Cyril, Baby Dragon Statue

Who you are dealing with

Cyril is a dragon. A small one, and a young one, and he would like both of those facts recorded somewhere official.

The horns came through gold. He treats this as evidence of something, though he has never specified what, and he raises it more often than is strictly necessary. The wings are decorative. We do not discuss the wings.

He does not breathe fire. He looked into it. There was paperwork.

What he does is stare. He is extremely good at it. He is doing it now.

The one without the mark

WEIRDO 001 was printed before we started stamping the bases, which makes him the only one that will never carry the mark. We are not going to pretend that was deliberate. The number travels on the card instead.

How he was made

Twenty-six hours on the printer, in one continuous piece. No seams to sand, no parts to glue, nothing that can come apart in a year.

Then he is painted by hand, which is the part that cannot be hurried. Black first, then the pearl-purple worked over the scale ridges so it catches only the raised edges, and the gold last, because gold goes over everything and nothing goes over gold.

Sealed in satin and left to cure properly before he goes anywhere near a box.

Because all of that happens by hand, yours will look like the photographs without matching them precisely. That is rather the point.

The details

• 320 mm tall, 300 mm wide. Bigger than people expect. There is a photograph with a can in it for exactly that reason.
• Printed in one piece in Australia. No seams, no assembly, nothing glued.
• Painted, or not. Two hand-painted finishes sealed in satin, Midnight and Ember, and a bare version if you would rather paint him yourself. All three described below. Satin rather than gloss, because gloss flattens a metallic and makes plastic look like plastic.
• The sealer is the part that matters to you. The finish will not lift under a fingertip, and you can dust him without taking the colour with it.
• PLA, a bioplastic fermented from plant starch rather than refined from petroleum. Corn, cassava or sugarcane, depending on the batch.
• No two are identical. Every one is painted by hand, so how far the pearl carries across a scale and exactly where the gold catches will differ. Small differences, but real ones.
• Numbered once. Cyril is 001 of Series 01, which is eight creatures in total. We make him until we retire the number, then we say so, and 001 never comes back.

The three finishes

Midnight. Black with pearl-purple through the scale ridges, gold horns and tail tip, and a gold fleck that only shows when the light moves. Pale blue eyes.

Ember. Terracotta over the whole body, bone horns, and the eyes turned up considerably brighter. Warmer, older, and rather more sure of itself.

Blank. Bare print, unpainted and unsealed, in whatever colour the filament happened to be. For people who would rather do the painting themselves, and for anyone who likes the sculpt better without a scheme on top of it. He comes ready to prime.

Same sculpt, same number. Cyril is WEIRDO 001 whichever one you take home, because the number belongs to the creature rather than the paint.

Looking after him

PLA gives up at about 60 °C, so the one place Cyril must never go is a parked car in summer. Keep him out of direct sun. Dust with a soft dry brush rather than a cloth, which snags on the scale edges. Indoors only, and he is not a bath toy, whatever he tells you.

He is a display piece, not a toy. He has not been tested to toy safety standards and is not intended for children under three.

One last thing, because everyone assumes otherwise: plant-based does not mean he composts. PLA needs an industrial composter holding about 60 °C for weeks. In a green bin or a backyard heap he will sit there looking smug and unchanged, and the paint would not break down in any case. This is a plastic made from plants, not a plastic that disappears. It is a better starting point than crude oil, and that is the whole claim.