The other day 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. (FA: chaoscreation) 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)g (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.