Massive, fire-breathing dragon crafted by artist in a Canadian barn

By Melanie Nagy, CTV National News Vancouver Bureau Chief

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    ABBOTSFORD, B.C. (CTV Network) — Behind a blueberry field in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, there is an unremarkable barn where something remarkable is being made.

A small team of welders headed by 53-year-old Kevin Stone is putting the finishing touches on a massive, metal dragon.

The towering steel structure is more than 17 metres high and weighs nearly 7,000 kilograms.

“It’s complicated work but I love what I’m doing and I love the new challenges that each sculpture brings,” said Stone.

Stone is a professional welder fabricator. He’s also a passionate artist.

“As early as I can remember, my mom would complain about me drawing on everything. I enjoy being creative and creating interesting pieces.”

In 2003, Stone’s creativity caught the eye of a former boss who asked him to make a gargoyle for the roof of his welding shop.

“I took some scrap metal and worked with that to build it,” said Stone. “The gargoyle kind of triggered me into partnership and other sculptures. Since then, Stone has made numerous large-scale statues including ones depicting eagles flying and hunting.

In 2011, he landed a contract to create a piece for Dolly Parton’s Tennessee amusement park. The mixed-metal eagle, which has a 17-metre wingspan, “now sits at the entrance to a popular Dollywood roller coaster.” Another one of Stone’s noteworthy sculptures is a towering Tyrannosaurus Rex. The 15-metre-long dinosaur is made from polished stainless steel and took close to 20 months to complete.

It was commissioned by a private art collector who plans to install it outside his home on B.C.’s Okanagan Lake.

“Pretty much everything I build now is a six-figure sculpture,” said Stone. “Many of my clients are based in the United States.” Almost all of his statues are private commissions costing anywhere from $40,000 to $400,000.

However, last year he was approached by a cryptocurrency company looking to create an unusual marketing tool.

“They called me and wanted me to build a massive goat, but the thing was, they wanted Elon Musk’s head on the goat.” The company is called Elon GOAT and claims on its website the statue is meant to honour Musk’s “many accomplishments and commitment to cryptocurrency,”

Stone admits he thought the request was “pretty weird” but he was also intrigued. After some preliminary planning and negotiations, he committed to making the billionaire’s head.

The Musk bust, which is made out of eight-inch thick aluminum, took more than three months to complete and is now touring the United States.

“This was just a wild project,” said Stone.” It was fun and just too crazy to not want to be a part of it.” When working on his sculptures, Stone is helped by his wife, Michelle, and two welding apprentices. He says he enjoys sharing his knowledge, because he feels some of the metal work he does is a dying art.

“I don’t work with computers,” he said.” I cut everything by hand and generally all the sculptures I build are visual, meaning I will look at a picture and then scale it up in my mind and build it.”

Being hands-on allows Stone to be meticulous with metal. One of his most detailed pieces is the dragon that he says his client wanted to be based on the creature featured in the TV series “Game of Thrones.”

“It was intimidating at first because I had never watched the show. My wife and I binged watched the whole first series just to find out exactly what we were building.”

After researching the show, Stone not only built a replica dragon but made it fire breathing.

“It was really difficult to figure out how to create a fire control system, but in the end we did, and now we have this large sculpture that shoots fire,” he said. After nearly two years spent constructing the dragon, it is now nearing completion, and will soon be shipped to its owner who lives in Utah.

With the project almost done, Stone is already dreaming up new metal sculptures in hopes of creating something even bigger.

“My future plan is to build bigger. I’ve always wanted to be known as the artist that builds the world’s biggest sculptures in metal and so I’m always looking for the next big challenge.”

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