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The Shell Drop: six sneakers grown from a 1758 shell book, and the collectors who will never wear them.
In the open collections of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, I found Franz Michael Regenfuss's Choix de coquillages (Copenhagen, 1758): hand-coloured engravings made for collectors who paid fortunes for rare shells, so much that one cone shell sold for more than a Vermeer. Shells were the hyped collectible of the 1700s; sneakers are ours. I built a Recraft Style from his plates and grew six sneakers from six of his shells, each drawn as a new plate in his manner, with the shell in the centre and the shoe around it from every angle. Then I imagined who would buy them: six collectors, from Mumbai to São Paulo, who keep their shoes the way his patrons kept their shells, to look at and never to use.
Same people. New shells.
#recraftstylechallenge
Since submitting, I’ve made an improved cut of the video, with better motion and sound design. Here it is. Sound on.
The entry above stays exactly as I submitted it. Below, the story behind it and how it came together.
In 1791, a Dutch collector’s estate sold his Vermeer painting, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, for 43 guilders. In 1796, one of his seashells sold for 273.
Rare shells were the sneakers of the 1700s: collected, hoarded, shown off, never used. That parallel became the whole project.
For the archive, I picked a book of hand-coloured shell engravings made in Copenhagen in 1758 by Franz Michael Regenfuss, for exactly those rich collectors. It’s free to use, from the open collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.
Each pair of shoes takes its shape, colours...
How it started: I gave Recraft’s AI the book’s pages as a style to copy and asked for shoes made from shells.
The first results already had ideas I hadn’t thought of: a slip-on with ribs fanning out like a scallop, high-tops coiling out of a green top shell. I kept the ones I liked and built from there.
Then I sketched over them on my iPad to bring each shoe closer to what I had in mind, drawing every view the way the book lays out its shells: side, top, sole, front and back. Recraft turned my line sketches into finished drawings in the book’s style.
When something was off, I...
Then the joke: who buys a shoe made of shells? The same kind of person who bought the shells, a collector who keeps it in a glass case and never wears it. So I imagined one buyer for each pair. They’re AI-generated; none of them is a real person.
1. Scallop Slip-On, for an art...
The Cowrie Lace-Up, for an art financier in London. Cowries were once money across much of Africa and Asia, and he sees the shoes the same way: an investment to hold, never to wear.
The Murex Runner, for a tech founder in San Francisco who runs on her treadmill every morning....
How it was made: Recraft’s V4 Styles copied the look of the 1758 pages and gave me the first designs. GPT Image, which also runs inside Recraft, enabled guided fixes using my sketches and some prompting
My part: choosing the shells and the designs, sketching every shoe,...
If you want to try the 1758 look yourself, my Style is public: https://recraft.ai/styles/884c62a3-33e4-4112-9049-031fd1c2d939
Which pair would you buy and never wear? Thanks to Recraft and Contra for a really fun brief.
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LOVED THIS ONE! While exploring the Rijksmuseum's public domain collection, I fell for Ohara Koson's quiet woodblock prints of small birds and flowers on soft, misty skies.
I trained a custom Recraft Style on ten of his prints from 1900–1930, cropping away signatures and margins so only his gentle colors, delicate lines and generous empty space remained.
Then I asked: what if his birds moved to the city? I used the Style to design for everyday 2026 life, from a tram wrap and a full-sleeve tattoo to café umbrellas, a building mural and a pedestrian crossing painted as a lily pond.
A century later, Koson's birds are still finding new places to land.
An interesting implementation.
Press-on nails are my modern take 😊
I made one Recraft Style that draws press-on nails as if a mineral painter from 1810 had drawn them.
Many people do their nails now: at home, in minutes, a new set whenever they feel like it. Small brands sell them all over TikTok and Pinterest, and they need designs nobody else has. This Style gives them 200-year-old ones.
I trained it on six of James Sowerby's hand-painted rock prints (1802 to 1817), plus a gold ring and a stone table from the Met.
Try it in 3 steps 👍
1. Open the Style and paste: "Five almond press-on nails on cream paper, red jasper with gold veins, one nail with a small gold cabochon." Change "red jasper with gold veins" to try another stone, like "pale pink stone with dark red speckles".
2. Remove the Style, add your drawing as a reference, and paste: "Make these real press-on nails, same colors, white background"
3. Add the set as a reference and paste: "Hands covering the face, wearing these exact nails, red jasper with gold veins, white background"
Joseon Delivery — Seoul 2026, painted in 1800
What if Kim Hong-do came back?
Korea's most beloved genre painter spent the late 1700s documenting ordinary Joseon life, one album leaf at a time: wrestlers, taverns, schoolrooms, ferry landings. His world and ours run on the same fuel: food, crowds, music, work.
So I trained a Recraft style on eight leaves from his Danwon album (public domain, Wikimedia Commons) and asked it to paint the ordinary Seoul of 2026. Same ink, same warm paper, same affection for crowds, new century.
SCENE 1 · THE DELIVERY: A helmeted rider hands over lunch outside a tiled-roof restaurant. Danwon painted travellers heading to market; ours just arrive faster. (after Jangteogil, the road to market)
SCENE 2 · THE CONVENIENCE STORE: The 24-hour store is the new jumak: noodles at the window counter, a clerk who has seen everything. (after Jumak, the tavern)
SCENE 3 · THE VIDEO CALL: Two friends, one glowing phone, a crowd that pretends not to listen. (after Ssireum, the wrestling crowd)
SCENE 4 · THE SUBWAY: A whole carriage, heads bowed, not in prayer, at phones. Danwon's ferry passengers waited the same way. (after Naruteo, the ferry landing)
SCENE 5 · THE NORAE BANG: The dancing boy had musicians; we have a tambourine, a microphone and disco lights. (after Mudong, the dancing boy)
SCENE 6 · THE STREET STALL: Steam, skewers and spicy rice cakes at dusk, the forge's heat made edible. (after Daejanggan, the smithy)
SCENE 7 · THE PC BANG: The village school grew up: rows of pupils at glowing screens, one celebrating a victory instead of fearing the teacher. (after Seodang, the village school)
FINALE · THE FESTIVAL STREET: Everything at once: rider, busker, stall, a forest of phones filming it all.
The brief: Kim Hong-do's Danwon album leaves (late 1700s, public domain) became a Recraft style, "Pungsokdo 2026", used to paint eight slices of everyday Seoul in 2026: delivery riders, convenience stores, subway phone-glow, PC bangs. The style holds (ink, light colour, warm paper, crowds in motion); only the props changed. Some background figures still dress like it's 1800. Honestly, so does half of Bukchon on a weekend.
Recraft project (full series): https://www.recraft.ai/project/d742b5a7-d032-4cc6-a51c-5a330c5d49e1
Try the style, "Pungsokdo 2026" (free to use): https://www.recraft.ai/styles/705da9da-bbf7-43af-bb7a-1850588ba8b4
Archive references (Kim Hong-do, Danwon Pungsokdo-cheop, public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
Bbalraeteo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danwon_Bbalraeteo.jpg
Wow, this looks absolutely stunning!