Dragon's Dream Part 2: constructing the cave

To construct the cave interior I used inch thick Styrofoam to make a bowl shape. Pieces of Styrofoam were attached with Tacky glue and held together with tooth picks. The interior was covered in a thin layer of paper clay .

I decorated the back wall with a mandala with a dragon motif in the center.  Instead of adding paper clay on top of the dragon design I used a flat headed tool to push the paper clay back to shape the dragon relief and the letters.

 The base of the piece was a 12 by 14 sheet of one inch thick Styrofoam.

In the center of the cave is a stone table dressed by Todd Krueger with a scull, a candle and other useful items. It was attached to the base and surrounded by a floor of paper clay before the the cave was set in place.

This is a view of the interior through the cave door. A root growing through the roof of the cave hangs down behind the table.  Leaves have blown into the cave to litter the floor.                                                

Dragon's Dream Part 1: clay mock-up

For several years now I've had an inspiration to make a cave with a dragon sleeping on top.  This past winter I started working on it and this and the next few postings will show the steps to the finished piece.

My first problem was how to design a sculpture with a hollow center.  So I turned a plastic bowl upside down and sculpted a mock-up of the piece around it using smooth water base clay. 

This sculpture is the actual size of the finished piece. I used a ruler and calipers to measure the figure and creat the shape in Styrofoam and paper clay.