Originally published January 12, 2019; updated for more images.
A Chinese Dragon head needed repair. An eye was missing. The head was falling apart. Most of all, it needed something more.
The prop was for my son’s third grade show. His and another class would dance the Chinese Dragon and perform songs describing their knowledge of the culture. The show would be in four weeks but rehearsal requirements meant they would need the prop in three weeks. There were other conditions to shorten the timeline: we would be a week away for the Christmas holiday; and I would need general surgery which meant some recovery time of doing nothing. Therefore, I had only two weeks. And, oh, they needed two heads.
The Original Head
My wife picked up the original head and sent me a picture.
I was not unprepared; I did see another image of it on some other phone during a loud children’s party. Still, the new image showed more work was needed than I originally thought. There was a budget of $200 but I truly believed I could repair and modify this prop and build another one less than that. To accomplish this goal of a small budget, economical use of materials, within a short timeline and with reasonable effort considering recovery from a surgery; I had to start with a plan.
Always start with a plan
In my head I saw what Chinese Dragon Parade heads could be but I needed references to ground my understanding. With a quick image perusal for references, I worked out a sketch which directed my shopping list.
With measurements of the current head, I designed with the motivation to modify (recycling) what was available and adding to make it new. Satisfied with my sketch, I designed actual size templates for print organizing each piece to fit on four pieces of 1/2 inch and five pieces of 3/8 inch foam core boards with as little waste as possible. I felt like I was a greasy gas monkey pimping an old car, but…not.
I pulled the jaws off, the eye fall off, trimmed the head with an arc-cut at the bottom to match the design and assessed what repair parts were needed to make a durable prop to handle third graders. With hot glue gun in hand, I reinforced the current construction with foam core blocks and added the extra details bumping up its sophistication. Here is the modified dragon head trimmed and accessorized and almost ready for a coat of paint. The exposed triangular wedges bridge the snout to the forehead to change the head’s shape; what was the old jaw became the plate to skin the top.
I also assembled another head working with the plan and two disconnected lower jaw constructions. The lower jaws were to hang from the head so they can move around with the dance.
The original head in its final form
The new head
The design changed during production. I had intended for the lower jaws to float and wiggle with the moves. A quick fit revealed that the two assemblies would bump each other wearing each one down too quickly when considering that young children would be manipulating the heads through the dance. I wanted garland to trim the mouth and the entire perimeter of the head. During measuring, the dry fit of the garland to the head hid the teeth too much—the teeth would lose their sparkling design; and the garland around the head dominated the design instead of accenting it. The garland was reserved to the beards, eyebrows, the single hair piece at the top and any large seams. Close inspection of the photos will show flaws, however from the audience point of view, they will see a nice just the giant heads dancing with delight.
Budget
The final cost was $109. I worked far less than the allowed budget! I achieved this by searching for sales, having a member discount at an art store and recycling the previous head.
