Supplies Craft Store Supplies

Hardware Store Supplies

Bargain bin flip-flops! Colored EVA foam with traction treads on the bottom. Buy them for a dollar or three and cut them into shape with kitchen scissors! A few snips will remove the “toe thong” and the screws sink right into the material so screws won't contact flooring.

Plastic zip ties Metal braces Metal track shelving, drawer tracks, or small metal beams. Make sure the metal is thick enough not to bend when you put a little weight on it. Note the above design uses only 2 zip ties, works great. Compare to design models.

Bungee cords Craft foam Colored EVA foam in 2 to 5 millimeter sheets. Any size sheets, or even cutting up a door hanger kit will do. Use for padding the insides of mounted shoes, and for silencing the toe piece.

Fake fur Or other fabric to act as a “skin” of the stilt.

Hot glue & glue gun

The colorful ones with hooks in them. Not the black heavy duty bungees. Elastic cord with a woven fabric layer around it.

Velcro tape Two inches wide, similar products sold under different brand names. Don't peel the plastic backing off!

Electrical tape Notes: For wrapping sharp edges.

Furniture foam or car sponges Note: Must be at least two inches thick.

Hinge kit Sold in a little plastic package, comes with perfectly sized screws for the hinge.

Eyelet screws Screws with a ring on the top! Smaller eyelets, (½ inch to 1 inch diameter ring on top) work really well. Big eyelets aren't needed for a strong grip. Avoid the tiny eyelets, they'll be ripped out of the wood.

(12) Large wood screws For joining wood pieces

(6) Small wood screws For attaching flip-flop padding.

Metal washers

Images on this page reside in the Public Domain

Also called cable ties or tie wraps. Buy the more expensive ties that are made of heavier plastic. The very cheap (often multi-colored) ties may snap while in use.

When purchasing washers compare them to your screws. The washers should not fit so tightly around the screw that they prevent movement. Used for the leg brace and for mounting the shoe.

Electrical tape For wrapping sharp edges from zip ties and metal. Protects fabric from metal corners.

Wood board Pine or any stronger wood. Not balsa, for the love of God don't use balsa. If you are a dainty individual (under 145 pounds) you can purchase narrow boards sold as “1 by 3.” If you're a bigger person you should use either a board with larger dimensions (1¼ by 4) or a stronger wood. Avoid boards with knots (dark circles) in the wood. You want a strong board without any imperfections or bending in it.

Credits Cover Illustrations, ReigningFyre http://www.youtube.com/user/ReigningFyre http://reigningfyre.deviantart.com/ Cover Saytr Photo A. Bjorkman Johnson, "Sevinkei” Q&A for Kids with Big Ideas Interview with Ethan Nelson Stilt Experiences Tathi, Ghost Cat Studios, http://www.furaffinity.com/users/tathi Squiggylee Ben, http://www.youtube.com/gryphern blackcat2086, http://www.blackcat2086.deviantart.com How-to Illustrations, Unlabeled Photos, Text by Gryphern http://www.youtube.com/gryphern Fonts used are Times New Roman owned by Linotype and Centaur by Monotype Imaging Formatting was done in the free program Open Office Writer Models were made in the free program Google SketchUp All photos used with permission

Contents i ii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Supplies Credits Table of Contents Designing, Planning Designing, Structure Wood Construction, Cutting Wood Wood Construction, Using screws Metal Cutting Furring & Shoe Mounting Tips for Kids, Q&A with Ethan Stilt Experiences Stilt Experiences

Designing Your design should start with your character concept. In the left sketch the character is hunched and has very angled legs. The character on the right has a tall, straight posture. The calf muscles have to do a lot of work. Strong bungees cords are needed to pull the wearer upright and reduce the work done by the calf muscles and ankle.

This wearer will have lots of extra height. The weight is centered behind the edge of the floor plate. The wearer will have to pay attention to make sure the whole stilt contacts the ground, or the stilts will walk on their heels, but is easier on the calf muscles.

The tight angle allows for the wearer's center of gravity to better line up over the floor plate.

