Fimo Mickey Mouse - Attempt 2

Now that my sister Rose's birthday is past, and I don't need to keep this as a surprise anymore, I want to share my second attempt at creating a Mickey Mouse sculpture / figurine from Fimo.

The first attempt - I can't believe it was Oct 2013! - looked pretty promising :

However, after building most of the Mickey Mouse character, I was dismayed that it slowly broke apart into pieces overnight, before I could finish and bake it.  I also realized that I would need a wire tail to support Mickey so he would be free standing.

So before my sister's birthday this year, I made a second attempt.  This time I bought a thick black wire which could serve as the tail and support, as well as provide internal structure for Mickey, so he would hold together.

I was able to re-use the Mickey head, and just re-attach the ears which had fallen off, but most of the other pieces I couldn't reuse, although at least they served as a model for the new pieces :

I used three pieces of wire.  One started in the head, and provided the backbone support and tail.  The second provided support in the two legs.  The last one provided the support for the two arms.  It was much more stable this time, and Mickey was able to stand independently.  The arms moved a little bit, not being anchored to the backbone wire.  However, I hoped that it would be strong enough, so put Mickey into the oven to bake him.

Sadly, this is what came out of the oven :

Poor little guy had fallen face-first in the oven, knocking off his nose, and breaking his shorts in the process.

I have now realized that it was a mistake to have 3 independent structural wires.  On next attempt, they will need to be tied together, with a smaller wire.  Alternatively, I will use the thick black wire for head to tail, and then use a smaller wire which I can wrap around and extend to the arms and legs, but as one solid piece.

I may have tried again that night, but I didn't have enough black Fimo.  So I have subsequently purchased one, but not in time for the birthday.

So the adventure continues.  Although I can't guarantee that it won't be another year or two before the third and hopefully final attempt.