Armature Samples:

I made this sample to show how the armatures are to be made for the final pieces, the materials I have used are aluminium wire, which has been bent in two and braided using a drill and an epoxy putty called "Fix It". Each piece of braided wire was then cut and bent in half to form two fingers and placed one inside the other in the epoxy putty. The thumb is made from a single piece of braided wire and inserted in to the epoxy putty and bent in to shape. The putty takes 5-10 minutes to dry, it also helps to build out the weight of the armature and acts as a guide to certain parts of the body such as the hand. 

I covered the armature in a polymer clay called "Super Scuply", it worked well but I found it showed any little impurities in the sculpting process, however I found from a tip online that rubbing baby oil in to the clay with your finger smooths it out perfectly 

 Armature hand example and baked polymer clay hand example ready to be used for casting to make further samples.