I met a really fantastic woman in Nags Head, NC that ran a clog shop. It's called
Chameleon Clogs and if you ever visit the Outer Banks it is in the new Food Lion plaza on Hwy 12. A friend had shared one of my feathers with her and it just so happened that she was looking for local artists to help with hand-painting some designs. All of this happened during a party at her shop where I got to not only see the finished products, but watch the creation of some of her
woven clog designs from start to finish.
The main challenge for me is that it has to be a mirror image. Normally, I do one shot paintings. I find something inspiring and I put it into a painting or other design. Very rarely do I duplicate, let alone mirror. But I am always up for a challenge! My first design is a bit simpler than what I do with my feathers, which made it easier to replicate for the clogs. They are approved and I am expecting more blanks to make some more dragonflies and try out a few other designs that are cooking in my head. This is a really exciting and unexpected opportunity that I am happy to have a chance to take part of!
Replicating designs, as I mentioned in a previous post, has always been a huge challenge. Painting the clogs in the more common style requires not only replication, but symmetry as close to perfection as possible. To help myself work up to doing more elaborate designs I've started working on something a bit different.
Sometimes you can have a unified design without the direct implication of symmetry. It gives a contrast between the two shoes, but this style of landscape makes it seem as if a whole painting was trimmed into shoes. They're enjoyable to do, gives me the challenge of replicating a design, but presents an opportunity to not be overwhelmed with challenge quite yet. This also means that I'm more comfortable doing some more elaborate designs, like the osprey over there. I'm looking forward to creating a few more with pelicans, seagulls, and a few other shore birds!
