Custom Renaissance Boots » Boots

18th Century riding boots

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:25:46 +0000

The Old Globe Theater commissioned footwear from us for their summer Shakespeare Festival. They had imported a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company in England with his costume mistress for the shows which gave us a bad case of nerves. It was really interesting and a little intimidating. to get to work with someone who has all the reference samples in her backyard. The new style that we had not done before was the classic two color English riding boot. In case you’re wondering – George III was one of the plays. She was looking for something authentic looking and we accidentally stumbled on to it. The boots were made without the hard toe box for the fittings, which turned out to be exactly the look she was after. The job was completed on time for dress rehearsals and left us all as little breathless. The costume mistress was thrilled – not bad for the colonies. Now it’s time to get back to normal – until the next time.

18th Century English riding boot

18th Century English riding boot with oval toe

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Finished Clone Trooper boots

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:39:25 +0000

We’ve finished the clone trooper boots, sent them off and got them back. The customer has wanted them to make a larger statement visually to make his feet look more in proportion with the armor. To accomplish that we used a heavier leather, a round toe and added a quarter of an inch to the sole height. Right idea but it tipped over toward the clown shoe look when he put them on. Would have been perfect on a taller person, however …. We are going to go back to a regular last for him and reconstruct the boots. It’s one of those idea that looks good on paper but didn’t translate well.

Boot for Clone Trooper

Toe detail for Clone Trooper boot

The Florida squadron standardized the style for the boot and adds an ABS plastic band across the arch and a piece of ABS plastic “armor” on the top of the toe piece. They make and provide those pieces and we add the snaps so that they can be set in place. The two guys who make them will provide them to anyone wishing to use their design.

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Clone Trooper boots in progress

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:29:19 +0000

With the very specific specifications that the Tampa clone trooper group had settled on for their boots, we decided to make a vinyl mock-up for fit and to allow the the details to be drawn directly on the boots. That would insure that the finished boots would exactly meet their design specs. We also asked for a sample of the armor pieces that were going to be provided by their armor maker so that the attachment points would match the pieces. Since the boots had never actually been made we modified the design to include a zipper on the inside of the boots so it would tuck up under the leg armor. Everything is back from the fitting and we can start the actual boots.

Mock-up with design details

Toe detail on mock-up

Existing boot for reference

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One More for Lord Of The Rings

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:43:36 +0000

Not as interesting as the strider boot, but we just finished a pair of boots for a Gandolf costume.

The new challenge is a pair of Turkish style slippers for the Yale Drama Department’s current production. To achieve that soft little upturned toe we are using deer skin. It stretches so we can shorten the top and stretch the bottom piece of leather and get a natural curve. Dress rehearsals start Monday and thanks to overnight shipping, we’ll make it on stage at noon.

Boot for a Gandolf costume

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Finished Strider boots

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:58:43 +0000

It took me a whole day to get up the courage to mess them up. The experiments on the left overs looked ok but not great. I mixed up the gunk and started caking it on, then had to wait over night to see what I had. When I knock off the clumps and rubbed a cloth and brush over it to give it a more worn look, it wasn’t doing it. Not the right “dirty”. California dirt isn’t really good dirt – it too beige. Next step was potting soil and compost. That gave me good black dirt, the kind that one would find in a forest. It stuck to everything, laces, thread and leather. Knocked off the clumps and left a smeary mess in the same kind of places that the borrowed barn boots had. Not bad. They’ll still need some serious walking around to get the slouchy broken in look. That’s for the new owner.

Aged Strider Boots

Toe detail on Strider boot

Inside of Strider Boot

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Strider boots are ready for mud

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:24:36 +0000

All the parts have finally arrived for the Aragorn character from The Lord Of The Rings and are assembled. The shoe laces were made from braided 1/8″ cotton rope found at Home Depot (boy, did they look at me funny when I told them what I needed) and the rope wraps are drapery and upholstery trim. The laces were tea stained to give them the right base color. The dirtying is in progress. I experimented with dirt from the yard (right color but wouldn’t stick), ashes from the grill (same issue), water and finally clay cat litter for the adhesion. Used borrowed barn boots for dirt placement and glopped it on and set them to dry. My test swatches looked great so now I just have to wait and then chip off the excess. A wire brush will finish of the faux wear patterns.

