Wire Woes

I think if it wasn't for little problems (stumbling blocks) I wouldn't experiment as much as I do. I said earlier I'm working on my project for my art class - and I'll be doing so for at least a week.

Living in a small town can be a real challenge to finding the materials that you need. I spent one morning going from hardware store to hardware store looking for aluminum wire to use as an armature. I finally found some wire to use for the body but none for the hands. I went through all my wire at home but none had the same malleability as the Alumaloy armature wire.

So I ended up using four strands of that jewelry making stuff, Wild Wire, for the hands - seems to have worked pretty well so far. Instead of using pipe cleaners and twisting them together, which makes for a rather thick wrist, the pattern called for twisting the wire into a hand shape. Interesting process. Then the wire I found for the body (which was a 4 foot coil) wasn't long enough to reach the feet when bent in half. Of course I didn't realize this until I got the leg skins on and noticed that the wires reached the ankles and that was it!

Would have been really hard to put the feet on that way .. and now that I have a right and left foot I really want to use them! Lucky for me my husband has all types of welding equipment, so I had him weld an extension to both leg wires . I trussed up the doll in foil until it looked like some strange shaped pot roast and then left, I couldn't bear to watch.

I also couldn't afford to have sparks make holes in her, hence the pot roast couture! I wish I took a picture to share because it really looked funny.

But now I have wires that are long enough to work with. Can't wait to see what the next stumbling block will be!