Hanging Black copper leaf

I like doing leaves in copper.  It's almost meditative.  I buy sheets of copper and for this one, I used a 26 g copper sheet 8" x 11".  I folded my sheet in half, did a rough trace, got out my tin snips and cut out the shape.  About an hour of fine grinding later, I started hammering.  I applied heat with a torch, opened up the leaf, did more hammering, and fired up the torch again.  

chemical patina and heat to the outer side

Now the inner side looks like mother of pearl a little

 

American Duchess' Pompadour shoes - my transformation

Here's my "How I" blog on how I customized my "Pompadour" French Court Shoes from American Duchess. 

The final look: 

How they arrived: 

I used Angelus Leather Shoe Painting Kit to mix a dark purple I liked well enough. After I had de-glazed the white heels, I painted the heels and the leather all around the base purple, and sealed them.  Each layer was given an overnight to dry and cure. 

I used a touch of purple acrylic paint to give me the purple I was aiming for, plus some additional depth of color, and sealed.  

 

Next, I mixed up the golden color for the fabric body using International Professional Fabric Shoe Dye Kit (Pastel)and jars of 2005, 2006, and 2007.  Tested the colors as I went along.

 

Cleaned the fabric using the cleaner that came with the kit and used the wool daubers to apply the color. I took it slow; tiny, almost barely there daubs into my color mix. It really only took one application, except where I needed to touch up by eye-balling the saturation.  Made sure I got all the nooks, crannies, and edges

   

  

After the fabric dried overnight, I sealed the dye job using Angelus Water and Stain Repellent.

Ordered golden gimp braid trim, and turquoise appliqués from House of Adorn. I ordered a whole bunch of appliqué styles so I could mix and match.  Ended up selecting two of the appliqués as they came for the backs and tops, and cutting up another for the sides.

  

Here's the top and back testing to make sure the fit and look was what I wanted.

  

I used Aileen's Fabric Glue and all the pins in the house, plus some random string to help me hold down all the edges while the glue set. I left each appliqué to dry overnight before I started the next one. 

   

  

The braid was attached starting from the start of the seam and going all around in one length - I used a flame to seal my edges, and lots of glue to make sure the edges looked well tucked.  I did the braid in stages for more control.

  

  

Last gluing steps were adding the braid to the tongue and adding tiny pearls and crystals.

  

 

  

  

Final shoe with purple ribbon to complete the look