Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Making of a Hand display

HI!
Yesterday was "make a hand display" day for rings and bracelets. I started by tracing my hand on a piece of paper. Transfering that to freezer paper, ironing that to the muslin cloth, then stitching around the outline. I cut out the hand and turned it right side out and stuffed it. This is how much stuffing it took to stuff that one hand!

 
I felt the hand was too small. My ring had at least 1/4" space on the ring finger. So, I made another pattern. Prepped it in the same way as the other one and stuffed it. I put a wire armature in this one so I could pose the fingers. I did a little needlesculpting to define the knuckles and palm. I put red nails on it with a colored pencil. I put a few knuckle lines with a special brown pen I use on dolls.
 
 


The second one is too big and not as refined as I would like. I would need to remake it with more precision. The other hand in that picture is the first cloth hand I made that was on the small side. I added wool roving to it by needlefelting it onto the cloth hand, layer by layer. It is good but still not as smooth as  I would like. I am sondering if I should glue black velvet to it. Hmmmmm. Yes I did think of just making the hand out of black velvet but..... I got a better shaped hand by needlefelting the cloth hand with the wool roving. I have made legs for dolls with silk velvet but hands are a whole other animal. Hard enough with muslin.



 

 
I could spray some hot water on the wool and try wet felting it a little bit to get rid of all the fuzz.
My adventure into making a display hand. Interesting and close to what I want. I still need to refine it though. I could needlefelt some vines and designs on it. again....Hmmmm. I will spend some time this afternoon needling it some more to get it smoother.

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