Hands

While I still had access to my dad's workshop I decided to get the hands done too. I roughly followed along the AWESOME posable hand building tutorials at project puppet (www.projectpuppet.com) and the puppet 101 blog.

First I created the hand- sorry for lack of pictures on this step.

I started by using a pattern to cut the foam hands. I then set them aside.


A little jump here.... I cut the palm out of 2 ply chip board. I cut holes in the board using an exacto knife and then attach 16 gauge floral wire (Looking back I should have used thicker wire). Notice they are curled on both ends. This helps displace the pressure on the fnger tips when adjusting them later and the bottom curls attach the wire to the board.


You can see all the supplies and patterns here. You'll also notice a few new pieces in hte upper left that I created with foam and then wrapped the "skin" terry cloth around. I'll get to that later.


I'll ve using 5/32 music wire for the arm rods. These aren't easy to cut to size so we had to bring out the POWER TOOLS. Did I mention power tools ROCK!? SPARKS OMG!



Next you want to bend the end a couple of times so the angle is appropriate for the hand.


Next, using some 5 minute epoxy, I glue everything in place.

I put this aside and get to work on the grips. I'm using a half inch square dowel that are cut to two 4" peices. I drill a hole for the music wire to fit into.


Using a dremel I cut a groove into the wood. This will allow the wire to sit flush.





Using epoxy I glue the rod in place. Note I have bent it 90 degrees before hand. The rod should fit flush on the grip.


Then, using electrical tape I wrap it up.

Now back to the hands. I coat them with contact cement and sandwich them between the foam hands.


Then I finish the edges by applying some cement to the edges and pinching them. Here is the finished hand.