Working through ideas visually and consulting Engineers.

Consulting the mechanical engineers in the classroom, I was recommended to use a step motor to simulate the curviness in the flaccid state of the tie. Turns out, according to Jessie, step motors are really difficult to work with coding wise. Given the time limit, I opted for a less elegant solution of a servo and modifying the aesthetic of the metaphor slightly.

Hooking up my first servo and using the Arduino Sweep.ino to understand how it works. Here I also learn that 360˚ servos exist, and requires a different set of code to work with. Knowing this, I opted for a non 360˚ servo I found from the Robotics Club.

Zip tie is attached with fishing-wire and hot glue. Zip ties provides the perfect blend of elasticity, lightness, and strength at an affordable price and availability.

First iteration of Trump tie. The tie is just taped to zip tie in these photo. 

Circuitry of Trump tie.

Fabricating Trump tie's box out of white foam core to emphasis Trump's whiteness.

Finding a way to put the zip tie into the neck tie so that masking tape isn't visual on the surface.

Circuitry inside Trump Tie's box.

Trump tie completed.