# Wax Mold Prop Hands



## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Hello everyone.

If your like me, you like to have detail in some of your props. One set of props I'm working on right now had the need for a few pairs of hands.

I checked out the prices for mannequin and latex hands and about fell out of my chair as the price would have cost about as much as I already put into the other parts of the prop. I then looked into the cost of using a disposable mold for hands and not only did the price shock me but the fact that it was a single use product.

This was when the haunter (aka cheapo) in me went to work. I started thinking of the different ways to make a mold of hands when it dawned on me, wax.

Now there was some trial and error in this as I found paraffin wax for those hand baths wouldn't cut it (wax was way to soft). However, candle wax was perfect and reusable.

After several attempts, setbacks, advances, failures, successes and cha chas, I am able to bring to my fellow haunters a way for everyone to make a cheap and reusable hand mold for your props.

Supplies:

-Lotion or Vaseline to help keep the wax from sticking to your hands
-4 pound block of candle wax
-Metal pot or bowl to melt the wax
-Pot a third of the way full of water for the pot or bowl with the wax to sit in while the wax melts. Basically a double boiler.
-Buck or bowl of ice water
-1/2 piece of pvc pipe, wire, or stick to use to attach the hand to the prop (optional, but still recommended)
-Plaster of Paris or Hyrdocal (lightweight plaster)
-A cup or something to hold the wax mold so the plaster can set up.

Pictures to follow...


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

First a warning. This has the potential to burn you. Please ask any questions you need to before starting this project as you undertake this project at your own risk.

Now that you have accepted your fate, you will want to set up the double boiler with the wax and start melting it on medium high (you may need to set it higher depending on how fast you want the wax to melt) on the oven cook top (unless you have something else that can melt the wax) and then turn it down low enough where the wax doesn't start to solidify.








This is the time you will want to apply the lotion and then place your hand in the bowl or bucket of ice water for 10 to 15 seconds.







You will then dip your hand once quickly in the wax in the position you want it to be molded and immediately return it to the ice water to cool.







Continue alternating from the wax to the ice water 10 or so times depending on how thick you want the mold.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Once you have the desired amount of wax on your mold, dip it in the ice water to solidify the wax so that you can remove your hand without breaking the mold. You may find the water will work it's way into the mold around your hand which is OK as it will help with removing the mold. Once it feel firm, start wiggling your hand out of the mold until your hand is free.







Take the mold and dip the wrist part of the mold in the wax to strengthen the top.







You can then put the mold in the ice water or the refrigerator to further solidify.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Once your mold is solid, you can use it to mold a hand. Place the mold in a cup or something else to hold the mold upright and pour in the Plaster of Paris or Hydrocal.







Tap the cup lightly on a hard surface to remove any bubbles and then let it dry at least 24 hours before trying to remove the wax mold.







If you need help with removing the mold, you can score the sides lightly with a exacto blade or butter knife (be careful not to go too deep as it will cut into the plaster).


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Have another warm pot of water on hand to dip the mold into to loosen the wax from the plaster.







The wax should then just peel right off.







Set them in a safe place to dry for another 24 hours and then decorate them to your hearts content. You will then have a pair of hands you can attach to your prop.







Enjoy


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Yea ... your hands are everywhere now! Thanks for posting this.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Just wait to see how the latex ones turn out.


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Have you tried using Amaco Flexwax?










It's a reuseable wax that melts at low temps, so less chance of burning yourself. It costs about $40 for a 5lb block, but remember you can reuse the material.

DeadSpider uses it to make her prop hands.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

The flex wax looks cool, but it's double the cost of regular candle wax if you bought it at the regular price of $20 (but of course I use a coupon). The frugal haunter that I am needs to watch the purse strings to avoid spending too much coinage. 

Thank you for mentioning this though.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I found that Strong Cast really works well with this project. It's very durable and doesn't break as easily as the plaster does.


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

This looks like a great idea! I wanted to try Flexwax, but found it way too expensive. I never thought to try candle wax. Thanks so much for sharing this


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## ouizul1 (May 22, 2010)

Wow. A little scary, but then that's probably just the wimp in me. But I'm gonna try it anyway.

Thanks for sharing, dionicia.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

The most important thing is to have the ice cold water next to the wax, don't let the wax temperature get above 135 degrees and as weird as this sounds, thick lotion is your friend. 

Please post your progress.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

Question: I tried this last night with my daughter's hand and used a butane torch to melt the wax off. Now it looks like there is wax within the plaster's matrix. Will that come out with warm water or am I now screwed? Any thoughts?


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Can you post a pic? I would say dip it in water but I'm wondering where the wax is on the hands.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

I posted the pix on my Weeping Angel's thread. http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?p=560185#post560185 near the end right now


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

It looks like the last picture is with the wax on. It looks like you might be able to get the rest of the wax off with soaking it in warm water.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

I recast her hands in the pose I wanted, but the thumb did not form properly. I think the plaster did not get into it properly. I probably will take the thumb from that other hand and graft it onto the new one. I will update with pix when they are available.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Going Frankenstein on it? Kewl. I can't wait to see pics.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

_(Note: this is a copy post from my weeping angels thread, but it is related)_

First attempt at plaster hands using the candle was technique was not so good. Maggie's hand relaxed. For the later attempts, I placed sticks between her fingers, which seemed to work better. The end of her pinky and most of her thumb on her right hand did not develope, but I used the fingers from my very first attempt to make up the loss.

Also, a number of fingers snapped off in the process of demolding. It was an interesting process of removing the wax this time. Because the wax hardened in the water between tips, it developed discreet layers. I also stuck the mold in the freezer before pouring the plaster.




