Strider boots with out the dirt

Lace detail on LOR boots

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Clone Trooper and Final Fantasy Boots

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:23:20 +0000

I had an old customer contact me last year to make him a pair of Clone Trooper boots from the Star Wars movies. The research turned up no pictures of actual footwear but the information that the armor had all been computer generated. Major gasp of surprise! I dug out the Visual Dictionaries and went through the pictures. It was an interesting meeting at the shop. We had plenty of time since the armor was still in production and there was really no deadline. The guys made up nine different sets of bits and pieces to try to get something that you could actually get your foot into and would look like the pictures. Since the bottom of the boot looked like it had been inspired by some sort of sport shoe, we did a soft toe. To get the seamless look of no opening, added a zipper in the front which would be covered by a molded leather spat attached with Velcro. Then added the strap. It actually was a very close real world interpretation of the Elite Clone Trooper picture that we used as a reference.

We’ve had another request for a pair and he’d like them more as a pull on boot. Since he’s not opposed to adding a zipper on the inside of the boot, we can use a more conventional type of construction. He, however has armor issues that we’ll need to address. The back of the leg armor is rubbing holes in the boots he’s now using.

The troops had just finished patting themselves on the backs for pulling off the Clone boots when a request for a boot based on his Final Fantasy character arrived. That one just required cleaning up a computer generated drawing. Pulled that one off too.

white Clone Trooper boots

boots for Final Fantsy character

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Finishing the Strider Boots

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:02:39 +0000

The Strider boots from the Lord Of The Rings movie are in the final stage. Teasing out the details on the action figures we are using for reference didn’t give us a lot of information about the construction of the cuff. Neither did several re-runs of the movie. We arrived at what we feel is a reasonable interpretation of the original. The nice scuffed and dirty pieces of salvaged suede we used didn’t have a large enough straight piece to make the cuffs in one piece. In the spirit of the original, we seamed it together to make our wrap around cuff look close to the movie original. In this case, the natural scars and flaws in the leather would make the boots look more like what the character might have cobbled together than using a fresh new piece, so we went with it. Yesterday I finally solved the tie issue. Leather laces were too perfect and short, twine from the home improvement sources just didn’t look right, braiding the waxed cord we used for the stitching was too wimpy ….nothing was coming up right. I was at the drapery workroom that I use in my other life and looking at new trim samples. One of the companies had introduced a line of natural jute trims and there was my rope. Three ply, 1/4″ jute rope sturdy enough to hold up to actual use with the right amount of rustic. Next step – distressing and off they go.

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Italian Renaissance at 12th Night

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:50:28 +0000

The ankle boots were the final part to a black velvet Italian tunic made for the annual SCA 12th Night celebration in Hemet, CA. The touch of suede gave them the perfect blend of textures to tie them to the matte velvet and silk cord accents. The soles were French crepe for dancing and flexible enough for the period style moves.

Also ran into Paul Giles in his new Elizabethan and he’s thinking new footwear. The first pair we did for him were so comfortable, he’s decided he should have others. That kind of feedback is always nice to hear.

Italian Peacock Tunic

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Italian Renaissance Ankle Boots

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:26:07 +0000

suede trimmed Italian Renaissance boot

Just in time for 12th Night. This boot is a blend of a Medieval style boot and the Renaissance boots worn in the movie Romeo and Juliet with Michael York. We added the suede detail on the cuff to give it a touch of texture and color contrast. The costume is black velvet, so the suede will have a similar degree of blackness. The whole costume will be worn to the SCA 12th Night festivities in Hemet, Ca. We put a flexible French crepe sole on them for dancing. I can’t wait to see the whole costume pulled together.

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