Puppet Feet

I just downloaded the pictures from our camera onto our computer and realized that I never updated the blog with pictures of puppet feet attachment-making!

So... without further ado...

It was a cold night... so we started a little fire in Reid's forge. It draws really well and warms up the space around it nicely.


These are the three sizes we were working on. Luckily for me all three female puppeteers are size seven feet! How often does that happen?

First Reid had to cut the bar stock to the proper length. Note the look of serious concentration.

Next, he must prove that he is Superman.


Then he uses his vice to finesse the metal into just the shape he wants (which includes a big loop to go around the puppeteer's foot and two little tangs out the front to which the puppet will be connected).

Getting the tangs just perfect.

Voila, he says... this is what I put my wife through graduate school for! So that I could get roped into making puppet-foot-attacher-things.

And this is how they fit around the shoe... you can sort of see how they're attached to the shoe. Basically it is a sewn on strip of canvas, sewn both above and below the metal piece. Then the two pieces that stick out the front get holes drilled into them through which a screw is inserted (and the puppet's ankle joint is between the two pieces of metal and has the screw go through it).

And how did this picture slip in here?? Gratuitous picture of the Tater-boo!