When building a shoe sculpture, i first come up with an idea/concept and after that i'm looking for the appropriate shoe that would serve that idea. I mostly found my shoes at flea markets, thrown away, given by friends. After i have found the appropriate shoe, i make a mold out of it, using high quality silicon rubber. Finally i cast fiberglass in the mold. This its a long and expensive procedure that needs skillful and experienced hands.
I use this technique and not real shoes, because this way i get a more "sculpturish" effect. This also gives me the ability to work on the piece by adding different kinds of clays screw on it, sand it, paint it evenly and gain a very strong piece with life-time existence.
Those are some of the reasons that my pieces can some times reach high prices for some people. Not to mention that each sculpture has a piece of my mind and soul in it.
