I Swear I Made My Dragon

“A Dragon! A dragon!

I swear I saw a dragon

A green and seething fire-breathing monster is in sight “1

With bright green plush, being 5’ to 6 ½’ in height, with a big head and a great round belly, even though he only made puffs and never quite managed flames, Arthur, the official mascot of the Mystery Castle Enchanted Theme Park came to life. With a little slashing of the Fiskars, a dash of hot glue, some sewing here, and some prayer there, my dragon existed in real-time regardless of what the historians have to say.

I couldn’t have been more tickled! It was an easy challenge I swore, when given the opportunity. I had no idea under the sun how to do this, but I was determined to add the suit to my repertoire of fun and exciting costumes. A human-sized, plush dragon to match the souvenir ones that could be sold in gift shops throughout the park. The park didn’t exist yet, but the land was in escrow, planning meetings were constant, and I was just lucky the mighty THEY didn’t decide to go with a purple dragon!

Time for RESEARCH! I needed to find out how the stagecraft shops of Broadway and any other sources I could find made things like, well, heads. So, I learned about Scenetex, a material like a thick fiberglass wallpapery sheeting that could be soaked in a solvent and then formed into different shapes and upon setting up, be lightweight and hard as a rock. All I had to do was find some! ...not so easily done in Kansas City. Next came the form for the head. I didn’t have the means to sculpt a head the size I wanted in clay and I had no interest in working with chicken wire. That’s when I had my brilliant idea! I would make the form out of the same stuff I’d used to make masks in the past ala The Muppets.

One foam-rubber, couch-bolster form coming up! Cutting it in half lengthwise, the two halves were glued together and formed a nice big block. Out came a purple pen and the dragon was sketched on the foam. Pulling out my trusty original, orange-handled, Fiskars scissors, they took the excess off that block in a hurry. I could bite into the foam and take out big chunks, or just trim a little to fine-tune a line, the scissors were up to the task of going through that major cube of foam. Once I had the head shaped, I glued on the upper and lower jaws.

Now the fun began. I snipped up strips of aluminum foil and wrapped the head, being careful around the features, taping it to the form where necessary. Finally! It was time for the Scenetex. I cut some strips and I tore some strips to have feathered edges to blend more easily. The solvent was poured in the bottom of a small bucket and the strips of Scenetex went into the bucket to soak.

The air was thick with excitement – or maybe it was just the fumes – but I was like a kid wrapping wet newspaper around a piñata. Wrapping the softened strips of the fiberglass around the mold was fun, pressing it onto the foil, and into the foam a bit, making sure it was tight, smoothing edges, and shaping around the contours. I watched the head begin to really take shape. The ivory-colored material looked like a skeletal dragon head, but the trusty Fiskars made quick work of slicing it up the back to simplify removal of the mold, and for later shaping. Once it really dried it was time to add the plush. Cutting and fitting the fabric to stretch it around the head it was like watching Arthur come to life.

Seeing out of the mask would be accomplished through the nostrils and the mouth, so I needed to find something to create the shiny, white eyeballs. The answer was looking me in the face over breakfast. The shiny, white Styrofoam of an egg carton was perfect, and the side of an egg cup was just big enough to fill an eye slot! A black Sharpie marker added pupils and highlights and the eyes were nearly complete. Some wonderful long, plastic eyelashes from the costume shop added the final touch. Black cloth to fill the nostril openings and mouth, and the head was initially done. More would come later. As it was, it was time to pull the foam!

Now I was met with the problem of how to get the larger head through the smaller neck. I didn’t want to lose the mold completely, so I began the process of cutting and tearing the insides from the foam core. I got enough torn out that I could begin to work the foam out of the fiberglass opening and through the space allowed by the cut down the back. Pulling the jaws just kind of had to happen as it was, but they came clear fairly easily. So now I had a foam-rubber head and one in green plush. However, that was only the solution and gave me Every Little Piece2 of just the head.

