Show your handiwork with this awesome glow-in-the-dark project! This rubber band hand wraps around your wrist and fingers to imitate a creepy skeleton hand, and the best part is what happens when you turn out the lights! If you are making this project for a smaller hand, reduce the number of bands you loop onto pegs for steps 4, 6, 8, and 9 for the fingers, and 17, 19, and 21 for the thumb. Anything that glows in the dark usually needs to soak up some light first, so just make sure to keep the project in lots of light before you want it to glow in the dark.
Difficulty level: Medium
You need:
1 loom • hook • 5 c-clips • 19 black beads • 290 glow-in-the-dark rubber bands
1. To begin this project, set up your loom by connecting two columns to make one long column on the loom.
2. Attach two rubber bands over the first peg and onto the second peg along the column.
3. Thread two rubber bands together through a black bead. Attach one side of the beaded bands to the second peg and the other side to the third peg.
4. Attach two bands over the third and fourth pegs, this time without beads. Repeat this process until you reach the eleventh peg in the column. (For smaller hands, you may stop attaching loops at an earlier peg.)
5. Thread two bands through another black bead, and place the bands around the next pegs (the eleventh and twelfth pegs).
6. Continue to lay out your line of double bands for the next four pegs.
7. Thread two bands through a bead, and attach it from the most recent peg to the one after it.
8. Lay out your line of double bands for the next four pegs, then bead the next two bands before placing them on the next pegs on the loom.
9. Continue to lay out your line of double bands to the end of the loom.
10. Double-loop a cap band over the last peg.
11. Turn your loom around so that the arrow is facing you. Starting with the peg where you placed your cap band, begin looping your bands back to the peg where they started. Continue looping all of the bands until you make your way to the other end of the loom where you started laying out your bands.
12. Once you have reached the end of the loom, attach a c-clip. This c-clip is just to keep the project together while you continue working, but will eventually be removed when you connect all of the fingers to the hand.
13. Remove the project from the loom and set aside.
14. Repeat steps 1 through 13 three times to make the remaining fingers.
15. To make the thumb, you will be repeating a similar process as the fingers, but with fewer bands and just three black beads.
16. Attach two rubber bands to the first and second peg.
17. Thread two bands through a black bead, and attach it from the second peg to the third.
18. Lay out a line of double bands for the next five pegs. Bead the next pair of bands before placing it on the loom. Lay out non-beaded double bands for another four pegs. Thread the next pair of bands through a bead before placing them on the loom. Lay out a line of non-beaded double bands for the next four pegs.
19. Double-loop a cap band over the last peg.
20. Turn your loom around so that the arrow is facing you. Using your hook, loop the band beneath the cap band to the peg where it came from. Loop all the bands in this way until you reach the end of the loom.
21. Attach a c-clip to the final loose loops on the loom, then remove your thumb and set it aside.
22. To make the “wrist,” or bracelet portion, lay out a line of double bands all the way down your double-length loom (or less for smaller wrists).
23. Double-loop a cap band over the last peg.
24. To put the skeleton hand together, you will need to connect the ends of the “fingers” to different pegs spread out on the loom. Begin with the “thumb,” and wrap the beaded end of it (where you had held it together with a c-clip) over the third peg from the cap band.
25. After the thumb, connect the “fingers” to every other peg.
26. Starting from the peg with the cap band, loop each of the bands back to their original pegs until you reach the end of the loom.
27. Connect a c-clip to the last rubber band, and remove everything from the loom.
28. Complete the wrist by connecting the ends together, either by tying with an extra band or by connecting the end with the c-clip to the opposite end.
