Monday, December 23, 2013

Be The All Star and DIY Some Painted Converse

Red Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars, Watercolor art, angel, mantel, interior


Salutations Hobinas!* I must make a sincere apology, before we engage in acts of initiative and the doings of things ourselves.  The last time I posted on this blog was just after my first day of school four months prior to this day, give or take several collections of days.  While I had resolved to make it something I did actively once a week, I was slightly unprepared for the business that approached and and as a result was unable to complete this, uh, situational.  So, here we are, at a potentially very awkward time. What did I do for the last four months other then slave over educational matters? What did you do? Do you mind these unknowns? Various questions remain in a state of pendatia (ie. they are pending).  My intentions had been to focus on a welcome back post first, but hey the cookie was consumed in this order (WHY would anyone let a cookie crumble when you can eat it?) and here we are at a DIY Painted Converse stand still.  Keep your eyes peeled like oranges though because a recap post may be on it's way, but know that I am extremely apologetic for my inactivity.

*Hobinas is probably a word I made up to salute the general public, possibly a mixture of hobo and a cantina, not that either of those have any significance or correlation to each other.


So, for the love of shoes (literally, figuratively and in all other literary formats) let's turn ourselves back to the DIY post at foot.  I for one, or two considering that's how many feet I have, have always loved a good converse.  They are a classic and promote an edgy slash also very casual feel to whatever you wear them with.  Except, maybe not back in the grade five era in when they were almost always accompanied by their not-so-hip leg warming best friends (I will admit my faux-pas when I make them).  The adventures I have endured in converse are significant and many related tales could be told, but that isn't exactly why we are here.

Once, in september, while rapidly scrolling through my instagram feed, liking whatever I so registered as deserving, an image posted by teen vogue caught my eye.  It featured a plethora of colourful converse enthralled in chipped white paint that I would then later find featured in a magazine. Ah, inspiration has caught flame and the fireplace that is my brain actively began working).

These converse were a collaboration with Maison Martin Margiela in which they had been painted white and then sold, the idea being that as you wore them the paint would wear off exposing the colourful converse underneath, thus emphasizing their natural structure.  However, I was most intrigued by their (p)awesome appearance and by the idea that each paint chip could resemble a place I'd been or an adventure I'd taken.  So I resolved to paint them myself.  And here we have arrived, at the DIY destination. (Hint: sounds far more exuberant if you pronounce destination with a french accent.)

Benjamin Moore White Paint

Now: shall we approach the following task with less text and more action? Perhaps.

Supplies that you may so require:

  1. Shoes (i.e. your classic Converse All Stars in the preferred pigment)
  2. White Paint.  I used wall paint and it has worked very well, but I'm sure any other paint would be just fine, however I would recommend not opting for fabric paint as it is less likely to crack.
  3. Paint Brushes of your choice.
  4. News Paper/Sheet to protect working surface.


White Paint, Paint Brush, Red Chuck Taylor Converse, DIY

Steps (Ponderage; you will take steps at some point in these shoes....a pun within itself is it not?):

1. Set up your work area with newspaper or a sheet and get your paint and brushes ready.
2. Old t-shirts are also advised for as protective gear.
3. Remove Laces.
4. Pull the tongue of the shoe out, so that it is ready to be painted.
5. Start your first layer of paint on ones shoe. Start with the tongue and then move around the shoe.
6. Be sure to cover all areas of the shoe, including the toe and other areas of trim.

The Casual Free Style

7. While waiting for the first layer to dry, start on the other shoe. 
8. Proceed to paint multiple layers of paint, upon the dry layers until you reach your desired paint density.
9. Put laces back in and wear those dudes out!
10. If worst comes to worst, and the paint you have used won't wear off you have two options:

Opt to rock your newly all white converse. OR:
Break out the sand paper and lightly sand some of the areas in which the shoe is likely to move. (This could be considered cheating so maybe attempt to avoid this one)


Finally, after many minutes of valuable effort, we reach a stand still.  The shoes are dry, but the process isn't quite classifiable as finito now is it?  Get ready to induce many battle wounds (or paint chipping zones) on those fabric-foot-encasers! 

Thanks For Reading.  Feel free to leave comments below! Happy Holidays!  

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