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 In the hallway outside the Gen Con dealers' room, gamers spotted a pile of crumpled aluminum foil that gradually was taking the shape of a dragon. The sculpture, a perfect choice for a convention that began with the Dungeons and Dragons game, was a work in progress from artist Kim Graham. |
 Graham is based in the Seattle area and traveled across the country to make the Gen Con dragon, the latest in a series of sculptures she's created at fandom conventions. The Indianapolis sculpture looks large, but she's made dragons as large as 48 feet long. Behind Graham lies the basis for her sculpture, rolls of aluminum foil and blocks of modeling clay. |
 Like many anime costumers, Graham depends on hot glue for her work, but it's used to attach the base for her sculpture. The basic design for the dragon is made in advance, and she creates a wooden armature that is shipped to the convention and assembled. The hot glue is used to attach crumpled aluminum foil to the armature, which was entirely covered by early afternoon of the convention's opening day. Once the crumpled foil has been glued into place, it forms the the base for the dragon, which is then covered with the clay and sculpted into shape. |
 When the dragon is completed at Gen Con, it'll be solid enough to support people on its back. A saddle was brought to the convention and will be mounted on the finished dragon, so that people can climb up a ladder, mount the saddle and pose for pictures. And once that four-day job is done, what happens to the dragon? It more or less gets taken apart, shipped back to Seattle and rebuilt, Graham said. But when the dragon is reworked in Seattle, it'll be made in concrete, not clay, then finished so it can become the centerpiece of a childrens' playground. |
 Twenty-four hours after the dragon work began, major progress had been made.The shape of the beast was obvious as the modeling clay formed the basic outline of the sculpture. And the saddle was in place for prospective dragon riders. |
 The reason for the rapid progress was because Graham got some assistance. The word got out that Graham needed help, and volunteers emerged to work on the sculpture - it's not every day that you get to make a ten-foot dragon, after all. |
 Two days into the birth of the dragon and the details have emerged. The great beast is ready for its fan riders, the only ones it will have before it's torn down. |
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