Hands?

October 21, 2007 7:52 PM

How do I make a low-cost, yet somewhat realistic-looking severed hand/foot?

I need a severed hand as a finishing touch to my halloween costume, but since the rest of my costume will be homemade, I'd prefer that the hand be as well. My only requirements are:

1) as cheap/low maintenance as possible. I don't want it to cost me an arm and a leg....(haha! I'm sorry, I know that was wrong, but I just had to...!!!!)


2) not too heavy, as it will be hanging off my butt all evening

Any tips, tricks, suggestions? I've seen some directions on instructables and other places, but they seem a little too labor intensive.
Thank you, wonderful mefites!

posted by chara to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

I don't know if there's any sort of realistic look you could get without a lot of work (I'm thinking paper mache or plaster casts)... in reality, getting a hand at a halloween store would probably cost less than the materials you'd need to do it yourself, unless you want something really low-res (i.e. a latex glove inflated and painted).

Are you going to tell us what a severed hand will be doing hanging off your butt all evening?
posted by you're a kitty! at 8:18 PM on October 21, 2007

Fill a latex glove with vienna sausages. Use slivered almonds or something similar for the fingernails.
posted by Frank Grimes at 8:23 PM on October 21, 2007

you could always go the "glove in hand method" its much easier to stuff a gardening or work glove to look full and then mock up a stump of arm with clay and paint (plus a little cooked spaghetti for sinewy stuff)...
posted by chasles at 9:03 PM on October 21, 2007

Easy-peasy.

You'll need:

+ One can expanding poly foam (soft is ideal, but hard will do... get it at your hardware store with insulating supplies)

+ One latex glove

+ One cloth, leather or heavy-duty rubber glove.

1) Insert latex glove in the cloth, leather or rubber glove. the outer glove will help the latex glove keeps its shape and not expand like a balloon.

2) Squirt foam carefully into the latex glove. Be careful to fill each finger.

3) Let dry.

Carefully pull the outer glove off. You should now have a latex glove filled with a hand.
posted by deCadmus at 10:04 PM on October 21, 2007

Nail salon supply stores carry realistic plastic hands for practicing the application of acrylic nails. I got mine for $3. It wouldn't be hard to make the stump look gory, which can be the DIY portion of the item.
posted by Scram at 10:56 PM on October 21, 2007

You can also repurpose one of those "cast your cock" things that sell for about $10-20 (one of my co-workers is writing a story about 'em). You can get them flesh colored, and you can slap your hand in there for about ten minutes, fill it with the poly goo, then wham—fake hand.
posted by klangklangston at 10:52 AM on October 22, 2007

FWIW, I was dressed as a twister board, and wanted a severed hand on my curvy bits as a "warning" of sorts to prevent people from trying to utilize the board.
posted by chara at 4:48 PM on November 13, 2007