B.C. man creates ‘Game of Thrones’ dragon out of steel

ABBOTSFORD, BC –

Behind a blueberry field in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley sits an unremarkable barn where something remarkable is being made.

A small team of welders led by 53-year-old Kevin Stone put the finishing touches on a massive metal kite.

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

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

Stone is a professional welder manufacturer. He is also a passionate artist.

“As early as I can remember, my mother complained that I drew on everything. I enjoy being creative and creating interesting pieces.”

In 2003, Stone’s creativity caught the attention 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 it to build it,” Stone said. “The gargoyle kind of inspired me to do partnerships and other large scale sculptures.”

A steel gargoyle about two meters high was Kevin Stone’s first large-scale sculpture.

Since then, Stone has created numerous large-scale statues, including those depicting eagles in flight and eagles hunting.

In 2011, he landed a contract to create a play for Dolly Parton’s Tennessee amusement park. The mixed-metal eagle, with a 17-meter wingspan, “now sits at the entrance of a popular Dollywood roller coaster”.

Kevin Stone’s Dollywood eagle sculpture was unveiled at the American amusement park on February 28, 2012.

Another notable sculpture by Stone is a towering Tyrannosaurus Rex. The 15 meter long dinosaur is made of polished stainless steel and took almost 20 months to complete.

It was commissioned by a private art collector who plans to have it installed in front of his home on Okanagan Lake in BC.

“Pretty much everything I build now is a six-figure sculpture,” Stone said. “Many of my clients are based in the United States.”

Almost all of his statues are private commissions, ranging from $40,000 to $400,000.

However, last year he was approached by a cryptocurrency company that wanted to develop an unusual marketing tool.

“They called me and wanted me to build a giant goat, but the thing was, they wanted Elon Musk’s head on the goat.”

(BC artist Kevin Stone)

Called Elon GOAT, the company claims on its website that the statue is intended to honor Musk’s “many achievements and dedication to cryptocurrency.”

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

The Musk bust, which is made of 20 cm thick aluminum, lasted more than three months and is now touring the United States.

“It was just a wild project,” Stone said. “It was fun and just too crazy not to want to be there.”

(BC artist Kevin Stone)

When working on his sculptures, Stone is assisted by his wife Michelle and two welding apprentices. He says he’s happy to share his knowledge because he feels some of his metalwork 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, which means I look at an image and then enlarge and build it in my head.”

Being practical allows Stone to be meticulous with metal. One of his most detailed pieces is the dragon, which he says his client wanted to be based on the creature from the TV series Game of Thrones.

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

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

“It was really difficult to figure out how to build a fire control system, but in the end we did it, and now we have this big sculpture that shoots fire,” he said.

Kevin Stone’s metallic steel dragon sculpture took over a year to complete and is covered in metallic scales.

After almost two years of construction, the kite is now nearing completion and will soon be shipped to its Utah-based owner.

With the project nearing completion, Stone is already designing new metal sculptures in hopes of creating something even bigger.

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

T. Rex Sculpture by Kevin Stone (Melanie Nagy/CTV News)