I had the good fortune to meet Katie from Serpentile, who makes beautiful D&D dragon statement pieces, through the magic of social media. She approached me first to support me as she’d seen by my body confidence blog post and it struck a chord with her… and after seeing her beautiful D&D themed creations I just had to follow and support her right back!
*Disclamer: This post contains images of a gifted item – isn’t it adorable?!
A Little bit about Serpentile
Serpentile have featured in one of my previous blog posts about D&D Gifts, around the time that I first fell in love with Katie’s creations. You can check out all the dragons, wyrms and serpents on her Etsy page. She’s also given me a little something for you guys! You lucky D&D enthusiasts get 10% off all products on Serpentile if you enter BLOG10 at the checkout.
Serpentile* sent me this absolutely beautiful, custom dragon and I was instantly so taken with his little face. Katie has got the incredible skill of adding character into the faces of her little serpents so you just can’t help but love them. This one I requested in shades of purple with a removable purple D20. You can choose the scale colours, the Dice colour and style and if you want the dice to be secured in place or removable.)
I decided to pick this lady’s brain a little, find out what her creative process is and have a little natter about the best parts of what she does. You’ll see all the passion that goes into her creations from the intricacies alone, but here’s a little bit about what makes her tick!
Where did all of this begin?
“I first started using Polymer Clay when I made my wedding cake toppers. Our wedding theme was Dragons and Elements, we really wanted Dragon cake toppers but I’d seen plenty of dragons made from Polymer and so I thought, well I’ll just make my own. [Making them] took me right back to being a carefree teenager, just creating for fun, it awoke something in me that had long been sleeping.”
How long have you been making dragons?
“For the last 5 years I’ve just been playing and experimenting… I love Dragons but they’re time consuming so I started with Snakes as I’ve always loved their movement and symbolism. As I started experimenting with scale styles I found the most intricate and detailed the better, it sort of mesmerises me, it’s my happy place.”
Has fantasy always been your thing?
“I’ve always loved fantasy, it’s an escapism to me. Growing up, fantasy and role play was for boys. I wasn’t into princesses and dolls, I’d rather be out romping across the fields and in nature. I spent a lot of time in my own world as a kid and so D&D really interests me. I want to mention your blog post on gate keeping in the geek community. That explains me perfectly and it gave me the confidence to stop shying away from this genre of life. It was like, this girl gets me! So I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Are you a D&D enthusiast yourself?
My husband has played it longer than I’ve known him so I’m very aware of it and regularly peruse his handbooks. It was he who suggested using dice in my work… so I bought myself a hoard and soon fell in love with the precious shinnies! We recently bought our kids a copy of the D&D Essentials Kit so I’m looking forward to learning alongside them.
We’re currently creating our [first] characters, mine will be a Wood Elf Cleric, as I’ve been drawn to Elves for as long as I can remember. I particularly enjoy how the D&D community has been so welcoming and accepting of my art on Instagram, it’s a whole different generation of acceptance and I finally feel like I can be who I’ve been hiding from.
What’s been your favourite creation to date? (If you can just pick one!)
This is a tough one! I think my favourite to date has to be my first international sale. He was a gorgeous combination of blue and gold, like a sandy beach. He lives in L.A. and the buyer named him Blue. It still humbles me to think someone half way around the world owns one of my pieces! He was the first Wyrm I made with the finalised style and I was so proud of him.
You can check out more about Serpentile and Katie’s amazing dragons on her channels –
Serpentile on Etsy (Don’t forget to use code BLOG10 at the checkout!)
Serpentile on Instagram
27th February 2020
This is so cute.