Craft Project: Make a Plaster 3-D Hand in a Glove Mold

Plaster life-sized hands are fun to make, and even more fun to display. They can be used alone, displayed in groups, or? Imagine is your only limit on what you do with these plaster 3-D hands.

Glove Hand Step One: Gather your supplies. You will need a box of Plaster of Paris, and some thin throw-away gloves from a medical supply store, craft supply store, or the kitchen area of your favorite fast-food establishment. And: a bucket, a mixing container, a funnel, a metal coat hanger opened straight, some string, and a 4-inch tall box, book, block of wood, or other square-ish item that will fit into the bottom of your bucket. Paints and acrylic sealing spray are optional.

Glove Hand Step Two: Tie a long piece of string to each side-of-the-wrist corner of your glove. Put the 4-inch tall platform into the bottom of your bucket. If your bucket has a handle, secure your opened coat hanger to the handle so that it stays tight across the center of the open end of your bucket. If your bucket does not have a handle, secure your opened coat hanger tight across the middle of your bucket by using duct tape on the sides.

Glove Hand Step Three: Mix enough plaster to fill a single glove, according to box directions, in your mixing container. Make your mix a little on the thin side so that it pours through the funnel, or scoops into the glove easily. Plaster starts to set pretty fast, work quickly.

Glove Hand Step Four: Pour plaster into your glove while squishing lightly now and then to keep the air bubbles out. When your glove is full, drape it over the 4-inch tall platform in the bottom of your bucket so that all, some, or one finger is extended over the edge of the platform in the pose that you would like your hand to be in when finished.

Glove Hand Step Five: Tie your plaster hand to the coat hanger cross bar, and make sure that the fingers resting on top of the 4-inch tall platform come up toward the top of the bucket a little bit so that the hand has a natural slightly opened look when finished.

Glove Hand Step Six: Read your plaster box directions and let your hand dry until it is very dry. Plaster is soft and will break if you try to remove the glove before the hand is totally dry.

Glove Hand Step Seven: Treat your hand with care, and use a razor blade or an Exacto razor blade knife to cut the glove off of the hand. Plaster can be sanded to remove any rough edges and to make the bottom flat enough to stand up. It can be carved to make finer nail lines, tattoo outlines, ring outlines, or wrinkles.

Glove Hand Step Eight: You can paint your hand in any kind of paint that appeals to you except watercolor. I have never had any luck with water color paints on the outside of plaster. A clear acrylic spray can be used to seal your raw or painted hand.