When @amotherofdragoneggs opened up slots in November for egg designs she had retired, I jumped at the chance to get an egg that I remember captivating me when I first stumbled upon her shop: the desert sunset dragon egg.
Egg by A Mother of Dragon Eggs
Using a color palette I have since developed a great love for, I wanted this to be the dragon egg I finally created a companion dragon for.
I knew I wanted the dragon to interact with the egg in some fashion. Since my dragons are not big enough to represent a parental relationship, I decided to go for the eager sibling waiting for his brother or sister to hatch.
This pose was a completely new one for me. I’m surprised I was able to get this little guy to balance so well without really thinking about how I needed to pose the body for maximum balance. I normally prop my dragons up for support while they’re waiting for their bodies to be finished, but once this little one had back legs, he stood completely on his own!
Project complications
Despite the solid balance, I ran into trouble when I started baking the sculpture. Polymer clay softens before it cures, which is why gravity is often a big issue for polymer clay sculptures. My dragon fell over in the oven. Because I had a feeling this was a possibility, I had kept an eye on it and was able to catch this before the clay had spent too much time in the oven.
The dragon fell over onto his side, so the ears, horns, and arms had all shifted and were no longer in the correct position, nor were they symmetrical to the other side of the body.
I find the best way to make repairs in cases like these is to work while the sculpture is still hot. This obviously needs to be done very carefully. I pulled the sculpture out of the oven as soon as I noticed what was happening. After waiting for a few minutes for it to cool slightly (but while it was still soft), I peeled off the parts of the sculpture that had started smushing up.
Making repairs
At this point, the clay had only been in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, so it was very crumbly. I had to be very careful not to upset the rest of the sculpture. The legs and tail were fine for the most part, so I only removed the arm, ear, and horns on the side the dragon was resting on when it fell.
The poor little guy looked pretty banged up after I did this, but it allowed me to fairly cleanly remove the clay parts that would have been too thick to comfortably remove once everything had set up (like the arm).
Once everything was completely cooled, with the clay not having cured completely, it was very easy to clean up the rough edges where the clay ripped from the body with an exacto knife. This provided a smooth base to resculpt on.
As the dragon was sagging in the oven, the feet became uneven and the tail no longer supported it correctly. This was something I could correct with adding clay to the existing sculpt, so once I was satisfied with how the new clay was holding up, I baked the dragon in a pile of polyester fiberfill to keep the dragon off of its legs.
The process I followed from here on out is very similar to my blog showing how to fix already baked polymer clay. I remade the pieces that I’d torn off and used a tiny bit of TLS to bond the unbaked and baked clays. TLS also helps with blending your unbaked clay onto the baked so that it looks like a smooth piece.
Finishing
Overall, I gave this dragon 3 bakes to fix the problems I had after the initial bake. The final result is solid and you would never be able to tell where I had torn off the original pieces. I sanded over these areas at the end to make sure everything bended seamlessly.
To mimic the sparkle of the egg, I added white pearl ex powder to my glaze and coated the entire dragon (except for the eyes).
Final thoughts
Since I couldn’t put the egg in the oven, the hands don’t perfectly lay against the egg like I originally intended, but the egg does fit very nicely between the dragon’s hands.
I’m pretty satisfied with the color matching of the dragon to the egg, but I did have a hard time getting the main orange to fit just right. The orange has a pink undertone to it in the egg, and I couldn’t quite get that pink to show through enough.
I’m in love with this set, however, and it makes me want to make dragons for all of my dragon eggs from @amotherofdragoneggs! If you haven’t checked out her shop, DO ITTTTTT! I’m a little obsessed.
