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Today I finally finished a pair of hoof shoes for a friend of mine. Well, my part is finished, she's in charge of trimming up the plastic the rest of the way, covering them, and attaching some faux fur to hide the shoe's toe. They will be for a faun costume that she is wearing to assorted California renn faires. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will look all together!
INSPIRATION
There are a few people who have made shoes like this; the idea is definitely not originally ours. Our top inspirations were Kanti-kane and Chaos Costumes. (her FA) The design element we particularly liked was the little nubbins in the back. They act as little stilts that allow you to keep your weight on the balls of your feet. We looked at photos of real deer hooves and tried to mimic the look on the bottoms of the feet, with some added texture for grip.
SCULPTING
My friend brought over her sculpt WIP made from this terra cotta colored water clay from a craft store. This is what we worked with. It was a little frustrating to work with for this application because it was so soft. On our last night of sculpting, I ended up making a mock-up out of Sculptex and sticking it in the freezer so we had something she could actually stand on. We were all "holy shit why weren't we using this clay the whole time?" Having a firm plasticine sculpt that you can turn over in your hands and (gently) step on is WAY better than working in water clay. The final sculpt we just did in the water clay because it was already almost there. The textures were all done with assorted foam sponges.
MOLDING AND CASTING
Mold picture: http://imgur.com/JUFwCPl
The mold is a block mold made in OOMOO from smooth-on. I cannot recommend this silicone. It sets up very suddenly, so there wasn't enough time for all the bubbles to rise to the surface. Plus, it has a very poor tear strength. It feels a little bit like alginate! Our mold lasted through four pulls, but I'm not risking it again. Next time I am using Rebound or Dragon Skin; I'll deal with the price difference.
We used an entire sample pack of OOMOO and it baaaarely covered the tippy toes of our sculpt. To hedge our bets, I slapped some Oogoo on the bottom to thicken it up. (You can't see it in the picture). There's a lot of wasted silicone hanging out in the corners. Next time I'll fill in the corners with a little clay.
The resin used is Smooth-Cast 65D because it's what I had on hand. The original plan was to use PMC-790 (a hard urethane rubber), but we realized that the sample pack wasn't enough to make two hooves. Luckily I had a gallon unit of resin in my studio. 65D's impact resistant properties can't hurt. It was very easy to use the resin, however. Since it cures so quickly, I was able to sit there and hold the shoe in place until the resin kicked off. With rubber, I would need to devise a different way to hold the shoe there for a half an hour or so.
In the picture, you can see my resin and filler amounts. The first pour was two little solo cups and a lot of black pigment to get the outside bubble-free and deep black (without wasting a lot of pigment). It was slushed all around, but I let it pool on the bottom and in the tips, figuring that's where the most wear will happen. The second pour was some resin and some silica Microspheres (ure-fil 15). This was an attempt to reduce the weight of the hoof. I did not fill the entire void with the filled resin, because I was afraid that it would not adhere to the shoe very well. Some testing needs to be done. The third pour filled the mold the rest of the way up, and the shoe was sunk into it. The little stack of cups pictured was what I rested the heel of the shoe on. It was a very good idea to have the heel act as a pivot point so I could easily make the shoes level and symmetrical. The resin kicked off very quickly, and I was able to de-mold in 10 minutes.
Oh, cutting the heel off was a pain in the ass. I used an angle grinder and it was a little difficult. Chaos, how do you even deal? XD
HOW IT TURNED OUT
Pretty good! But HEAVY! Each shoe ways 1.5 pounds. The resin is a little slippery on hard, slick floors, but it's manageable. Walking in them takes some getting used to, but inexperienced high heel-wearers need not apply. The nubbins are a HUGE help. My favorite part of wearing these is feeling tall. The shoe's strap is excellent. It makes walking in these go from treacherous to tolerable.
WHAT I WOULD CHANGE
Like I said in my sculpting paragraph, sculpting these in a hard plasticine would have saved us many headaches. Do not try to do this with a soft clay! I would also curve the toe upwards just a little bit. I made the bottom flat and level, but kicking the toe up would let you rock forward with each step. (See: platform heels) (edit: wait, I just realized that wouldn't look natural at all. IGNORE ME!)
