Spare Parts Dragon Sculpture

Everyone eventually ends up with a collection of spare parts sometime in their life. Whether it is a junk drawer or boxes and boxes of parts in a basement, these parts sit around and do nothing until they may one day be needed in the future. Why not have some fun with storing these spare parts? Spare-part sculpting is a great activity for a rainy day that lets you go wild with DIY creativity. All you need is a pile of spare parts, a glue gun, and your imagination. As an added benefit, since the parts are not altered, you can always use them again if you need them in the future. Read on to learn how to make your very own spare-part sculpture!

Spare Parts: Any number of spare parts will do; it all depends on how big or small you want to make your sculpture and how many parts you have available.

Hot Glue Gun: To hold all the parts together, a hot glue gun is the best option because it is important that the glue is fast acting but can also be taken apart if revisions are needed. Before starting always check to see how much glue you have available, because this limits the size of sculpture you can make.

Since unique parts can change your design, organizing all the available parts is important so you know exactly what you have. Group the parts based off of the functions that will be important for your design. For example, I wanted to include a variety of color in my sculpture, so I organized mainly by color. I also separated long rods and parts that could move (hinges, wheels) to utilize them for the main structure. Other groups could be specific shapes, certain sizes, etc. Anything you want to focus on in your design can be its own group.

Once you have seen all the parts you have, you can start creating a design. Look for any unique parts that pop out to you and give you ideas. Once you have one you can look for relevant parts to build your basic design. For example, after organizing my parts I saw the old CD case and thought that would be a cool base for a dragon's jaws. Then I decided the black part could be the chest and the yellow parts could be the neck. A smaller example would be this bunny I made, where I used the head as my starting point. At this point the design doesn't have to be very detailed, just a general idea of where parts should go.

Using the preliminary design from the previous step, start building out from the main parts. For my dragon design this was the head and body. At this stage you can lay the parts out and test them before you assemble them to ensure they fit together well. Once the structure starts to take form you can just keep adding on parts without laying them out first.

After completing the main parts then you can work on putting them all together. Ensuring sufficient support is the most important goal of this step. This means determining where the majority of the strain on the structure will go and providing enough support at those sections. For my dragon sculpture this meant making the base of the body wide enough to support the weight of the head and also adding an arch to the front leg to help bear some of the weight of the chest. This step is not as important for small sculptures that do not have a lot of weight to support.

Once the main structure is up and secure, then you can add on smaller parts for detailing. This includes any part that is not a supporting piece but is essential for conveying the image and motion you want in your sculpture. For the dragon sculpture the small detailing was the scales going down the neck and back, the eyes and nose, the paws, and the tail. Basically, any part that is not necessary for support can be added on at this step.

The universal truth of the hot glue gun is that there will be inevitable glue strings, so after you complete your sculpture make sure to clean off any glue strings. I usually have to look over my sculpture a few times to catch all of them, because they are remarkably good at hiding in the most inconvenient areas.

Finally, you can set your sculpture up where you want it and display it!