I am excited to share another artist collaboration with you today! The Serendipitous Slipper Challenge involves using cheap household slippers and altering them artistically. Tina Walker is hosting the challenge and she gave us a lot of leeway in what we could create. Our only requirements were our imagination and some art supplies. The resulting projects are quite varied.

My project evolved around my current camel obsession.  It helped that I already had a brand new pair of terry cloth slippers to use. My dry cleaner and I have been swapping a pair back and forth for a few weeks. They included it as a gift for customers when they returned our clothes. However, it was a gift I really didn’t need or want. I don’t wear slippers at home and my cats have a tendency to attack cheap shoes. I kept placing the slippers back into my dry cleaning bag hoping they would pass them on to another customer only to receive them back again. I was just getting ready to send the package back once more when Tina put out the call for this challenge.This time, I kept them and well, they turned into a camel. Are you ready to see how?

Since the shoes were unused, I didn’t need to clean or prep them for use. I simply removed them from the package and decided how to cut them. My goal was to cut them in such a way that all parts of the slippers would be used. I had a vision for creating a 3D camel using the slippers and paper mache. I cut the  shoes at a slant so that I could attach them to the canvas. Part of the shoes would become the lips. The cut away portion would become the ears.

I attached the slippers to the canvas using hot glue. I then used a variety of recyled items to form a base for the head shape. I sculpted the camel using paper mache strips made from a homemade paste and flour mixture. It took about a week to fully dry.

Next I painted the entire project with white gesso. I began to suspect that this project would be a real challenge. Portions of the sculpture remained quite soft and spongy due to the use of the terry cloth slippers.

 I tried several colors but wasn’t quite happy. The odd angles and spongy sculpture made it difficult to create a traditional looking camel. In the end, I opted to make a childlike cartoon style camel sculpture. I painted on a second coat of gesso to hide some of the bad paint jobs in the previous layer. Some of the previous paint still served me well as it ended up providing some shadowing within the layers.For the design, I first attempted to use a stencil. It was quite difficult to get it to work on the uneven surface. However, the stencil did give me a starting point.

I came back in with paint pens. The stencil influenced the placement of the elements that soon morphed into a decorative bridle. Some of the yellow showed through a bit within some of the layers of white. To bring a bit of unity to the whole piece, I chose to make the background yellow.

The Serendipitous Camel by Christy Strickler | Supplies Medium: Acrylic paint, gesso, acrylic paint pens; Stencil: StencilGirl designs; Other: Hot Glue, Paper, Tissue, Flour, Water

Working with the terry cloth slipper wasn’t easy. However, every time I work with a new item or medium, I learn and grow. Were I to take on this challenge again, I know what I would do differently. For starters. I would get a few old terry cloth washcloths and cut them to create an even layer of “fur” over the whole camel. I would probably add some other sturdier pieces to support the paper mache layer. I would concentrate on making my paper mache sculpt more smooth and even so that painting the design would be easier. I might also find a few pieces of chain so I could extend the bridle downwards in a 3D fashion. Overall though, for my first go at using slippers, I don’t think the project came out half bad.

Big thanks to Tina Walker for hosting another fun art challenge! Don’t forget to check out the other fabulous projects that are part of the Serendipitous Slipper Challenge.

Tina Walker 

Tracy Krueger

Cheryl Boglioli

Sara Branson