#bjd restringing

Ok, so your first move here, should be this. Look over your dragon. Pull on him, take a good look at things. Places I want to point out in particular are the jaw/head area, which while straightforward, can be really tricky if you don't look at it before you take it apart. The other thing you want to look at, is the first joint of the tail right after the rump. It's a bit of a cluster, and I'm going to try to explain how to work around it. 

So move number two, when you take your dragon apart, MAKE SURE you keep the pieces in order. They are not numbered. There is no L/R on these. It will save you many headaches if you can keep them in order. Use a tackle kit, spread them out on a surface you will not bump, whatever floats your boat. Just kept the dang pieces in order. 

When you have looked over your dragon, you should see that there are four separate sets of string. As I've drawn, there is one set for each leg, take note that the back legs make a Y shape from the foot up into the body. One piece goes from the head/jaw down to the first tail piece and one more goes down from that piece into the tail. You'll notice there are some eye pieces from hook/eye closures holding the dragon together. 

Here is that tail piece before I took everything apart. You can barely see the eye hook in there, but try to pull on it, you'll see that eye hook sticking out belongs to the opposing string. This tail piece essentially has an X going through it of string. 

Here are the legs for reference as well. Each leg has an upside-down U going through it of string. But the back legs make kind of a Y shape from the feet to the inner body as shown on the diagram. Make sense? 

The string I went for is Dritz Beading Cord Elastic, part number 9340B. They don't list a size on it, but it's probably 2mm by guesswork. 

So first, pull on your dragon's head, and clip the string behind the hook. Gently remove the head and jaw followed by the metal clip/S hook thing. Put them aside.

I then rolled Theodore on his side, put one hand over his body, and unclipped my hemostats. My hand prevented them from going all over because I held them down while the string shot through. Put the tail to the side and carefully sort out your neck and body pieces. As I said, I'm not undoing his legs right now, but Cuarto's pics are pretty good for that. 

Now, you'll see that his tail looks a bit weird. Basically, lay the tail down, put your hand over it, pull between the first and second pieces, and cut the string. If you can get it without cutting it by reversing the "how to tail" steps to follow, cool, but the initial stringing was so tangled in there, there was no hope for mine.  After doing the tail and body, pick the eye hooks out of the mess of string and set them aside, they're identical, so they can go together.

Sort these pieces super careful. They will roll. I find it best to put them in a tackle/bead box or big end down on the mat (which is a cutting mat and kind of holds them in place) 

Do you have pieces like the opening photograph more or less? Good. 

I'm starting with the tail because I really don't like all those little pieces floating around. Take a length of string, try to make sure you have more than you think you need, then add an inch or two.  You're likely to do a lot of cutting the ends of the elastic as it frays going through, and it's better to have too much. run it through the tip of the tail, and bring the ends together. Get the smallest tail piece and point it so the concave side (the inward facing side) points to the end of the tail. Pass both strings through it. Repeat for all the tail pieces, trimming the elastic as needed. It doesn't need to be tight yet and you don't want to drop or explode tail pieces all over. At least for me, it felt counter intuitive to put it concave (inward) side first, as the convex (rounded) side is going to be a bit smaller, and shouldn't it get smaller along the way. If you're like me, you'll get your tail strung and realize you put each piece on backwards. 

When you get past the end of the tail (which still has a correct direction! Be careful!) you'll see the little spikes should always point toward the tip of the tail. Do it the right way so your dragon's tail will bend proper and not rub poorly against the other pieces. 

So again, I disagree with how Cuarto's tut has it as just a loop around the eyehook. I like leaving him a bit loose until he's all together, than being able to tighten it and making a better knot after tightening. I'm certain eye hooks probably have names for their parts, but frankly, it looks like a cartoon dick to me, so I'm going to refer to the sections as such. make sure your string is clipped firmly, but the string does not need to be super tight yet, behind the eye hook but through the intersection tail piece. Feed your string through the shaft section of the eye hook, Now separate the two strings and feed them each through a ball.  Make your knot. This way, the shaft part is going to neatly stay inside of the piece while the ball parts are going to block it from slipping through and out the other side, thus unstringing your tail through all the parts it fits.

Now you have what looks like a funny Gyarados lying on your table. Put it aside.  If you are restringing the legs, this is a good time. Your tail is together and you'll need the legs for the body. 

Now take another length of string for the body. Fold it in half. Feed it through the first neck piece so the round piece has the loop sticking out. Put something there. I used a q-tip because I occasionally needed the hemostats, and only own one pair, and the q-tip worked just fine for such a low tension doll. Now again, string each piece so that the convex (rounded) side is toward the head and the concave (inward) side is to the next piece aimed at the shoulders. Pass your string through the shoulders. 

Now, we are going to change it up! The three pieces that make up his belly have their concave/convex going the OPPOSITE way. Just look at the spikes to keep you going in the right direction. They all should be pointed back. Go ahead and string this through his hips. 

Yes, my stains on my cutting board give it a slightly sinister look. XD 

So now you're going to grab the loose end of your string, and your tail. Pull on that first joint of your tail, and slip the string through that (you may have to move your tail knot out of the way) and out the back as shown. 

Repeat the looping method we used for the tail on this eye hook. it will end up pointing the opposite way as the other eye hook. Make your knot. 

Ok, don't tighten anything yet! Go back to the end of the neck,  pull a bit of string, and use your hemostats to clip and give you room. Now put the S-hook thing for the head on, small end on the string, bigger end out. feed your jaw over this hook and into the string. Have your hook pointed toward the jaw's tongue. 

If you haven't put eyes in and want them, do it now. You can see the putty holding my beads in inside of my head here. 

Now take that hook and carefully get your head so the hook goes from the back most part of the hook holder, to the front. Get the head firmly on there, undo the hemostats, and give it a good tug from the string  hanging out of the tail.  From here, you can use your hemostats and give the string a pull to the tension you want, slide the eyehook down, and make a newly placed knot. Then cut excess string, do the same to the piece of string that attaches to the tail. 

And ta-dah! He's up again. While yes, he's going to still be like holding a jointed snake doll, he feels much firmer to me and I'm less nervous about the stringing.