Rasta shoes are shoes heavily influenced by Jamaican and Rastafarian culture. The colors are primarily black, red, yellow and green. There are a lot of different designs for Rasta shoes using those four basic colors. If you know how to make your own shoes, you can easily make one by following traditional shoe-making methods and designing the shoe to bear the colors of Jamaica. Does this Spark an idea?
Making Your Shoe Template
Visualize your shoe design. Draw a sketch of how you want your finished product to look like.Cover the shoe last with at least two layers masking tape.
Run a sharp knife along the bottom of the shoe last, following the pattern you have created on paper. The extracted pattern will be your shoe template.
Assembling the Shoe
Cut out your canvas fabric using the pattern of your shoe template as guide. Remember to cut out two patterns: one for the right foot and one for the left foot.Attach the fabric that you have cut out to the rubber soles using shoe cement. This will be the upper portion of the shoe. Be careful to follow the specifications of your original design.
Stitch or glue together the canvas parts that are separate from each other.
Punch holes on the flaps on the upper portion for the shoelaces.
Put aside to let the adhesives dry.
Painting the Shoe
Use the fine-tip marker to outline three divisions on the shoes.Fill in colors on the divisions using the acrylic fabric paint. Color the first division green, the second one yellow, and then the last one red. This will serve as the background color on your shoes.
Use the paint markers to add more Rastafarian-inspired detail -- such as the lion or the lion's head -- if you want.
Place your shoes in proper temperature as specified by the paint manufacturers to let dry.
Attach the shoelaces once the paint has dried.
Tips
- Try painting on a sketch first, before applying it on the shoes so that you can see how it looks like on paper first.
- Strip off an old pair of shoes of the same kind as you are making. This will help you see better how all the parts are put together.
- Always remember that you are making a pair of shoes. So whatever you put on the right shoe, you must be able to do exactly the same on the left shoe.