Consider how the character's features will impede movement. Very long toes will inevitably be stepped on or bent backwards. A tiny hoof may cause balance issues. A very narrow leg may create a stilt that's too delicate to be used safely. Will a tail or heavy head make balance difficult? If using a mask, will there be someone to assist the wearer in case limited vision becomes a problem? If there's too much weight on the back (like a tail and wings) the wearer will have to use their muscles constantly (a bad thing) to balance forward? After your character is designed you need to identify who will act as the character. How you make the stilts depends on their body and how large the stilts should look compared to the wearer. The kind of wood board used will depend on the weight of your wearer. Each stilt set will be unique: One set of dimensions will only work for another person of similar size in a similar costume. Don't be afraid to truly design the project. Get out paper, draw sketches, write out word pictures to help visualize what you want. There are clear limitations to this design. I've found adding nine inches of height to the wearer makes the stilts very tiring to walk in and is bes for short appearances. Though, I've received photos of taller stilts, with glowing stories about their ease of use, but I prefer to be conservative in my designs. Shorter stilts that raise the foot only a few inches off the ground can be worn for hours with no discomfort. Try to keep as much of the wearer's foot over the foot plate as possible. The biggest drawback of this design is that the wearer's foot is mounted behind the foot platform instead of directly above. This tends to cause weight to be put on the back edge of the floor plate when walking. How you mount a shoe to the stilt is up to you. I suggest using wood screws or bolts with locking nuts. Washers on the inside of the shoe spread out the screw or bolt's grip. You could also buy replacement bindings for ski boots or snowboards, or other straps if you don't want to sacrifice a pair of old shoes.

Calf Pads (Just below the knee) Bungees Metal Brace Toe Piece

Eyelet Screws Pivot

Foot Plate

Triangles Floor Plate

Designing Bungee Cords make this design work, otherwise the wearer's legs would get tired very quickly trying to keep the wearer upright. Hooked into two eyelets at the end of the stilt the bungees pull the wearer upright. Strong, or multiple bungee cords can make a tight angle work comfortably. The more distance between the pivot point and the eyelets, the better the bungees will be able to pull you up. The top example offers more assistance to the wearer, so it's more comfortable. The bottom example is a more streamlined stilt, but offers less assistance. Stronger (or more) bungees will be needed. Mini bungee cords' thin wire hooks will deform over time. Bigger bungees last longer, worth the extra cost for a pack. You can shorten bungees by tying a knot that forces the little metal hook further up the cord. You will have to experiment to find the right amount of pull. A 180 pound man in stilts with 9 inches of height and a foot plate at a 45° angle will need four mini bungees per stilt, and will wear them out quickly. The leg brace it pretty simple. Metal with at least one folded up edge (to add strength) has a hole in the bottom and two holes the top. A single wood screw holds the metal piece at the same place the wearer's ankle will be. Washers on either side of the screw provide "wiggle room" so the brace can move side to side a little bit. Because the stilts extend the human foot they also create new kinds of terrible ways to injure the ankle and knee. The leg brace and leg band are very important for supporting the ankle. The washers allow the stilt to twist a bit rather than forcing the knee to rotate during a fall. Two thick rectangles of furniture foam or car washing sponges are attached to a piece of Velcro tape with zip ties. The foam and Velcro tape are then attached to the metal piece with more zip ties. Foam or rubber padding silences the stilt and prevents damage to the stilt as well as protecting delicate floors. For the foot plate I suggest using foam flip flops with TRACTION TREAD on the bottom, cut to shape with scissors and screwed in place with three little screws. Between the toe piece and foot plate a strip of craft foam silences the toe and prevents damage. The toe piece can have thinner padding as it does not have to bear weight. Did I mention TRACTION TREAD? Without treads linoleum or smooth concrete will cause new forms of pain when you fall flat on your shapely butt. The toe piece is mounted with a hinge. This gives the illusion that the foot of the costume is bending and reacting to the ground. You can also lift the leg and make the toes flop around, such as pretending to lash out with a raptor kick, or shaking water off the stilt. How extreme the toe's movement is depends on the mount of space between the toe piece and the foot plate, as well as how much slack fabric is left during the furring process. By limiting slack you can prevent the toe from flipping backward.

Wood Construction When cutting wood plan how long each piece needs to be before you make any cuts. You may be able to arrange your cuts more efficiently to prevent waste. Reducing waste means you buy less, and that makes your project cheaper. If you needed... (2) 2½ foot pieces (4) 1 foot pieces (1) ½ foot piece ...And you planned ahead, you could get all seven pieces out of two six foot boards. But if you just randomly cut out pieces, you'd have to buy an extra board, then end up with an entire board's worth of scrap wood. If you have a hardware store that will cut boards for you (the big U.S. chains like Home Depot and Lowe's will) have them make all the straight cuts you need. It will save you time and you won't have to clean up. If you want a line to cut along (helps to make super straight cuts) measure the length you want along the edge of the board and draw a dot with a pencil or marker. Do the same thing on the opposite side, then use a straight edge to draw a line that goes through both dots. This stilt design requires two small wood rectangles to be cut into triangles, so you'll need to cut diagonally on two small pieces. To do this you need a clamp or a vice to hold the wood piece. (You can often find cheap vices or clamps at flea markets.) You'll be cutting against the grain of the wood so you'll have an easier time with saw with a stiff blade... ...like a crosscut saw or...

