Yes, this tale is for real...around this time last year I heard a feature on CBC radio about Handmade Shoes, a small company of cobblers in the Bay of Fundy village of Granville Ferry, near Annapolis Royal, These folk have been making specialty shoes for film and theatre for about 20 years. Think: faerie shoes, Shrek boots, elf slippers....The shoemakers work out of a historic building in the community ('though come to think of it, all the houses in pretty Granville Ferry are historic!) equipped with fairytale-like workbenches, cutting tables, heavy-duty sewing machines and floor-to-ceiling bolts of leather.
Previous clients for Handmade Shoes include Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Opera Company, as well as many Broadway productions (including Shrek) and theatre festivals. They are currently designing and producing fancy footwear (picture here) for Wicked, a touring show based on Gregory Maguire's book The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
And, in case this post gave you a hankering for the original Christmas elf story, here's link to a version of the original Brothers Grimm tale.
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