A range based on the portraits of elaborately dressed Austrian society women by Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). However this pair pays homage to part of his frieze ‘Ode to Joy’ which was based on Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, celebrating humankind’s ‘struggle on the most magnificent level by the soul striving for joy’, reached in the unification of all arts. They represent my interpretation of the richness of patterning, colours and gilding of this painting. The shape of the shoe is based on those made by the Italian shoemaker Pietro Yantorny (1874-1936), the self-proclaimed ‘most expensive shoemaker in the world’ who created shoes only for the wealthiest women.
Elements of fabric and fashion such as bows, ruffles, braiding and beading are beautifully reproduced in clay using modelling, glazes & precious metal lustres.
