MONKEY PAWWWW

This is a little guide on how to make a fake "monkeys paw" with moving fingers, the series of images arent complete, and at this current time, i cannot show you the finished product, but i shall post it at some point in the future.

Things you will need:
Liquid latex
Bits of polycore rope, in my case, i used short lengths of black cotton rope with white core
toilet roll tube
electrical tape
toilet roll
string
thin tape (scotch tape is fine)
talcum powder



Initially, you need to cut 4 lengths of rope to an appropriate finger length, this doesnt necessarily need to be a monkey paw, so any adjustments can always be made to the outside to make it any other kind of moving hand, human or otherwise.



You then need to attatch a string to the core of the rope, the string should be 3-4 times the length of the rope for ample use.



Pull the rope core through, dragging the string with it, you can discard the core if need be. and tie the string onto the outside of the top of the rope outside layer.





Simply tape around the end to ensure the string doesnt slip anywhere.



Cover the rest of the rope with the tape, to seal it for when you apply the liquid latex.



Use the electrical tape to make segments on the fingers, the segments is where the finger will bend, so make sure there is plenty of space, to allow flexibility.



Put all 4 fingers inside the toilet roll tube, which you can bend to an appropriate shape, thinner towards the wrist, etc.



You may want to pad the main section of hand, to make it padded and more lifelike.
And if you like, you can make a Thumb, which you can incorporate by cutting an x into the tube, and pulling the string through.



Make sure the strings are still accessable and fill the tube with toilet roll to make sure it doesnt lose its shape.



Wrap the rest of the hand with electrical tape, again to ensure the liquid latex doesnt bond as much with the hand.



If you want, the strings can be backtracked to its palm or wherever you like, if you want, but anywhere other than straight down will create more drag, which makes it harder to move the fingers.



You can now start coating the hand in latex, making sure not to get the string wet with latex, you should do this in a similar method to papier mache, you should wrap sections in toilet paper, or any similar thin paper, even gauze, wrap the sections, and wipe the latex over it till it soaks in.



You may want to quick dry the latex as you do this, to prevent the fingers sticking together, as this will happen often, you should quick dry it with a hairdryer, or anything similar, and then coat it with talcum powder, to seal the latex, to totally prevent it from sticking to itself, and during this process, through various means, you can do things like stick hairs to it, longer hairs, like a monkeys, should be done in lines, which when the hairs are layed flat, to overlap each other.