Combining thicknesses of silicone, types of pigments, questions galore!

[Mermatron Athena]

I am planning a silicone tail and have obsessively searched the threads, but haven't found any that discuss what I have in mind.

1) What I am wanting to do is build my fins and flukes in parts, and then piece it together. I would like defined harder spines, with a more flexible membrane.So, what I'm envisioning is to cast the spines, cast the membranes, and then bond them together sandwich style.

Has anyone done this method before? Crazy? Crazy enough to work?

2) I'm kinda obsessed with chameleon pigments. Has anyone used automotive ones? Like on paintwithpearl.com? I would encapsulate the whole tail, so there wouldn't be any risk of them not being skin and environmentally safe like micas. If chameleon pigments won't work, I am thinking my next options would be tons of silver and gold holographic glitter.

3) Is Van Aken really the best to use for plaster molds? If there's a better clay I'd love to know. I don't want to sacrifice quality for cost. for the fin membrane, I plan to melt the clay and pour it into a puddle for uniform thinness of clay in a large sheet, and then sculpt it from there.

4) Is there a specific type of mold release that works the best for this clay, with plaster molds, and Dragon Skin?

5) I'm going to be making a clear acrylic monofin with gasket rubber or neoprene foot holds. I have a Mahina, but would like more rigidity for speed as I plan on having tons of extra fins and theoretically that isn't ideal for drag force.

The way that I'm imagining to build the monofin with the gasket rubber or neoprene sandwiched into it would be to drill through the layers, and then push acrylic rods through and bond them in, then slice them down and sand it smooth. Would this method work better with neoprene or gasket rubber?

6) I'd also like to make some webbed fingers, and was thinking I could do this by casting ridged silicone rings molded to look like jewels, and then using the same method as the spines and membranes to web them on the palm side of my hands. Each finger would have 2 rings, and the membrane would span the distance between them. I think these are where Im going to start off my product tests, as they are small. Should they work, they would be a good way to make use of extra silicone from castings.

Holes in my theoretical tail plan? I kinda feel like Im trying to reinvent the wheel and it's either going to be amazing, or an amazing flop!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Several things ok ok. I'm on mobile so bear with me. Ahem.

1. It could work. It might be more effort than it is worth, but that's up to you. It might end up messy and it might not make much of a difference in the end product. I don't think anyone has really done that.
2. I think chameleon pigments would work fine. I've been wanting to make a top with chameleon pigments. If you do holo glitter would you do the superfine dust because I really wanna do that <3

3. Idk about plaster. I know monster clay melts, but it's a very hard clay.

4. You don't need a mold release with dragonskin. It will not stick to your mold.

5. Do not do not use acrylic. It will snap and is very sharp when broken. Use polycarbonate.

6. That's a cool idea! I don't know how hard you can get silicone though. Dragonskin only comes up to shore 30 I think and though silicone can have very hard shore strength I don't know where you would buy it.

I think this could be very cool! If you want to go 50/50 on any weird pigments I would be down because I do want to test shifting and holographic pigments.


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[Mermatron Athena]

I want to base my design on this guy

[Mermatron Athena]

Here's some of the colors I really like

https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop/chameleon-paint/starry-night-teal-blue-purple-chameleon-paint/

https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop/chameleon-paint/blue-to-purple-chameleon-paint-pearls-4779bp/


https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop/metal-flakes/holographic-flakes-prism-flakes/holographic-pearl-pigment/


https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop/interference-iridescent-ghost-pearls-pigments/blue-crystal-ghost-pearl/

[Mermatron Athena]

In theory these pigments seem like they would be cool, but I don't know? You can see through them, like dying the silicone verses making it opaque. Some areas I'd really like a sea through look, like betas and other finely finned fish have.
They are pretty cheap so could be a fun experiment.

https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop-...-concentrates/

[Mermatron Athena]

After reading through many threads, I have seen tons of issues with bubbles, but no one doing the method I learned for pouring without bubbles. You hold the cup up really high and pour a fine stream of whatever pourable medium is desired (be it cookie icing or silicone) and in pouring the very thin stream the bubbles break and aren't an issue in the mold.

A trick to doing this without killing ones arm, or accidently pouring too thick is to take your poring device and make a hole at the bottom of it, cover that hole with tape to seal it, then fix that pouring device on the edge of a table, put the mold under the table, and then unplug the hole and let the medium pour into it.

