Monkey Paw!!

Alrighty. This is the monkey paw that I made and this is how I made it: 

First – I used copper wire ($1.50 at menards) to form the shape of the paw.

 Second – I didn’t get a photo of the tin foil…oops, but I wrapped the wire in tin foil shaping it as I went along. I added bulges where the knuckles are supposed to be and a bulge at the base of the paw above the wrist. I squeezed the foil as tightly as I could get it to get that “bony” appearance around the fingers. After I was satisfied with the shape (it takes some time to get it right) I wrapped the whole thing with masking tape ($1.00 at Walmart). After the paw was completely covered in tape, I squeezed and poked it a bit more to shape it again.

 Third – I globbed on a very thick layer of Gel Gloss Medium ($4.00 at Hobby Lobby). I painted it on thick to take away the appearance of the edges of the tape and to also get that desired dehydrated skin texture. It took quite some time to dry – so I set it out in the sun to speed it along.

 Fourth – I painted this lovely hand with a flat black acrylic paint ($1.00 at Walmart). I tried to add fingernails that I cut and formed from a water jug and glue them on with model cement…but it didn’t stick. The nails fell off leaving me with this amazing peeled and damaged fingernail look! All in all it worked out for the best, but I may try nail glue on the next one to get some longer ones.

 Fifth – The fun fur. I cut strips of black fun fur and laid them down with hot glue along the tops of the fingers. Then I put on the top of the hand, and finally I wrapped it around the wrist. The underside of the paw needs to stay fur free. After getting all of the fur in place I took a nail scissors and trimmed the fur until I got it the length I wanted and cleared it from the nails. I also added a bit of pig skin leather to the bottom of the wrist and wrapped it with leather cording with hot glue just to finish it off.

 I thought about adding some chains to it if I can get them to rust or appear rusty a bit. I still might, but in the mean time I may start on another. I’m thinking of dusting the fun fur with white spray paint in order to change the color a bit, or maybe a light bleach spray.



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