Dragon Hearts

One of the things I really enjoy about making the dragons that I do, is selecting the ‘hearts. And yes, I know how weird that sounds!

But it’s true: the hearts in my dragons are made of tiny pebbles, bits of sea glass, shells, beads and the occasional odd trinket. Unconsidered trifles. Really, whatever catches my eye: it’s all part of the tread lightly philosophy I’ve tried to build in to this project.

Every time someone buys a dragon, I show them a selection they can select from and then I needlefelt the dragon around it. Sometimes, they even have a special piece they want me to use.

Bede, the dragon you can see in the video below, has a faroe sea shell inside him, picked up on a beach in Northumberland (hence his name). The shell was chosen because the recipient lives in Newbiggin by the Sea, in that county (one of my favourite counties in the whole of the UK). You can’t see the spiral in his tail in the video, but that’s made from wool I scavanged from a fence in Northumberland, providing two lovely links for his new owner (they also selected his name, by the way).

Below, you can see the set of Victorian drawers I keep some of the shells, sea glass and pebbles in, along with dried flower heads, seaweed and beads. I hope you enjoy it.