When I get going on this tail this is the method I will be using and hope to share photos

[Mermatron Athena]

As for pigments, I'm going to see what the highly reflective glass beads that are used on reflective safety gear work in silicone. I haven't seen them used before, but they seem like they could work! I still plan to be using the color morph pigments

There's a brick front store in San Fransisco I plan to go to, Douglass and Sturgess, http://www.douglasandsturgess.com/
They sell Dragon Skin, sulphur free clay, and the reflective glass beads. Hopefully they can provide some info on if these will work in my tail.

Tomorrow will ill be a trip to Tap Plastics to get the urethane for the mold (Like Theobromine's shared about using, thanks Theo!)

[Mermaid Alaria]

Following... And I love your idea for the finger webbing!

[Mermaid Machhalee]

This has all been so interesting! Thanks for the inspiration!

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[PearlieMae]

Sorry to let you know, but those glass beads lose their effect when encapsulated in silicone, and they manage to work their way out of the silicone, leaving the surface pitted, fuzzy, and lots of tiny places to hold water (and potentially grow mold).

[Merman Lir]

I want to base my design on this guy

beautiful inspiration fish!

[Mermatron Athena]

Sorry to let you know, but those glass beads lose their effect when encapsulated in silicone, and they manage to work their way out of the silicone, leaving the surface pitted, fuzzy, and lots of tiny places to hold water (and potentially grow mold).

BUMMER!
Well, there's always the chameleon pigment. That should be fun!

[Mermatron Athena]

I have most of my materials, and my Rapid monofin came! I need better clay tools because the ones I got on Amazon were comicallay pathetic. Which I can get at a craft store this weekend

Dragon Skin will be purchased this weekend for my Mother's Day gift from my kiddos and hubby.

I have a design meeting scheduled with my graphic artist friend whom I'm collaborating with. He's helping me with the rest of the project too.

My husband will be making my lower body cast tomorrow. We have made an upper body cast, so now I have a full body cast. That's going to be hilarious looking hanging in the closet.

I have been given the lower deck of my cousins place to set up shop. Which I have to postpone until this weird El Niño thing stops. El Niño has brought in Portuguese Man of War in to the San Fransisco area beaches this year which is totally weird!

I think I have all my ducks in a row...

[Mermatron Athena]

Forgot a duck.
pigments. Need to order those!

[Mermaid Alea]

I just read this thread and I am excited to see your experiments with chameleon pigments and/or holographic glitter.

So far I have seen a few tails by two different tailmakers that have an iridescent look.
There is this one by FlipTails:
https://www.facebook.com/fliptails/p...type=3&theater
- Mike says he used 36 airbrush coats and 16 different colors to get this effect.

Then there are these by Creation Sirene:
1. https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=3&theater
2. https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=2&theater & https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=3&theater

- All she says is she is using iridescent paint.

I love the idea of a tail that changes color when looked at in different angles.

[PearlieMae]

Aysun's tail should be included in this list.

As well as my own.

[Mermatron Athena]

I just read this thread and I am excited to see your experiments with chameleon pigments and/or holographic glitter.

So far I have seen a few tails by two different tailmakers that have an iridescent look.
There is this one by FlipTails:
https://www.facebook.com/fliptails/p...type=3&theater
- Mike says he used 36 airbrush coats and 16 different colors to get this effect.

Then there are these by Creation Sirene:
1. https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=3&theater
2. https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=2&theater & https://www.facebook.com/AuroreLaSir...type=3&theater

- All she says is she is using iridescent paint.

I love the idea of a tail that changes color when looked at in different angles.

Holy Sea Cow! Thirty Six coats of paint is an insane amount!

I plan to do some test scales. Some tinted dark then painted chameleon, some painted black then painted chameleon' and some with a pigment coating brushed into the mold before pouring, and various combinations there after.

After painting does one seal it all in with an extra coat of silicone, or just leave the paint as the final coating?

[Mermatron Athena]

PearlieMae your tail is stunning!

[Mermatron Athena]

I did a cellophane body double, ankles to armpits! It's much less accurate than my duct tape dress form, but it was quicker and cheaper. My waist measurement is 4" larger than reality, but I think I can go back over it with more tape and cinch it in where needed. If that doesn't work I will try cutting it to size it down. I really don't want to do the whole thing over in duct tape. Being mummified is in direct conflict with my claustrophobia LOL

[PearlieMae]

You can cut into it and overlap (dart) it, and just layer more tape to take it in.I alter mine all the time!