Custom Renaissance Boots » Lord Of The Rings

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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Next Step for Aragorn’s Boots

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:46:24 +0000

I picked up the completed strider boots yesterday and am quite pleased with the results. The solution to the cuff doesn’t look out of character with the original. I’m borrowing a pair of barn boots from a friend whose daughter rides to get the wear patterns to look authentic. The last unexpected problem is the side laces. The leather cording that we were intending to use is much too stiff. I’m hoping to find a heavy cotton string at the lumberyard that I can dye to look suitable.

Aragorn boots from Lord of the Rings movie

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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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The Ivy League came calling

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:05:46 +0000

I had an interesting call from a nice young man in the Yale University theater department. He needed a source for period shoes for a production that they’ll be doing this spring. I explained that we are totally custom and that he’d need to provide me with actual foot outlines and measurements for us to use to match the wearer with a properly sized last to build the shoes on. Our preferred way to work is to send his actors the shoes with no finish insole and no sole to try on before we finished them for wearing. That would give them the opportunity to make us aware of any problems so they could be corrected before the finish work was done. Lead time would be three to four weeks depending on the styles he picked plus shipping time for the fitting and delivery. If he has a time crunch, we will do them without the fitting, which means that he has to be dead on with all the specs.

It will be fun to have another play to do. We haven’t done a theater production since the Lord Of The Rings musical in Toronto and enjoyed the challenge.

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Success with the Strider boots

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:28:04 +0000

The prototype has returned from it’s fitting and is going into production. The only detail remaining will be just how to “distress” them. I re-watched the Lord of the Rings movie and went by one of the riding stables and took a look at wear patterns on boots that spend a lot of time on horseback. Looks like the charcoal bucket and the inside of the grill may have the stuff I’ll need to give them the right patina. A little experimenting is in order.

January 9th is 12th Night for our SCA group. The perfect occasion to dress up and take my new shoes for a spin on the dance floor.

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Polishing Renaissance Slippers, LOR Mockup

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:30:25 +0000

While I was cleaning up my shoes after the Escondido RennFaire, I thought I’d pass along a tip for working around those cutouts. I cut a piece of blue painters tape the shape of the slash and cover the underlay with it. I work around the holes with a Qtip and then buff. The tape keeps the polish from smearing onto the under lay.

The strider prototype is ready for it’s fitting. Pedro was the one who tackled the pattern and he usually nailed it on the first try. I’ll see tomorrow.

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Lord Of The Rings challenge

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:22:14 +0000

We just got an order to create the strider boots from the movie. It should be interesting. The best “image” of those boots is the action figures which may work out pretty well. It does give us a 3-D view to work from. Even found a chunk of accidentally distressed leather. It fell off the shelf and got kicked around on the floor a bit and was headed to the trash. Just the right amount of grunge.

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