In which I finish a dragon and try to re-jigger an art grant

If you've been in a Zoom, Teams, or other online meeting with me lately,

you would have seen me multi-tasking to keep my hands busy.

My new dragon puppet!  Her name is "Tam."

Jim and Monica and I each started making dragon puppets last week.  Jim finished his very charming paper bag puppet in a single day.  Monica is still working on hers.  I finally finished mine today!

An early version of the mouth locked my thumb out of the lower jaw.
Oops.  I fixed that part.

Most people I'm meeting with now have worked with me for years--decades--so the sight of me mucking about with yarn and thread during meetings isn't new.  

Tongue, v. 2.  Version 1 was bright red seam binding tape, but that didn't look right. 
I ended up using the binding tape around the edge of the mouth instead.

Holding still and staying quiet in a chair is always hard for me unless I have a kinetic task, and craft projects are an acceptable option for librarians, especially librarians who work with kiddos!  

Tongue. This got tacked to the lower section of mouth in the final version,
to keep it from balling up in weird shapes when I move my hand.

As soon as she was finished, I took Tam outside to meet the Dragon.

Her face is made from two "unicorn hooves" from the costume trunk, and her body used to be a hat.
The crocheted sleeve runs from my elbow up to my fingertips inside the face of the puppet.

I am really terrible at selfies.  Also, my horse is huge.  

Then, we toured the back yard.  Tam roared at the pea sprouts.

"GRRRRRROOOOWWWWWWW!"

She chuckled at the chickens.

I don't think that Pratchett the rooster even noticed the dragon at the edge of the fence line.

Tam is a little afraid of the dogs.  They think she is fascinating, and they want to pull out her stuffing.

Fortunately, dragons can fly and dogs can't.

We're making all these dragons for a couple of reasons.  

The first reason is that dragons are fun, and we are bored.  

But also, Monica and I were given an art grant for 2020 from the Arlington Arts Council.  

Here's the logo that Monica made for the project

Monica's bit is the big part: coordinating public art projects on a "draconic" motif.  She launched a Facebook group for "dragon-makers" this week, and we are up to 65 members already!  Here's the link if you want to join us there: SUDDENLY DRAGONS ON FACEBOOK

My part is much smaller: some dragon-themed storytelling sessions, and the creation of a role-playing game called "Suddenly Dragons."  I've been play-testing the game with library kiddos for months...and then, the pandemic moved in.  

Needless to say, I won't be conducting any games in libraries this Spring.  I'll be lucky if I get to do any this summer.

I had custom-made dice done for the game, but you can play with ordinary d6.

But...maybe some readers want to try out the game?  I will eventually publish it on Amazon, but it needs some more beta-testers.  It needs a Game Master (who has access to the entire packet) and 3-5 players, ages 10 to adult.

I'll send the file to the first 3 people who want to play the game and provide me with feedback.  If you have a gaming group that plays together online or IRL, I want to hear from you.

Put your contact info in the comment box, and I will message you.

Meanwhile: Go forth, and be draconic, y'all.