Making Progress

Things are progressing slowly. I'd finished all the 'easy' things, like all the machine stitching, stuffing the main body, and finishing the wings. I'd cut a double length of wire for inside the body to go from inside the head, down to where the tail bends at the ground. I twisted the wires, then wrapped them with glue-covered seam binding, to create some 'tooth' for the stuffing to hold onto. Then I inserted the wire into the body and proceeded to stuff it, making sure the wire was always buried in the middle of the body. After it was stuffed, I applied some diluted purple paint along the outer edges of the striped belly.

Then I got out ALL my purple beads so I could decide which ones to use. I beaded the entire length on both sides of the under-belly. It was a serious challenge since I was often seeing double, and could barely make out the holes in the beads, but I persisted doing only a section at a time. That alone took three whole days.  But at least it was a simple repeat pattern, so no brain drain....

The wings are also finished, and ready to bead.  I'd stuffed the edge of the wings - one of the most difficult things to do on the entire dragon.  Getting tiny wisps of stuffing into the tiny points proved very challenging, especially with the wire already filling much of the space. Thankfully the opening at the top of the wings helped, since there were no bends to stuff around..

​I formed 'claws' out of Aves Apoxie, poked holes through near their base, so they could be sewn onto the bend in the top of the wings after they cured. Then I smoothed more Apoxie around the base of each claw. I used a 3-D paint to squirt raised lines along the stitched vein lines. Then I enhanced the wings with paint to help give them more definition. It took at least five layers - some of which were just diluted paint, which was allowed to seep into the wet fabric, but still allowing the salt dye pattern to show through....

​​The ears had to be redone several times.  The first set I cut out, I stitched all the way round, forgetting that I didn't want a nice turned outer edge. It was very neat, but not at all what I wanted. So into the garbage they went.

Then I cut out a second set, and just stitched the upper and lower edges. But then, like with the wings, I added glue between the layers of fabric before doing the top-stitching, and then I couldn't get the stuffing into the ends of the three points. So another set into the garbage.

Then I started over yet again, and the third time was the charm. I stuffed the points, top-stitched by hand, then glued the outer layers of fabric together, and cut out the ragged edges. After highlighting with a bit of paint, I beaded the stuffed spines....