For those of you who may not know what a yeti is:
"The Yeti or Abominable Snowman (Nepali: हिममानव, lit. "mountain man") is an ape-like cryptid taller than an average human that is said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet."
It is a myth that it exists, and the creation of these shoes is done as a joke.
Step 1: Supplies
- A paper outline (More on that later)
- Hot Glue
For tools, the list is a little more complex:
- Saws (just enough to get a good shape out of the wood)
- File (for shaping)
- Drill (and drill bits, of course)
- A rotary tool (like a dremel. Not entirely needed, but very helpful)
- Hot glue gun.
Not too bad, right?
Step 2: Creating the Outline of the Foot
As a yeti does not exist, there is no real definition as to what the foot would be like. I decided to get creative, and I figured that a yeti would have feet that were like a cross between a yeti and a bear. I did some googling, and found out what a black bear has for feet. I printed the two feet out onto two separate pieces of paper, and added the typical human foot outline. This gave me a nice stencil to work with.
You can find your own Bear feet or check out use mine:
Step 3: Hot Glue-ing Things
After I had covered everything in hot glue, I added more height to the ball and heel of the feet. The goal here was to create a more realistic depth. Don't worry too much about the accuracy of the hot gluing, as it will be a making a mold in snow (which is not known to have lots of detail).
When I was done with this, I peeled everything off of the paper.
Step 4: Attaching to Wood
I then went and cut out the feet, and I filed the edge to be as close to the edges of the hot glued pieces as possible. Afterwards, I cut down some of the pieces in between the toes and in between the toe and foot. I was hoping to give more height to pieces so that there wouldn't be any bizarre flat pieces in the footprint. Again, I was not trying to be super precise, as the snow would be forgiving, and the imperfections do make it more realistic.
Step 5: Drilling Things
I wove the string as shown in the images above, except I did it around my foot (in the shoes that I would be moving around in the snow in). I kept a bit of string left over as my goal was to be able to tie them as shoes.
Step 6: Usage
In order to wear them, use the string that we put in earlier. The back loops go around the back of the shoes, and the shoes go through the other loops. The two ends then tie together.
Of course, to make tracks, I put on the new feet and walked around in them. I found that they were not too awkward to walk in, but they were difficult to run in.
Step 7: TaDa!