Well, I did it!
I proudly present to you the 52nd and FINAL polymer clay dragon in my personal challenge to make a dragon sculpture for every week in 2015. Check out this post on Errol, dragon #1, for the details on why I started.
I’ve made huge dragons on towers, teeny tiny dragon on cabochons, 2-dimensional dragons (so NOT my thing), necklaces, bracelets, treasure dragons, ocean dragons, forest dragons, steampunk dragons and even a cell phone holder dragon!
It’s been fun and I learned a lot, but phew! It’ll be nice to not have to pump one out every week. 🙂
Click on any of the photos for a closer look.
Opal was inspired by Donna Greenberg’s Rhythm Ruffle technique which was published in The Polymer Arts magazine in Fall of 2012. As soon as I saw it I thought, “Dragon spines!” 🙂
For the base color I used Premo’s new Opal clay. The accent colors are Sculpey Souffle Lagoon
Opal’s body is Premo Opal mixed with just a tiny pinch of Peacock Pearl.
I’ve made a Thursday’s Dragon Pinterest board so you can see them all in one place. Some time soon I’ll put together a collage of the favorites.
As for New Year’s resolutions? I don’t make ’em. I make goals and plans to reach those goals, and those can start any time of the year. After all what are resolutions for without a plan?
So what’s up for 2016? Oh I have plans, lots of plans, but I won’t hold myself to quite the same strict scheduling as last year. It’s my hope to spend some time working on figure sculpting and especially developing expression, personality and story telling in my work.
I also hope to get into metal clay sculpting. It’s similar work as polymer, but you end up with fine silver pieces in the end!
It’s also in the plans to start a weekly polymer clay tutorial on my YouTube channel. So be watching for announcements on that.
Many thanks to you, my readers and viewers for all your support and kind comments. It truly is what keeps me inspired to keeping working, creating and teaching.
May you all have a blessed New Year and happy creating!
Wow! Congrats on a spectacular dragon finish!
Treadmill? Nononono. If I absolutely have to get up, I’ve got a dog to walk. 😛
Happy New Year!
Another reason I prefer cats to dogs. 😀
Happy New Year, to you, too!
I love all of your dragons..How much begging would I have to do to have you do a dragon tutorial??? Also, this one in particular had to be mighty difficult as the opal clay is beautiful, but not easy to work with! Thanks!!
Thank you for the nice comments, Deb! It is definitely in my mind to do some dragon tutorials in one form or another. What I really have in mind is to put some of the best into a book. I may do videos or even a class on CraftArtEdu. We’ll see.
First I’m going to catch my breath after the long haul of making 52 in one year. Phew! 🙂 Then I’ll work on what’s next.
Actually, the opal clay isn’t hard to work with. I believe it’s just translucent clay with the sparkly inclusions. It makes it tricky to get perfectly smooth and to cut neatly, but it’s not really a big deal.
Happy creating!