October 23, 2010

My Pet Dragon

My very own pet dragon! Isn't he the cutest?!  This is my first try at multi-weave, semi-free form chainmaille.  Multi-weave for the combination of Dragonback (or Alligator), Byzantine, Box, and Mobius; semi-free form for improvising the neck and adding the paws.  I followed the fantastic tutorial by Derailed on MAIL.  The step by step instructions are easy to follow, lots of pictures and arrows pointing at where to add rings, that's how I like to read tutorials :-)

The tutorial describes the main body with scales.  I added the paws, because all the dragons that I grew up with (yes, I grew up with dragons, in movies, paintings, story books) always have paws.  They also have whiskers and antennas, but I don't know how to add those ...  I'd imagine some wire work would do it, like Corvus's dragons; look for her fantastic copper dragon in MaillersWorldWide!)

Oh, and my dragon also wears shoulder pads and hoop earrings.  Very fashionable:-)  Can you see the earrings?  Big old double hoops!  The shoulder pads/cape is a slight variation from the tutorial. I learned it from Derailed's other maille critters, seriously awesome!

OK, back to my guy; he's flexible enough to curl up for nap.  The neck moves very well; the body section from neck to belly is kind of stiff compared to rest of the body, my guess is because I fussed so much over the shoulder pads that I added a few too many rings.  Anyhow, he'll curl up all right, even chase after his own tail:-)  Awww, the poor thing is pooped from all the jumping and posing all day; it's a lot of hard work to look so adorable:-)

Specs:

All rings are stainless steel, WD 1.2mm, 3/16" ID from C&T Designs, and 5/32" ID from Blue Buddha (F18 SSTL); scales are bright aluminum also from Blue Buddha.  I did have to use larger rings (1/4" ID) to include the key ring into the box weave at his jaws.  That's it.  Not very ring hungry, but the stainless steel part put my hands totally out of commission for quite a while (Advils helped:-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  2015 Update  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interested in purchasing one of these?  I'd be happy to make a brand new one for you as a custom made-to-order in my online studio DaisyKreates.com.  Thank you!!










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6 comments :

  1. He's adorable! Thanks for the links to the instructions. I'm just starting to learn chainmail, but I can't wait to be able to make one of these for myself someday!

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  2. Thank you so much, Tori, for the nice comments! I love hearing from my readers:-)
    So glad you are joining the chainmaille community; you won't regret it; a lot of hard work, but so satisfying, every bit of it!
    Please do not hesitate to let me know if there's anything I can help you along this wonderful mailling journey!
    Have fun!

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  3. I love your dragon, he is adorable! Diggin the paws! What were the 5/32" rings used for, if you don't mind my asking?

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    1. Thank you, Shadow! The 5/32" were used in place of the 1/8" called by the tutorial; I didn't have any 1/8" at the time :-)

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