Thread: Thoughts on Crafting A Dragon Mouth

Tweet

Hi all:

I can always count on this place each year for great ideas and inspiration to craft & create. This year I think we are looking to craft a dragons mouth that encompasses our entire front awning area. Any thoughts on creation? There will of course be a smoke machine hooked to it somehow. Also a graveyard in the front yard.

I'm trying to think what I might use to build this.

Strong, light, big, safe for the TOT's to walk under. Hmmmmm....

Thinking foamboard, tape, and a strong wire gauge frame.
Though have to be really careful of winds and such.


What size would this be??

Pretty big. I need to measure the entry way, but 3 feet - across maybe 4-5 feet high.

I'm playing with the idea of doing a giant witch's face with a LONG crooked nose that hangs out over our driveway (fog machine hooked to nostrils so we can "snort" on them as they walk up)...I figured on using 1x2 wood for framing and support, chicken wire to get the form and shape and skinning it with paper maché, then painting it to match the house paint at the base where it will attach, then fading it into a green as it gets further away from the house so it looks like it grew out of the house.

Paper maché over a strong frame and chicken wire may also be a good solution for your dragon's mouth. It will take a bit of time to DO paper maché for something that large, but I've seen some amazing things done with maché... and it will be light enough to not weigh down the whole thing like monster mud would...

Anyone else have a good framing idea for something like this?

I had the mache/monster mud problem in 2009.

Started my dragon in paper mache.



When that was taking too long, I switched over to, well, I'll explain in a moment.



The frame was EMT conduit covered with some thicker guaged chicken wire. I suggest using 3/4" size. If you can't afford the bender tool, you can just screw/clamp 2 blocks of wood onto a bench with an appropriate gap between them to make your bends.



Made this thing segmented, it attached to the base via some PVC pipe big enough to slip the EMT into.



So, the final coat that brought it all together:

Monster mud too heavy, Paper mache takes too long...I dipped burlap into the 1 part garage floor epoxy...This dried semi-rigid, and was totally waterproof.





To give you an idea of scale, that's a 12x12 shed.