Pleased with myself, I set about working on the bodysuit. The tummy became a light green of upholstery velvet, quilted in deep channels so it looked like he had a series of scales down the belly. Again the Fiskars made the heavy fabric a breeze to work with. With the tummy finished, it was time to start work on the rest of the body. Holding the tummy up under my chin, modeling it in the mirror, I started picturing the lines for the rest of the pattern. I laid out the darker green plush and began sketching the lines for the body and tail directly on the back of the fabric. I designed the body to be nice and fat as it would be suspended on spring hoops, then made the tail nice and fat as well. It was simply time to sew it all up.

My poor sewing machine didn’t know what to make of having to assemble a dragon! The tummy, it handled okay. I had just sewn the channels for padding, then stuffed the tubes inside. The subsequent thing was to sew the sides to the tummy piece all the way from the neck down to between the squat little legs. Then I set the back onto the front, and then the arms onto the beast...but the back seam wasn’t to be fixed yet. Scraps of the upholstery velvet were scissored into triangles to run from the top of the head all the way to the tip of the tail, as standing scales. They were stuffed with batting and sewn onto the edge of one back piece. Then for closure, out came the Velcro!

On, to feet. I needed dragon feet complete with claws in proportion to the dragon as he was designed. But what do dragon feet look like? I traced my big shoes on newspaper and drew three big bulbous toes extending out from the line. Opposite the toes, I drew the spurred heel. Foam! Foam! Time to sculpt more foam! Back to my foam scraps and my sculpting shears. With vinyl on the bottom, and leaving room in the middle to insert a shoe, the toes grew off in their wide-spread directions. Four inches high, it was time to cover the toes and feet with the bright green plush, leaving wide open ankles to merge with the legs of the suit.

Hands were a more difficult problem. To make gloves out of plush? Try to buy green gloves? The final solution was a cross between the two. One of the "idea people" working on those original days of the park development made a tremendous find and came up with some bright-green, leather, work gloves that were just about a perfect match for Arthur. Snatch! Green plush was added to the backs of the hands and fingers, and plastic claws (non-sharp) were glued and stitched to the fingertips. These were just a little smaller than the same claws used on the feet.

Executive members were stopping by to grab parts to take to promotional meetings and show off to give the sense that this park was going to be a reality...before I ever got the chance to finish the suit. First, just the head went, and then it was the hands too, then it was the whole suit! Boy, did I feel a sense of joy the first time that I helped a volunteer into the full suit to try on. From the suit, to the hands, the feet, to at last the head, it all came together.

Perky, little, non-operational wings of the light green velvet were added to Arthur’s upper back. But horror of horrors, the park organizers wanted to add Mystery Castle Enchanted Theme Park and a logo somewhere on the suit. They were threatening to put this rainbow-in-the-round on his belly! The crew member who had found the gloves had come up with a medallion that could be worn as a pendant, 8” in diameter, or maybe sewn on. I was dragging my heels the next time the suit was picked up again for a promotional meeting because I didn’t know what was going to happen to my design.

The president of the operation was planning on adding fine hoses inside the nostrils to puff a fine powder whenever Arthur was supposed to breathe fire. This was supposed to look like he was just couldn’t generate fire and was just breathing smoke. He assured me he had done this before with special effects at his haunted houses for years and that it worked a trick. ...it didn’t work with Arthur. It just left cocaine tracks on his plush...or at least, that’s what it looked like!

Then one day, while I was still fine-tuning a tuck here or an ankle there, they came for Arthur and he never returned. I never even got any pictures! And the Mystery Castle Enchanted Theme Park? It’s become exactly the thriving destination you’ve heard of… right. And I have no idea whatever happened to my baby, Arthur, but I loved the chance to make him!

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1 I Saw a Dragon, Lyrics from Pete’s Dragon, Disney, 1977.

2 Every Little Piece, from Pete’s Dragon, Disney, 1977.