...a backsaw.

(That's why it's called a crosscut saw, for cutting across wood grain.) The saw should be sharp, the teeth should all be the same length, and the saw should have all its teeth If not, you'll need to get it sharpened, or borrow/buy a saw that's in good condition. How long a rectangular piece of board is when you split it into triangles determines the angle your stilt will sit at. You can guess at it, or you can be precise by using basic geometry to determine angles produced at different lengths. If you don't have a good knowledge of geometry Google search for “Side angle side” and a bunch of online calculators and webpages that show you how to do the math will pop up. Since you're working with a rectangle you'll always have a corner with a 90° angle to work with, making the math easier.

Wood Construction

When driving a screw, you may split your wood piece!

How To Start A Saw Cut Place the saw blade on the end of the line you want to cut. Draw the saw toward you. Put the saw blade back on the end of the line and draw it back again until you have a groove. Don't push the saw at first, the teeth will bite into the wood and make the saw blade bounce to the side. Use short saw motions to turn the groove into a cut. Once the cut is all the way through the wood begin sawing with the whole saw blade. Try to keep your wrist straight. The saw should be an extension of your arm. When you make the cut the saw should be making a diagonally line, not a straight up and down cut. If the saw is on an angle pushing down make the saw teeth tear through the wood. If the saw is straight up and down you won't be able to push the saw into the wood and it will take forever to make a cut.

To avoid splitting the wood, drill a narrow hole a little shorter than your screw is long. Drive the screw into the wood, but leave the head of the screw above the wood. If you force the head of the screw into the wood there's a chance it will split the wood. If you don't pre-drill a hole and you drive a screw in it might make cracks you can't see, or put stress on the wood. ...So when you're stomping around in your stilts the wood is more likely to split. The stronger the type of wood you use, the more important pre-drilling becomes. You might get a way without pre-drilling a soft pine board, but not with maple or oak. To safely drive the head of a screw flat into your wood piece, first drill a narrow hole. Then, use a larger drill bit the that's the same diameter as the screw head. Using the larger drill bit drill a shallow, flat bottomed hole for the screw to sink into. This hole is called a counterbore. You can buy special drill bits that make a narrow hole for the screw and a cone shaped countersink for the screw head at the same time, saving work.

Metal Cutting For my first pair of stilts I didn't need to cut metal. The metal drawer tracks I found were the right length. I did have to drill holes in the metal for the pivot point. That was easy, I just bought a drill bit for my power drill that was made for drilling into metal (it says on the packaging of the bit when you buy it.) For my second pair of stilts I couldn't find a perfect metal piece so I bought inexpensive metal rails made for track shelves (shelving often used in closets, see pictures.) The metal was too long and to make my washers fit I would have to cut the sides off, pictured to the right. (Even though the sides got in the way I wanted a metal piece with folded sides so it wouldn't bend like thin, flat metal would.) The simplest way to cut thin metal is a rotary tool. A hack saw can cut through metal too, but is best only for simple cuts like cutting a straight piece of metal into two pieces. A rotary tool is like a power drill but with attachments like cuttings wheels, sanding discs, and cutting heads. The discs for cutting metal are a few dollars per pack. When mounted onto the rotary tool the spinning edge of the metal cutting wheel eats at metal when it touches, digging in and throwing red hot sparks everywhere. You need eye protection that will stop sparks from getting to your eyes, normal eye glasses are NOT good enough. The sparks are tiny, so if they land on your skin you may feel a hot prick but you won't get burned. It's best to work in an open area where the sparks can't land on anything, like a driveway or concrete floor of a garage. You press the cutting wheel onto the metal with similar pressure to cutting through cold butter. Too much pressure will break the cutting wheel, sending wheel pieces flying and leading to lost control of the rotary tool. The metal cutting wheels get worn down quickly. When you first cut metal you may accidentally wear down an entire wheel with each cut. Always replace it instead of trying to use the last little bits, you don't want launch pieces of broken wheel at yourself. You have to be aware of metal burrs; tiny, twisted pieces of metal left over from cutting on the edge of the metal. They can cut skin and do terrible things to eyes. Use the spinning cutting wheel, or a metal file to remove burrs. When you're finished be sure to sweep/vacuum your work area to get rid of burrs. The metal will also be burning hot when it's been cut, but won't glow or steam or anything. Don't touch it, and don't try to pick up the cut off pieces right away. Let the metal sit for several minutes. You can hover your hand above it to see if it's still hot before touching it. Rotary tools are sold by brands including Dremmel and Black&Decker. The small, less expensive hand-held rotary tools A rotary tool “cut off wheel” can slice metal are perfect for this kind of project. Heavy duty rotary tools like the Username Albert, Wikimedia Commons Roto Zip line for construction projects (triple the price of a Dremmel tool at the time of writing this) are more powerful, but have way more power than is needed and there are fewer stores that carry accessories and replacement parts for them. They're also a much larger investment if you're just exploring what you can build yourself. If you don't want to make a purchase the lower-power Dremmel tool and other rotary tools are very popular, you can probably borrow one if you ask around.

