Done at last! My 6-year beading odyssey

It is with great pride and happiness that I announce the completion of my kasut manek, or Nonya beaded shoes.  I started these off originally in early 2010, thinking that it would take me maybe a year to complete.  Little did I realise ...  ... I overestimated the amount of work available and the time I had to spend on this project.

Be it as it may, let me share the last sequence of photos recording the completion of this massive task.

The pattern I used was the "cloud forest" pattern.  The clouds are supposed to be in different colours but I decided to keep them all in pink, to go with my clothes (and one of my kebayas.

The full sequence of photos documenting my progress on the shoes can be found in this Flickr album.

The next step, of course, is to actually find a shoemaker to transform this into a pair of sparkly shoes!

Almost there, after six years

I have been deliberately holding back this post, so that I could unveil in its full glory the one shoe I have finally completed!  After all, this is the sixth year I have been working on this one project.... .... If anything, I should get an award for perseverance ....

Of course it would have been wonderful if I could have unveiled two completed shoes, but unfortunately didn't quite make the time to finish it over the usually quite productive December period.  

Anyway, here are a few shots of the critical last stages of the left shoe:

One corner done

Sewing the last few beads on the other corner

And that's the whole shoe finished!

Five whole years!

I never really expected I'd take so long.  An exercise in perseverance, I like to call it.

What feels good is the sense of progression now, as I can do two or even three rows at a time, as I go down to the bottom of the shoe.  So maybe I'll be inspired to push on, and finish quickly. the end is in sight! (Or have I said that before.)

Outlines completed

And here we have it folks!  Slightly belated, as my cousin's wedding was last week and I didn't have time to work on it.  But I have at last completed the outlines of the two shoes.  Now to fill in the remainder...

Four years - the beginning of the end?

Well, it has been four years since I started on this kasut manek project.  I'm glad to say that there was greater momentum over the past year and I'm on the last stage of my right shoe.  Now to move back to the left shoe to even up the progress.

Right shoe - outline completed

 Hope that I can move faster this year - would be so exciting to see one shoe completed at least!

On Par

At last!  My right shoe has caught up with my left shoe!  I thought that reaching this milestone warranted two kasut manek posts in quick succession :-)

Now, to actually finish a shoe...

Three More Lines ...

... till my right shoe catches up with my left shoe!  Now I have two half complete shoes!

Progress this last six months has been reasonably good (for me that is).  I have been diligently going at it every weekend, trying to at least finish off the better part of a row.  

I showed a photo of the work in progress to a friend of mine who doesn't have much experience with shoe beading/embroidery.   She thought I had finished one side already - At least someone was impressed!  (Photo taken using my iPad camera).