The brush on super-glue (of all things) seems to be the best thing to adhere damp plaster to itself. White glue just got absorbed into the plaster.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

When removing the wax, you might just want to melt down your main vat of wax and put the hand into it. That way it will melt almost all of the wax off. The most your left with after that is a thin layer. Also, I used Strong Cast. Love that stuff. Haven't had any breakage with it.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

They look really good.


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## billman (May 3, 2006)

Check out this video. Amazing that you can even lock your hands and get a mold done.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

That's one of the videos that inspired me to give this a try.


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## billman (May 3, 2006)

Great tutorial by the way! I want to give this a try.
I noticed in another video they poked some of the fingers with a toothpick then dipped into the ice water.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

That might have been to release suction but I never had a problem with that. Just have to get the wax off the hand before it starts to get really hard.


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## Lunatic (Oct 3, 2006)

Great how-to Dionicia! Thanks for pictures.


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## blueikaos (Oct 18, 2011)

I can't wait to give this a try!
Thanks!


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

This is great. Definitely worth a try. Thanks!


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## angel3210 (Oct 10, 2011)

question why not just do 2 part *paper mache or *a 2 part plaster casting for a real hand to make mold ? almost any hand position can be done in a 2 or 3 part casting and skip the hot wax? (if you want a wax hand to do modifications on read bottom part about how i did face for ideas.)
i can see the wax might be faster than plaster when making a hand mold but the detail of the hand is inside of the wax not on the out side.(a glove filled with clay as it drys can be shaped into any position really would give about the same result as the outside of wax hand). 
anyway back in high school art class(1970's) we made full body parts castings to make full personal clay likenesses when asembled all together and flesh color painted, the thing is even... with the vasiline on body parts the natural skin creasses / wrinkles and some arm hair patterns will show up in the plaster castings giving a very real look to cast item. it was fun making all the arms legs body etc. (no naked kids we had to wear tight one piece swim suits)
but when it came to doing the face i cheated,,while other kids had straws up the nose and mouth and laid on the floor for plaster on face- per teachers directions (you do the back of head in a swim skullcap cast first, put head in that cast then divider then put wet plaster on face yes everything gets vasiline thats getting cast) 
i went home and took kitchen tinfoil - pressed that to my face as sooth as posible, then stuck my (fully tinfolded) face in wet sand indent/hole in a plastic box (use elmores glue in the water will help hold shapes in sand) i wiggled my head, hard and deep then leaving foil in sand, took my face out carefully(this all took less then a min just held my breath). then i drizzeled clay slip into foil to coat and repeated over and over till i had a good shell of my face (90 % accurate). yes it had flaws from the foil creases but all i had to do was repair and smooth by hand to make a fair likeness bust of my head. now i had a good replica of my head. i had no problem making a plaster head cast .. no straws no freaking out under plaster for me  yes i got A's in art classes due to my creative engineering - when really it usually was just short cuts ( me lazy) or necessary personal adjustments to a t*echnique* to complete a class project. its amazing that there wasnt straw failers or kids beathing in wet plaster. but classes after that the teacher had kids do head busts by hand 1st. (no i didnt tell her how i made head bust, guess she thought i made it all by free hand sculpting eep i am not that good, but its the end product that counts ..right?)


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

This is just an option to help folks with hands which seem to be harder to come by sometimes especially at an inexpensive price.


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## Blackrose1978 (Aug 13, 2011)

I have been trying to figure out an cheap way to make hands thanks for the tip!!


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## Blackrose1978 (Aug 13, 2011)

Thank you soo much for the inspiration!! I tried this last night and it worked pretty well, if not a little messy lol. finally my creatures will have more realistic hands. I am thinking i am gonna take the hand we made and use it to create latex hands


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Right on. Post your progress. I would love to see it.


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## MorbidMariah (Mar 28, 2009)

This looks kinda fun! Gonna have to try this when I get ready to make witch hands.  Thanks, Dionicia!


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

I totally botched this somehow. I've tried 4 times and eery time I try to remove my hand the mold splits. I soak it in the cold water for about 30 seconds after I've dipped 10-12 times. I also tried just 1 finger and that still cracked when removing the mold. Not sure what I am doing wrong here lol


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## craigfly06 (May 11, 2012)

could you use latex instead of the plaster? would you fill it up all the way with latex, they would be expensive hands.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

You don't want the wax to get too hard. You want it to be still a little warm when you try to remove it. I'll take another video soon to show how I did it. Good hand therapy to boot.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

craigfly06 said:


> could you use latex instead of the plaster? would you fill it up all the way with latex, they would be expensive hands.


You would have to build it up otherwise it would take forever to dry (personal experience).


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

I bet that's my problem, my hand mold gets too hard. I thought it may be the wax I bought. At Michael's I couldn't find the 4lb block so I got a 2lb block of container candle wax. It get s really hard like in your video so I don't think that's the problem. I will try again tonight and see if I can remove my hand before the wax hardens. I'm making a grave digger prop this year and want to use this method for the hands. Thanks.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Make sure you also have really oily lotion on your hands. Helps the mold slip off your hands...and nice and soft too.


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

Next time I'll try some petroleum jelly I got from Dollar Tree


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

That should be do the trick.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

Oh, I wanted to also mention I tried two layers of latex (runny kind) allowing each layer to dry first and then used Great Stuff Window & Door. I thought it wasn't working and the Great Stuff hadn't hardened when I took the wax off so I put it outside. Well a day later and it was good and hard. 

Little note though, make sure to keep an eye on it as mine developed a bubble and popping it helped, but it had been hardening in that spot for long enough to permanently warp the spot.


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## pennywise (Aug 5, 2008)

sounds good. Hey, I wonder if silicone caulk might be ok to cast the hands with...


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I'm not sure. I know that Allen Hopps used Naptha to make the silicone more runny so it's possible, but be really careful as it can be dangerous. 

If you do though, take pics of the progress.


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