Since we started Pendragon Shoes back in 1987, we have always made the shoes that might only be found in children’s story books and faerie tales, fantasy novels and our own imaginations. Being self-taught helped, as we had no real boundaries or rules to break. In fact, we had no idea we were really becoming shoemakers.
In 1994 we created an exhibition called Metamorphosis when we received a grant from Arts Qld. It allowed us time out from our day to day order making to create some new work. We explored new leathers and techniques included moulding on lasts to create 3D effects. This was the beginning of experimenting with bringing the shoes we made to life. The first were the Shoes of the Gods where we created a mould of the face of Isis on one foot and Pan on the other. We further experimented with embossing leather, folding, layering and inlay.
The series that inspired the name Metamorphosis was 5 pairs of shoes starting with the Caterpillar stage. These shoes, made from kangaroo leather and fish skin, featured spikes pushing out of the shoes in bright red and green. The Chrysalis shoes were represented in lime green with raised silver moulded domes along the front and a curled over tongue. The full adult stage was multicoloured with embossed scales in dyed leather and suede. The next stage was the Death of the shoe. The front panel was a series of folded layers of kangaroo leather, the back was made of fish skin. All in muted browns, they were inspired by a hollowed out cicada shell. The final pair were the Phoenix sandals – rising from the ashes. They were like the sandals worn by Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
This exhibition also saw the first pair of Leaf shoes – The Prince of Autumn Leaves and the Redback Spider Shoes.
In 1998 we created the Dragon Shoes, closely followed by the Owl Shoes. They were part of an art shoe exhibition where we explored the theme of the elements fire, earth, air and metal. We did a Chinese fire dragon, a Leaf dragon, an Owl and a dragon with a bronze cast claw heel. This sort of work starts with a clay mould, sculpted on a piece of wood or a shoe last. The leather is then wet moulded – this is a slow and patient process to make sure all the details are worked into the leather. We have made several pairs of these to order over the years.
We were commissioned to make a pair of Owl Shoes as part of a display we did at Packer Leather in Brisbane when Jimmy Choo visited there in 2017. He was fascinated with the versatile uses for kangaroo leather and was an inspirational man to meet.
The wildest and most challenging pair of boots we’ve ever made were most definitely the Frog boots – nicknamed the impossible boots! They were a special commission from a customer who wanted us to complete his magical beast costume, blending poisonous dart frog and bird elements. The whole front of the boots were the shape of a frog foot. Again we sculpted the shape first from clay and carefully wet moulded the leather. He said they were the most comfortable boots he had ever worn, though a little hard to drive in 😉