How to Make Creepy Hand Castings & 4 Amazing Halloween Crafts
Thing, the horrible hand that starred in The Addams Family, is the inspiration for our latest creative hand casting. We've gone for twice the creepiness, making a pair of hands, frozen in a monstrous, claw like pose. With a touch of Hulk green colour, this hand casting makes a fiendishly good addition to Halloween decor.
Making a Halloween Hand Cast
To make this foul handiwork, we enlisted the help of the Halloween crazy Goddard family. Living in a street where Halloween decorating and dressing-up have become competitive sports, the Goddard's grisly antics escalate year on year. This year, they hope to claw their way to the top spot with a gruesome hand cast.
We used a Couple Casting Kit from The Edinburgh Casting Studio to make our hands of horror. The whole family got involved with the freaky fun, with dad Andrew as the hand model, Nathan as chief mixer, Peggy in charge of the stop watch, and mum Catherine on hand to take pictures.
Step 1: Mixing the Alginate
Nathan mixed the sachets of alginate powder with water using an electric mixer. He worked fast to get the mixture ready in one minute, so it didn't start setting before the hands were in place.
Step 2: Making the Mould
Andrew applied baby oil to his hands and forearms. Striking a terrifying pose, he lowered his hands into the alginate until his fingers touched the bottom of the container. Lifting his hands up about 1cm, he then stayed 'in character' for 5 minutes until the alginate turned whitish grey and felt rubbery to the touch.
Step 3: Making the Cast
After 5 minutes, Andrew wiggled his hands free of the alginate mould. Then we got to work mixing the the sachets of stone powder quickly. For the ghoulish green colour, we added Coloured Earth's turquoise green mineral pigment.
We poured the stone mixture into the mould, a quarter at a time, rolling the container to get it into every nook and cranny. With only 5 minutes until the stone starts setting, we were up against the clock. Tapping the sides firmly towards the end of the process helped air bubbles to rise up. After 30 minutes the stone was set.
Step 4: Revealing the Cast
We turned the tub upside down and eased out the mould. Nathan and Peggy had fun peeling away the alginate, slowly revealing the horrible hand casting inside.
Styling Our Creepy Hand Casting
Our imagination ran wild as we came up with ideas on how to display the Halloween hand casting for maximum effect. We opted for dramatic under lighting to create scary shadows.
We draped fabric around the base of the hand moulds, so they appeared to emerge from a black hole of darkness. Then, for mischievous fun, we posed a monster hand sneaking up on a hand cast holding chocolate eyeballs, about to steal a sweetie!
You could have lots of fun with other ideas... maybe a touch of blood red acrylic paint at the base would add extra goriness?
4 Halloween Crafts We Love
While dreaming up our Halloween hand casting idea, we browsed some of our favourite blogs for inspiration. We found such an amazing array of creative Halloween crafts and wanted to share a few of our favourites.
- We adore these Lollipop Ghosts, perfect for handing out to candy-craving trick or treaters. Find out how to make them on The Purple Pumpkin Blog.
- Make this scary Black Cat Pinata, following instructions on Jennifer Perkins' fabulous blog. She is the absolute queen of Halloween decor and party ideas.
- Declare your home a trick or treat friendly zone with this Spooky Halloween Wreath, a fantastic crafting idea we found over at super-creative Little Button Diaries.
- Crafts on Sea has a halloween craft that's perfect for little children - this Paper Bowl Mummy adds a home made touch to Halloween decorations and is great for developing fine motor skills.
