Lobster Clasp - Tumblr Posts

I've been making these costume dragon tails on commission for a few years now. This one I made for myself, though, and I wear it whenever costumes are appropriate.

Compared to some of the tails I've made recently for other people, it's pretty straightforward in terms of design. It's got black anodized aluminum scales on top with standard aluminum on the underside. They're woven together in a chainmail pattern with stainless steel rings. The only special thing on this one is a line of clips down the spine, which I put in so I could hook glowsticks all down the tail. (Sadly, I don't have any photos of it that.)

[Update: I got photos of it with glowsticks! Here they are!]

Here's a dragon tail I finished up a couple weeks ago for a commissioner. It's made of primarily red anodized aluminum scales, with stainless steel on the underside. It also has five claw-shaped spikes down the center, giving it nice spines, which is something I've done on a lot of these tails.

The new thing here was the arrow-shaped spade tip. It was an idea that had been in my head for a while, and this commissioner independently asked about it, so I went ahead and came up with a way to do it. It's made of leather, which I stained and sewed together with some padding in the center to give it some extra depth. The spade tip attaches by way of three lobster clasps, so it's also easy to swap out for a change of pace, or in case it ever needs to be repaired.

Here, have a pile of photos of me swinging it around to show off how flexible these tails are.

This tail has a lot of stuff going on. It used 6 different types and sizes of metal claw spike down the spine, with a big increase and decrease in size towards the middle. It also has a diamond-shaped spade tip that attaches to the tip, made of leather and painted gold.

Some action shots of my personal dragon tail and scale shirt, as seen at the dance party of a convention I attended recently. I incorporated a bunch of lobster clasps into the weave on these, specifically so I could attach glowsticks all the way down the spine like you see here.

You can also see the acrylic spade tip I put on the tail. It's a clear fluorescent green, which lights up under black light. I have a couple other tips that I use depending on the circumstance. They also attach with lobster clasps, so it's easy to swap them out.

At some point I want to set up a photo shoot to get some really nice photos of this tail with the glowsticks. The right way to do it would be to start with a completely darkened studio, with a black background and some studio strobes. Set up a long exposure, maybe half a second to get good long trails on the glowsticks, and have the strobes flash at the end of the exposure to get a freeze-frame of the tail and the person. Sadly, I have no good space to set up as a studio, no big black backdrops, and no strobes. Ah well.

This tail was commissioned as part of a Discord costume. So it's primarily red, with pink diamonds down the spine in place of Discord's little rounded spikes/ridges.It's also got three lobster clasps at the tip, in case the commissioner wants to attach a tuft of hair to the end to complete the look. (I don't deal in fabrics or fuzz, though maybe I should try learning at some point.)

I wasn't able to get photos of it being worn before I had to ship it out, but I did have a second tail on hand which was awaiting payment. So I got a photo with the two tails nestling together. They look like they're cuddling. Anyway, more photos of that tail will be coming in a couple days when I have a chance to go through them.

Both tails are made of anodized aluminum scales linked together with stainless steel rings. You wear them by looping a sturdy belt through a pair of loops on the tail. For more, check out my dragon tail information page!

Cranked out these two dragon tails over the span of a week! It felt good.

The rainbow one I made for myself, and managed to get it done before Halloween. Someone had purchased my previous personal tail shortly before, and I needed something to show off for the holiday of costumes. I'd had the rainbow tail idea kicking around in my head for quite some time, and I'm happy I finally got it made.

The black and red one was made for a commissioner.

Both are made of anodized aluminum scales linked together with stainless steel rings. Both also have lobster clips at the tip for attaching a spade tip to. I'll be cutting the leather for the commissioner's spade tip tomorrow. For my own, I usually cut a few different ones out of different materials to swap out whenever I feel. Also, whenever I find myself at an appropriate party I'll clip glowsticks onto them.

If you're interested in these tails I make, you can check out my tail information page! I'm finally catching up on my commission queue, so I'm likely to finally be able to get new commissions done with relative speed.

I'm thinking about putting a whole lot of metal spikes into the rainbow tail, so it'll match the crazy rainbow helm I recently made. But it'll have to wait until I order more spikes, because that helm used up all of the spikes I had of those types.

In-progress shot for a dragon tail made of blackened stainless steel. I actually just finished this up late last night, but need to get photos of it today.

The blackened part of the steel is a chemically-produced oxide layer, and I always like the matte surface. It usually has a bit of oil and grime left over from the manufacturing process, but I'd forgotten how this particular batch was more dusty than normal.

A mostly blue dragon tail with a yellow underbelly. Made with anodized aluminum scales, a full line of chrome spikes down the spine, and a diamond-shaped leather spade tip in blue.

