Building the Dragon

People ask me all the time where a piece like the Dragon starts. The honest answer is a pile of scrap on the shop floor — chain, cut plate, a few parts off things that quit working a long time ago.

I don't sit down and design a dragon. I pick up one piece. Then another one. Then the sculpture starts telling me what it wants to be.

The mane and the wings are the slow part. Every scale gets cut, shaped, and welded on one at a time, and there's a stretch in the middle where it doesn't look like anything yet. That's the part most people would quit at. You just have to trust it and keep going.

Then one day the head turns the right way and it's looking back at you, and it stops being metal and starts being a dragon. That's the moment I'm chasing every time.

This one already found its home — but you can watch the whole build on its page.