I LOVE how realistic this looks! You can see a slight translucency from the latex shell, and the person who painted it did a GREAT job! I'm pretty firm on wanting a gold colour scheme, I think, and this is already close to what I want. A little brighter and more metallic, but that's about it!
Let's talk about SHOES!
I really like the Ascot from Punitive Shoes. I'd get them in matte white and then paint them to match the horn. The only problem is, of course, the €160 price tag...
I can get similar shoes for only $130 USD that don't have the horseshoes on the bottom, which is just fine. They're leather, too! These also I would get in white or possibly in "gold" or "wheat" coloured leather and then paint them. Still, a little higher than I can afford...
In the same price range at $135 USD, but only available in black leather or black patent, are the really neat looking Femme-12 from Devious. I think these would be slightly easier to walk and dance in than the Ballet series, such as Ballet-18.
The most cost-effective option is to make my own "heel-less" shoes. The real-deal that are designed that way can cost quite a bit, but if I can find the right shoe to butcher and get a hold of the right materials, I can do it fairly cheap. There are LOTS of tutorials out there on modifying shoes or boots into hooves. Here's a great tutorial from Boots, the Pony-Boy. It involves latex and epoxy and is quite labour intensive.
And I could copy ArtSquish's old method of molded latex filled with foam. Her new method is some sort of two-part rubber thing that looks amazing, is heavier, and leaves awesome cloven hoofprints! I doubt I'd be able to copy it, though, and I certainly don't have the $300 she wants to custom make me a pair.
There's also the option of wooden hooves attached to heel-chopped shoes using automotive epoxy. I couldn't find the exact photo I'm thinking of but this page has a shoe done with what seems to be fibreglass epoxy. I'd rather use "Bondo" because it's super easy to sand the pre-mixed stuff (no over-hardening!), unlike fibreglass epoxy which is hard as a rock once cured, unless you didn't use enough hardener, in which case it NEVER cures.
Another option is to make digitigrade legs using two-by-fours with a shoe attached to hold my foot in. It would have to be laceable to keep my foot firmly against the two-by-four. I need my weight on my heel, not my toes, which is what I learned about ballet fetish shoes. Simply search Google or YouTube for making digitigrade legs and you'll see some interesting wood-and-shoe contraptions. This is by far the cheapest option because I have easy access to two-by-fours, furniture foam and plenty of leather to make a foot-holding apparatus.
I'm still looking for pre-loved pony shoes and coming up empty (size 7 in case you have a pair to sell!), so I'll need to make a decision by the end of summer about what style I would make if I can't get what I actually want. QQ Maybe I'll get an awesome job and just buy a pair...
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