I want to do some adhesive testing with filled resin. When resin is mixed with silica microspheres 1:1, the weight is reduced by 30%, and the volume increased by 30%. I did some quick and dirty durability testing and didn't see a significant difference (though the filled resin is a little bit squishier. Not enough that I wouldn't use it in this application). The only thing stopping me from making the whole hoof out of filled resin is I don't know how well it would stick to the shoe. Research continues!
Phew! Thanks for making it through my wall 'o text. And a very special thanks to Chaos Costumes for answering my questions on Facebook! This type of shoe is still a new thing, so I hope I can contribute to the growing knowledge pool even a little bit. If anybody has any questions about my process, feel free to ask. I'm also open to constructive criticism and suggestions, but honestly, I don't know if I'll be making this kind of thing again any time soon.
INSPIRATION
There are a few people who have made shoes like this; the idea is definitely not originally ours. Our top inspirations were Kanti-kane and Chaos Costumes. (her FA) The design element we particularly liked was the little nubbins in the back. They act as little stilts that allow you to keep your weight on the balls of your feet. We looked at photos of real deer hooves and tried to mimic the look on the bottoms of the feet, with some added texture for grip.
SCULPTING
My friend brought over her sculpt WIP made from this terra cotta colored water clay from a craft store. This is what we worked with. It was a little frustrating to work with for this application because it was so soft. On our last night of sculpting, I ended up making a mock-up out of Sculptex and sticking it in the freezer so we had something she could actually stand on. We were all "holy shit why weren't we using this clay the whole time?" Having a firm plasticine sculpt that you can turn over in your hands and (gently) step on is WAY better than working in water clay. The final sculpt we just did in the water clay because it was already almost there. The textures were all done with assorted foam sponges.
MOLDING AND CASTING
Mold picture: http://imgur.com/JUFwCPl
The mold is a block mold made in OOMOO from smooth-on. I cannot recommend this silicone. It sets up very suddenly, so there wasn't enough time for all the bubbles to rise to the surface. Plus, it has a very poor tear strength. It feels a little bit like alginate! Our mold lasted through four pulls, but I'm not risking it again. Next time I am using Rebound or Dragon Skin; I'll deal with the price difference.
We used an entire sample pack of OOMOO and it baaaarely covered the tippy toes of our sculpt. To hedge our bets, I slapped some Oogoo on the bottom to thicken it up. (You can't see it in the picture). There's a lot of wasted silicone hanging out in the corners. Next time I'll fill in the corners with a little clay.
The resin used is Smooth-Cast 65D because it's what I had on hand. The original plan was to use PMC-790 (a hard urethane rubber), but we realized that the sample pack wasn't enough to make two hooves. Luckily I had a gallon unit of resin in my studio. 65D's impact resistant properties can't hurt. It was very easy to use the resin, however. Since it cures so quickly, I was able to sit there and hold the shoe in place until the resin kicked off. With rubber, I would need to devise a different way to hold the shoe there for a half an hour or so.
In the picture, you can see my resin and filler amounts. The first pour was two little solo cups and a lot of black pigment to get the outside bubble-free and deep black (without wasting a lot of pigment). It was slushed all around, but I let it pool on the bottom and in the tips, figuring that's where the most wear will happen. The second pour was some resin and some silica Microspheres (ure-fil 15). This was an attempt to reduce the weight of the hoof. I did not fill the entire void with the filled resin, because I was afraid that it would not adhere to the shoe very well. Some testing needs to be done. The third pour filled the mold the rest of the way up, and the shoe was sunk into it. The little stack of cups pictured was what I rested the heel of the shoe on. It was a very good idea to have the heel act as a pivot point so I could easily make the shoes level and symmetrical. The resin kicked off very quickly, and I was able to de-mold in 10 minutes.