I included a close-up of the tip of the tail to show the lobster clasps that hold the spade tip. And also a photo under fluorescent lights to show how hard it is to get this blue to show up properly in photos. White balance is weird, guys.

Anyway, the stats on this one: it measures 33 inches from tip to top of belt line, and the spade tip adds 2.5 inches. In total it weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces. 

Anodized titanium dragon tail! Wooooo! I love the almost iridescent quality these scales have.

It’s been quite a while since the last time I got to work with these scales. For this commission I custom ordered a batch of them from the manufacturer. This tail uses purple, violet and dark blue anodized titanium scales, plus “Bright” anodized aluminum scales on the underbelly (in red and bronze color). It also uses gold-colored cat claw-shaped spikes. (I had to track down a random amazon supplier for those, since the place I normally get spikes from only does chrome. But nowhere but them seems to have large sizes, so these are all just the small 1-inch ones.)

I ordered enough extra titanium scales that I’ll probably make another tail with it. Probably leaning towards green tones since I got green too. Probably just go for stainless steel on the underbelly though. While these bright aluminum scales are super reflective and pretty, I don’t think they’re pretty enough to justify ten times the price as normal aluminum. Especially on the underside where you don’t seen them all that much. But, the commissioner was wanting to match their character, and they were happy to pay for the premium materials.

Ooh look another dragon tail!

This month was worse for working than I’d hoped, so my commissions are behind schedule, but here’s the first one!

The client drew up this pattern themselves, and I thought it was super pretty. It’s red on top with gold/yellow underbelly, a sequence of Vs in bronze/brown, and a single yellow scale at the peak of each V in the front, which turned out to pop really well.

This one measures in at 33 inches long, and 3 pounds even. It’s got a lobster clasp at the tip.

This dragon tail is made with a camo pattern! Or at least, a reasonable approximation of one. 

Primarily green, with blotches of brown, and scattered flecks of black and yellow. All scales are anodized aluminum, linked together with stainless steel rings. The commissioner’s character has a removable blade at the tip if their tail, which they may fabricate themselves later, so I included some lobster clasps for them to be able to easily attach it in.

This tail measures in at 33 inches long, and weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce.

It's been a long time since anyone bought a necklace from me, but recently I've had a few people ask for collars for D/s and pup play stuff. So I was brushing up on good weaves for that. Full-Persian weave, in 2 ring sizes, one that works, one that's...way too stiff. The stiff one is stainless steel, the flexible one is bright aluminum.

I’ll probably post the reasonable one up on my Etsy soon in stainless steel. If there happens to be a big interest in it I may stock anodized aluminum colors in those ring sizes, but we’ll see.

Scale mail dragon tail commission I just finished. One of the prettiest patterns of colors I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

It’s got a custom pattern of anodized titanium scales in purple, violet, dark blue and teal, and it’s got a stainless steel underbelly. The anodized titanium has to be special-ordered from the manufacturer, and it’s pretty pricey, but it’s worth it. The spade tip’s shape was based on a reference from the commissioner, and it’s 1/8″ birch plywood that I laser-cut and painted with acrylic paint.

It measures in at 34 inches long without the spade tip, and the spade tip adds 4 inches, bringing it to 38 inches total. It weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces.

I’m currently open for more tail commissions like this! Info here: https://armoreddragon.tumblr.com/tails

Scale dragon tail in red with a black underbelly. My friend with Very Good Wiggles is showing off how flexible these are and how fluidly they move.

The scales are anodized aluminum, linked together by stainless steel rings. This one measures in at 36 inches from the tail tip to the top of the belt, and weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce. It’s got a lobster clasp at the tip to attach little things onto.

A new dragon tail made in anodized titanium and blackened stainless steel. It uses teal, purple and violet titanium, in a pattern that gives an image of larger scales overlapping down its length. It’s got a full line of metal spikes along the spine, and a lobster clasp at the tip to attach things onto.

The anodized titanium is a rare treat to work with. It’s expensive and I need to custom-order it from the manufacturer and I’m always low-key worried they’ll tell me to go away one of these times, but damn if it isn’t just stunningly beautiful when it’s good. I really love the variation and texture on every scale, and I like putting together patterns to mix the colors in with each other and try to enhance that effect. In this batch the teal scales shifted on the edge of sea green and blue with hints of purple, the purple was a more muted maroon-ish tone with a blue base, and the violet was a great vibrant tone with occasional shifts towards rose-gold. The colors aren’t quite iridescent, but they definitely look like they were pulled out of the swirling colors of a soap bubble and pumped up to full saturation.

The blackened stainless steel is fun too. I guess I just really enjoy coloring processes that don’t rely on dyes like anodized aluminum does.

This tail is a medium length, measuring in at 31 inches from the tip to the top of the belt line, and it weighs 3 pounds 11 ounces.