Wings of rainbows

Hey babe, I hope you're doing alright.

I know you might not be up for much reading tonight, but if you did feel like a distraction… there were a couple things I wanted to tell you about that dragon… But if not, that's totally alright… it'll keep. And I'll just keep carrying you gently with me, as I always do.

There's something I didn't tell you about that little butterfly dragon by the mailbox…

The moment I saw it, sometime back in March, I knew I needed to print it. At the time, it was gonna be my “early spring” dragon… and so it was all soft pastels. An Easter egg dressed as a dragon with butterfly wings.

But that one failed. And then failed again. And again.

Don't wanna get bogged down in the weeds, but at least some of those turned out to be the death throes of my printer's controller board.

And then, you know I couldn't print anything for a while. So some months went by… and by the time I was ready to try again, we were a few days into June. So I shifted gears, decided to make it a rainbow, for Pride.

Well. That one failed, too, but got much further than any of the previous ones… I may still put it out. The body is complete, it's just missing its wings… But the colors didn't turn out anywhere near as vibrant as I thought they should be for Pride, so I dunno.

So, I tried again, with a different rainbow. This one got even further, and is nearly complete… but it, too, failed. And that rainbow proved even less how I envisioned anyways…

Well. By this point, June was starting to come to a close and I thought… as much as I'd hoped for a cool Pride butterfly dragon, maybe it just wasn't to be, and I went back to the drawing board. Dug around in my filament stash. Found that sparkly purple I'd been having trouble finding a use for, as pretty as it is… found the black sparkly one that I love, but is a bit finicky and treacherous to print with (and of course that's what I would choose for the model that just wouldn't print 🙄). And, yeah, I did buy another rainbow filament, this one translucent–we'll have to see how it catches the light next time it's sunny and not a billion degrees out…

And then I started it, feeling pretty good.

And then I saw this adorable little purple-clad, butterfly-decorated illustration—paired with a name I love—and I knew. I knew: this is the one that's gonna work.

And then yesterday while we were out on our walk, something like four days later, I got the notification: “Print complete”.

And of course I had been watching it over those long days… but when it was done?

Oh, babe. It was gorgeous.

And the best part, which you won't even notice unless you pick it up and hold it in your hands?

It's flawed. One of the four spools ran out mid-print… twice. No nice smooth gradient between colors like the rainbow filaments… there are two places where the color just… changes.

But if I'm being real honest?

Those flaws just make it all the better.

And I am so glad I didn't give up on it. It was worth it. Entirely.

And I guess, in a way–

It's yours. Even if not physically.

Hope you like it.

Love you, babe.

Hope you're really ok.

Yours.