Magnetic shoes!

I've been looking into shoes since I got my doll but it seems like proper heeled shoes for AP feet are hard to find. So I 've been learning to make my own. Then I got this Idea! Since AP heel feet don't have magnets like the flat ones, I figured why not put magnets under the shoes to help give the doll more stability. Also plus since she doesn't have a stand. All the ones I've seen feel so immersion breaking.

The shoes are a bit rough but I'm still learning and trying things. If you're gonna try it, make sure it's neodymium cause they have way more pull that cheaper fridge magnets. Obviously the doll should still be decently balanced but the magnets will give an extra bit of oomph. 15 x 2.7 mm neodymium magnets inset under each shoe. Thoughts?

 

This is honestly such a good idea! Now I know what some of my neodymium magnets can make themselves useful for. I'm right there with in in having a hard time finding stands I like. Sometimes a doll just needs a little extra help to stay stable, and this is perfect for that.

 

Love it! Some Obitsu bodies have built in foot magnets so that you can pose them on included metal plates or other surfaces without needing to balance their weight and you can also get action poses on one foot easily. For dolls that don’t have it, magnet shoes is a great way to achieve the same effect. Neodymium magnets are nice and strong so I’m hopeful these could easily keep most vinyls upright on an appropriate surface.

Yeps so far it's working like a charm! Also in addition to this I've discovered that magnets have an even stronger pull when stacked to other magnets of the same kind. If you notice in the picture under her foot are two magnets under the plastic base. So those are doing a great job keeping her pretty stable. Though of course this doesn't mean I can go crazy with the poses, she still has to be balanced. This just adds more room for error. Also.. make sure the shoes fit properly so her foot isn't swimming in them or she'll still be unstable. And the more magnet mass the better. I got the 2.7mm thick incase I decide to make some lower heels.

Hooray! I would love to see some pics of the kind of poses you’ve been able to finagle so far 

Wow, this is such a great idea, I'd love to see some poses too! I always have various sizes of neodymium magnets on hand, they can be surprisingly useful.

 

Ok so I did some testing with extreme poses. Definitely one foot poses I wouldn't recommend with AP heel feet even with the magnets. She can't bend her ankle side to side which is what she'd need to be stable on one foot. Can it work? yea, but finding a way to keep the foot flat to the magnets while balancing her is really hard. She needs to keep at least 3 points of contact or a small triangle under her even if the feet are super close, the magnets then help to add more stability to that incase of a desk shake.

The other thing would be to make shoes with side angled soles but that might be weird looking lol.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Angered-Icon
needed to add

On 2/11/2022 at 6:43 PM, Angered-Icon said:

Ok so I did some testing with extreme poses. Definitely one foot poses I wouldn't recommend with AP heel feet even with the magnets. She can't bend her ankle side to side which is what she'd need to be stable on one foot. Can it work? yea, but finding a way to keep the foot flat to the magnets while balancing her is really hard. She needs to keep at least 3 points of contact or a small triangle under her even if the feet are super close, the magnets then help to add more stability to that incase of a desk shake.

The other thing would be to make shoes with side angled soles but that might be weird looking lol.

Stanced shoes for superior drifting capability! It could work, you could paint the angles of the soles so they don't stand out so much. Or lean into it as a haute couture kinda vibe.

But yeah, one leg is tough. For resins you can always attach a wire to the stand base and run it up through the leg to help stabilize it, but not so much with vinyl. Maybe with a tall, very tight fitting boot. Or some kind of stocking material that could apply even compression around the joint so it can't wobble. Like whatever spanx are made from? If I spot some clearance rack shapewear I might play around and see if it helps at all.

2 hours ago, sugarbeta said:

Stanced shoes for superior drifting capability!

XD lmao! Stanced eh! Ok so which of your dolls is a gear head? J/K

But this does give me another idea!!!!!! A hole under the shoe for a peg! like a nail or something.  Well my shoe design has a pretty high platform but for lower shoes I guess the peg can go into the heel? And that should provide enough solid leverage on a decently wide base to hold her up on one foot ( in theory). something to try at a later date but I like this plan.