Cast plaster hand mounted to wall holds item for display.

Four years went by before we--Katherine, really--came up with the right method for displaying this hay rake in our very old former-farm house.

The effect is of a hand that's emerging from the wall to hold the item. It's simple and sculptural, and while the approach was perfect for this item, one should be able to use a similar approach for a range of other items.

This also serves as something of a keepsake since the hand cast is that of my dad, which is also fitting since he grew up on a farm, as did generations before.

The challenges were (1) casting it such that the hole matched the one needed to hold the rake, and (2) attaching the plaster hand to the wall in a way that revealed no hooks or other fasteners.

The materials are inexpensive and readily available. The mounting method was very "invasive," but it produced the effect desired. (We also don't plan on taking this down until we move.)

The rake is not affected, which was one of the requirements we had at the outset.

And truth-be-told, we didn't realize that the slope of the rake was just about the same as the slope of the ceiling until it was mounted.

Step 1 Cast the plaster hand, unmold it, clean it up, and seal it.

We used material from a local craft store that came in a bucket. Here's essentially the same thing from an online source.

My dad, whose hand we cast, held a piece of PVC in his hand. (Note that the angle, which was a guess, needed to be pretty close in order for an item of this size to be held without creating force that would pull the hand off the wall.)

After unmolding, it was easy to remove the PVC.

Following the directions that came with the casting material, we let it dry and then cleaned up the cast hand. This included filling some of the surface air holes with leftover casting material. We also sanded the surface with fine sandpaper in places to achieve a smooth surface.

We then spray painted it white (gloss) to ensure a uniform appearance and protect the soft plaster.

Comments

[mary11354]

Awesome great work and idea.

[rimar2000]

Good work. Don't you paint it, skin color?

[leewright]

Thanks for the kind words. Not sure if the question was, "Don't you paint it?" or, "Don't you paint it skin color?" If it's the former, as I recall I did and used regular gloss white spray paint. If it's the latter, I chose white because I wanted something more like a George Segal sculpture than . . . well, something like a Halloween special effect, especially given the context. (And yes, to stay true to the Segal approach, I would have used a flat rather than gloss paint, but the gloss catches the light that streams in this room during the day and should make it easier to clean over time.) Hope you found the ideas in this instructable helpful.

[rimar2000]

I did not read that part where you said that you had painted it. I can't read English well, and it is common that my reading is rapid and shallow.

[porcupinemamma]

rimar 2000 you do a very good job! I think it's admirable that you participate, even though english is not your first language. I have my TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language ) certificate; so if you ever feel you have any questions related to the english language, feel free to private message me.

[rimar2000]

porcupinemamma, thanks for your kindness. I learned a little of English 3 years at secondary school, (1957-59), Then, my daily work in computation forced me to continue in contact with English. Almost all user's guide and programmer's guide they are in English. Nowadays, fortunately, there are many automatic translator that enable the communication. I like to learn languages, as English, Italian, French, Portuguese. Other Instructables's people who have helped me with my language doubts have been Kiteman, Phil B, nachomahma, and others. My wife wants to make a tourist trip to the USA, and I would not rule it out because in USA there are breathtaking natural beauty that I would like to know. But it is important to understand the language.

[porcupinemamma]

this is excellent.

[rookie1]

Very cool. Great instructable.

[kelseymh]

Rather eldritch, but a beautiful project and excellently documented! Well worth a Feature. I see that you uploaded all of your photos at once, at the beginning. This had the side effect of attaching them all to the Intro step. You might consider removing all but the "big picture" from the Intro just for clarity (they'll stay in place in their appropriate steps).

[Ninzerbean]

I can't thank you enough for explaining that as my instructable also suffered from the same confusion and I could not get an answer from the robot about it. I just went and fixed mine the way you describe and it worked.

[leewright]

Thank you. It's the first one I've done/uploaded, and didn't realize the mistake until you pointed it out. I believe it's fixed now.

[nolte919]

This is really neat. I understand how you attached the hand to the wall, but how did you attach the rake to the hand? What keeps the handle from sliding right through the hand?

[leewright]

We were concerned about that, too, until we realized that there is a slight taper in the handle. When we tested this with PVC, we realized that simply by putting the rake in the hand, with no other attachment than that offered by the pull of gravity, the taper was such that the hand would be in about the middle of the shaft. Barring that, one invasive method would be to put a small rod perpendicular to the shaft and protruding on each side. Before doing that, however, one might try various sizes of rubber washers or rubber bands around the shaft where you would want it to be "held." Good luck with your project, and thanks for your question. I'll add some of this answer to the instruction text so it's clear for others.

[boneymaloney]

Very nice. To save faffing about with spacers and nuts and drills, you could simply sink the threaded rod into the 'hand' compound as it sets, making the rod a permanent part of the hand. You would need something on the end to stop the rod sliding out of the set plaster, like a nut. It would make mounting a little more tedious, perhaps.

[leewright]

We thought of that, too, but didn't think it would be as strong as needed given the size and weight of the rake. If the rod was going into something stronger or if the hand was holding something a lot lighter, we'd have been less concerned. The other issue was ensuring that the hand was facing the right direction and that it was flush to the wall. In our case, the rod isn't exactly perpendicular to the base of the hand, so screwing it all the way in when the rod is already embedded, without flattening the base, might be challenging.