This is my wonderful new dragon called Gloria! Not sure why she's called that, but it seems to suit her. Maybe it's the eye lashes...??
In this little blog I will tell you how I made her, the problems I faced, and what I would do differently next time!
She started out as scrunched up tin foil and was then shaped into the body shape. The first problem that I encountered was that it was a bit top heavy, the head kept bending over too much. I think next time I make one I will start off with a wire armature, then cover it in foil. Once the body was formed I then covered it all over in a layer of scrap clay, then a layer of white. I then formed the legs and attached them with small pieces of cocktail stick embeded into each one. I then covered them in white clay too.
I made 4 patterned canes, a black and white 'bar code' one, a bulls eye cane for the underside of the legs, a blended one for the tops of the legs and a Feather Cane for the main scales. The green and red clay were Premo Pearl colours and the rest was Fimo clay. This was the first time that I have mixed up two brands of clay. It seemed to work ok, but I did notice that the green of the scales went a darker colour when you compare it to the ears and eyes.
After cutting all the very thin slices using my new Lucy Slicer, I started att the top of the head and worked towards the nose, then I started at the tail and worked my way up to the head. The black and white stripped cane was then added to the neck and body, with the scales overlapping slightly. I then made the legs and covered them with slices of the other canes.
The eyes were quite tricky to do, I think next time I will shape the face more and embed them deeper into the face.
The wings were a bit of a challenge, as i had never done this technique before. The pieces of wire were laid out flat on the tile and liquid fimo was poured over the wire (to embed it in the clay). As it is quite thick it didn't spread much so that you could easily form the wing shape. I then sprinkled Fimo glitter over the top and baked for 20 mins, keeping an eye on it in the oven so it didn't burn.
I then baked Gloria for 30 mins at 100 degrees C and added the wings once she was cool. Ta Da!! All done!!