I know how the birds fly, how the fishes swim, how animals run. But there is the Dragon. I cannot tell how it mounts on the winds through the clouds and flies through heaven. Today I have seen the Dragon.
-Confucius
Chinese dragons are iconic symbols of Chinese culture and festivals, with their vibrant colors and intricate designs. This tutorial will show you how to turn an inexpensive Chinese dragon decoration into an animated stick puppet, and then how to take your dragon puppet to the next level, adding motion-reactive flame lights that create a stunning visual effect to mesmerize your audience.
This is an easy beginner-level project that involves a little bit of soldering. You can download our code sample, or learn to make your own flame effects using MakeCode, Microsoft's drag-and-drop code editor. This is a fantastic project to do with kids.
Additional Tools & Materials
- Chinese Dragon Decoration: I used this one from Amazon.
- Soldering iron & accessories
- Hot Glue gun
- Zip ties
- Two wooden dowels for control rods
- A handful of fiberfill pillow stuffing for diffusion
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