READ N TRY

Roman's website about chip carving, whittling, and woodturning

Carved Wooden Shoes: a flip-flop and a clog

Carving Shoes

My friend, Ron, gave me a basswood roughout for a cowboy boot and asked me to carve it. I wanted to carve something unexpected, so I carved a flip-flop as a light-hearted joke. I enjoyed carving it so I decided to carve more different shoes… That is how the “Lost & Found Shoe Rack” project started. I enjoyed carving shoes; they are about 3″ (7 cm) long.

Shoe rack with a flip-flop, a sandal, and a clog. Carving shoes was fun.
Lost & Found Shoe Rack

I designed the shoe rack that also looks like a shoe. All three shoes are finished with Tang oil.

Flip-flop

The flip-flop is my favorite carving. I was challenging to carve and keep it both delicate and strong enough at the same time.

Clog

The project attracts a lot of attention from the visitors of wood carving shows. Several people told me that the clog reminded them some clog museums they visited in northern Europe.

One boy told me that the proper name for that clog is “Elf’s shoe” 🙂

Sandal

The sandal is finished with the dark Tang oil.

I am proud to say that the project won the Best Of Show award in the Novice category during the SCVC Show in San Jose, CA in 2015. After winning with that project I was notified by the club members that I am not a novice wood carver anymore. Delighted!

This is a basswood rough-out that has started this whole story. 🙂



Comments

2 responses to “Carving Shoes”

  1. Connie Teeters Avatar
    Connie Teeters

    I’m a new president of the Port Orange friends carving Club in Florida and I’m always looking for something new and different to introduce to the club love your website

    1. Connie, thank you very much for your note. I am very glad that you liked my website. I hope that the members of your club will enjoy the challenge of carving shoes. Thank you!

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