Plaster Hands

"A HUMAN JUNGLE"

Plaster, Acrylic Paint, Super Glue, Hot Glue, Model Train Track Greenery

9.5"x 3"x 7"

This piece is again very heavily inspired by the pacific. But this time less so in culture and more so in geography. The ridges on my hand in between my fingers reminded me of the ridges on Hawaii's Na Pali coast line. I also didn't really know what to do because I was wondering how I would alter my hands and I just started painting them green, so I was pretty committed at that point. I have spent time in Hawaii and have taken many pictures of the dense rainforests and jungles and I kind of used my pictures as a reference.

The materials I used I borrowed from school or ordered on Amazon, and I have never worked on a project before that materials have mattered as much as they did in this. It was crucial to me that the jungle looked realistic and not half-a*sed, I wanted it too look real. I ordered model railroad scenery from amazon for pretty cheap and while I waited for them to ship I worked on the hands. Originally we made an alginate mould of our hands then filled it with plaster, my hands came out really well and I didn't actually want to alter them at all. However I started off by using the scragfitto tools to destroy the wrists of my plaster hands and create a wave battered coastline texture. Then I made a mixture of watery acrylic paint and kind of smudged it on and mixed green with blues and yellows and I think that alone looked pretty good. (I forgot to take any pictures of this). Then I painted a "coastline" on the bottom and painted the dark colored volcanic rock with the bright blue waves crashing against them. Finally, once the scenery arrived, I drilled holes and put the trees into them holding it with super glue. Then I used hot-glue to attach the moss. Finally I created a tooth pick bridge and really struggled with the sizing and how it was going to stay in a curved shape, but I realized I could use encaustic to not only paint it but also shape the bridge. I don't even like encaustic in paintings or anything and didn't think I would ever use it, however its properties of drying quickly as well keeping its form was perfect. I decided not to connect it to the hands so they could be more easily moved and displayed in multiple cases or shelves.

I really had no clue what I was going to do on this project but I'm super pleased with how it came out, especially because initially I didn't want to alter the hands at all, but I think this looks better now. The biggest challenge in this process was how the trees would look realistic, I was going to use wire at first but Al Dawson said I should use railroad scenery which was a way better idea and I'm super glad I did that. Making the bridge was the other real challenge involved but I eventually overcame it and I really like how the bridge turned out. Overall this is one of my favorite products I have ever done.