This is an article about the Dragon Glass Dagger project that I made. I tell you a little bit about the creativity of this project and how things came about.

The actual project is here if you want to check it out

The Creativity of it

There is a phrase that is bandied about. Here: "When the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail." I love that phrase because it is true. And creativity is exactly like this. It is very dependant upon your experiences and the things you have learned. That makes sense. Easy enough to say and everybody knows that.

So, what do we make of this?

My opinion is that we should actively seek out new tools. But this can be challenging. Facing new experiences, new skill sets, and learning new things can be difficult. There is a learning curve. So... we can tend to avoid new tools and stick with the same old hammers we have been using for a long time. There is comfort in that.

But, as a creative person you have to look out for this and be wary of it. When it comes to making projects I have a pretty good skill set. I have made hundreds of projects and many times they are very easy for me because of this skill set.

And I can get in a rut. I can use the same old hammers.

This is Where The Game of Thrones dagger comes in.....

I had a friend make the Game of Thrones Dagger and send me some pics. It was a terrific thing. And he used the skills that I teach on my website and youtube channel . He added some new hammers to his toolbox by making this project which is great. My mission was accomplished. I taught someone new skills and he used them! (I made a tutorial out of his project here)

I thought it would be a terrific challenge for me to make one too. But, I didn't want to use the same process that I had done many times before. I wanted to add a new hammer to my toolbox if possible. I wanted to do this project in a way I hadn't done before.

So I gave it some thought.

How about doing it without the molding process? That would take a lot of steps out of it and it would be much quicker to make. After all, the molding process is generally good when you want to run off a bunch of copies of something. I only wanted one of them.

So, my first distinction is that I would make one dagger.

This brings up the most important question.... What material do I make it out of?

Foamboard?

Cardboard?

Clay?

Actual obsidian?

Some kind of clay seemed a good option. Maybe a bakeable clay or an air hardening clay?

hmmmm.....

The only thing I didn't like about this option is that I would have to paint the dagger afterwards. It wouldn't have that obsidian look. It wouldn't have any depth.

That led me to thinking about plastic. Could I use some kind of plastic with a bit of transparency to it? Would that work? And could I possibly add paint or dye to the plastic so it is black and still has some depth to it rather than just a black covering? It would be black all the way through.

This is where instamorph comes in. I had used it once before on a project so I thought it could be used. It clearly would be very easy to make the dagger out of this stuff. But... could I achieve the nice black depth that I was looking for?

InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic - 12 oz

So I poked around the web looking for ideas on how to dye the plastic. And low and behold the company makes tint packets for the plastic. You can tint it black, yellow, red, blue and any variation in between.

InstaMorph - Moldable Plastic - Pigment Pack

That was it! Problem solved. I gave it a try and it worked perfectly. This combination was exactly what I was looking for. I made a glass dagger easily and it had the black depth I was looking for. And.... I now have another hammer in my toolbox :)

Creativity: NOW! Top Keys to Unleash Your Creativity, Come Up With Brilliant Ideas & Increase Your Productivity Tenfold! Lead Innovation Through Creativity, ... Writing, Copywriting, Visualization)

Creativity: How To Increase Your Creative Confidence & Change Your Life (Health Wealth & Happiness Book 41)

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