Back to the Drawing board

The bracers didn't come out at all well from using the clay. The neck piece came out fine. It held true to shape and didn't really stick to the top of the doll or anything after it dried. The clay cracked in one spot as it dried. Apparently, when the clay dries, it shrinks and so you end up with the cracking. In order to fix it, I filled the crack with clay and allowed it to dry again. I have to sand it down now that it's dry, and seal and paint it, but I'm going to call it a success at least for the neck piece.

I'm going to have to rethink my strategy somewhat on the arm bracers. I think they need to be able to be taken off and put back on--so I'm going to have to come up with a way to do that. also the pieces need to be able to essentially snug when put on, yet easily removed. To that end I'm going to go off the beaten path. I've got an idea. I'll need:

1. pipe cleaners
2. glue
   
3. silicone calk/seal--preferably the white kind
4. Pigment
5. jewel bobble--green.

basically, the idea is that I'm going to cut the pipe cleaners to size so that they wrap around the doll's arm basically they form a skeleton of the arm bracer. once it's to the right size and shape to fit her arm, I'll glue them side by side. I'll let them sit until the glue dries--hopefully I can find some glue that will work and still stay flexible. I'm going to try fabric glue and see how that does.

Once the skeleton is finished and the glue is dried, I plan to paint the skeleton with a coating of silicone caulking material after it's been tied. Light coating after light coating on each side and it should end up being flexible and close to the right color for the project. After I let it dry--then I should be able to bend them around the arm. the silicone won't slide up or down and the bracers can be removed and put back because they are flexible. This is speculation right now, but we'll see how this turns out.