HOW TO MAKE POSEABLE DRAGON WINGS




Recently, I offered art prizes for the Thunder Crack Carnival. While I was working on these images, I realized I was struggling a lot with drawing the different wingspans for each prize. To help me figure out the wings, I decided to make a set of reusable poseable dragon wings using felt and wire. I plan to make a pair of wings for each type of dragon I draw, and for my personal favorite dragons :>
Listed below are the steps I took to create a pair of wings for a Skydancer. To help me with the wingspans, I used Incoherrant’s wingspan drawing, click HERE
SUPPLIES NEEDED
• Hot glue • Wire • Fabric scissors or scissors • Felt |
• Sewing pins or clips • Clothes pin • Marker • Anchor or figurine to attach the wings to. |


HOW TO
Using Incoherrant’s image, I traced a skydancer's wingspan and added the feather details, and mapped out where the bends of the fingers and overlapping feathers would be placed. I used this image to plan out what wire layout I would use later. I only used wire on the areas marked in orange.
Next, I simplified the shapes to prepare the pieces I would need to cut from the felt. After constructing the wings, the only shapes I needed were:
• The wingspan – cut as 1 piece
• Top feather section – cut 4 times
• Bottom feathers – cut 4 times

After tracing the shapes on to the felt, I used the sewing clips to be able to cut through 2 layers of felt at the same time, but prevent the fabric from moving which would have caused distorted shapes.

After cutting out the felt pieces, I cut 7 pieces of wire. See the image below to match the shapes I used. At each bend of a "finger" and at the “hand” of the wing, I placed hotglue. Next, on both sides, I hot glued the feathers and used a marker to draw where the arm and feathers would be.


Next, I took apart a clothes pin to hot glued it to be “spine” of the wing. Next, I cut 4 holes into the felt of the wing, 2 on each wing close to the clothes pin. Next, I cut 2 pieces of wire and hot glued these to the clothes pin. These 2 pieces of wire need to be long enough to be able to use later on the figurine.
After the glue has dried, I used this tiger figurine to attach the wings to so that I could pose the wings as I needed.

After posing the wings, I took a picture of the angle I needed. This image I could then trace over, getting that perfect drawing :>

