Dragon Egg

From the instant a dragon hatches out of it's eggshell as a baby, it is instantly fascinated with the brilliant shine of the egg that it just came out of. The dragon will covet these shiny pieces of eggshell, often keeping pieces of the shell with them for their whole life. It isn't uncommon to find ancient dragons hidden away in caves, sitting for decades at time, doing nothing more than admiring the egg shell that they hatched out of centuries earlier.

In this Instructable, I will show you how to build your very own freshly hatched dragon egg. The egg and dragon are made mostly out of paper mache, along with a few other required components. Here's a list of the materials that I used:

-paper (lots and lots)
-paper mache glue (flour and water)
-tape (I used duct tape)
-balloon
-two marbles
-plastic forks

I like paper mache. It's a wonderful substance made from recycled paper and homemade glue. These household materials have almost limitless possibilities to what can be created. Lately, I've been experimenting with a few different variations on how to build paper mache creatures. A few of the websites about paper mache that I read had amazing paper mache dragons, and I decided I needed to build my own...

Some of my inspiration came from Stolloween's Six Hour Dragons and the Gourmet Paper Mache Website. The dragon that I'm building is a combination of the techniques used on the mentioned websites, along with some of my own methods added in as well.

Step 1: Dragon Head & Neck

The base of the dragon's head was created next by rolling several sheets of paper into a ball and wrapping the ball tightly with tape.

The neck is made from rolled up newspaper, that were then taped to hold the roll.

The ball was then taped to the end of the neck using plenty of tape.

Pictured is the rest of the dragon's body. I initially planned on making an entire dragon, but at the last minute decided to just use the neck up.

Comments

[dnisepal2]

Okay so WOW!!! Really nice work and just what I was looking for to help my 13 yr old daughter. Since you are obviously a master at this can you tell me or give me some advice on what would happen if I used glue instead of the flour and water glue mix? Will i get a too smooth texture to the dragon. I'm imagining that with the flour and water mix you can bunch the parer and get ridges on your dragon (like say over the eyes or along the snout). Do you think that I'll get the same results with the glue and paper? Again, REALLY nice work!

[woofboy111]

Any sort of glue should work fine. Using the standard white glue will probably cost more, but should still work!

[gunman15]

how can u cut it without getting hurt using the scissors when u squeeze

[vtheawesome]

keep in mind the dragon isn't done

[vtheawesome]

this is it the egg is just an easter egg the teeth are bamboo skewers the neck is a dowel cut diaonaly and hot glued on backwards with tape keeping it in place the head is just cardboard from a binder

[vtheawesome]

i'm working on mine right now mine is made os an easter egg cardboard newspaper tape and other stuff i will post a pic whan its done :)

[spartana]

Excellent work on the dragon! I made one years ago after I saw one on tv. I used paper mache, cardboard and tape. Then painted it with metallic paints, turned out pretty cool too. But it doesnt have it's own egg. I'll post i picture if you want me too.

[woofboy111]

I'd love to see a picture! Mine actually started out without the egg, but I ran into problems with the neck being too long and the head being too heavy. It was fine when the dragon was dry, but when I put a new layer of paper mache on, it would weaken the neck so much that it became quite a pain to prop it up why drying. When the head eventually fell off while drying, I had enough of the trouble and made the dragon come out of it's egg. I still have the body. I really should stick a wire into the neck and make another head to finish it up.

[spartana]

Whoops! turned out i hadn't looked at it for a while. I really made it from string for the details, sellotape, newspaper, cardboard (thick and thin) and lots of pva glue. but there is no reason why not you can not use paper mache though! Guts about the head falling off. The neck of mine has a ridge of thick cardboard down the centre, with the neck built out either side with newspaper.

[toolman883]

by snot-rag mache mean tissues

[woofboy111]

yep. Snot rag is a "technical term."

[peace-to-earth]

Could you use old junk mail instead of newspapers?

[woofboy111]

Any paper works. Junk mail works just fine, just be careful of those advertisments from the supermarkets telling the weekly specials. I've found that this paper starts falling apart really fast once it gets wet. It's one of the few papers that I've found that is a pain to work with. That and toilet paper...

[peace-to-earth]

This is incredible!!! I cant believe the ingenuity of this project!!! WOW

[wolfeh334]

...hmmmmmmmmm.......

[wolfeh334]

COOL

[Waddler71]

I love it. I definitely want to try this for my halloween display. Thanks so much for the great instructions!

[garrett10]

please click on this link so my dragon egg will hatch on dragonadopters.com
if its just txt something is wrong

http://www.garrett11.dragonadopters.com/dragonimage_75974_71940_pixel

[watermelonhead]

wow. that's amazing. 5 stars!

[IW5 Industries]

1 of the coolest instructable iv'e ever seen in a long time! better than mine! lol! 5.5 stars! added to favorites!

[gmjhowe]

Wow, i love the dragon, i had almost missed it in the lists! its very good. Youve done an excellent job!