Help unglueing hot glued eyes! Posted by Ahhyahh on Oct 24, 2012
Hi everyone,
    My first post.  I am new here.  But I have a puppet emergency!  I am somewhat crafty and I am building an illusion Halloween costume.  I screwed up and hot glued my big fabric eyes in the wrong place.  I figured you all knew all the tricks. How do I unglue two pieces of hot glued fabric when I can't get to the back side easily and my eyes are very big and puffy so I can't heat through them.  I was reading somewhere that if I could freeze the glue it would break away safely without damaging anything.  Does anyone have any ideas?  This head is too big for the freezer. I am wondering if I put dry ice in a ziplock over the area if that would freeze the glue and make it brittle?  Any help would be much appreciated!
Re: Help unglueing hot glued eyes! Posted by Out of the Box Puppets on Oct 24, 2012
Take the glue stick out of the gun and just use the heat from the tip to slowly work under the edge as you do with the other hand begin to pull the fabrics apart. 

Unfortunately there will be glue residue on the fabric which as far as I know can not be removed.  If the fabric has a high pile you can try shaving the area once the piece has been removed and the area has cooled.  Be creative...add a mole, lower hair line whatever needed to cover up the mistake.

Hope this helps.

Julie
Re: Help unglueing hot glued eyes! Posted by DrPuppet on Oct 24, 2012
That's a good idea Julie I have also used a straight razor and pulled the eyes up slowly slicing the fibers not the fabric itself. Ive done that successfully many times.
Re: Help unglueing hot glued eyes! Posted by Jorge on Oct 24, 2012
If you have a piece of fabric that you can experiment with, put some hot glue on it and then try to ironing through a piece of tissue or newspaper  or a piece of cloth. This usually works with wax (the wax melts and is absorbed by the paper), but I have never tried with hot glue
Re: Help unglueing hot glued eyes! Posted by Shawn on Oct 24, 2012
I had never heard that freezing glue from a glue gun made it brittle. I would say the above suggestions would be your best bet.  That being said if you have something that is too big to put in a freezer then you can use the compressed air in a can to cool or even freeze an area. Ever noticed how cold the can get's when you use canned air. I was never a big fan of using glue gun on foam although a lot of puppeteers do because it seemed to heat up even more when used on the foam and would take forever to cool down. I was working with someone who showed me you could use the canned air to cool down the glue once you place your pieces of foam together. Works really well and the little straw you can put in the nozzle makes it really easy to get into tight areas.
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