This week you get to meet Jinsèlóng (pronounced gin-seh-long.)
He’s another one from the Tigers Voyage book, and the fourth dragon they encounter on their trip.
Click on any of the photos for a closer look.
As you may have guessed from his appearance, he is a treasure dragon. As the story goes he’s responsible for the Bermuda triangle and often wrecks ships so he can take for himself the treasure they carry.
- treasure
- gold
- ginger eye
- horned head
- triangular mouth
- sharp white teeth overlap bottom lip
- scales of hard golden disks
- variegated in color from bright bullion, Buddha gold, pirate doubloon to copper penny
- light colors along belly & darker on its back
- four long spikes protruding from back of head
- smaller spikes starting at its nose & traveling along spine
- long tail ends in a fin
- webbing between claws
- saffron glow
Whenever I read books I always picture his scales as having the appearance of coins so I tried to get that across.
This was another complex project involving multiple bakings and over 250 individually applied scales. For the scales I used an extruder to make discs that had a variety of metallic clays, including bronze, copper, 18kt gold and antique gold. Then I used a leather stamp on each one to make the impression that makes them look like coins.
It was fun picking out all of the items for his treasure mound. The little pagoda is a piece for fish tank and the mermaid was a figurine that came in a box of tea. She made me think of a statue Jinsèlóng was particularly fond of in the book so I included her.
A couple of quartz crystals and lots of glass glitter give his pile of goodies a decadent look. The final touches of gold on the dragon were done with Golden’s Interference Gold
To learn why I’ve challenged myself to make a dragon every week in 2015 check out this post on Errol, dragon #1.
Wow, he’s fantastic! How big is he?
If he were stretched out to full length he’d be 8-10 inches. The whole sculpture is 4 inches across and about 3 inches high.
Wow. Very cool.
He’s stunning! What a cool treasure pile he s guarding. Love the detail you’ve put on his scales. I’m in awe!
Thank you, Nan! He was fun to make, all the details are my favorite part to do.