For the assembly, I used E6000 glue to attach the head to the neck and the hands and feet to the wires for the front and back legs. I glued the back feet first, then pulled the wires through the body to the point where the back legs were the right length. The next step was to wrap the exposed wire sections in the back legs with wool felt and sew it in place.
Then, seeing how the mouse would stand, I could just how I wanted the head tilted, and glued it in place.
The next step of the armature was finishing the front legs. I placed the front paws on the ends of the wires and marked the wires where the back ends of the paws were. Then I took the paws back off and measured the length of the wires from my mark to the ends. This told me how much wire would be hidden in the paws. Then I placed another mark where I wanted the ends of the paws to be, trimmed the wires, and glued the paws in place. Finally, I covered the bare wire on the front legs with wool felt.
Now my armature was complete and I could proceed with the needle felting. If you look at the body from a few postings ago, you'll see that the hollow cone shape of the head fits over the neck end of the body. Not only did this give me plenty of gluing surface, but it gave a nice stuffed wool felt neck. This allowed me to needle felt thickly right up to the edge of the stoneware head. These spots where stoneware meets wool are tricky to get looking good, but I think it's a success here.
In the photo I have her leaning against the plant. When I'm finished, she'll be holding a long branch in her left front paw and that branch will be - along with the two back feet - the third point for her to balance on. Her tail will be extended straight back, not touching the "floor."
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