Furring & shoes Fabric “skin” can be done however you want, but should be done after mounting the shoes. You will be best off buying faux fur “off the bolt,” which is buying fabric from a cardboard roll at a fabric store. A rough amount is a yard and a half per stilt. Furry fabric can range in price greatly. The really expensive stuff (more than $17 a yard when bought at the fabric store) tends to have many hairs per square inch, but is not as good for hiding seams: the fake hairs are so smooth and organized it's easy to tell where two pieces have been joined. The midprice craft fur seems to work the best since it hides its seams well, and you don't have to deal with special backings or anything weird. With cheaper faux fur you also won't start sobbing if you fall in a mud puddle and coat the faux fur with grime. Dry cleaners are not going to dry clean your stilts, so don't spend 100's of dollars giving them a skin. (You can, however, buy a dry cleaning pad, which is dry cleaning chemicals in a little bag the size of a kitchen sponge. Artists pat the bags on their papers to remove skin oils and grime. Sold at art stores and some dry cleaner/laundrymat businesses.) Based on your character sketch, plan out any features. Will you make a hoof out of paper mache? Will you make toes out of an old couch cushion's foam or some car washing sponges? Do you want to make a muscle bulge? Sculpt your features before adding any fur. Construct your features and add the fur around them. How to add the fur? For my stilts I cut excess “hairs” away where I wanted the faux fur to fold tightly on itself, between the foam toes of my stilt. Then I wrapped a big piece of fabric around the stilt, cut it into a square and used hot glue to hold everything in place. I trimmed the excess off when I was done. Then I cut slits into the fur so the “leg” of the stilt could be peeled down and allow access to the shoe, stilt, and bungee cords. I hot glued Velcro tabs along the slits to hold the fur closed while being used. Any parts left bare I cut and added scraps of fur to. You can also work acrylic paint into the fur and comb it out with a comb or toothbrush to add color. If using a hinged toe piece your fabric will determine how far in either direction the toe can move based on how much slack you give it. Test it by pinching the fabric in place and moving the toe piece, then glue. Where your foot is placed on the stilt greatly effects balance and ease of walking. As a general rule the closer the shoe is to the ground the easier it is to walk in the stilts. An imaginary line from the middle of the shoe into the ground illustrates where the stilt will contact the ground. If the line crosses behind the floor plate then the stilt will tend to balance on its back edge.

Mount the shoe by placing the shoe where you want it on the stilt first. Optionally, you can duct tape the shoes in place and try them out to make sure the shoe position is good. Remove the insole from the shoe. Place the shoe on the footplate where you want it and drill a hole through the heel of the shoe, into the wood board. Then, place a metal washer over the hole, and insert a wood screw into the metal washer. Drive the screw into the wood, repeat this process in middle of the shoe and in the toe of the shoe. If you can only find small washers you may need to layer a larger washer under the small washer, that way there's a lot of washer surface to grab and hold the shoe. Once mounted you will need to pad the screws. You can cut layers of craft foam to make a very thick foam insole in addition to the shoe's original insole. Optionally, a silicone putty like Melt Art Mold-N-Pour or Amazing Mold Putty will create thick rubbery rings around the screws and washers.

