On my many trips to antique malls, an item that I frequently come across are vintage cast iron shoe molds. I don’t know if it is because I have a thing for shoes or it’s just the rusty old metal, but those little shoe molds always seem to catch my eye. I finally picked up a few about a month ago.
So, What To Do With Vintage Cast Iron Shoe Molds?
Today, I decided to put my thinking cap on and get creative. I actually came up with three fun ideas by combining the shoe molds with other random items that I had lying around in my craft room.
My first idea was to make a twine and wire holder using one of the shoe molds and a part of an old pants hanger.
I took the bottom dowel part out of the hanger to use as my twine holder stick. The shoe mold was going to be my base. To get the two together, I first glued the dowel into the mold with E6000 craft glue. I then filled in the surrounding space with Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive. Since the construction adhesive sets up right away, I didn’t have to hold the dowel in place while it dried.
I then painted the whole thing with white satin enamel paint and then sanded off the paint in spots for a distressed look. I also painted gray stripes on the dowel for a fun look and distressed that as well.
For my second project, I made a bud vase by combining a shoe mold with a vintage glass test tube. I inserted the test tube just like I had done with the dowel in the project before and again painted the shoe mold white.
Finally, I figured that I should also have a candle holder. I found an old rusty coil that would be perfect to combine with my last shoe mold. It was just the right size for holding a taper candle. I used by favorite E6000 craft glue and the construction adhesive again to combine the two parts together and walaa… a candle holder.
Here are the three projects together:
Have you done anything to re-purpose a vintage cast iron shoe mold? What ideas do you have? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below. We would love to hear from you!
I use mine as if they were footprints throughout my garden beds left behind by some unknown soul.