Oops!

 

Adding the legs - each one sculpted from a log of clay - highlighted a problem with the body.  The body is too short!  This is a mistake I often make.  My solution for needle-felted animals is to draw the skeleton to the size I want before I create the armature.  With needle felting, once you're felting over that armature, you're committed to the basic proportions.  But with clay, there's some wiggle room.

 

So I cut the body right at the waist.  I needed to add nearly 3/4"!  Once again, I got involved with the sculpting and forgot to take photos, but what I did was this:

 

I made a log long enough to go around the body, and thick enough to flatten to about 1/2" x 1".  I scored the edges of the body and the flattened log and gooped them up real good with slip.  Then I pressed one edge of the flattened snake to the edge of the front of the body, leaving the seam of the flattened snake at the underside of the belly.  I pressed pretty hard because I wanted an excellent bond.  Then I added the back half of the body in the same way.

 

I let the whole thing rest overnight in plastic to help even out the consistency of the clay (the flattened snake was much softer than the rest).  Then the next day I cut away excess clay and flattened and smoothed the seams.  Then I could finally add the back legs and tail.