November 2, 2011 
Hi there 
How are you all?
Me? Well, let me tell you!
I have been working on shoes. Strassing with 1.8mm diameter swarovski crystals takes a long time! The results so far are astounding. I wish I was able to photograph the little rainbows the crystals shoot off the shoes – but I seem to miss it every time. :-(
I am constructing a pair of pony inspired booties for Kath, who is an inspiring lady herself. :-) Her Journal is HERE.
I have collected some shoes that are in sizes larger than I wear and will start either re-modelling those (in an effort to show the Wedding stores that I can re-cover shoes) or making brand new styles using their retrievable parts – reduce, re-use, recycle.
Front detail
Manoleat pointed out some interesting factors about shoe making to me. The cardboard welts.
I have seen some really bad ones in high priced shoes, and some really good ones in low and high priced shoes. Mostly they are too flimsy for the shank and break apart – you don’t see this, unless you pull your shoes apart; and who wants to have to do that, to a brand new pair of shoes? Not me.
Manoleat mentioned a woman shoe maker in Germany who does in fact pull apart her newly bought shoes and exchanges the cardboard welt for a leather one.
Side view of left shoe
EXPERIMENTING WITH WELTS
To test the efficiency of the cardboard welts, I soaked them in water for 5 minutes and checked the stability of them. Some had already fallen apart.
The best time I got out of a cardboard welt was 20 minutes – but when I picked it up the whole thing fell apart, even though it looked like it was going to hold.
That leads me to believe that the shoes we buy are not waterproof…and simply walking around on wet ground will denigrate the integrity of your shoes.
Thank you Manoleat for inspiring me to take this experiment to a conclusion.
Leather welts are superior. If they get wet, they dry – stronger than they were before.
BALLET HEELS
What’s going on with the ballet heels movies?
Well, while I’m making shoes, organising details of The Corset Project, being a mum to two of my three children, dogs, bus, motorbikes, garden, house….I don’t have time to stop, smell the blossoming roses, and make a movie.
I am also in the middle of making a pair of fantasy inspired ballet heel shoes and will reveal those when I’m done. :-) They have a full steel heel and … you’ll see. 
FEET CARE
I’ve been asked about foot care a few times over the last year or so, and even though I did write a journal entry about my feet and how I look after them, HERE – it’s possibly time to revisit the subject.
It is true that squeezing your feet into a shoe that is thinner than your foot is wide is going to cause problems. From the day our mums put shoes on our little feet, our feet begin to compensate … and are “changed” right from the day we are born, to accept footwear. Many children have bunions, corns and callouses and they aren’t yet 10 years old. The condition of the feet of the children at present is due to the stupid shoes they wear – and these shoes are causing them problems right from the tip of their toes to the top of their head. IF the feet aren’t right, the rest of the body isn’t right either.
So. What does one do to counter the effects of our feet cages?
Walk barefoot. It’s really very good for your feet, allows your bones to spread back to where they belong and it’s beneficial to your health – a foot massage feels great, doesn’t it? Walking barefoot gives the same sensation.
Up until only recently I have walked naked foot.
Now I use these:
The Sprint model. Little gorilla feet. Guerilla?
Users discuss the wear capabilities: HERE
I have always believed that “backwards stretching” is important for the safe use of extreme heels…this means that if my feet have been in say ballet heels all day, then I will stand on my steps, stretch out my calves and do toe raises…and I walk barefoot.
What the vibrams are giving me is an extended time out there on my bare feet. The surfaces are harsh on my soles; and when it’s hot they are burned and blister at times. I spend an undue amount of time with tweezers and magnifying glass to remove the debris from my soles before they become a very painful part of me. With these little wonderful shoes on my feet, I am able to walk distance barefoot that I never have, traverse ground that I could not before, and basically it’s freed me up for my daily barefoot walk from a couple of km to figures now in the double digits. I walked 15km the other day – in the sprints. I took the same path the next day in the sport version and ran most of the way. It is such a freedom. :-)
I also got pairs for my daughter and my two sons. After the initial “pain” of the toes getting used to being in their correct position, the foot striking the ground in the way nature intended – they are marvellous little things.
What they also improve is my ability to wear the high heels. Go figure?
White steel heeled sandal, 7″ high; size 37.
Rear view
Side view
THE CORSET PROJECT
Without giving anything away 
We are now entering the testing phase of the project. That means the people who signed on are now waiting to receive their corsets and start wearing them in. :-D
My initial response when I received my corset was one of absolute GLEE but as per usual, testing phases are intended to wheedle out any discrepancies so the product will be perfect when it is released onto the market!
More soon
Suzanne
Awwww thank you for the sweet compliment
I am shifting homes at present so if I do join in I might ask you to ship stuff to either my new home or my sister’s office, depending on where I am or would be at the time…
Hiya. No worries my dear. Where ever you need it sent, it shall be sent.
So cool.
