Project: Satyr hooves, "Kid Simple"

[labricoleuse]

Our graduate acting program is presenting a production of the play Kid Simple, for which i offered to build a pair of satyr hooves as an example for the "fantasy shapes" project in my shoe class. The "cloven hoof effect for human feet" is a fairly common types of fantasy-footwear project, as any number of shows call for devils, demons, goats, pigs, satyrs, and other fantastic creatures.




Our costume designer, Miranda Morales, initially rented these "demon" spats from the NC School of the Arts costume facility in Winston-Salem. They weren't exactly what she wanted--as you can see from the trousers, the rest of the costume is in the browns/golds/oranges range--but they were hooves, which was the primary requirement. This fitting photo illustrates though that the hooves themselves are clearly too short for the size of our actor's feet. This is where i stepped in and offered to rebuild them in Miranda's choice of colors, with lengthened hoof shapes.




Here's the mockup-cum-lining, made up in baby-flannel with the bucket cuff attached. I decided to replace the zipper with grommets and elastic lacing so they could be pulled on like a boot without worry about catching the hair in a zipper during a change. You'll note that the 5th, 6th, and 7th grommets up from the base are closer together than the rest of them--this is because (and you see it in some tightlacing corsetry at the waistline too) it provides more tensile strength in the lacing there at the ankle, where you want more curvature.



hoof-shapes cut out in black visor plastic



gold paint dry-brush textural effect on hoof shapes



bird's-eye view of finished hoof-spats


front-row view of finished hoof-spats

The fetlock hair is blended track hair from a "weave in a bag", and the tan curly fur is a knit-back faux-fur that's in all the chain fabric shops for around $6/yd. These are particularly fun to walk around in, because the visor-plastic hooves actually "clop" on the ground.

And there you have it, my quick-change insta-hooves for the average adult male actor. :D

Comments

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I should add that the actor wearing these balances on the balls of his feet when wearing them, so they do give more of a hooflike illusion!

I've seen several other ways of doing hoof-shoes, including what sounds like you are describing above, the heel-less variety. For this project though, the design, budget, turnaround time, and quick-change needs dictated spats.

Wait til i post one of my students' project on this topic--blue-footed-booby-feet! :D

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

I hate waiting. :)