This week I was asked for advice on making the somewhat tricky legs for Squidward Tentacles. You see, two years ago, I had had the opportunity to be the costume designer for The SpongeBob Musical, at Fairfield Center Stage. And now, someone that had seen that production, is tasked with recreating the legs themselves, so they’ve asked for help.
When I started to create my version of the Squidward legs, I scoured the internet, and discovered not a lot written up on the subject. Through trial and error, and some help from friends with engineering backgrounds, I can say that by the end, those legs were pretty fantastic. So, now that I have had a chance to help someone else, I thought I would see if I could help some more! Here is what I’ve written up. Please remember, that this is all from memory, from two years ago, but I will include photos, because gosh darn it, I am proud of those legs!
Supplies:
- 2 pairs of pants
- One pair of thick tights/leggings
- Stuffing (your choice – bubble wrap, news paper, scraps of pool noodle)
- 4 pairs of shoes (1 with taps)
- 2-3 Pool noodles
- PVC pipe (I think 1/2 inch… skinny enough to fit inside the pool noodle)
- Pipe cutter
- 4, 90degree pipe connectors (one for each fake foot)
- Spray foam insulation
- Duck/duct tape
- Hinge of your choice
- Flat head bolts (and nuts) to attach shoes
- Zip ties or screws to attach hinges
- For comfort, we created a harness that attached the legs to a belt, to keep our Squidward more centered – I watched a lot of rock climbing videos for creating the harness, and got the strapping and buckles and triglides off amazon.
Creating the Squidward Legs was a lot of trial and error, but at the end of the day, I think we figured out what went right, and what went wrong. My goal here, is to tell you all the stuff that went right. Our Squidward used the pronouns He/Him, so those are the pronouns that I will use in the following description.
Let’s start with the shoes, we found that we needed four pairs of shoes because the best way to keep them together was with nuts and bolts… we tried other methods that would create less damage, but nothing held up, and with how much our actor moved around, having the shoes attached really allowed for the highest degree of confidence.
To allow for the shoes to be switched out, the two pairs of back shoes each had fake feet inside. These were made of PVC pipe, pool noodle, and a 90degree angle connector in place of the “ankle”. Spray foam insulation then filled the shoe to ensure that the foot did not move. This allowed our actor to put his shoes on, and then his dresser would attach the legs into the back feet. To save money, we used old shoes for the back shoes, and purchased inexpensive new dance shoes for the front shoes. The new shoes ran us around $30 a pair.
*This brings up another point, Squidward needs a dresser to help get dressed. Once the back legs are on, it’s almost impossible to sit down on anything other than a stool, and going up and down steps is tricky, so a dresser is needed to help with shoe changes and anything else during the show.*
Moving up the legs. The legs were made of PVC pipe, inside pool noodles. The bottom pipe attached to the ankles inside the shoes. The two pieces hinged in the middle, to create the knee. I searched the internet and books and found multiple ways to create hinges for puppetry, so go with the one you find easiest to create. Remember it is easy to drill into PVC to create holes, and there are tools for cutting it as well, so do whatever works best for you.
Then the legs were slid into heavy tights with the feet cut off. I was then able to stuff more wadding into the tights to create shape to the legs without adding too much weight. I used duck tape at the bottom to make sure only the PVC pipe stuck out enough to go into the ankles.
I sewed the top of the tights into the harness I created by watching videos on how to make rock climbing harnesses. I haven’t done that since, so I don’t want to describe it here as I’m sure I have forgotten how it is done.
The two pairs of pants were sewn into one pair at the crotch.
We had a multiple fittings to get everything right, but I started with the measurements of my actor, and just recreated a second pair of legs that matched.
I hope this made sense. Please feel free to ask any questions!
Always Be Crafting... 