My son has already enjoyed having him in the garden, and he adds a bright and colourful attraction to it, colours that I associate with kids and fun.
How did we make him?
Tyres for the body
In my mind, we can simply cut tyres in half! Apparently not! After some sweat and tears and several different tools, both power and hand, we managed to cut 2 tyres in half. The reason this wasn't a simple "cut some rubber in half" job, was due to the fact tyres have metal in them and it's the metal that causes the issue.In the end, we used bolt cutters around the edges and a jigsaw. After 2 tyres were cut it was decided that four humps are all that was needed.
My son chose the colours, I wanted a completely red dragon, but in the eyes of a child the more colours the better so this is why his body is orange and blue.
His spikes were a mixture of plant and sweet pots stuck on with Gorilla Glue It lasted the rain, the night and the birds, and all spikes were still in place the next day.
I found some lovely shells for his nostrils and horns and I do believe he turned out rather well! Unfortunately, he's rather delicate and when he toppled over, he lost a nostril and some of his paintwork! I've since sprayed with a clear lacquer and used more glue, but I added sand to the base of the neck to make him more stable.
I added a tail, which doesn't stay out due to the nature of it. A squash bottle holds an old kid's trowel, both of which have been painted to match the head of the dragon.
I love the colour effect of these, but like tyres can be a little bit of a 'challenge' to cut. After watching a couple of CDs crack, split and fly across the room, I did some research and it turns out putting a hairdryer (or craft dryer) on the CDs makes for a smooth cut!
I glued all the pieces together to make it look like scales and then added the wings to the first tyre, so he has baby wings rather than full length - I honestly didn't have the patience to create wings to go across 4 tyres, but wouldn't that have looked fantastic!
So here he is, my recycled dragon ornament for the garden.
His spikes were a mixture of plant and sweet pots stuck on with Gorilla Glue It lasted the rain, the night and the birds, and all spikes were still in place the next day.
Dragon Head from recycled bottles
The neck was made out of lemonade bottles and the head was a milk bottle. The bottle labels were used as the dragon's fire and the lids were his eyes, so we managed to use all parts of the bottles for this project.I found some lovely shells for his nostrils and horns and I do believe he turned out rather well! Unfortunately, he's rather delicate and when he toppled over, he lost a nostril and some of his paintwork! I've since sprayed with a clear lacquer and used more glue, but I added sand to the base of the neck to make him more stable.
I added a tail, which doesn't stay out due to the nature of it. A squash bottle holds an old kid's trowel, both of which have been painted to match the head of the dragon.
Creating dragon wings
My favourite part of this project was creating the wings. These, unfortunately, I didn't have around the house anymore, I'd given them away a few years ago, so I did have to purchase a pack of CDs for £2 at the car boot!I love the colour effect of these, but like tyres can be a little bit of a 'challenge' to cut. After watching a couple of CDs crack, split and fly across the room, I did some research and it turns out putting a hairdryer (or craft dryer) on the CDs makes for a smooth cut!
I glued all the pieces together to make it look like scales and then added the wings to the first tyre, so he has baby wings rather than full length - I honestly didn't have the patience to create wings to go across 4 tyres, but wouldn't that have looked fantastic!
So here he is, my recycled dragon ornament for the garden.
Wow, he's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jennifer
DeleteYour dragon is fab
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
Delete