Toe Shoes

Mark Adams

With his etching Toe Shoes, Adams presents an intimate still life of ballerina pointe shoes seemingly just unboxed. According to the Pittsburg Ballet Theatre, point shoes sometimes last for only one performance depending upon the difficulty of the ballet. The tip of the shoe is a rigid box made of densely packed layers of fabric, cardboard, and or paper hardened by glue and the rest of the shoe is made of leather, cotton, and satin. New shoes have to be broken in before being worn and some methods include darning the platform of the box to provide traction and prevent the satin from fraying, pounding the box of the shoe with a hammer to soften it, opening and closing a door on the box, cutting the satin off the box and using a carpenter's file to rough up the sole, and lining the inside of the box with floor way or shellac to mold the shoes and prolong wear. The satin ribbon, while beautiful, is necessary to hold the shoe in place.