how to make a paper mache shoe without a shoe?

1. Put an existing shoe on a piece of cardboard, draw round the sole to give you the shape of the foot to the correct size of your own foot. Cut the shape out.

2. Put your foot on the cardboard cutout, put strips of paper over your foot and and use a stapler to fix these to the cardboard on each side of your foot.

3. When you have enough on to cover the front part of your foot, glue on strips of kitchen paper with PVA glue, you can use a hairdrier to dry it faster.

4. Use something like a Yakult pot for the heel and bend the cardboard sole of the foot so that the whole thing stands like a real shoe,

5. use more newspaper at the heel - you can do that without your foot in it.

6. use strips of kitchen paper stuck on with PVA glue to cover it all and harden.

7. You can use sticky tape instead of the stapler if you don't have one. Remember that it all get covered by the kitchen paper and glue. You can decorate the shoe when it's all dry.

Paper Mache Shoes

Adding to GroovyGirl623's excellent answer: If the shoes have been properly fitted, your weight is not resting on the ends of your toes at all. The "block" (NOT wooden) and its side "wings" support the lower foot as if in a very firm sling, distributing the weight across the strong and relatively stout bones of the lower half of the foot. This together with the technique of "pulling up" out of your shoes (the physics don't add up, but in practice it actually is very effective) make dancing on pointe much less painful than it would seem. It baffles me that people actually think that dancers would spend several hours a day dancing in shoes that actually did put their weight onto the tips of one or two toes. ps: If feet do bleed -- and the occurrence of bleeding is vastly overdramatized by movies -- it is because blisters have developed at other points on the toes -- the metatarsal joints, in particular. (Yeah right, I'm going to dance on bleeding feet every day for an entire career, because whee! I am a masochist! Give me a break.)

Make a form on your foot using packing tape. Wear a sock and start with the tape sticky side out and wrap your foot. Do about 3 more layers of tape with the sticky side in. Don't wrap it too tight. You will need more layers if it isn't holding it's shape. (depends on the brand of tape how many layers you will need to do this.) Cut a slit down the back of the form to remove from foot and then tape back together. There is more info on tape sculpture here: http://www.make-craft-projects.com/Mermaid-Sculptu...

Use this form and paper mache over it to make the shoe. There is info on paper mache here: http://www.make-craft-projects.com/paper-mache.htm...

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Please ignore the previous answers. There are no wooden blocks in pointe shoes, although that is the common belief. They only sound like they have wood in them when they hit the floor because the end is very hard. They are actually made much like paper mache except with fabric. This helps support the foot to stay in a pointed position without the foot rolling forward, backward, or sideways and helps distribute the weight of the body. Most dancers also use padding in the shoe to help cushion their feet so there is less pain involved. Basically, when you go on pointe you are standing on the very tips of your big toe and sometimes your second toe, depending on the shape of your feet. Your ankle is completely stretched. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on your feet, ankles, and knees. Many dancers end up with knee injuries if they are using improper technique on pointe. That is part of the reason your legs must be extremely strong, as they are holding the rest of your body weight in a position it is not used to being in (slightly forward from where you stand normally). You notice that it is harder to balance when on the balls of your feet (demi releve) - that is because your body weight is shifted forward. When you go on pointe, it is even further forward. So basically, to get to full pointe, you have to roll through your foot until you get into the position described above. Please, please, PLEASE do NOT try this at home. It is extremely dangerous to go on pointe if you are not ready. You could seriously injure yourself and never be able to dance again. I had a friend who danced at a different studio than I did. She went on pointe too early and seriously damaged her knee. It was literally swollen to twice its normal size, and she had to quit dance all together. Please wait until your teacher tells you that you are strong enough to be on pointe - usually around age 12, but again varying depending on your strength and technical ability. If you want to work on being stronger in the mean time, here are some exercises you can do: Stand on the edge of a stair with just the balls of your feet on the stair and your heels hanging off the edge. Slowly go up into as high a releve as you can get (without going up to full pointe), then slowly lower yourself back down. You can repeat this until your calf muscles are burning. You can also try it with one foot, then the other. Take a coffee can and some marbles. Pick up the marbles with your toes and put them in the coffee can. Lay a towel flat on the floor. Use your toes to scrunch up the towel. Using a theraband (available at a physical therapists office, at a dancewear store, or check online - it's like a giant elastic band), place the end over your toes. Slowly point your foot hard, then slowly flex it. For the above three exercises, make sure you do them with both feet. Good luck, and please don't try to go on pointe until your teacher says you are ready!

Use your foot as the shape.