While I Had A Pile Of Dragon Tails On Hand, I Just Figured I Would Get Some Shots Of Them All Together.

While I had a pile of dragon tails on hand, I just figured I would get some shots of them all together. We got the small in blackened steel and anodized titanium, the medium in black and green, and the large in yellow orange and red.

Aren’t they adorable when they cuddle together like that?

I’m experimenting with adding floof into scale mail. Someone requested it, and it’s been in the back of my mind for a while, so I’m trying it!

I tried a few ways of bundling the artificial hair together into tassels. I did wire, thin thread and thick thread. The thick thread seems to be the easiest/most reliable of what I tried, but maybe I’ll still come up with something better. Something like a big metal crimp, that would go on quickly and hold tightly over time. Dunno. 

The two basic arrangements of tassels I wanted to try out were filled-in-on-the-back, and just-on-the-sides.

The filled in version was waaaaaay thicker than I expected. Like solid hair. Wow. It used tassels attached underneath scales in the weave on the sides, replacing the rear scale with a tassel, and leaving the front free. I’d definitely need to reduce the thickness of the tassels if I went with this option, because it’s kind of an overwhelming amount of floof.

The flat version is much less cramped to weave, and it moves much more freely. It just replaces the scales on the sides with tassels. I like it, but without the scales on top of the tassels it shows their bindings pretty clearly, and I don’t think there’s a good way to prevent that. (I guess the next step is to try the side-arrangement but with the scales still included.)

I still want to experiment a bit more with these tassels, but once I’ve got it in a final arrangement I’ll take some scissors and give it a haircut to smooth out the profile. Maybe I’ll even be able to feather the edge a bit so it doesn’t have too hard an edge. 

Once I’m happy with this floof tip design for this commissioner’s request, I want to do a tail for myself with a mohawk. Haven’t decided yet if I’ll just add it to my rainbow tail, or make a brand new one.

This is the first dragon tail commission this month! It’s made of anodized aluminum, primarily black with a purple underbelly. It’s got a full line of chrome spikes down the spine. It’s also got a lobster clasp at the tip to attach things to. It measures in at 37 inches long, and weighs 4 lbs 1 oz.

Tail #2 coming up shortly!

These cuddling dragon tails are just here to advertise that I’m open for dragon tail commission requests! I’ll be closing the window for requests at the end of Thursday.

For full info, check my informational page here: http://armoreddragon.tumblr.com/tails And if you’d like a tail, fill out this form here: https://goo.gl/forms/n9rmkT8WcM14H0fB2

Finally put ears on this dog mask/pup hood! 

This was a prototype/first run at making a mask in this style, with snout in front and buckles in back. It worked out pretty well, and I think the buckle arrangement looks pretty clean. The snout and ears both detach with snaps, which felt like it was a good way to start thinking about modularity. And there’s enough room in the eye area that it fits on over my glasses, which I think is pretty cool. The snout is open at the bottom, which is pretty comfortable, but the snout is deep enough that it doesn’t really expose the chin very much. And the base structure should be able to support different types of snouts.

The only thing I’m a little bit skeptical of is the ears. I wanted to try a minimalist construction, and it seems to work with just 2 points of attachment (which pivot too, being snaps). But the shape is maintained by stress in the curved segment between the snaps, and I’ll have to see how that holds up when the ears get bonked. But if it does need some adjusting, they’re removable, so that’s easy.

The next mask I make with this structure I’m going to adjust how the straps attach to the mask. Here they’re just riveted directly to the mask. Next time I’ll attach D-rings to the mask and attach the straps to those. That’ll let them pivot around that point, rather than needing to be lined up to point in just the right direction. 

Mask was made by hand from 4 oz vegetable-tanned leather, stained black. I’ll finish it with neatsfoot oil, which’ll darken it up a bit more and make the surface a bit more supple. Rivets and snaps are nickel-plated steel.

I’ve got a dragon tail to sell! It’s red with black on the spine, with an underbelly of pink bright aluminum scales. Very shiny!

This tail had been made for a commissioner, who then was unable to pay. It’s been sitting in my room for a while, and it’s time to cash it in!

The commissioner had wanted a leather spade tip with a custom shape, which I made, but I didn’t really like it, so instead I’m offering it with both the arrow and heart shapes, but in acrylic plastic rather than the leather that most people get. 

It’s for sale over on my Etsy page! Jump on it quick, before that other guy gets it!

I do hope to open up for commissions in not too long, but I need to finish dealing with a few projects currently owed to people.