Thankies
Dear Suzanne,
It has been awhile since i have written, i know you are very busy. i have been a loyal reader of your emails and post to your blog. You always amaze me with your energy and attitude, even in light of the YouTube debacle.
For what it’s worth, i think, your waist looks great, better than great, fantastic. When i see you, perched on your black 6″ high heel pumps or thigh boots in the bus movie (which i watch i find myself watching at least once a day, LOL, well, on the days my wife if working or out of the house. i like to find her a weekend job too. LOL) or, your pink lace up boots, or the red boots or any of your ballet boots or shoes worn with nylons and those pretty little dresses or tight pants. LOL, well i guess you get the idea. When i look at your photos or movies, i totally under stand what John Mellencamp means in his song, “Hurts So Good”. You make it hurt so damn good. And thanks for that.
Suzanne, you are one in a million. You have the looks, the body, the attitude, the understanding, and the heart. Any negative comments, especially about your waist, of all things for someone to bitch about, are just very jealous people who love to be able to do what you do and wear what you wear. Most complainers probably couldn’t get one of their fingers into some of those delightful dresses or pants you wear, let alone even thing about trying to put on one of those corsets.
Please keep on keeping on. You inspire me, daily, well often several times a day.
Thanks Suzanne you are awesome.
Respectfully,
jeff
Thank you Jeff.
Yeh. Really about the waist measure – people concentrate only on the waist measurement. My total measurements are 28 – 16 – 28. Cathy Jungs are 39-15-39. She has 11″ more at her widest parts making her reduction 24″… I have read the comments under the videos posted at their channel; some of them are incredibly nasty. I guess though, that is what happens when you put yourself out there and are very different from the norm. I’ve taken a bit of time to look further around the net for this condition elsewhere; and it’s rife. There is more nasty on the net than there is nice. It seems to be an outlet for the negativity that people hold within during their day to day life. It seems to be easier to hit out at a stranger than to deal with their own stuff. Maybe it’s cathartic and does help them in some way?
I think the worst hits come from disgruntled people who feel “rejected” or “ignored”…
Yeah I was just looking at Model Mayhem and my waist reduction to 24″ is actually going to make me look more “normal” strangely enough as I saw plenty of models out there with measurements 34″-24″-35″. I am naturally 33″-30″-35″ so I look more of a ruler. So once I train to 24″, I guess I would still appear quite natural. Well, I am tempted to go for the extremes (maybe 15″?) as well but corseting is a serious matter so I decided that’s not for me, especially if I want to do alt modelling… And I’m an athlete so a too small waist may affect my lifestyle greatly… You, on the other hand, Suzanne, you’re so divine, lean and tall! The cinched waist just looks perfect on you.
Hi Kath – yes wow. With your hips and chest measurements a 15″ waist would take a while, and it would look quite unreal.
I think I used to have a straight up and down body, but waist training certainly fixed that for me. 
Oh, you would be the most amazing ALT model around. You have the look, and you have the heart. 
Thanks. I’m only 5’7″ … a shorty really.
I’m waaay shorter! 5’2″ if I maintain my inversion exercises (I have a mild case of scoliosis so if I slouch and stop stretching I shrink to 5′). I think all of us ladies, even with 4″ reduction would look quite unique in our own ways as our ribcages which are built for our natural measurements would end up getting compressed quite a little bit to get our dream waist circumference!
Aww Suzanne you’re so sweet. I hope I get to promote alt modelling in my country. The models here are so carbon-copied. And the pan-Asian ones get all the limelight. Those who don’t get the limelight still end up looking the same anyway: long black hair, large contact lenses, B-cups to C-cups, thin skinny bodies (their legs are like my mum’s muscular biceps, it’s ridiculous!), relatively tall, very fair skinned and oval-faced. Some day I’d show them that someone like me can model too! Piercings, tattoos, corsets, small chested, round-faced, athletic, 5’2″ and all! Hm, I’d still need more tattoos haha Tattoos or corsets, my constant investment dilemma… Oh, newsflash: my corset is on the way! It’s not as fuchsia as I thought but I like it anyway!
Hi Suzanne…The shoes are incredible! You are so talented and doing an amazing job! I also like the sandals with the 7″ steel heel! They are gorgeous and the make your beautiful legs look even more slender and sexxy….
Ken
P.S. Your partner is a very lucky man to be surrounded by your beauty
oops. missed this one. Thank you.
heh heh. Yah. He’s definitely the ‘one” for me.
I’ve learned so much simply by pulling apart old shoes. Since I was a kid I wanted to make shoes. In the “olden days” before car tires had steel radials included, we would take old tires, cut them into shoe sole shapes and then get leather strapping and make “roman style” sandals out of them. Everybody wore them for a time… some people used to make swans out of the tires as well…
Shoes: http://www.instructables.com/id/Blown-Tire-Shoes/
Swans: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukrezia27/5959221950/
So, people are still doing it – it seems.
hugs