Dragon sculptures are constructed and painted as described on the Base Sculpture page, but after that everything else is different. Most of our dragons are covered with lamé fabrics, so the most important step is choosing a color and then a fabric. The image at right shows some of the fabrics we had on hand in August of 1998. Feel free to call to discuss ordering a dragon done in various fabrics!

The sculpture at right has been painted black. Next Merikay overlaps folded sections of the fabric on the chest and neck, starting at the bottom and working up toward the chin. Each section is hot-glued into place.

Merikay then lines the dragon’s mouth with a small piece of gold and white metallic fabric that has a tooth-like pattern. Next she folds and glues a section of the main fabric to create the lower lip and chin. In the image at right, she has added another section of the main fabric as the upper lip and muzzle, leaving just a hint of the “teeth fabric” showing.

Next the artist creates nostrils by folding small pieces of fabric, rolling them around a dowel, and glueing them into the typical shape of a dragon’s nostril. Then she glues these onto the developing dragon, as shown at left.

Many dragons have scales. Our dragon’s scales start as oval shapes printed on plain paper by a drawing program. These paper sheets are glued to the backs of pieces of fabric, as shown at right. This dragon will have two scale fabrics, one a plain blue and the other the same fabric used for the rest of the dragon.

After the glued fabric and paper have dried for several days, Merikay carefully cuts them to the curved scale shapes as at left.

The first row of scales, on the sides of the neck and chest, covers the edges of the folded fabric applied earlier. This is shown in the image at right. Several more layers of scales work outward, alternating between the plain colored and the dominant fabric.

Merikay makes the eyes for all of her other animals, but uses commercially available acrylic crystals as dragon eyes. At left she has glued a large piece of fabric over each eye region, and is placing a blue crystal over it, for the main part of our blue dragon’s eye. After this she added a small centered red crystal as a “pupil”.

Several things have happened in the picture to the right. Merikay has folded and glued some of the loose metallic fabric around the eye to create eyelids. Then she has folded and glued the side sections of the same piece of fabric to double thickness, and then quickly rolled these and held them in place while the hot glue set, to form “eye wings”. In progress in this picture is covering the face with scales. When this step is complete they will cover the top of the head.

Behind our blue dragon’s eyes Merikay adds “ear flags”. First she anchors a piece of 14 gauge wire in the sculpture, then cuts a square of fabric with a hole in the center, and places it over the wire. Then she applies glue to the wire and folds the fabric over the wire. Finally she hot-glues the two sides of the fabric together, and holds them in the desired shape until the glue sets.

Now it’s time to start the wings, the basic shape of which Merikay cuts out of poster board. Next she glues heavy wire along the top (inside) edge of each wing, and glues three bamboo barbecue skewers across the wings.

Merikay then glues a fourth bamboo skewer to the opposite side of the poster board, thus making a mechanically durable wing. Finally she cuts pieces of the dominant fabric slightly larger than the wings, and glues these onto both sides. After the glue dries she trims each wing to have neat edges.

In the last major step, Merikay inserts the back bamboo skewer and the end of the wire into the main sculpture. She injects as much hot glue as possible to help insure good mechanical integrity and enhances this by wrapping folded pieces of the main fabric around each wing joint and glueing them into place. Finally, she adds more scales on the dragon’s sides, that cover the folded fabric edges. The last row goes up the center of the back and neck.

Want to see the finished dragon? Click here.

If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, please send an E-mail to merikay@animalhead.com, use the contact page, sign the Guestbook, or call at 1-408-353-5037. Is this a good time?