Our Shoulder Dragons and Lap Dragons are individually made for each customer's order; every dragon is customized for free!* Choose your colors or patterns, and choose from over 40 pairs of high-quality handpainted glass eyes, or have us make you a custom pair! (See the bottom of the Latex Dragons page for just a few of our many available eyes.)
Pricing guidelines and additional info on each size is listed at the bottom of the page.
Shoulder Dragons
This is Die Konighoheitsvoll Dame, or 'Dame,' for short. (Her name roughly translates into 'the regal queen.') She was born on August 24, 2003, and she accompanies Andrea to many of the faires she travels to. (That's Andrea [the Dragon Mistress] she's sitting on.) She is a loyal companion and friend.
Top and side scans of Dame. She sits about 4" high on your shoulder, and measures approximately 16" long from nose to tail when measured straight, and has a 17.5" wingspan. This little girl only weighs .15 pounds- about as much as two rolls of Lifesavers candies!
An enlarged picture of the special black and gold eyes we used for Dame. They are 24 Karat gold-backed to catch and reflect the sunlight, and they really shine!
Lap Dragons
Above: A green scaled dragon who refuses to share his birth name with the Dragon Mistress. He measures approximately 36" long nose to tail, stands 12" tall, has a 26.5" wingspan, and weighs about 1 pound. He is approximately 6-7 years old, and resides with the Dragon Mistress. (He only sticks around for her homemade cheesecakes, we suspect!) He may also be seen accompanying the Dragon Mistress to faires (again, for the cheesecake-on-a-stick).
A close-up of the green dragon's face. He has handpainted avocado green and earth brown alligator-style eyes.
This is Andromeda. She currently resides in Michigan with a human man, his wife, and child. She is a beautiful night-sky blue color with small silver "stars" interspersed. She measures approximately 34" long overall, stands 10" high, and has a 26" wingspan. She is approximately 5-6 years old.
This big boy is Kain. He resides with the Dragon Mistress and the Webmaster, though the Webmaster is the one who has to keep him in line (he is a handful!). Kain is a beautiful mottled turquoise color, measures 35" long, 10" high, has a 26" wingspan, and weighs a whopping 1.5 pounds- nearly half again as much as the other lap dragons! He may occasionally allow the Webmaster to carry him around at faires.
Kain has beautiful orange-marbled Poppy colored eyes.
Information & Pricing Guidelines
Shoulder dragons and Lap dragons are both handmade. Entirely. This means that each individual dragon requires anywhere from 45 to 60 hours of work from start to finish, depending on how elaborate and detailed the customer wants theirs.
Either style of dragon is made up of many different materials. The body, ears, legs, horns (on the head of a Lap Dragon), and back ridges (on the LD) are usually made out of a printed cotton or cotton-mix fabric, the belly strip consists of a velveteen striped fabric or similar plain textured soft fabric. The small horns, back ridges, claws, eyelids, and facial spines on the shoulder dragons are made of paint, as are the claws, facial spines, and eyelids on the lap dragons. Their eyes are high-quality hand painted glass, and the beards (LD) are made of thin chenille yarn, wool, or any number of other items. Each dragon is weighted and stuffed- the shoulder dragons are strategically filled to stay balanced on your shoulder (they only weigh a few ounces), and the lap dragons are made a bit heftier (usually 1-1.5 lbs) to help them stand up. Both styles of dragons are available with either jointed limbs to make them poseable, or sewn limbs to make them stationary.
Whichever dragon style you like, you have the opportunity to make your dragon one of a kind. You get to choose a body color or pattern, a secondary color for the belly, and even a third color for the undersides of the wings, if you'd like. We've got approximately 40 pairs of glass eyes to choose from, so whether you want eyes that match for camouflage, or brilliant eyes that stand out, you're sure to find just the pair. If you have your own idea in mind, we also offer custom-made eyes for an additional $7 charge.
Because both sizes of dragons are entirely handmade, and specially made to order, they require a good deal of time to finish. Shoulder dragons are made from my own pattern, but also take a great deal of time to make due to their small size and complexity. One of these custom made gorgeous beauties can be yours for $250.
Lap dragons, made by the original pattern maker (and not customized!) sell for upwards of $500 each. I felt, however, that I could do much better than that. I offer my customized lap dragons at $350 each.
Both of these prices include the costs for all of the supplies necessary for your dragon- materials, strings, eyes (unless you'd like custom-made eyes), stuffing materials, paints, ext, but they DO NOT include shipping. Generally I ship insured standard mail, and can give shipping estimates; simply email us with your zip code, country, and dragon size desired. We also offer payment plans- $50 a month for either size (5 months for a shoulder dragon, 7 months for a lap dragon), and we are also flexible with this.
If you may be interested in ordering either size dragon, please email us so we can put you as next on the waiting list. Due to copyrights on the lap dragon, I can only make up to 5 per year. Shoulder dragons are from my own pattern, therefore production is not limited. We do require a $50 non-refundable deposit before I can begin work on your dragon. This covers the starting supply costs, and is subtracted from the total price of either size.
*Customizing Options Not Included in Basic Prices:
*Extra limbs, extra sewn horns, tail adaptations (forked, double-tailed, ext), feathers, jewels, ext. (Though we'd be happy to add anything extra to make your dragon how you want, just ask!)
Please feel free to email us if you have any questions regarding our scaled friends, or would like to be added to TCD's mailing list.
