Finishing Touches

Sanding proved to be a bit tricky, due to the small cut out details. I did the best I could on those parts but got a really good finish on the larger areas.

After sanding it's ready for spraying. I applied a plastic primer, waited an hour then added a pressure pot primer. By the time I'd done that, the workshop was closing so I took it home to rub down ready for the next coat. That didn't work well, the paint just peeled straight off. I must have got too good a finish on it, there was nothing for the primer to key onto. It looked a bit of a mess!

Ooops!

This was a bit of a blessing in disguise though, as it allowed me to insert the circuit and join the two halves together. I was unable to do that in the workshops as I had left my circuit at home. I got quite a nice, neat seam and was also able to sand the lid while it was on to get a smooth overall shape. Before I fastened it all together I ensured that the USB plugged into the computer and that the shoe was facing upwards when it was inserted. 

So I went back to the spray booth and applied the plastic primer - after making sure I'd provided enough of a key! Then on goes the pressure pot primer. I applied 4 coats of this, rubbing down and filling any gaps in-between coats. When I was happy with the finish, it was time for the top coat. I chose a glossy black paint as I wanted the shoe to look like patent leather. 

Spraying process

I was really pleased with how it turned out. The paint was exactly what I wanted, the gloss was perfect. My next job was to create the insole detail. I hadn't been able to find any cream leather so I tried some cream satin. This was incredibly tricky to cut as it was stretchy. I tried to fasten it onto a card template in the shape of the insole but this didn't look right and made the whole thing too high. This is shown in the photographs below.

I wasn't happy with this so I started looking round for an alternative. I found some embossed card that I'd had for a while which looked promising. It's got a four leafed clover type design and the individual designs fitted within the insole which created a pleasing effect. It was hard to get the shape right as I had trouble importing the Creo drawing file into CorelDraw so I couldn't use that for a template. I followed all the steps but CorelDraw wasn't having any of it, it just kept crashing. I ended up using tracing paper to create the template then transferred that to the card. I attached it with glue and think the overall effect is very nice.

Finished insole

I now needed to add the red sole detail to the back. John had suggested that I didn't use vinyl as the finish would be very good. A few of my fellow students had tried using the vinyl cutter and weren't happy with it when it was doing small pieces. I decided to spray it and chose a metallic red paint. I masked of the sides and applied three thin layers of paint. I was really pleased with how it turned out, the finish was really good. I was surprised by how good it was considering it was achieved using spray paint. I hand painted the small cut outs on the lid as it would have been very difficult to mask off effectively. This meant that I didn't get as much of a metallic finish as I had when it was sprayed. I think the glitter must have settled. Even so, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

However, disaster struck. When I peeled off the masking tape, one side came away perfectly and left a lovely clean line. The other side didn't, it took quite a lot of paint off. I was devastated. I'd worked so hard to get a good finish and it was ruined in seconds. I can't understand why it did it - I used the same piece of masking tape (ripped in half) on both sides and the paint had had plenty of time to dry. I couldn't get into uni to rub it down and respray as I had to take my dad to the hospital ready for his operation. That was extremely frustrating and my dad felt so guilty. In the end I had to colour it in with black permanent marker. From a distance it looked OK but up close it was a big ol' mess. 

All that was left was to add the diamanté detail to the heel. Yet another fiddly job! They're only 2mm wide so very tricky to apply glue and put into the holes. I think they finish it off well.