Gluing Part 1

Since our last post we didn't have much time to work on this project. It mostly requires large blocks of time when we can get together. We did each put in some time on our own to finish up a few cleaning jobs. Janessa worked on the spine for quite a while. It needed to be reboiled, which worked best on two wires to keep the bones in order. They kind of looked like immunity idol necklaces from the show Survivor. Once they were all seperated they were cleaned some more with baking soda. Then also lots on time spent picking away at all the extra stuff. The insides were tricky to get completely clean but eventually were very nice, after using toothpicks, fingers, tweezers, and lots of patience. Allison got some hydorgen peroxide to soak all the bones in and made sure everything else was perfectly clean. About 10 hours total were spent cleaning. We started out first day of gluing with the limbs still in seperate bowls and the spine still on wire.

We got a wooden board to set everything up on. For gluing we used both a contact cement for durability and super glue for quick drying. Both can be found a Dollarama. It was kind of scary to just start gluing but we got started on the feet, since those had the most little bones. Each of the four toes had multiple sections to attach in a row. It was delicate work because of having so many tiny bones, but we felt better once each of the toes were in solid pieces. It took teamwork to get this part done, applying both glues with toothpicks and holding things in place. Then we split up and each did half the spine, attaching each vertebrae by following the natural curve of the spine. By the end of the day we felt like we had made some good progress. It was about 4 hours of gluing.