested in learning how to making footwear feel free to contact me (eloisa@kyabra.com) and we will see if we can arrange a short basic course. (Usually these are 3 days or so. I have also done a regular class one evening for people interested in coming along to create and will start this up again in a few months for those who would like to come along who live in the local area.

I have been asked recently by a few people if I make shoes for purchase. If you are genuinely interested please contact me at eloisa@kyabra.com and we can discuss it further.

Below are some images of spats and shoes – more will be added to the footwear gallery page as I complete them. You can find more images in the footwear gallery by pressing on the above link, or going to the footwear tab and under footwear is the footwear gallery.

Detail from the ImpracticallyPretty Collection, completed Sept 2013

Child’s side zip boot. Designed by Izabella L-H. Date completed 20131002.

20140811 Three pairs of women’s shoes

Coolmeina: Made out of different types of wool product grown on the property by the gorgeous sheep that Pete has been looking after and developing over the last 20 years (except the eyes).
Wool top needle felted, felt, wool fabric, and some silk I had from an old project, 2013

Designed by Charlie L-H and Archie L-H. Completed 20131008

SPATS:

The model’s legs are little as they are a childs’ that was the only model I had at the time so they look a bit baggy. Spats would usually fit well and go over the tops of shoes.

Spats-recycled sari silk, 2012

2012

Footnotes:

*I (Eloisa) love making shoes. I love thinking about shoes. I love designing shoes. I love making patterns for shoes. I really enjoy all aspects of making shoes. I feel there is some passion in me about shoes, smile.

**Michael LOVES shoes and making shoes. He has over 3000 pairs and helps me out a lot! Through him we met another friend who has a passion for shoes, called Melanie. She creates through desire beautiful celestial golden shoes. They live in the Spirit World and what they desire they create instantly. (These beautiful Spirits could inspire me more if I would let them. I look forward to becoming more open and humble in this process and allowing more inspiration from my beautiful friends!)

***I want every pair of shoes I make to be beautiful, individual and a perfect fit for the foot, support the foot and are super duper comfy and lovely to wear! I would also like them to wear well and not ‘die’ prematurely. I would like to make shoes for myself and others and to share the skills I have learnt adding to them as I learn more. (I learn something new with each pair I make so this will be an on-going process).