Introduction: Wood Hand
This instructable shows how to transform the bark of an common oak to a wearable hand/glove for your left arm. In general this intent is not very difficult. The only thing you need is bark, a few tools, a glove and a little bit craftsmanship.
The difficulty is to maintain the flexibility of the joints of your hand. In this case we all together have 15 joints, in addition we can rotate our hand through the wrist. While putting everything together, it is necessary to leave these positions blank where the joints compress and stretch the glove, otherwise the whole construction will be to inflexible.
Wood hand in action:
Step 1: Materials & Tools
Materials:
- Bark
- Adhesive
- Gloves
- Zipper
Tools:
- Hammer
- Chisel
- Knife
- Pliers
- Pepper mill
Step 2: Fragmenting the Bark
At first i removed all wood fibers from the backsite of the bark. After that i had the pure bark layer. To maintain the natural look i tryed to fragment the bark to small pieces which i transfered in the natural formation to the surface of the glove. The size of the pieces was adjusted to the length of my fingers.
Step 3: Inking the Gloves
This step is unnecessary if you use appropriate textile colors. I advise to use dark materials for the glove and the extension. As i used gray materials i had to prime the textile with brown and black color.
Step 4: Bark Puzzle
Then i mounted piece by piece on the glove. In the last step i filled the gaps between the bark pieces with "bark powder".
If you have the few tools you need and a little bit bark already at home, this project costs only a few bucks (glove, adhesive). Depending on the adhesive you choose, it can be a little bit time consuming. As i choosed a slow curing adhesive (which stayed more or less flexible after curing) i had to wait after each mounted piece for 2 hours+.

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66 Comments
Question 5 years ago on Step 1
I have difficulty sourcing the bark for the glove. do you know of any online stores that might supply some?
6 years ago
Now you need to make a Wooden body suit
7 years ago
Hey question: You never show the palm of your hand, nor the inside of your forearm... did you leave those blank for purposes of flexibility and decided not show the blank side, or did you just forget to show that in all the pictures?
8 years ago on Step 4
THAT IS SO COOL!!!
8 years ago on Introduction
that's pretty cool! Another project for my work bench!
8 years ago
I am Groot!
8 years ago
I am Groot!
9 years ago
What kind of gloves did you use?
9 years ago on Introduction
I might try applying this for a Groot cosplay
Reply 9 years ago
I am Groot!!
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
NO I AM GROOT
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
WE ARE GROOT!
9 years ago on Introduction
this is awesome imagine a full body woodland camo suit that lets you properly blend in even if someone is looking straight at you and it could cover your scent a bit as well. i wonder if you could do this completely naturally with the pieces sown together with bark fibre (or any available dull colour cord) into your clothes and it could actually work without any synthetic glue or tools.
Reply 9 years ago
I bet you could. it would all need to have seperate joints. I think it would be cool to make a mask
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
Why not just use a morph suit. Its a costume if you don't know what that is
9 years ago on Introduction
I did this with feathers and now I can fly!
Reply 9 years ago
Lol dude nice one.
9 years ago
This is just like Peeta's wood hand from the Hunger Games. You are a genius and nice work!
9 years ago
Beast
9 years ago
This is awesome! Great work!! I can't wait to try and make one for myself!! And maybe my 2 boys lol