Confessions of a glitter addict: 2013 Shoe #9

I don't expect there are many New Orleanians who don't have a deep emotional attachment to Hubig's (as the staggering number of Hubig's tattoos out there will attest). Given what a significant event the fire was last year, it's no surprise there were some really amazing Hubig's Pie shoes this year, including this amazing tribute.

I let how how I wanted to do mine rattle around in my head for a while, because I had to wait until I found a shoe with the correct topography. I eventually found the perfect pair at Payless: they were $9 during a BOGO sale, so two pairs came out to $6.75 a pair or $3.38 per shoe...I'll post a shot of the other pair I bought later when I start working on them. And yes, I did have a lot of fun watching the face on the salesgirl who got to ring up the two cheapest, most glittery pairs of 6" tall stripper shoes in the place.

I wanted to do a Muses-flavored riff on the famous Hubig's logo and distinctive packaging, because Hubig's are every bit as much a visual treat as a culinary treat. I used Martha Stewart cherry red metallic glitter (color "garnet") and Martha Stewart lemon yellow (color "lemon drop") for the main body of the shoe because those are the two principle colors in the logo. I printed the logo, and traced a slightly simplified version of the logo and made some alterations (changed "Hubig's" to say "Muses," changed the "H" on the hat to an "M," and put a high heel in Simon's hand instead of a pie) onto wax paper. I scanned and printed the reworked design, cut it out and decoupaged it onto the wedge with Mod Podge, and set about meticulously tracing it in glitter (which took a lot of patience and a lot of touching up). Instead of "New Orleans Style Pies" I wrote "New Orleans Style Shoes" on the other side of the wedge in dark blue. Instead of "cherry" or "apple" as a flavor, I figured the flavor that made the most sense for Muses' New Orleans Style Shoes was GLITTER (though I kept the price at $1.19). I did that lettering with a transfer technique that I'll get into with a little more detail later. I tried to match that great fluorescent pink ink they use to stamp the price and flavor on the bag, and did the sole of the shoe in the same pink and edged the sole with matching hot pink sequins. I edged the main body of the shoe in black sequin trim to echo the logo, and I loved the way that turned out.