Making dragon wings out of liquid sculpey

I have been making a lot of dragons lately and not all of them look good with quilted wings. I know there are plenty of places on You Tube and such that you can see how it is done. There are some fabulous wings out there. I like to use liquid sculpey and art wire to make mine.

The first thing you need is a good template. Again there are many fine examples on the internet. It is generally a line drawing and you want that as the wires will run on the lines to make the wing strong.
There are a few tools required too, but not many.

Tools I use:
1. liquid sculpey- liquid fimo is good too.
2. wire cutters
3. round nose pliers
4. strong aluminum wire for the outer edge lines
5. Colored art wire for the inner lines or veins.
6. tweezers
7. Sheet of glass
8. old paint brush
9. Baking oven

The first thing I do is place my template under the glass and tape it down so it will not move easily while I am working. I work slowly and carefully to shape the thicker aluminum wire  to the outer edge of the wing and one of the middle veins to add strength. The wire I use is about 1.5 mm thick or about 16 gauge. This is a slow process and you want to be as accurate as you can.
Once you have the outer wires- mine area copper brown- in place you can form the veins out of the coated art wire. It is about 18 ga or 1mm thick and it is easier to form. Work slowly to shape the wires and place them on the glass in the corresponding line as you finish them. I find accurate placing is better achieved with the tweezers.

Once the wires are all made and in place, I add the liquid sculpey. I work slowly so I do not move the wires. Liquid sculpey is a thick liquid so work carefully around the wires and it will help hold the wires in place as you fill the rest of the wings space. You want to fill the whole wing and have a decent layer. Make sure you put the liquid sculpey over the wires.

 

 

The sculpey can be coaxed onto the rest of the wing space on the glass with a paint brush. If you do decide to do this, then you need to be careful not to move the wires. Baking sculpey is tricky as it releases fumes I bake outside if I can and I have a dedicated oven for this. Before I bake the wing I do add some sparkle in the form of polymer glitter.  I got this one from Hobby Lobby.

 

I sprinkle the poly flake onto the wet wing and let it sit for a bit as the liquid sculpey levels out. I do get a bit on the glass but it does come off after baking so I do not worry about it.

Now I bake it:

I bake at 275 Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not let the temperature go over 300 as it will burn the sculpey and release smelly nasty fumes. The liquid does bake to a clear finish at a higher temperature.

 

The wing has baked and the poly flake has cured into it. I carefully remove the wing from the oven and place the glass onto a muffin pan to cool and finish setting. Once the wing and glass is cool enough to touch then I will move the wing. The wing will have some flex, but go slowly so you do not tear it. I now use gallery glass stain glass paint to add some more detail. It dries to the finish listed on the bottle so plan carefully before you add it. Most of the gallery glass is transparent when dried but there are hologram and pearl or frost finishes. It is also very runny so work carefully in order to not flood the area.

 

 

I do one side of the wing and let it dry totally before flipping the wing and adding gallery glass onto the other side. You can also add more glitter, gems, pearl beads to add detail and "bling". After all dragons like bling. Now I repeat the process to make the other wing. I do like to form the wires at the same time as this helps make sure the wings are a mirror image of each other. Once both wings have been baked, painted and decorated I leave them alone for a day as a precaution. I want to make sure they are really dry before I mess with them.

The part of the wings that touch has a small loop on each. I use more wire to wrap around those loops to hold them together. I now use a hot glue gun to glue the wings together. While the glue is still warm/hot I add an embellishment to cover the wire wrap and the glue. I like to use a brass embellishment as again- what dragon does not like the color gold?

I will glue on seed beads or glitter to hide anything else I do not want to be seen. Wings need to be pretty.

My finished wings for the green dragon. I sew a small loop of strong ribbon to the back of the dragon where I want the wings to be, The brass detail slides into this loop to hold the wings onto the back of the dragon. It makes tem removable for play.