Edward, the Scissor Hand

This is a build of a display piece for a friend's Tim Burton themed wedding - I know, awesome idea! They had created props and decorations from every movie except Edward Scissorhands. They really wanted a glove, so I offered to give them a hand... HA.

Self imposed requirements: Raw materials where possible, quick build time and low cost. Going to forgo screen accuracy, lets call this a homage.

First I need a stand. I used plaster wrap to make a cast of my arm. Then I cut it off and closed the pieces back up and injected them with Great Stuff expanding foam.


The plaster wrap was pulled off the foam and the pieces were put back together. At this point I didn't like my original hand pose - it didn't look 'Edward' enough with the wrist ****** backwards. It was easy enough to cut and add foam to change the pose.


A base was then built from an old Ikea lamp and a leftover chunk of dowl. The hand was wrapped back up with plaster to make it stronger and to give a uniform look.


To build the fingers I went with some square stock aluminum tubing. Three of the sides were cut off where the blade was to be, the remaining side then cut into the shape of a blade. The square profile was left at one end where the finger would go.


The rest of the fingers were cut out in a similar fasion, though for two of them I used cut offs so one of the sides was missing for the full length.


Scrap peices of aluminum were shaped and then bonded with plummers epoxy, enclosing the finger blades and attaching some handles. A pair of old tin snips was cut up to make the thumb, the handle was used for the middle finger. The handle on the thumb came from some tongs I picked up at the local thrift store.


Thanks for reading, more to follow!

pretty sweet keep it going omni!

ultraman said:

pretty sweet keep it going omni!

Click to expand...

Thanks! - and ok!

To make the straps and the brace I cut up two old leather belts. The hand was used to lay out the patern, then four screws were used to hold it all together. I wasn't worried about the colour differences as they will get stained darker in the end.



Back to the blades. After the shapes were finalized and the handles attached they were first sprayed with a bronze spray paint. That colour can be seen on the side on the pointer finger in the first photo. Then a silver was shot over top, but lightly to let the bronze show through. Finally a gold acrilic paint was put over top using a wash technique (like weathering with a dark colour).



To make the body of the hand I went with the only material I had on hand I could sculpt - kids crayola air dry clay. Painters tape was used to cover the hand so the clay could be sculpted directly on the hand. The tape went on in two layers, the first layer with the sticky side out (so not to stick to the hand), the second with sticky side down. After the clay was on an exacto knife was used to cut the tape 'glove' along the edges and the clay was removed in two peices. I let it dry for two days infront of a fan, painting the hand base black. After the clay was dry it was painted with hammered metal finish paint. I was surprise how little the clay shrank.. though it did indeed shrink. I would not recommend this method for future builds as the clay is too brittle (I already broke it). Perhaps for the next build I will give casting a try.



For one of the mechanical linages at the back of the hand I used miscellaneous springs, rods and metal bits I had laying around. As well, the pivot peice from the pair of tongs I stole the handle from was put to use.

- and here is an assembled shot before adding the linkages at the back and weathering. The leather work was sprayed lightly with a semi gloss black and then roughed up a bit.


Thanks for reading!