hands

Sculpting Hands Tutorial

Enchanted Hearts

By Deb Wood Contact: deb@debwood.com

The following images will be a step by step process of creating hands in polymer clay. There will be a brief
description to accompany the photos, but really the images show the steps pretty well. These hands are a
simplified version, you can add as much detail as you wish or as much as your sculpt dictates.

Be sure your clay is thoroughly warmed and conditioned, as this makes this process so much easier.

My tools are simple. A scalpel, knife, paint brushes, a knitting needle and homemade needle tools.

Begin by rolling the clay into cylinders the size that is appropriate for your sculpture. Roll the clay round on the
end- no sharp edges, then flatten slightly. Pull out a small nub on one side of the palm, this will become the
thumb. Rolling between your finger and thumb, indent the area just below the palm, this is the wrist area.

Using a paintbrush handle or other round tool, indent the area by the thumb. Do this at an angle toward the
wrist. Pull out more clay into the thumb, and round it with your fingers. Using a round tool again, make another
indent where the fingers will join the palm.

Redefine the areas with the round tool. Be careful to not make those indents too deep, these are soft curves.
Cut the section that will be the fingers into four equal size segments. I use a scalpel for this step. Cut off
excess clay at the ends of the fingers so they are tapered.

Using a needle tool or lace draping tool, separate the fingers at the base. This next step is tricky and just takes
practice. Using your fingers, gently roll the fingers to make them round- with no sharp cut edges. A paint brush
is helpful to get into the tight spots.

Continue to roll the clay in the fingers- stretching slightly- and lengthening them as necessary. You want them to
be an appropriate thickness in relation to each other. Cut off the excess length and re-round the fingertip area.

Here you see the paintbrush being used to smooth the area between the fingers. Continue to smooth and
shape the hand-see the palm contours? You can add small pads of clay to the palms if your hands need more
thickness, for example, in the muscle area at the base of the thumb.

I use a stiff, small shader brush to make the indents on the inside of the finger knuckle joints. This makes for
an softer indent- not so sharp as would be the case if I used a needle tool here. The creases can increase the
chances of the finger breaking there, so you don't want a sharp indent.

Small balls of clay are added to the back of the hand to form knuckles. I am using a knitting needle tool to
smooth and blend these balls on the hand. Once they are smoothed into place, follow up with a brush to
smooth out any ridge marks.

Continue the indent through the back of the hand, again using the knitting needle. A bit of clay is trimmed
from the back of the hand, near the wrist. This makes that area look more contoured. Follow up with more
smoothing with the paintbrush.

Note: The paintbrush bristles are like sandpaper to raw clay. A bit of clay worked into the bristles gives you
a good sculpting tool. When there is too much clay built up on the brush, clean with alcohol and start fresh!

A bit more trimming, smoothing and contouring. If you find you cut off too much, no problem, just add a small
pad of clay back onto that spot.

Study the palm of your own hand to see where the lines are placed. I am using a dental tool here to put
these indents into the palm, but the same could be done with a needle tool. Add a few wrinkle creases at
the wrist.

Note: About needle tools, these are simple darning needles and embroidery needles imbedded and
baked into different colored clay handles. Each color is a different size needle. Saves me time looking for
the right size tool.

Final touches now- bending and shaping the fingers, bringing the thumb into proper position with the palm. In
the center illustration, I am pushing the whole thumb area toward the palm, not just bending the thumb. Study
your own hand and how it moves to get this pose correct. Your thumb doesn't move alone- the whole muscle
group moves too.

Fingernails can be done several ways. There are tools available to use for this- or you can simply make the
indent of the cuticle with a fine needle, as you see in the photo above. Remember to also make a slight
crease at the tip of the fingernail where the nail joins onto the fingertip. This crease can be detailed with a
touch of paint later to create the look of a real fingernail. In the last photo you see the finished hands. More
detail will be added once they are on the sculpture--wrist tendons, etc., but the hands are mostly finished
before they are placed on the sculpture. Of course you will reevaluate them once they are on the sculpt, and
before baking.

I hope you have found this tutorial to be helpful and informative.
If you would like to see addtional tutorials,
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