Why settle for ordinary shoes when you can create your very own pair of Halloween-themed shoes? 👻🦇
With one of the most creative festive seasons just around the corner, this is exactly what we did in our latest collaboration with Metallic Elephant.
In this blog, we'll take you through a step-by-step guide on how to craft unique and eye-catching Halloween-themed shoes that are sure to be the talk of the party.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE A PAIR OF SHOES LIKE THESE?
Overall, these took approximately 7 hours to make (spread over a few days).
If you are feeling inspired to get creative and make a pair for yourself, gather your materials, get your creative juices flowing, and you'll have the spookiest and most stylish shoes in town in no time!
Here’s a list of the all of components that we used 😉:
- High heel pointy lasts
- High-heel shanked insoles
- Foam for the insock
- Toe puffs
- Counters
- Water based glue and Solvent based glue
- Heat gun
- Hand press embossing machine from Metallic Elephant
- Hot stamping foils from Metallic Elephant
WHY DID WE COLLABORATE WITH METALLIC ELEPHANT?
We’ve been using one of Metallic Elephant’s beautiful hand press machines for over 5 years, so, being inspired by the creativity of the Halloween season, an embossed foil design was top of mind.
Being the only company in the country that designs and builds hot foil machines by hand and to order, we just knew that this collaboration would involve that personal touch and human-love, just like the love we put into all of our shoemaking 💖
They made the custom bat design plate and we chose holographic silver foil as the colour to emboss over black leather, and I must say, the results were spook-tacular! 👻
THE MAKING OF THE SHOES
First things first, decide on the Halloween theme that resonates with you. Whether you're drawn to classic icons like pumpkins and ghosts, or you prefer something more specific like a favourite horror movie, the possibilities are endless. Your chosen theme will be the foundation for your design, so make sure it reflects your personal style and Halloween spirit.
We wanted to capture the imagination of Halloween so we decided to go with a flock of bats flying up from the bottom of the heel all the way up around the back of the foot.
Here’s the breakdown of how we made the shoes:
1. Metallic Elephant made the bat design plate and sent it to us.
2. We started out by cutting the leather for the lining and the insock.
3. We then cut the leather for the uppers and the heels.
4. Next we embossed the leather with silver holographic foil using the custom-made bat stamp from Metallic Elephant.
5. Then we covered the high block heels.
6. And then we stitched the uppers and the lining together.
7. Then we inserted toe puff stiffeners and counter stiffeners between the upper and the lining.
8. Next we attached the 2mm black resin soling.
9. Then we drilled in the heels.
10. And finally we added the insock to complete the shoe.
You can watch the making process in our video below:
We’re SUPER pumped with how these turned out! Crafting your own Halloween shoes is a fun and rewarding way to express your creativity and I hope this project inspires you to start your next shoe-project! 🌟
MORE ABOUT METALLIC ELEPHANT
We asked the team at Metallic Elephant about their creative process. This is what they said:
- How long did it take to create the bat stamp
The die creation was approximately 4 minutes once on the CNC.
- What metal are your stamps made from specifically?
It was made from engraving brass.
- What are the most challenging parts of your process?
Most challenging parts can be artwork issues with clients, you guys were good, but you can imagine we deal with clients submitting photos and lower quality/resolution images that wont work on our CNC machines, then it's about educating clients on how to improve the artworks and if there gets to point where we have exhausted all of the avenue to improve the quality then it would be etched in magnesium which is chemically etched, a far more robust process achieved with acid but more forgiving with problematic artworks.
- What excited you about creating a shoe with us?
We love seeing projects coming to life from the receipt of artwork through to an end process, we don’t always get to see the end results but the team were excited about seeing this through a finished product.
- What are you working on at the moment and what is next for Metallic Elephant?
We are expecting to launch a further two machines in the near future, which gives our clients the ability to work on even more products whether in a raw product of finished form, covering the packaging and stationery to fashion and retail. Demand for our machines is increasingly high due to the build quality and the ever demanding needs to bring more production in house, helping clients slim their lead times and supply chains.
- Is there anything else you'd like to add about our collaboration together?
We have found the whole experience rewarding and like you found this a nice match as you look to show to the masses how this work can be done, with no fear and promoting a new line of designers and manufacturers being their own business person.
If you want to find out more about Metallic Elephant you can find them on Instagram here.
LEARN SHOEMAKING FOR YOURSELF
I created a free 40-minute online course called 'Introduction to Shoemaking' to show how easy home shoemaking can be and to give you a little taste of what I Can Make Shoes is all about. SIGN UP HERE for instant access.
