The Moon Dragon
At the start of lockdown in March 2020, I had the idea to do a carving of a dragon in flight, but couldn’t find the right pose until I had a long search of Pinterest and came up with this Dragon from The Scrollsaw Village. I didn’t want to classify it originally as Japanese or Chinese dragon, but more as a guardian of the garden. I had originally planned to leave it as a single dragon in flight, but then the idea of the moon developed and the location it was to be placed in changed. It took till January 2021 before I could start on a large piece of sycamore which I thought was good quality wood. Unfortunately, it turned out to be poor on the outside and better at the core.
I set about shaping the Dragon by sanding and shaping using a mini carver and attachments for an angle grinder. It was dusty work but it seemed to turn out ok. The dragon was due to be placed in the Japanese garden at the front of the house, but the size of it had increased which suggested it would be the best place at the back of the house above the conservatory.
The dragon skin is stained using a trial mixture of Oil inks and wood stains. A wood hardener was coated copiously over the whole piece to prepare the softer areas of wood for being outside 24/7. The moon has been gloss painted as that was the worst area for the softest wood. I still need a dragon for the front garden and I will keep looking.
The moon Dragon is 3ft tall by 2ft wide. The horns, ruff and top wing are glued into place.
