craftgrrl | Here there be Dragons....a Tutorial of sorts....

And what could be started here?
Unfortunatly, I did not get a clear picture of the basic wire frames.....but I tried to capture the rest of the process....

So, after making a wire frame using thick copper wire for the neck, backbone, and tail, I used steel wire for the legs and some thin brass wire to build up the main joints a bit. At this point you do not add the wing wires. Add some clay for the claws and carefully stretch them out on a foil lined pan for baking.

Before baking, I added some glass beads for the eyes and some details. I also dusted the heads with pearlessence powder to give them a bit of color.

After baking, let them cool. Then take some tulle and cut into strips and wrap the wire frame to build up the bulk of the dragon.
I get the spools of "wedding tulle" at Walmart, and use an exact knife to slice around the roll while it's still has the wrapper on it. that way the part I'm not using doesn't fall off the spool.

Here is a fully wrapped dragon. I added the wing wires after building up the chest a bit with the wrapping. (you can sort of see the wrapped parts of the wire in the image above this one.) Start on the back, wrap and cross the wire under each arm, then over the shoulders, cross the wires behind the neck, and bend the wires over the back and so they stand straight up. This will help keep the stress off the main frame when you go to move the wings.

Dragon mummies anyone?

On one I carefully wrapped the feet in irridescent netting as I was still debating how to make the body covering....I had thought to sew a covering, but too many points made it difficult, so......

I missed getting a picture of the next step. I found some lamee and cut it into strips and wrapped this dragon in copper. (the other in a scaly holographic dot pattern) I knew some of the color would peek through the irridescent netting. Then I cut the netting into strips and wrapped a single-ish layer over the lamee. The netting on this fella was a blue/purple over a copper lamee...the other had the holigraphic dots with a teal/red netting...

Then, to bulk up the wing veins, another wrapping of the tulle netting.

Then one layer of the base lame to make the wings. I just curled the back side of the copper up around the wing vein and shapped.

Disco...disco dragon!

Then, a bit of marabou trim for that uber-cuddly factor...

To sexy for this pose......

And the final product. Wings, tails, and heads are all very posable, while the legs are a bit posable.

Next time, I must make them with longer and skinny-ier bodies, and longer legs so it's easier to pose them on your shoulder or wrap them around something.....