Q&A for Kids with Big Ideas Q&A With Ethan, who recently turned 13. Ethan's passion is movie making, and having completed a number of projects he has a strong perspective on what it takes for a younger person to be successful from plan and completion. As many of the people who make costume props intend to use them for movie special effects or photo shoots, Ethan's perspective on movie making is especially relevant. 1. Funding a Project A lot of kids don't have their own money, so they need to convince their family to pay for supplies. What tips would you give for keeping projects cheap, and convincing parents your project is worthwhile?

If you are planning on spending some money on your next project, I would make sure that this is a project that you will stick to. If you are bored on a Saturday and just have a sudden idea, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, go out and spend some money. I have done this and it has turned out horrible. [For movies] first start off by writing a solid, easy to-do script. Do not put in big budget car chases or fight scenes. I doubt that you or any kid can afford to blow up some cars. Then look through the things you need such as a werewolf costume, a machine, or some other prop or costume. Make a list of all of the things you need and then make plans on how you are going to make some of these things. Show your parents, and if that doesn't work then save up all of your money. Make sure to find sales at different stores. If you are making a zombie blood bath, then go to the halloween stores in the beginning of November when they start to close. If you are making a comedy music video, you can probably find things around your house. 2. Finding Alternative Support Sometimes parents don't, or can't support their kids' creative projects. Where can a young person go for information and help?

Try to find people around your school that have the same interests. Maybe some of the kids in your school have very nice cameras, make-up supplies, and better editing software. Pretty soon you've got yourself enough supplies to make a nice film. Also, if your school has a Film class or Drama Club, then ask for support. Usually, they might not have the best supplies but enough to get you by. 3. Presenting Your Idea Often, doing a project requires commitment from other people that's outside their normal routine. For example, convincing a teacher that you should be allowed to do your own project instead of the class assignment. How would you present an idea for a project to someone whose support you needed?

Prove to this person that you are serious about what your doing. Show them a script and what you have done so far. Make sure that you ask this person ahead of time so they have time to decide if they want to do this.

4. Recognizing Your Limits How do you know whether you need to ask for help, or if you shouldn't try something?

I have run into this problem a lot. When I started writing my first scripts, I had ideas that I couldn't ever do unless I had a couple millions of dollars and a studio. If you have a hard but good idea, go for it, but it might not turn out as you want it to. 5. Big Ideas, Little Kid Often a kid has a beautiful, perfect idea, but doesn't have the skills to make that idea real because they're still learning. So when the finished project turns out cruddy they feel very frustrated. How do you deal with seeing lots of perfect projects other people have done (like movie effects) then not being able to do it as well as the professionals?

This I think has been my biggest problem when making my films. Try to avoid doing any projects unless you really know what you are doing. The people you see doing some cool project probably planned of that a month or two before even building it. For my new film Blackouts I was planning on having this machine transfer the peoples' organs and blood from body to body (I know it's gross) and I had many problems come up. I made a design for it but the dimensions were WAY off so my dad had to help me figure out the height and width of the machine. Then we got some wood to make it, when we realized our saw wasn't big enough for the wood, making me have to pretty much give up on using that idea and think of an easier way to do it. Just try to keep your projects simple and easy. 6. Good Advice or Bad Advice? How do you judge the quality of information you find? Sometimes teachers, books, or people on internet forums accidentally give out really bad advice. How can you tell if information is good or bad if you don't know very much about the subject?

Make sure to learn information about this person. If the person has made great films and effects, then trust them, but if they make horrible films and are not well respected, then I wouldn't listen to them at all. 7. Feeling Proud About A Job Well Done When you do a project that turns out really well, how do you express your pride in your work to the world?

Show your work to everyone you can. Tell your friends, your family, tell your parents to go tell some of the people they are friends with. Also put your videos into contests and be confident. If you do this you will get far.

