Careful, CAREFUL! Slowly, yes, there you go. One tiny triangle lays on the table. Only 50 or so more to go. The process is slow and painful at times, but the result is spectacular. What would the result be? A colorful dragon eye made of clay. So many details and so much story, so much room for creativity to shine. Best thing is, you don’t even have to be a world class artist. With the right supplies and a splash of imagination, this little beauty could be yours. Want to make one? The answer to this burning question is right around the corner. 

     First things first. Materials. If you use white model magic clay, you can customize the color a little more, but any color of clay will do. A toothpick might help. If you use white model magic then markers will be needed. One main thing that is needed is the center dragon eye. It would act as the pupil of our clay creation. Let’s call them pupils. You can buy them off of Amazon. They come in lots of different colors, and it really helps drive the story of your dragon.  That's pretty much it for materials. Now a little planning might suffice.

     Planning before you use clay is helpful. Decide on colors first. Try picking a base and an accent color. Example: blue as the base and orange as the accent. The accent is used for little details like spots or spikes. The color for the accent could be entirely different or a different shade, like orange or a darker or lighter shade of blue that better blends with the dragon’s element. 

     Deciding the element of the dragon or deciding if it has an element altogether is also a part of this “planning” step. If you choose to add an element to the dragon you are basically deciding if the dragon you're creating can control an aspect of nature. Can your dragon make plants grow at will, or can it summon earthquakes? Or even what environment your dragon lives in. Does it live in the mountains? If so, what kind? Steep snowy mountains?  Cliffs that jut off the stormy sea? Dry desert hills?  A fire dragon could be red with yellow and orange accents. A dragon that lives in the sandy hills might be tan with some scales of gray or maybe it has cactus camouflage.Those factors can play into the design and planning. If you don’t have any idea on what the dragon will look like, then pick your favorite aspect of nature.  Or you don’t have to add an element and just pick your favorite colors. But adding an element adds more story to your creation.

     Now here is the juicy part:  actually making the dragon. The crayola model magic comes in this plastic package, so get it out of it. It comes in this kind of rectangular shape, so what you want to do is to cut it once in the middle down the long way, then cut each half into three evenish chunks. After that, take one chunk and tear it into three smaller blobs that are relatively close in size. Set one blob off to the side and combine the other two. 

     The process to add color to your blank clay is really easy but can be long, depending on how dark you want the color. Those other two now combined, blobs will form the base and eye lids. They will both be the same color. Let's say you’re making a fire dragon and want the base to be red. Right now, the clay is white, so we have to change that. This is where the markers come into play. You’ll take the red one, flatten out the clay a little bit and just scribble a little bit of the clay in with color. To get the color to spread, you’ll need to knead the clay like dough. Flatten it, spread it out, squish it in on itself, roll it up, whatever. After a little bit the color will start to be more visible. Of course, it will be really light. If you are happy with it then you can move onto the next step, but if you need a darker shade, then just repeat those last steps until you have the color that suits you.

     Next is making the base and eye lids. Split the now colored clay back into two even parts. Roll one up into a ball and then squish it flat into a circular shape. You can always customize your base by making it smaller or shaping it. Maybe you want it to slope to form a forehead. Always use creativity to make whatever you want. Next take the second part of the colored clay, roll it into a ball, and flatten it into a shape that is as close as you can get to your base. Cut it in half horizontally and put it off to the side. Take a pupil and put it in the middle of your base. Put the eyelids over the eye and shape them however you want. You definitely want to see the eye, so make sure the eyelids go around it. Blend the eyelids into the base using your finger, and then you have the dragon eye done.

     Well, not fully done. Only the base. Now is the best part. Details. Add spikes or horns. Tiny triangles or frills. Stripes or scales. Whatever you think is cool. The possibilities are limitless. If you want your details to be a different color, then do the same process as coloring the base and eyelids. Let your imagination run wild. If you do add scales, using a toothpick will really help. If you did decide an element, then different details can be used for different types of dragons. Rock dragons might have rounder scales and maybe a few spikes off the back. Water dragons might have more wavey details and so forth. After that,voila, you're done.

     Most people draw or paint, and sculpting is also a more well known form of art, but with this, you don’t need a lot of skill. It's not like you're sculpting a giant statue or trying to make a clay replica of a human face. Anyone can pick this up. You're really just stacking clay onto each other. It's easy and can be really fun, especially if you love to create worlds and stories. Imagination can be a really big player in this form of art. Creativity is in all of us, and we just need to let it out. This is just one small project, but it can unleash all kinds of ideas. You can just sit down and forget all your problems when you use your imagination while doing this. We all need to just let our creativity flow. 

-Mason L.