A 6-foot dragon egg, affectionately nicknamed “Eggory” by the students helping to build it, is a collaborative effort led by Curtis Smith (Maker Space and Laboratory Operations Manager at Otterbein University).
The dragon egg is helping to launch a “baby shower” fundraiser for a new dragon. A beloved community art installation, the original Hilda the Dragon was a 30-foot smoke-breathing dragon who perched on the Westerville Public Library’s roof every October from 2019-2022 to celebrate the Wizards & Wands Festival.
Intended as a temporary feature, the Ohio climate has been predictably tough on Hilda. She is eager to retire to Schrock Lake after her dragon egg safely hatches and her new baby is old enough to live on its own. (Hilda is currently on maternity leave and will not be on display this year.)
One of Hilda the Dragon’s biggest fans is Isaac, who was just six months’ old the first time they met. "Since before he could talk, he’s been in love with her. He was about 6 months old when he first saw her and she’s captured his imagination ever since. He always wants to visit her when she’s displayed and asks where she is and when she’s coming back when she’s tucked away. He has built and drawn so many iterations of her - too many to count! It’s been such a joy as his mom to see this interest blossom into a passion for building robots and drawing and inventing things of all kinds," says Carlyn, Isaac's mom.
Nine or ten students have been working with Smith over the summer to bring the dragon egg to life. For inspiration, the students started with Google and Thingiverse searches, but then tapped into their collective imaginations. “I keep reminding them, a dragon egg isn’t real. It doesn’t have to match anyone else’s version or idea of what a dragon egg looks like. We can make it whatever we want it to be,” says Smith.
Experimentation has been key to creating something durable, weather-proof, and semi-transparent. The students have been testing out different textures and patterns, layering together household items like microfiber cloths and t-shirts with more unusual materials such as resin and 3D-printed scales. They’ve even created custom brackets using a laser cutter and an iridescent dragon-scale silicone mold using a vacuum/thermal forming process.
Each stage of the process has required creativity and ingenuity. The students first built a stable wooden frame to use as the initial base for the structure. Then they stuffed the frame with foam and newspaper and anything else on hand until it held the desired shape. Like a cast for a broken arm or a paper mâché balloon, the outer shell was applied to the frame using fiberglass cloth hardened with epoxy. Once the shell was stable, one of the students crawled inside to hollow out the eggshell and allow light to shine through.
Adding the illusion of movement inside the egg has also been a learning process. The students first experimented with a UV-printed photo of a staff member that shone inside the egg using a small projector. But now they’re leaning towards something more amorphous, possibly shining a color-changing light inside the egg and using a robotic arm mechanism (built with a Servo motor and Arduino board) to give it continuous movement. The challenge of venting heat from the light source was solved by creating a nest “base” to set the egg on.
When asked how this project compares to others they’ve worked on, one student said it’s been the “most experimental” while others said it’s been the most “fun” or the “messiest”. One student, Brenna O’Reilly, said, “It’s cool that everybody can see it and I actually had a part in something this large in scale.”
Brenna shared that libraries have been a part of her life since childhood. She reminisced about her trips to the library with her grandma and siblings where they would get lost in the stacks for hours. She’s currently taking an elective class on censorship and book challenges that has been “really interesting”.
As for the new dragon (currently referred to as Hilda 2.0), anything is on the table. Smith is excited to create something more permanent and is considering adding motion with animatronic elements. The future is bright with possibilities!
Thank you for believing in the magic of your library. Donate to the fundraiser.
