After a few days of contemplation, I decided to give this hand sculpture a go. When I sliced off the block of clay, my cellphone battery was dead, so the camera photos start part way through the lesson.
I sliced off a clay block that measured approximately 3 inches X 3 inches X 8 inches high and placed it on my board. I started squeezing the block to make it thinner and taller, constantly looking back at my left hand. I was trying to make the palm part 3 1/2 inches high and 3 inches wide to resemble my own hand. The depth needed to be about 1 1/2 inches, to allow me to trim it later. My tallest finger is only 2 3/4 inches long from its base where my palm starts, but taller than my index and ring finger, so I proceeded to trim the top section like an arc to allow for the middle finger. I then sliced straight down with a sharp knife, leaving the palm of the hand at 3 1/2 inches high and trying to make the fingers all the same width. When I separated them, they were quite square, so I sliced down each corner of the fingers, front and back to round them out. Here, they still look a bit flat and need more forming. I tried to shape the hand like my own, so I scraped in a few lines and formed the wrist, pushing the excess clay down to the base. Abase is necessary to balance the weight of the bent hand.
I continuously checked my left hand to form the correct angles on the sides and back of the hand. My thumb pad was not right and the thumb itself was awkward and thick, so more trimming and pressing to try and get it right. I added more clay to thicken up the thumb pad on the palm to look more realistic, and I cut down an extra 1/4 inch into the palm for the baby finger to look right. Then I smoothed each finger around and pressed in the finger creases with a small trimming tool. If you look at them, the finger creases actually curve up and down and there are little puffy pads where the fingers meet the palm. You can push the clay up from the palm to form these pads or add a bit of sticky clay and press it in place, smoothing it in to the palm to blend in. I moved the fingers around to get the best bend in each one before the clay started to dry. To make the finger nails, I pressed in the round end of a nail file and dragged it out. Then I smoothed around each finger again. For the thumb nail, I pressed in a tongue depressor and dragged it straight out to simulate the nail, then smoothed around the end of the thumb.
For the knuckles on the back of the hand, I pulled out some sticky clay and made 4 small balls (pea size) and pressed them on, and then smoothed them in to look like knuckle bumps. If you look from the side, the fingers actually run quite straight from the knuckle to the first bend, so try and smooth them out on the back. A damp sponge will do wonders to smooth out the imperfections. I covered mine with a plastic bag so it can set up a bit, but it is necessary to scoop out the inside tomorrow so that it won't blow up in the kiln. Here are a few pictures from different angles. The last thing I did was to trim the base with a sharp knife to square it up. Tomorrow, I will scoop out the center of the base.
Today, I scooped out the bottom of the hand, so that the interior wall is between 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. I was afraid to go thinner for fear it would collapse or poke through, so this will have to be rock dry before firing.
I have a few more photos of the finished product.
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