Stilt Experiences Ben The shoes, the shoes makes the stilt. I was totally comfortable except I used a five year old pair of sneakers instead of buying a new pair of cheap sneakers for 15 bucks. I ended up having to wear two pairs of wool socks because no matter how tight I tied the shoes they were still loose and my foot slipped forward. (I could have tried what Squiggylee did and added a block of wood to help support the foot. Maybe next time.) It was a workout on my calf muscles, but I was also doing crazy things like running up a steep hill and a half mile march across a huge university campus, also uphill. Those were exhausting. Definitely have some muscle on board before trying to wear the stilts all day, I'm an avid hiker and it still made my Above, werewolf vs. “Jesus,” the tallest man legs sore after a couple days of wearing them in a at the university. Below, a view from three row. Doing toe curls or toe bounces to strengthen stories up at night. the calves would be a good idea if you're going to Username Gryphern, YouTube use the stilts for an all day event. I wonder if the fact that my stilts added nine inches of height to me added to how much work my legs had to do. I wore out the bungee cords every time I used the stilts. I should have used the thick bungee cords instead of the stupid mini-bungees. I learned to check the stilt each time I was done using it because the metal hook on my bungee on my right leg bent and the bungee popped loose one time. It was like someone sliced my achilles tendon, or a tore a muscle in my leg... except the tear wasn't in my body but was in the fake extension of my leg I'd built. My leg buckled and my thigh started burning because I was suddenly supporting myself with muscles I didn't know I had. I could barely stand. I mistakenly believed the bungee cords didn't help much, but I changed my mind when I saw what it was like to suddenly not have them.

blackcat2086 Building the stilts was actually very easy, and I'm not a power-tool savvy person (I did learn the importance of drilling your holes first before drilling in the screws though.) I managed to make them in a day, from start to finish. I practiced walking in them in the hallway, really afraid that I might trip, but I was surprised that they were really quite easy to walk in, and a whole lot of fun. I was even able to go up and down stairs in them (very VERY carefully). I do have advice though... Do NOT duct tape your feet to the stilts! It's fine at first for a short period of time, but I pranced around in them for two hours and (I swear it's the truth) my feet were deformed for a day or two. I'm still looking for a cheap pair of sneakers to attach to the stilts.

Squiggylee I adjusted by not putting any toes (rather a paper mache hoof,) not bolting my Docs down (rather

used eye screws to hold the heel in place and bungees to hold the toes down.) I placed a small block of wood under the toes so the weight would go to the ball of my feet rather that the toes, and I didn't put on any drawer sliding thingies. I was able to carry my 22 pound son on my back for hours!!

Tathi We found everything we needed to make the stilts at Lowes/Home Depot/your hardware store of choice. The cost for all the materials came out to just under $50. We followed the blueprint from Gryphern's YouTube video and website instructions, and modified them from there for smaller feet by using wood that wasn't as wide. It was ultimately designed with the idea of attaching foam around most of the structure and carving it into a shape that would hide the framework, and then fur would be added on top of it all. In the end, the foam and fur did hide the structure and the wood shape very well. I even managed to devise a way to make it so that the metal supports would still be able to rotate on the washers and work correctly with the bungee cords without having to take the fur off. Essentially, it fit like a boot; you had the shoe inside with a cuff of foam and fur surrounding your ankle area, and then the supports were hidden by pants. The bottom of the stilts had flip-flop foam cut into the shapes of doglike pads. These were both for effect and to quiet the stilts. They did not adversely Minotaur legs affect balance or movement. However, the toes of the Username Squiggylee, Photobucket, YouTube design did catch on rough ground and eventually tear off, even when we nailed them in place. I would try to find an alternative method to create this effect in future projects. The greatest pitfall of the stilts was actually wearing them for long amounts of time. We considered building hard, supportive c-shaped cups or braces on the top of the metal supports (like the kind you see on some kinds of crutches, that cradle the arm). We reasoned that these we help keep the metal supports in place better, because the bungees tended to pull the supports to the back of the calf and then walking became -quite- painful as they dug into the back of the knee. However, at the time we weren't sure how to attach them-- we would have made them from PVP pipe and padded them with extra foam for comfort-- and we opted to skip them. Turns out we should have made them, because after about an hour in the stilts at the local Renaissance Festival, the backs of my knees and calves were bruised and nearly bloody. The other problem that presented itself was wearing the stilts while in a mask with low visibility. When you have no mask, you have good peripheral vision and can sense the ground in relation to you-- how even or uneven it is, where to step, obstacles to avoid on the ground like sticks and potholes. When you are wearing a mask, even one with -good- visibility, you are still losing much of that peripheral vision of your terrain immediately in front of you. In short-- they are easy to wear for just walking around on their own. It is -much- more difficult to wear them in a full costume. Especially outside. Bring a walking stick and a spotter to help you get around and keep your balance. I just about fell down several times, and was glad I had someone to grab on to to keep me from going down. I get the feeling that wearing them on concrete or carpeting would be much less challenging, of course, but all the same, it's good to have someone to help you out.