Updated 12/10/03...Help! I Need your Input!
Below is a photo comparing an example of the
foot prosthetic I used at San Diego Comic-Con (very very furry) with one I just finished for use at the
premiere/Oscar party. Here's the thing. The older version is far hairier than the "real" movie prop.
But it reads as "hobbit" from the stage because it is exaggerated. The newer one is closer to the hairiness
of the movie prop, but I worry it won't be as convincing from far away, especially as my feet aren't
hobbit-proportioned. So...opinions? Put them in my guest book or write me an email!
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Ok, back to the how-to part of the page...
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My First Furry Feet are just my feet with synthetic hair spirit gummed to them. In this
picture, they are liberally covered with crepe beard hair in a combination of ruddy brown and dark brown,
intermingled and glued down with spirit gum. I thought about buying latex Hobbit feet, but decided finally
on a cost-saving approach. So my feet aren't quite big enough...it works for now.
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Hobbit Feet, Second Edition, was the same technique using hair trimmed from my own head after a haircut.
This was an interesting exercise in public embarassment and I wouldn't recommend asking your hairstylist
for a baggie of your hair clippings unless you really want to see how red your face can get! But since
I'd already brought in a photo of Frodo from the movie and asked for my cut to look "just like this"
asking for my cast-off hair was only worse relatively speaking!
Then I got ambitious.
Well, sort of. Kel (Merry) hand-punched synthetic hair into hair lace, making a "foot toupee." I was
not this ambitious. That's a scary amount of work. But I envied the fact that her feet didn't shed
so badly they ended up bald at the end of the day. (Sheesh, sometimes I can't believe what I'm typing,
here!)
So, instead I used a technique for making foot patches I heard of on the Numenor site.
First you get an old pair of panty hose -flesh-toned! Cut a shape roughly equivalent to the shape of
where you want the hair to "grow" on your Hobbit foot. Then apply a layer of liquid latex to the top
of your bare foot, also where you want the hair to be. After that, you apply the pantyhose piece directly
atop the wet latex. This will reinforce the latex so you can (theoretically) use the piece over and
over without it falling apart. Apply another layer of latex atop the pantyhose.
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Once you've got the latex-pantyhose-latex sandwich established, you begin to apply the hair. Since I
was using clippings of my own hair, the lengths were already pretty short. But you can always trim to
suit yourself. (More detailed instructions on how to do this with fake "crepe" hair are on the Numenor
site.)
Important! Start applying the hair from the BOTTOM UP. If you start from where your
foot joins your leg, you will be layering the hair backwards. The practical upshot is that you will
be getting your fingers stuck in the hair and wet latex and pulling the hair up. You will end up with
hairy, latexy fingers and a total mess on your foot. Eeew. Don't do that.
Apply the hair in
rows, first putting down a lengthwise blob of latex (about a half-inch long). That's what I'm doing
in this picture.
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After you've laid down that extra blob of wet latex, take a bit of hair (less than you think! I
ended up with VERY hairy feet...more so than I'd planned!) and stick one end of the bunch into the latex.
The Numenor site says to press it in for a few seconds. If you can manage that, you're way more talented
than I am. Whenever I tried, I just ended up sticking the latex (and the hair) to my fingers and not
to my foot. What did work for me was to wiggle the end of the hairs back and forth a bit, which coated
them in the latex and stuck them securely.
Then, when you finish a row across your foot and go
back to start the next row higher up, I found it useful to paint the web blob of new latex just barely
over the "stuck in the latex" ends of the preceeding row. That reinforced where the hair met the appliance.
Hopefully that will make it less prone to shed.
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