Oh, cutting the heel off was a pain in the ass. I used an angle grinder and it was a little difficult. Chaos, how do you even deal? XD
HOW IT TURNED OUT
Pretty good! But HEAVY! Each shoe ways 1.5 pounds. The resin is a little slippery on hard, slick floors, but it's manageable. Walking in them takes some getting used to, but inexperienced high heel-wearers need not apply. The nubbins are a HUGE help. My favorite part of wearing these is feeling tall. The shoe's strap is excellent. It makes walking in these go from treacherous to tolerable.
WHAT I WOULD CHANGE
Like I said in my sculpting paragraph, sculpting these in a hard plasticine would have saved us many headaches. Do not try to do this with a soft clay! I would also curve the toe upwards just a little bit. I made the bottom flat and level, but kicking the toe up would let you rock forward with each step. (See: platform heels) (edit: wait, I just realized that wouldn't look natural at all. IGNORE ME!)
I want to do some adhesive testing with filled resin. When resin is mixed with silica microspheres 1:1, the weight is reduced by 30%, and the volume increased by 30%. I did some quick and dirty durability testing and didn't see a significant difference (though the filled resin is a little bit squishier. Not enough that I wouldn't use it in this application). The only thing stopping me from making the whole hoof out of filled resin is I don't know how well it would stick to the shoe. Research continues!
Phew! Thanks for making it through my wall 'o text. And a very special thanks to Chaos Costumes for answering my questions on Facebook! This type of shoe is still a new thing, so I hope I can contribute to the growing knowledge pool even a little bit. If anybody has any questions about my process, feel free to ask. I'm also open to constructive criticism and suggestions, but honestly, I don't know if I'll be making this kind of thing again any time soon.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1000 x 750px
File Size 1.14 MB
Listed in Folders
How are the shoes holding up in this, structurally I mean. I've always wanted to try making hoofshoes or digitigrade paws (my mate especially wants those), but I've always worried that after cutting off the heel part of the shoe (like you did here) the shoe itself wouldn't be strong enough to support the rest of the foot.
My questioning aside though these look fantastic!
My questioning aside though these look fantastic!
I saw the person that these were made for walk in them last night. They held up pretty well, with only a bit of lateral flex.. She is much lighter than I am, so that is definitely a factor. But if you are worried, the back of the ones I made were reinforced with fiberglass. (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8426098/) Mine were also made of much cheaper shoes than hers were.
what my pal moresmallerbear said! High heels are surprisingly stiff in the sole. Give 'em a flex before you commit to cutting the heel off; they might not need any reinforcement.
Something I just remembered: The first pair my friend gave me was an old thrift store pair. I googled "parts of a shoe" and found this diagram to help my explanation a little: https://www.shoesofprey.com/blog/pi.....YRitx5IEDA.jpg We removed the entire rubber outersole exposing the bottom of the platform and main body of the shoe. I removed the shoe and hoof from the mold while the resin was still fairly hot, which weakened the adhesives holding the shoe together. The platform started to peel away from the upper as I yanked it out of the mold. When the resin had cooled, the adhesives re-activated and the shoe was back together. Since we were worried about the platform falling off again (and because I royally screwed up aligning the shoe in the mold), we threw that shoe away. For the pair pictured here, we used new shoes (Mossimo platform heels from Target), and did not remove the rubber outersole. However, I did sand off the orange pleather exposing the platform's rubber core, giving the resin a nice surface to grip to. (The orange part: http://cupofting.com/wp-content/upl.....4-1024x682.jpg) So! The lessons we learned are: Use new shoes, don't remove the outersole, and don't take the shoe out of the mold while the resin is still hot.
Something I just remembered: The first pair my friend gave me was an old thrift store pair. I googled "parts of a shoe" and found this diagram to help my explanation a little: https://www.shoesofprey.com/blog/pi.....YRitx5IEDA.jpg We removed the entire rubber outersole exposing the bottom of the platform and main body of the shoe. I removed the shoe and hoof from the mold while the resin was still fairly hot, which weakened the adhesives holding the shoe together. The platform started to peel away from the upper as I yanked it out of the mold. When the resin had cooled, the adhesives re-activated and the shoe was back together. Since we were worried about the platform falling off again (and because I royally screwed up aligning the shoe in the mold), we threw that shoe away. For the pair pictured here, we used new shoes (Mossimo platform heels from Target), and did not remove the rubber outersole. However, I did sand off the orange pleather exposing the platform's rubber core, giving the resin a nice surface to grip to. (The orange part: http://cupofting.com/wp-content/upl.....4-1024x682.jpg) So! The lessons we learned are: Use new shoes, don't remove the outersole, and don't take the shoe out of the mold while the resin is still hot.
