Gimme a hand or two!
Everyone, give this boy on the sailboat a hand….or maybe two! As you can see he currently has no hands. Which ultimately means that he needs some hands! That is why I am doing this blog post. I will show you how I’m making the hands for my sculptures. Then this boy finally can have some hands to hold up the child who will standing upon his shoulders. Nonetheless he is very happy to be the first of the children sculptures to be on the sailboat.
I have some photocopied directions that show how to make a homemade jig for making hands, so that’s what I did. I used a scrap piece of wood. Decided what size to make the hands. Pounded some nails into the wood and there is my homemade jig!
I used 20 gauge wire to wrap around the nails on my jig. Then I carefully removed the hand shaped wire from the jig. Next I used a jewelers pliers to help “fine-tune” the finger shapes. After shaping the hand, I wrapped floral tape around the wire formed hand. I also used pieces of masking tape to cover over the wire.
The first hand I made!
Once the taping was finished, I started to add Apoxie Sculpt to the hand shape. When I had most of the hand sculpted with the Apoxie, I added it to one of my children sculptures. Since making that first hand, I decided that it would work out better if I added the “wire/taped” hand to my sculpture piece before sculpting the hand with the Apoxie. Currently I am in the middle of making more hands and adding them to my remaining sculpture pieces. I have a total 7 pairs of hands to make for my sailboat sculpture. Can anyone lend me a hand? (pun intended!)
Yay! I have hands....but my hair is foil!
Guess I better be going for now. I still have plenty of “work-in-progress” updates to share with you. I hope you enjoyed today’s post about creating hands and that you will return to see future updates. Talk to you later!
Catch up on previous “Sailboat Saga” updates by clicking any image below!
 Sailboat "Before" |
 Children Sculptures |
 Sun & Moon |
An artist who aspires to become a children's book illustrator. Stays young at heart and an avid daydreamer. When the weather permits, I enjoy visiting/biking on the nature trail near my house. Visiting the trail has brought me many hours of enjoyment and relaxation. My camera is usually by my side while on the trail. I like to try to find the small and unnoticeable as subjects for my photos. And of course flowers and plant life encompass many of my subjects.
Thanks for showing how to make hands!! I never knew!! You made it look easy but I know how difficult working with wire is! I appreciate you showing this!
Caroline, you’re welcome and thank you!
Great information Christine! It’s so fun watching this being made too. I almost feel like I’m there in your studio. Thanks for sharing : )
Kerin, thank you and you’re welcome into my “studio” anytime!
wow. this is so inspirational… I’m looking at your “kids” and thinking… ahhhhh, that’s what I want to do! Thank you! I’m always moved by the freedom and sweetness that artists are willing to share with!
Thank you, Myra!
Hi Christine,
That was so cool how you set up the demonstration to create buy-in from your viewers: Even I wanted to make him some hands! Thanks for responding to Shannon’s call for interest. My number is 714.328.7343. I will email you from your email to Shannon, too. Be well! Sheffra