ABOUT RACHEL
and her wonderboots

History
On my fifth, I had a pair of favourite shoes, red clog boots, which I still wore when they no longer fitted and my toes were bent in. On my seventeenth I made a plywood chair shaped like a shoe. But I opted for journalism. All that time I have been collecting shoes and now I have about 500 pair. I grew up around ceramics and painting, with a father who painted high boots, a mother who wore them and a sister who drew them. And so finally I was drawn like a magnet toward shoemaking. There was an explosion of years of accumulated love for shoes and boots. All the things you can do with colors and shapes! How a boot feels! Now I would like for the rest of my life to wander around in the wonderful world of shoemaking and make wonderful boots.

Boots or shoes
Boots have my special attention. I see them as objects with lots of space to play with colors and shapes. Their size will let them take possession of the one who wears them, which fascinates me. Certainly when making thighboots is this the case. Shown as an object boots become strange things with a life of their own.

I make shoes as well, but like a magnet I am drawn to boots. Designing and making boots is like having a party. My boots can rock!. I like to let my imagination run free. I don't care whether my designs are wearable or not, and whether they ensure enough comfort or not. If I would,  I'd never have conceived and created what now has become my collection of handmade Wonderboots.

To walk or not to walk 
Comfortable or not, shoemaking is a craft in which specific tools, machines, technology and strength all play a part. A boot or shoe is like the human body, complete with skeleton, brain, heart and lungs. There are materials and components hidden inside, of which the innocent pedestrian has no kwowledge. Without these components a boot will not come to life.

However, most of my boots are made for walking. But some boots are only wearable. Each pair gives a different sensation. Wearing wonderboots you may feel like a balletdancer, soulsinger, majorette, mistress, skater, line dancer, drag queen, elf or superhero. The way these boots make you feel will determine the way you walk on them. And whether this is comfortable or not, that's for you to decide.

My imagination knows no boundries
Each new boot is like a journey into the unknown.  Seen in a dream, in a flash, in colors, sounds, nature. I let my imagination run wild and sometimes I find myself running to keep up with it. These are often my most dearest boots.

But however playfull the designs may be, the practice of shoemaking is not. Traditional shoemaking means getting your hands battered and working with volatile substances while wearing earplugs and protective glasses.

Besides that, you have to give it all the passion, love and patience you've got. Since I am working in orthopedics I am faced daily with people who want to walk again and that requires a different kind of attention. Making shoes for people to be able to walk again and making shoes as a work of art, looks like a contrast but in my case one cannot exist without the other.