The Making of a Glass Tap Shoe

This week, NYC's best tap dancers will be strutting their stuff at Rhythm in Motion, a fundraiser for the American Tap Dance Foundation.

In honor of the late great Jimmy Slyde, we decided to make a glass tap shoe cast from one of Jimmy's tap shoes, borrowed from the ATDF collection. This glass tap shoe is now up for auction at the ATDF Gala & Silent Auction celebrating Gregory Hines, at 1pm on Sunday, April 13th.

Here's the story of our glass tap shoe!

Jimmy Slyde, world-renowned tap dancer, 1927-2008

Jimmy's tap shoes

The Process:

The glass shoe took 12 hours to create, from mold to kiln.

On the left is the wax shoe in black, and on the right is the original tap shoe!

Preparing the wax shoe for the plaster mold

Then it spent 7 days in the kiln, which was heated for 24 hours to 1500 degrees to melt the glass, and then the temperature was decreased 2 degrees an hour over the next 6 days.

The molten glass shoe cooking for 7 days

 After the 7 days, the shoe was freed from the plaster mold...

And voilà! A one-of-a-kind clear glass replica of Jimmy Slyde's tap shoe.

Minimum bid: $500

Value: Priceless

Made at Urban Glass (you can also bid on a discounted glass-blowing class at the silent auction!)

Made with the love of tapping by mother daughter team Andrea Osnow and Carly Levin, 

and coached by glass artist Victoria Calabro

Be sure to check out our glass shoe at the ATDF Rhythm in Motion Gala, and don't miss the tap performances, every night @ 7pm & 9:30pm through Saturday, April 12th!