My husband and I made a special string art project a while ago that mixed our crafts love with our Irish dance passion.
This was a special project from start to finish, one I have wanted to make for a long time. We found the occasion (and the materials) while… destroying a floor! Yes, right. With a few dancing friends, we helped our dance academy replacing the wooden floor of the studio, so we took the old one apart so the professionals could install the new one.
At the end of a full evening of work, we happened to have a lot of wooden boards around, and the academy director didn’t need them. It was the very same floor where my husband and I met a few years back, that shared loads of good memories. So a few boards came home with us. And I already knew what I wanted to make of them…
Actually, we made two twin projects, since I wanted one to be destined to a friend of us, our Irish dance teacher. But I wanted the very same project for us as well, so we simply made another! This was unusual for us, we usually didn’t make crafts in series. That was the first time we made two exact replicas of a design, but you know, that string art piece was something too special.
Click for the finished project detailed photos
As I mentioned, the craft began with the choice of the wooden basis, as all our string art projects start. This time we got it with labor and sweat!
We’ve been dancing for years on the very same wooden floor at Gens d’Ys studio. If you’ve never seen an Irish Dance class, you probablily don’t know what the floor has to withstand.
For Irish dance, we use two different kind of shoes, one for each distinct style of dance: soft shoes and hard shoes.
The soft shoes or light shoes are different for men and women. The female ones are also called “pumps” or “ghillies” and could be compared to ballet slippers. They are made of black leather and usually worn by female dancers for solo “light” dances, where the steps don’t have to make sounds, or for group dances (“ceili dances”). The male version, called “reel shoes”, have a heel that could be used to punctuate dances with clicks and taps. They could be compared to jazz shoes.
The second type of Irish dance shoes are the hard shoes or heavy shoes: the ones that make that classic, hard-knocking sound. Maybe they represent the most known Irish dance style, made famous by Riverdance or Lord of the Dance in the mid-90s, They have resin or, more recently, fiberglass tips and heels to provide the distinctive percussive effects.
Well, all this explanation about shoes to tell you the reason for that hard evening of work for us: what is funny for dancers and audience, is not not for the floor. After a few years of jumping and tapping and shuffling, our studio wooden floor was too battered to go on.
Helping with this floor removal was hard but funny, an experience shared with our dancing friends. Another way to make good memories with that wood!
This is how and why we got those wooden boards with a lot of history inside, still visible in each scratch we made with our heavy shoes. And I wanted to make an craft with them that would retain all those memories forever.
For the string art piece (or pieces, I should say) we used three boards, staggered on purpose so it could be evident that they used to be floor planks. We did nothing on the surface: no sanding, no painting, just to preserve the original cracks and imperfections.
The design choice was an easy one, here. I drew the outline of two Irish dance shoes, one light shoe and one heavy shoe. I chose to draw the light shoe en pointe, the other as standing full on the floor. Actually, I didn’t design a floor: the whole piece is one!
We chose a light colored yarn, of our beloved and most used bamboo, and weaved with our faithful hole punch. Quick and easy!
Our own piece is now hanged on the wall, and it also supports three of our competition medals, won here in Italy and abroad. The other one has gone to the teacher who’s been following me since my very first dance lesson back in 2014.
I began Irish dancing almost by chance, to do something for myself, even if I had to drive five hours for just one of lesson. Well, since the very first moment I stepped in Gens d’Ys academy I new I couldn’t go on without it.
Lovely people sharing the same passion, smiling, having fun together, they made me feel part of the family since the very first “hello”. And our teachers are not just dance teachers: for us they are friends, psychologists, mothers, sisters, designers, supporters, and more and more. That’s why I wanted this string art project to go to her, just a reminder of how important Irish dance and her presence have been for our family.
Want a free pattern?
Find a pattern of this project to make your own.
We collected our string art designs in one place for you to download and use.
2 Comments. Leave new
Is the Irish Dance Shoes string art pattern available?
Hello. Sure there is! You can download it here: https://www.lrcrafts.it/string-art-patterns-collection-free/#irish-shoes