Anti Kythera - The Mother Dragon

No.3
The idea is the Mother Dragon called Antikythera who is guarding the Treasure Vault .
She is helped in guarding by her three babies.
The lid is removable and inside the Treasure Vault is a precious object that belongs to the owner of this art piece.
A fantasy project that I built using stock metal fabrication, spin casting, sand casting, glass cutting and gem cutting and gem setting processes..
About 500 hours of work.
Made of 350 differently shaped pieces of metal and glass.
The baby dragons have 2 mm garnets set in the eyes.
The eyes are set with 2 mm cabochon garnets.
Each rear leg has 8 x 2 mm garnets set pavé in them.
There are 4 x 2 mm garnets set in the head.
There are 32 x 2 mm garnets set in the tail.
The silver columns of the Treasure Box have 6 x 5 mm garnets set in the top
and 18 x 2 mm garnets set in the middle.
The Treasure Box has 78 different components.
The central crystal weighs 158 carats.

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First I cut out some scale like shell shapes and then attached them onto a vague sort of serpentine shape.

I quite liked the look.
If it didn't work as a dragon, I could always go the upright snake route.

Then I added more side shells, to give the body some more depth.
I first use poster board cardboard and make a template, then cut it out in the brass with a jewelers piercing saw.

This was my first attempt at making legs.
I first make them out of said cardboard and the cut and carved them out of jewelers purple wax.

Here I have sand cast them.
I use Delft Clay for the casting.
I also added the mount screw where she will be attached to the eventual display.

Then I made the neck.
First I glued two slices of wax together and then cut out the basic shape.

These two were still too long for my sand casting so I cut them into two again.

Here are the tops finished cast.

Checking the neck length..

Soldering all the neck pieces together. I make my own silver solder. @ 30 grams Fine Silver 9.2 grams Copper 6.9 grams Zinc
Makes for a easy solder that flows well.

The neck was partially done but the legs were giving me the heebies

So I carved and sand cast some new ones

A little more 'dragon-ish'

A little more dragon-ish.

I also carved the tail out of purple wax.
I made it out of 4 pieces and cast and soldered them together.

OK, so this is the visual of the dragon semi polished and now to figure out the wings.

As usual, I start with cardboard stock to get a feel of the shape and size.

The wings will be made out of 0.7 mm copper sheet and the ribs out of brass stock
The tricky part is to make the mirror image.

The relationship to the dragon body.

The ribs of the wings are engraved at certain sections to look like scales.

I made a special engraver that has a concave face.

It gives quite a nice effect.

The first actual visual of a wing is quite important, because then one actually sees what it looks like in real life.
Often, it is so fucked up that it's start again factories.
Anyway this one turned out good, so I could make the second wing.

Both wings posed with masking taped and screw boxes.

One thing that was difficult was to make the back and front ribs and align them so that the rivet would hold the rib and copper at the same time.

I had to make some brass art work to join the wings to the body.
When I make a project like this, I start with the basic body soldered together.
Then as the project progresses, I use screws and rivets to join the added components.
This was the case with the wings.
I made an arty brass fitting that screws into the body.

One of the dragon fins.
This is made from a sandwich of 0.7 mm copper and brass.
I use copper to rivet it all together, then I solder two slices of tubing to each end so that it can be screwed onto the neck

The front 'screw' turned into a spike made of silver.

'Boutique-ing' the tail, as I call it.
Basically, I designed a form of collapsible rivet that I used to rivet the copper cladding onto the brass of the tail.
Then I made some silver tubing and set 2 mm swarovski garnets in them.
Then I drilled the correct size holes in the tail and press fitted the tubes in.

These are the chin fins, also made like a sandwich, with brass, copper, brass and riveted together with copper rivets.
They also screw onto the head.

I attached the fins with silver horns.
At this stage I cut the cabochon garnets for the eyes and pave set all the various garnets into the dragon.
Setting pave into brass is –interesting—It work hardens quite quickly.

I also made two 'tendrils' out of copper and screwed them into the neck with silver garnet screws that I made. Basically a bezel set garnet soldered onto a silver 2 mm screw.
Making a threaded rod out of silver is relatively straightforward.

The whole back of the neck is textured with raised scales.
Laborious, but it looks cool.

And then came the time when she was basically finished.
Now came the rest of the display thing.

View from the back.
I like the color the wings came out.
I used Liver of Sulfur and some acidic compounds to get the color.

So the display base is made out of some melamine compressed board.

I added some quarter quadrant around the top edges to form the copper sheet later.

Then with a torch and a hammer I formed the copper. I heat the copper cherry red and then tap it into shape. I have used this technique of a few desks and what not, so I had a pretty good idea where I was going with this.

Here is the basic copper sheet formed.

It is kind of brutal on the wood underneath, but what actually happens is that the wood carbonizes and then collapses as the red hot copper is hammered/tapped into place.
Then when it cools, it contracts something fierce and hugs the wood very closely.

The bottom was made out of a cut and formed piece of 1 mm brass sheet.

That was the base finished.
Now for the inter-active bit, as in, the treasure holder.

I made many different designs, each incrementally a bit better.
I wanted to have a treasure/crystal maybe egg, baby type thing.
Here I am experimenting with wax and a piece of rock crystal.
I didn't want to cut or facet the crystal.
I just wanted it to be in its natural state.

I did have the bottom design engraved in brass, but I discarded it later.
The token ring was to denote the 'treasure' she was guarding.

These were the first baby dragons that I pierced out of 3 mm brass.

Here the brass engraved design is shown and I started carving the wax for the base of the treasure container.

Various wax and brass castings that I did ( and discarded) in my journey to where I was happy with the result.
Correction: I am never totally happy with any result.

I experimented with various coiled and uncoiled snakes made out of various materials and discarded all of them.

More experimentation.

I quite liked how some silver rods that I turned came out.

More experimentation with silver rods and copper at the bottom.

I change all the brass circles and made more elaborate silver circles.
I finally was moving in a more positive and less aimless direction.
This took a while.

Working on the top silver design.

Working on the lid, with my placer ring aka 'treasure' inside.
Then I decided that the baby dragons were to small, and the whole treasure thing was top heavy.
I have taught myself the discipline to abruptly end a direction and discard any work done before without guilt.
Basically, I feel fuckall for any work I do that I am uncomfortable with.
I started cutting and adding the glass panels

So I carved out a new dragon out of purple wax and cold molded it with a silicone molding material.

Then I injected three baby dragons in green casting wax and set everything up to see what balance it had and what it all would look like.

Then I set everything up for casting.
Having a mold allowed me to make some spare baby dragons.

After casting.
I cast the main master into silver, because I never have a failure casting silver.
Brass-- plenty of failure, but with a silver master, I have plenty of reserve ammo.

Setting up with the final baby dragons.
I also re made the brass base of the treasure chest.

I wanted a red tinge to the crystal, so I enameled some silver for the bottom.
The red smudges on the baby dragons is my blood-literally- I cut myself on one of their horns.

And here we are ready for installation.

I also cut some red 'fangs' for the treasure chest at the bottom.
To go with the red everything of dragons and things.

Moving towards final finishing and assembly.

These are all the components of the treasure chest.

I set garnets in the silver rods and dragon eyes

The lid has a orange sapphire that I cut into a brilliant cut and acts as the handle of the lid.

I set garnets in the silver rods and dragon eyes

The lid has a orange sapphire that I cut into a brilliant cut and acts as the handle of the lid.

I set garnets in the silver rods and dragon eyes

The lid has a orange sapphire that I cut into a brilliant cut and acts as the handle of the lid.