Making lightweight hands for a giant puppet

Some simple, but rather amusing 18 inch long hands!



They started as packaging foam, glued together with hot glue...



Add to this was some cardboard to form a palm...



To which cling film was added for lightweight padding...



Seen palm up...



Here's a standard size hand for comparison...



An outer skin is added with papier mache. This is tissue (wet strength) with latex as glue



From the top...



One hand was made manky, using coloured paper in the mache layering...



Eventually looking like this...



Some knuckle joint detail was drawn on using marker pen...



and finger nails etc...



To give basic details...



Finally a top coat of coloured latex was applied. This is simply natural latex with craft paint mixed in...



yum...



Sponged on with a washing up sponge...



Drying is sigificantly accelerated with heat from a hairdryer...



The latex is opaque before it cures...



As it dries, it starts to become transparent...



The finished hands.