Haha sounds like some adventures in hoof making, though it sounds like you solved all the problems really quickly :D And the end product looks great!
Knowing that people have made this and made it well has made me feel a million times more comfortable and confident in attempting some shoes for my mate, he'll be thrilled.
Thanks so much! <3
Knowing that people have made this and made it well has made me feel a million times more comfortable and confident in attempting some shoes for my mate, he'll be thrilled.
Thanks so much! <3
Hey! I wanted to give you a quick update: My friend wore these for 3 hours at a renn faire a couple weeks ago. Her feet were KILLING her towards the end, but that was to be expected going in. Plus, she walked from the parking lot to the faire on uneven ground, so that didn't help :P She said that she wished the sole was reinforced. The flex wasn't a problem when she was practicing, but it started to wear on her. So if you're still thinking of making a pair for your mate, I suggest brainstorming a way to reinforce the sole, like fiberglass, or bending a piece of flat aluminum bar and riveting it to the sole.
Oh boy wearing any heels for that long sounds killer >.< I'll definitely have to reinforce the back, both of those ways sound great! Any ideas on how to reinforce the sole of the shoe? Like a pad or something?
Thanks so much for filling me in on these new developments, I really appreciate it!
Thanks so much for filling me in on these new developments, I really appreciate it!
She said she got the weirdest blisters she's ever gotten :P You mean the inside? All I ever wear is my sneakers and my flipflops, so I can't give you any real suggestions. I'd peruse the shoe store to see what solutions they've got. They make gel inserts that fit inside high heels now :O
That doesn't sound fun >.< I have pretty delicate feet so blisters are nasty buggers. I'll definitely take a gander at some good inserts for these shoes. I've got a pair for the once in a blue moon that I'm required to wear heels. Apparently you can even get collagen injections in the balls of your feet to cushion them more if you wear heels a lot. ick.
Foot injections? Beauty is pain, I guess >_< Oh, I found a picture of them in action! https://www.facebook.com/valhallafa.....62910450407288 Check the comments section. I have to take an airbrush to her fuzzpants before her next fair; they're too clean looking!
Oh man this brings me back. Very nice hooves.
Walking in shoes like these is defiantly not for the faint of heart. I needed a similar effect for my Lychee cosplay from a blazblue skit years ago. http://www.fightersgeneration.com/n.....ar/litchi1.jpg
I actually ended up buying shoes that looked more like stripper shoes then anything, tee hee . Sort of like these... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p-OI-gMpk.....600/ohgod2.jpg
That way they already had the built up base under the sole.
Then I asked my friend to chop off the heel & saw a solid chunk of wood that matched the negative space between the ball my foot & where the heel was. Then I attached it using apoxie & he drilled a long screw through the wood at the part where the heel was to the platform part of the shoe. This kept me from falling over without the support of the heel. Then made boot covers.
They looked cool but I don't wear heels a whole lot so WOW that masquerade skit was difficult.
Walking in shoes like these is defiantly not for the faint of heart. I needed a similar effect for my Lychee cosplay from a blazblue skit years ago. http://www.fightersgeneration.com/n.....ar/litchi1.jpg
I actually ended up buying shoes that looked more like stripper shoes then anything, tee hee . Sort of like these... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p-OI-gMpk.....600/ohgod2.jpg
That way they already had the built up base under the sole.
Then I asked my friend to chop off the heel & saw a solid chunk of wood that matched the negative space between the ball my foot & where the heel was. Then I attached it using apoxie & he drilled a long screw through the wood at the part where the heel was to the platform part of the shoe. This kept me from falling over without the support of the heel. Then made boot covers.
They looked cool but I don't wear heels a whole lot so WOW that masquerade skit was difficult.
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