Do you need an extra hand or two?

How to build your own helping hands.

Last March I needed a good way to add some height and display space to my tables without taking up much area and what I came up with were these hands.  After having these at several shows I noticed when I hang bracelets from the hands they get overlooked.  I am not sure why this happens because when I hang a bunch of same style necklaces from the fingers people take notice and often purchase the necklaces. Oh well, I needed more space to hang necklaces too so it all worked out.  If you have some antique gloves this would be a wonderful use for them but since I haven't found any yet I had to use new ones.

This would also be a fun way to keep out and accessible at home.

Here is a short tutorial on how to build your own helping hands.  Sorry I don't have photos of the steps I didn't think to take any as I was making them but I think it's easy enough to visualize.

Supplies:
Prom gloves, these came from Clair's,  if you can purchase cotton ones, the silky ones snag easily.  This style had elastic run up both sides and it made it easy to stretch them to the desired height.
2 1/2 inch dowels cut to whatever height you would like.  I cut mine to different heights it looks nice visually.
4x4 beveled edge squares for a stable base that can be clamped to your table if you are outside in the wind, these came from Hobby Lobby.
Paint for the base and dowel.
Long screws to screw the base to the dowels.
Rubber gloves
Fiber fill or cotton batting
Staple gun
14 gauge copper wire


Instructions:
1.  You will need to drill a hole through the center of the base and the center of the top and bottom of the dowel.  Attach the base to the dowel making sure these are screwed in flush so that the arm will set level.
2.  Paint the base/dowel pieces with your choice of color, I used brown.
3.  The gloves come with a cardboard insert and I used this as a pattern to bend some heavy gauge copper wire into the finger shape.  Leave a tail a few inches long on each end of your hand shape so that you can easily sick them into the top center of the dowel.  Adjust shape as needed to make the hand look somewhat natural.
4.  Wrap the fingers and hand lightly with some of your fiber fill or batting.  Pull a rubber glove on over this and when you get the hand looking like you want. Staple the rubber glove in place onto the dowel.  I did this so that the batting would be less likely to move when I was trying to get the glove on.
5.  Pull the fabric glove onto the hand you have created and shimmy it down over the dowel as far as you can, using your staple gun secure it to your dowel.  If you got gloves with the gathering you can hide the staples in the ripples if not just hide them in the side seams.

Ta-Da now you have some extra hands to take to the shows.