Crafts » Tutorials » Gary the Meeple Dragon

This is a step-by-step guide of how I made Gary. I am a total newbie when it comes to working with polymer clay but I still hope this tutorial offers some insight into making polymer clay creatures. Materials: polymer clay (I prefer Fimo), soft aluminum wire, thinner but sturdier metal wire, aluminum foil, two glass beads, metal cutters, brushes, paints (acrylics / porcelain paints / hobby paints / etc)

1. Fashion a base for the body out of the thick aluminum wire; attach the wire by using the smaller-gauge metal wire.

2. Pad the central section of the dragon with some aluminum foil (optional); start adding clay into the central section.

3. Fashion the hind legs from the clay; pad the neck with aluminum foil (optional). At this point he looks like a zombi ostrich.

4. Add clay to the neck and the tail whilst tweaking the wire base into the desired position.

5. Fashion the head and the horns using small molding instruments or just your fingers.

6. Press two glass beads into the clay to make eyes (if you're not feeling lucky, you can also use a small drop of epoxy glue to secure them). Add some clay to the eyesockets.

7. Burn, baby, burn! Bake the sucker according to the clay manufacturer's instructions.

8. Call the burn unit. Keep a close eye on your piece while it is baking in order to avoid this.

9. Time to start working on the wings; fashion them out of the metal wires in the same manner as the torso.

10. Carefully start filling in the first wing in with clay.

11. And then fill in the second wing. You can also texturize the wings at this point, if you like. Bake the wings. (Notice that the wings are quite thin; you might want to decrease the baking time.)

12. The wings have been attached. Some additional clay is added to the torso to bind the wings: also, the feet are further refined by some additional clay. Bake after adding the last bits of clay. (The orange colour in the picture is not paint: it is a result of over-baking.)

13. After the final baking.

14. Time to add some paint... porcelain, miniature and/or acrylic paints work well.

15. Some gold paint has been added for extra glamour.

16. And this is the finished Gary. He looks happy.