Over the last month or so, I have been working on a new sculpture of a dragon. Made from scratch, I first start with a tin foil armature (the essential shape and skeleton of the beast) and then cover it in stages with Pal Tiya, a specialist modelling material that handles like clay but hardens in water. Once the Pal Tiya has cured for a week submerged in the pond, I let it dry. Fine details were modelled with an epoxy clay which sets rock hard over 24 hours. The fibres in the Pal Tiya make fine detail modelling quite difficult, especially at this relatively small scale. I finished off with dry brushed acrylic paint. The sculpture is designed to go outside and should be weather resistant.

Height: 44cm/17in; wingspan: 71cm/28in.

This is much better than my first dragon attempt, in part due to a larger scale. I spent more time on the detailing and painting, but I think there is still room for improvement. Technically, it isn’t too difficult to get the wings to stay up despite the weight of the wet clay. The tin foil skeleton works to ‘grip’ the clay, but I think building the clay outer in stages helped (first the body, then the shoulders and then the wings).

The dragon is available to purchase for £100, local pick up. In total, it took several days to make and paint. The cost of materials is approximately £50 – neither modelling material is cheap!