I had to tend to other matters over the past few months, mainly my other business, which obviously put my art endeavors on hold. Today I had a day off and was able to devote some time to my stalled art mannequin project. Yes Hector has been frustrating me. Did I mention I named him Hector? After much thought I decided that since any adhesive that actually works on both the muscle and bone weakens the muscle, I needed an intermediary component between the two – like a tendon. It needs to bend but not stretch. At first I was trying plastic like a ziplock bag closure, but then I realized that was a dumb idea because it is very smooth and adhesive probably won’t stick to it either. I needed a material with texture. So I found a pair of black canvas-like shorts and started cutting them up (they didn’t fit anyway).
I had two tests to do: embed the fabric in the molds and see if the silicone will adhere to it, and glue it to the bones and see if they stay.
The first test worked great. I put a small piece of fabric in a mold along the attachment edge and injected silicone. After it cured I removed the newly-made muscle and the fabric was securely contained within the silicone rubber.
The second test has not been so rewarding. I’ve tried all my adhesives trying to glue the fabric to the bones. Although some do adhere, I am able to pull the fabric off rather easily.
Since the first test succeeded, I mixed up some more silicone rubber and poured it into four muscle molds with fabric embedded inside. I’ll take them out in the morning and see how they cured.
I did one last test for the evening by gluing many pieces with different adhesives to some bones and then clamped them with clothespins. I’ll let them all sit overnight and see the results in the morning.
