Virginia Reisner
"Sail Away"
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| (Photos by Patrick Fraser) |
When the topic of footwear first came up I decided I wanted to do something with a nautical theme - boat shoe? shoe boat? My husband and I had been sailing for a number of years and deck shoes are a necessity. Perhaps I could design a boat using one of my shoes.
I remembered a nursery poem from my childhood which became the source of my inspiration - "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" by Eugene Field. In the poem a wooden shoe becomes a boat. Now I have my shoe boat. "Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe------". Perfect!
Using a wooden shoe, I built a boat. The sail is made from a piece of old hand woven linen. It is wired to give it shape. The three fishermen are made out of dyed wool roving that has been needle felted and the net is crochet. Since one line of the poem says "the little stars are the herring fish..." I decided to make little fish with stars on them. At last my shoe boat is complete.