Oh my goodness! Chopines!

Another amazing find from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore

Italian. Second half of the 16th century.

I love the careful way her skirt is raised to show off her shoe!

See it in the museum catalog at http://art.thewalters.org/detail/8168/portrait-of-a-woman-as-cleopatra/

I like new pages.

I've finally gotten a clue about just how helpful it could be to use the additional pages in this blog as a place to store my favorite images for projects and ponderings.

One of my upcoming projects (2012 if I can!) is to make myself a pair of great tall venetian shoes...but how tall? And how does the added stature change the balance of an outfit?

Latey I've been finding pictures of Ladies in their chopines so I'm gathering them together here.

And Whooppee! They have another shoe!

Zoccolo Zoccolo. Calzatura formata da una parte in legno composta da un elemento orizzontale lanceolato sorretto da due rialzi di forma triangolare. In una delle due estremità superiori è fissato con tre borchie metalliche su ciascun lato, un tessuto, Gros de Tours a pelo strisciante, di forma romboidale con piccola nappina dello stesso filato a decorazione. Accessori
XVI-XVII 1580 1620 fine/inizio

(Per google translate "Socket socket. Footwear consists of a wooden part consists of a horizontal lanceolate supported by two triangular elevations. In one of the two upper ends are fixed with three metal studs on each side, a fabric, Gros de Tours sleeping creeping, diamond-shaped with a small tassel of the same yarn decoration. Accessories")

OK, carving and covering cork chopines kinda scares me but I think even I could probably make these!

Just one more from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Kitchen Interior, Dirck de Vries, Netherlandish, ca. 1600

The world keeps spinning...

Whether we notice or not!

Many years ago I developed an interest in chopines (an ancient Italian form of platform shoe) and did all the research I could think of on-line, bought one of the few books with a section on the subject, bought some supplies for a trial pair I was going to make "someday" and the whole concept has pretty much been encased in resin in my mind for years!

And then came today.

Today I was looking about for examples of extant hairpins and ended up being lead to this:
http://aands.org/raisedheels/

Which may just be the holy grail of websites on "Chopine, Zoccolo, and Other Raised Heel and High Heel Construction."

I'm planning on attempting a pair of chopines for my IRCC outfit. Let me tell you, they are going to be a lot better now!