Merekee the dragon ( creature, dragon puppet)
This is my first time entering a competition i have been a silent onlooker for a few months now too afraid to actually speak till now heres my entry Merekee the dragon is made from an old half broken toy that was unloved broken and discarded at one of those second hand shops when i saw her i saw alot of potential and brought her home and set to work on bringing her back to life better than new and lots of love and care went into her many hours of research into dragons from bone structure and upwards. she went from a discarded avatar toy that had its face ripped of and wings broken into a beautiful dragon that I spent alot of time making she's now my companion at conventions and fairs and the guardian of my workspace build book time yay she is 92 cm long 34 cm tall with a wingspan of 125cm she is made from foam clay, spandex, strong wire and paint
How she started out like
I started off by making a strong wire structure for her new wings and built her a long tail that wiggles with the use of fishing wire to give the illusion of a waging tail , from there I built her a neck out of zip ties as a bone structure that was flexible and moved with the what movement the toy had . From there I built the base of her new head and horn structure made of foam and zip ties from there she got new wings made of a shiny spandex that I had in storage and skin for her neck after that I started to craft her face to give her character
This is where I tested to see if the old mechanism within still worked it did but it struggled with it heres the testing video on movement
https://youtu.be/dO7_cOCcVUQ?si=CH-UJLghm-Ndc4OwThen came making her some talons .
From there I started the detailing stage
I experiment with so many ways to give her a real dragon skin effect when I was making her I didn't know about this place so it was just alot of trial and error then I worked out that 3d puff paint would give off a very realistic dragon like looking skin and set to work on dotting her every were at first she looked like a sick sad dragon
From here she was sealed with mod podge
And painted I went with a navy and sky blue paint scheme added shading and detailing to her turning her into the beauty she was ment to be
The under coats of paint I think I did 4 layers of paint all together after the painting all the pins were removed and there I added a collar with her own name tag with my phone number so if she ever got lost I could be reached now she was ready to be my companion and she is a favourite among kids I smile at seeing the excitement plastered over the kids faces when they get to hold her the cutest memory was a 5 year old holding her she was half her size she has met voice actors and many other people
I like to tell kids that she is an ambassador for dragon kind and is only a 2 year old and that coming to these events is just an experience for her to grow up around people so she grows up into a kind gentle sweet dragon she will always be my favourite prop I have ever made thank you for reading my entry
0