I acquired some wedge sandals at at clothing swap.  They fit great but I had no clue when I would wear cork heeled snake skin sandals.  I decided to experiment with painting them.

I started by spray painting the heels with some black paint I had around the house.  I taped off the upper part of the shoe and covered the exposed area with plastic.

The next step was to find paint that would work on vinyl.  I asked around and got the following advice from Kari:

… shoe spray from the shoe repair place. First, clean vinyl, then use the preparer they sell to treat the vinyl, or fine grade sandpaper. Tape off any parts you don’t want to paint with masking tape. Spray with very thin coats as many as you need to get the color cover. Be sure to let each coat dry thoroughly. the thin coats are the key to prevent cracking.

A week or so went by and I still hadn’t hit the shoe repair store.  I had to go to Joann’s for an invisible zipper for my dress so I checked out the paint department.  Sharpie makes oil based paint markers now.

The display claimed that they marked on virtually any surface: metal, pottery, wood, rubber, glass, plastic, stone, and more.  They were quick-drying, fade-, abrasion- and water resistant pain.

I took a chance and this is what I got.

I finally got around to making the dress that I designed for the LBD contest.  After all was said and done, I had planned to use some red rayon fabric that looks like shantung silk.    Eight months later I finally got around to it.  Sorry for the blurry pic.  I will pull out the digital camera later.

I thought I would share this clip of Margaret Wertheim’s talk on a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician.