Step by Step Powertex Zombie Hand

Apart from the time my daughter made me sit through Dawn of the Dead with her, I have never watched a zombie movie in my life, but this for this Halloween I decided to embrace my dark side and have a bit of fun creating a Powertex Zombie Hand.

  
What I used:

1 x Mache Hand (I got mine from Hobbycraft, but they are available in most craft stores)
1 x Powertex Wooden Base
1 x torn off cotton shirt sleeve
Masking Tape
Tin foil
Powertex Fabric Hardener
Various Powertex Pigments
Powertex Easy Varnish
Powertex Bister I used the ready made sprays of red and black, but again any colours will give a good effect
Bag of Halloween Spiders (or whatever else takes your fancy)
Small Tiles if you want to add a bit of weight to the base

What I did:

I made a hole in the base of the mache hand, and placed it over the top of the Powertex Wooden Base, securing it with masking tape.

I then bulked out the top of the base with tin foil so that there was not a sudden edge where the hand met the pole, and covered with masking tape and Powertex.  (It doesn't matter what colour Powertex you use for this as it will all be covered up anyway.

 

I painted the hand with Red Powertex Hardener, and then went to town with dribbling Black, Red and Green Powertex on top of this, spraying with my bister and blasting with a hair dryer to create lots of bubbles and textures.   

Top Tip: I keep my old Powertex containers that just have a few dribbles left in them for this purpose, I love a the effect of dribbling and spraying with bister, so absolutely nothing goes to waste by doing this.

I then soaked my torn sleeve in Black Powertex - being sure to keep the edges nice and raggedy, and also turning it inside out to make sure all of the inside of the sleeve was also thoroughly coated, before sliding it on over the base and playing with it to create lots of interesting creases in the fabric.

The sleeve took a bit of persuasion to stay in place, so I wrapped some clingfilm round it and left it overnight so that it would harden in the position I wanted it to be in.

Once the sleeve had set in place, I added some plastic spiders to really spook it up.  The spiders I used were plastic ones so I secured them in place with superglue.

I also wanted to add a bit more weight to my sculpture so I painted a couple of small tiles with Black Powertex and placed my Powertex Wooden Base on top of these.

Now it was time to add the final touch of colour.

I chose to use Red and Burgendy to give the effect of dried blood and fresh blood, along with the Golden Olive for the zombified hand.

The shirt I dry brushed with White and did the Spiders in Silver before going over the whole thing with the Wonderfully Spooky Terragreen to finish it off.

 

This was definitely out of my comfort zone, but great fun to make.  The Powertex Team would love to see your Halloween makes so please do post them on our Facebook Page Powertex Addicts United

You can see more of my makes on www.facebook.com/artmuralsbydonnamcghie 

or my website www.artandmurals.co.ukwww.artandmurals.co.uk