I have made this tutorial to share with you the way I make the hands of my polymer clay OOAK babies.
You can follow this tutorial for babies from 4" - 22". If a bigger baby has the hands open and straight fingers, make sure you add a foil armature to the fingers as well so that they don't break, but if they have their hand in a fist I don't add foil armature to the fingers.
Pasta machine (If you have one, if not a roller or even your hands)
Clay shaper or any tool with a round point Needle
Triangular knife or any knife
Pointy wooden tool or a knitting needle
I always use an armature for babies 4" and bigger. I cut a piece of aluminium foil, the length is the size of the arm, scrunch it and twist it until I get a width I am happy with. Don't make it very wide. Remember it will get wider with the polymer clay.
Then I wrap it in a small layer of polymer clay I passed through the pasta machine, like in pictures 1 and 2
Now, before you wrap or after you finish wrapping, you can pose the arm in the position you want it to be. I always do it later, but that's a personal choice.
I use a clay shaper to press in the middle of the hand and make a small slump in the center of the hand like in picture 3
I will start to work on the fingers next. I cut 10 pieces of clay and roll them to make the 10 fingers, like in picture 4
I attach all the fingers on the hand making sure I press hard enough so that the fingers will not fall off and I make the folds and wrinkles like in picture 8. Make sure to smooth every time after you add clay. Then I measure the other 5 fingers with the fingers I have already attached to the hand, to make sure the size is the same on both hands, like on picture 9
The other hand will be with a closed fist, so I start attaching the fingers and again pressing hard so that they don't fall off, making small indents so that I can fold them easier as in the images numer 10 and 11 and 13 and 14
At this point I add more clay where the hands need it as in pictures 22 and 23, to make them fatter or wider I add more small indents for the wrinkles and at this point I will fold the hands for the pose I want, with a small triangular knife or any knife. Look at pictures 24 and 25 When the hand is folded how I want it then I start to add the clay to the rest of the arm like in pictures 26, 27 and 28 The hand is almost done, so now it's time to smooth, smooth, smooth all the clay and leave it all nice and rounded. I either do it with this pointy clay wooden tool, with a knitting needle or with my fingers Smooth as much as you can and make the flange or insert the loop you are going to attach your arms with and both hands are done.
Thanks so much for your time. I hope this OOAK Babie's Hand Tutorial can help you!
