Gluing

After cutting the pattern for the head I will now glue it all together using contact cement. Here you see me in my glue gear. Always wear protective gloves and a mask when using this stuff. And by the way, the mask you see me wearing is the wrong mask.



I later went out to the hardware store and bought myself one of these bad boys.

I think the guy at Home Depot thought I was a wuss when I showed him the small bottle of contact cement I was using. His advice was "just open the windows". Apparently he missed this part of the bottle-

EFFECTS OF OVEREXPOSURE - CHRONIC HAZARDS: Reports have associated permanent brain and nervous system damage with prolonged and repeated occupational overexposure to solvents. Overexposure or misuse of toluene can cause liver, kidney, and brain damage as well as cardiac abnormalities.
Hexane exposure can cause nerve damage to arms and legs which may
permanent. Symptoms include: loss of memory, loss of intellectual ability,
and loss of coordination.

So now that we've established we are working with a potentially dangerous product you are probably wondering why in the world I'm applying it in my apartment. Unfortunately this realization was made afterward.



You apply the cement to both surfaces that are to be glued. In about 5-10 minutes it becomes tacky and you can stick them together. The great thing about contact cement is that it basically only sticks to itself so handling it is really nice.


This will soon be Van Gogh's chin.