Hatching Magic: How to Make Dragon Egg Christmas Ornaments
Many cultures from all over the world have a dragon in their mythology. Some with wings, some limbless like snakes, but all are powerful, formidable foes with a penchant for treasure. What a dragon considers treasure isn’t always gold and jewels. Sometimes it’s a much more precious resource: water. Other times it’s less tangible like knowledge and wisdom. And then there are eggs.
In most mythologies, dragons don’t reproduce frequently, which could lead one to think eggs and hatchlings are even more precious than other forms of treasure. This idea is one of the inspirations for my novel-in-progress First Ink. The story begins with the main character Ada rescuing a new dragon hatchling named Findley. With Findley’s hatching, magic returns to our world and it’s a race to see who will control this new power and whether or not it will stay.
You don’t know it in book one, but Finlay is part of a brood, a collection of dragon eggs, all preparing to hatch. These ornaments are crude examples of what I imagine those eggs look like.
How to Make Dragon Eggs
Dragon-Themed Christmas Tree
Supplies
styrofoam eggs
black and metallic acrylic paints
paint brushes
metal hooks
hot glue and glue gun
thumbtacks
sandpaper
poster board
Designed Egg
Sand paper the seam off a styrofoam egg and smooth out the rest.
Insert the hook into the tip and hot glue in place.
Use hot glue to create a raised design on the egg. I free-hand this.
Paint the egg with a base coat of black to make the metallic colors pop.
Paint the bottom metallic color. You’ll likely need two coats.
Paint the designs with the accent metallic color.
Hang on your tree and send me a pic!
Tip: Dots, waves lines, and swirls are the easiest hot glue patterns to free-hand because they are forgiving.
Scaled Egg
Push thumbtacks into poster board to hold them in place.
Paint thumbtacks. You’ll need roughly 250 per egg.
Push top thumbtacks into place loosely.
Fill hole with hot glue to secure hook in place.
Push top thumbtacks in the rest of the way.
In circular layers, push in the painted thumbtacks.
Hang on tree and send me pics!
Tip: Alternate colors to create loose stripes and mix together leftover colors to create a random, multi-colored egg at the end.
And that’s how you make two kinds of dragon egg tree ornaments to bring magic to your Christmas (or other holiday) tree. I’d love to see yours. You can tag me on your social media or send me a pic via my contact page. If you want, I’ll add your picture and credits to this blog post.
And if you really want to go for it, you can make a dragon and other fantasy creature themed tree like I did.
Designed Eggs
Scaled Eggs
Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and currently working on a fantasy novel involving an arranged marriage, damsels who save themselves, and non-human shape-shifters. Through her company Ignited Ink Writing and MFA, she edits other people’s novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. Caitlin seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers, pet all the fluffy and scaly animals she can, and find magic in modern times.