History of Pendragon year by year – 1998

1998 was a big year for us. We decided to close our workshop/studio above Elizabeth Arcade in Brisbane and move back to work from Adrian’s house. It was great for 5 years, but we were exhausted from pretty much just working to pay bills.  The final straw came when we were commissioned to make a series of acrobat shoes for a troupe of European performers. They all went beautifully…no photos unfortunately. But even more memorable was the fact we got robbed the night they paid us. Someone managed to climb up a drainpipe several flights up, break in through a window and steal all of the money. Always suspected those acrobats! 😉

As the saying goes, as soon as one door closes another one opens. We were asked by a Brisbane Podiatrist to make an exhibition of art shoes for a visiting computer software company from Germany called Novel. They were coming to Brisbane for their international conference and he was in charge of finding some interesting entertainment while the delegates were in town. It was the beginning of a long friendship with our dear friend Brian. Our display was to be part of that. Novel make software that measures pressure and is applied in the shoe and podiatry industry.

We were commissioned to make a branded art shoe for them. Elke made the pictured resin shoe sculpture which showed the coloured pressure technology in art form.

We created a dragon shoe collection and the first owl shoes. They were displayed at the Ridges Hotel in South Bank, Brisbane.