I had left the trickiest bits for last, to saw when I was mentally fresh. I did the arm piece first, and found that the last little finger broke along a grain line when I finished it at that point. So I superglued it and set it aside, hoping for the best.
In the process of doing that, however, I managed to glue my fingers together. It took a good 5 minutes (or rather a bad 5) and the bulk of my superglue remover to get them apart again. I’m going to have to order some more. And be more careful. I suppose I could wait and see if I can use acetone straight without it eating the skin off my bones. It’s a lot cheaper than this stuff. 
After I had full use of all my digits restored, I continued sawing. I had trouble with the ebony eye parts as well. The pieces were so delicate that they, too, cracked along the grain and in weak spots. I had similar problems with the maple face piece. I ended up regluing a pattern for the face and the entire arm section onto maple again.
I did 2 more of the ebony hair/eye pieces, and both of them cracked, so I did a 3rd one. This time I decided to also glue some backing paper to the ebony, operating under the theory that maybe the thin pieces would hold up if they were supported on both sides by paper. I also put a finer sawblade in the saw. I’ve been going through sawblades like crazy on this project. I don’t know if it’s the wood vs. shell or what.
That actually worked quite well, and I was thrilled when the two face pieces fit perfectly. So I started putting the pieces together, starting with the face, moving to the sun, and then moving downward. I glued as I went, and everything was going well, but gluing as I went turned out to be a fatal mistake. Because by the time I got around to the last body pieces, I realized that the alignment was off, and I had an insurmountable gap between the body scarf and the body.
I stared at it awhile, trying to figure out how to salvage it. I attempted to trace the new configuration, with a thought of cutting a new scarf piece, but that didn’t work. I took a rubbing, but couldn’t get a clear enough outline to feel confident that the new piece would fit. I knew it was pretty hopeless, but I even tried forcing the pieces closer in. I knew that was not wise, and it wasn’t, but the reality was that I wasn’t going to be able to fix it. When I broke the hand in half, I assured that was the case.
I’d spent hours on it, only to end up starting over. There was a lot of sighing and frowning at this point. I had a very few pieces that were still unglued, and I compared those to the pattern for accuracy to see if I could use them still. A couple were okay, but I decided to recut the scarf for greater accuracy. And I ended the evening regluing fresh patterns to fresh wood. I went ahead and backed the pieces that had given me trouble the first time through, having learned that helped stabilize them.
I did save this part, not for use, but for encouragement. It came together pretty well, and I think the all-wood design is going to be cool, if I can just saw accurately. Clearly, I can do it some of the time. So maybe, with more practice, I’ll eventually be able to do it all of the time. It’s a good thing I kept my day job.
Today I’ll be sawing again. Wish me luck.
