Making my first tail

[anami]

I have added mermaiding to my production company ser ices this year. I bought a couple tails and was more than a little disapointed with the sculpted silicone tail I got. I live on a peninsula where, to my knowledge, there arent any other mers. I hadnt gotten a chance to see any of these tails in person. After I got mine I was like wtf. I can make a WAY better tail than this. So this winter I am going to make a full silicone tail....or more....

My production company is.working with a restaurant and lounge to install, among other things, a mermaid tank. So this saturday we are debuting the mermaids (dry because the tank doesnt exist yet) so I wanted matching tails. I wanted 3 but im low on time and mermaids are dropping like flounders. Anyway I realized while making these that even though ive made a lot of costumes, I he never made mermaid tails....which strikes me as strange because of childhood dreams and my irresistible attraction to water. Anyway here are some in process pictures. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/dfe4215b6ac03b838b12b16d14c82eb2.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/359ea00fc90de54bc17c08a1c0b9c63c.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/fdf67f23597551c96844b84f8cc86723.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/f1e52e915f8c2ccbd91e2bd55a7adb2f.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/4572137a43f12d52a2f2d59e3c0395a5.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/a4290e4167aaa63283337517cf1f7571.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/a6101ee815c356f1955a0063b4a0fd05.jpg

Im realizing these are all out.of order...

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160802/7a183e1f938b968fbe62083307e366dd.jpg
Ill post an update when they are done or done-er....

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[PearlieMae]

Interesting! What is your fin made of?

There are many tailmaking resources here in case you get stuck!

[anami]

Oh ive been reading them for about a year ;) the fin came from one. I had to fix a fin from a tail I bought and used an office chair mat and im SO happy with that. Its super strong and indestructible but flexible. But hard to work with and I was short on time. If these break ill replace them with that. On a thread here Someone showed using shower wall material to extend a mono fin and im like hmmm. I have some of that outside.... which is why it looks like it....anyway it will be covered. The top part is to smooth the top. I dont like fabric tails tendency to have a foot lump and the material is too stretchy for fluke manipulation...so these, the top and bottom will be connected with binding posts and an elastic strap will hold it firm. These will be for in water and out of water cabaret style acts so I need my mers to be able to shake their tail flukes!

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[anami]

Well. i ran out of time and only got one of the three tails done for the event. i would have two but i mis-sewed one and i didnt have time to rip it out and redo it. So the mermaid on the boat is wearing the tail i made and i just wore my sculpted silicone tail :'(

38516

[anami]

38517

[Mermaid Miradis]

Hi!
It is unfortunate that you couldn't complete all of them :/ but in the picture it doesn't look bad! I am sure you can continue doing it for further performances. People like mermaids if they have never seen one, and seeing people do this makes them happy!
That ship and lagoon are awesome!!! Do you know where the shell is from? I know that the original manufacturer sells them for $250 (i think?), but with white handles. I have seen some on aliexpress exactly like the one in the picture, but I am not sure if I should get it yet. Would you recommend it?

[anami]

I got mine for $75 and I was pretty hard on it to see how durable it is and it was awesome. The black handles do kinda suck. I wrapped the gold fabric around them for some of the event...I might cover them with white duct tape...

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[Mermaid Miradis]

That sounds great and the price is the cheapest I have seen it (others were like $100). Can you remember the website or seller you bought it from? I thought about spraying the handles with white or pearlescent paint and/or cut them off if they are not connected to the air (I don't mind if there are little things barely sticking out afterwards). White duct tape sounds good too!

[anami]

The handles are handy. In the set up in the picture I was able to swim in the pool get up into the shell and then up on the boat entirely by myself. My mersistant was also helping at other parts of the festival and he kept coming over and being like, "how'd you do that!?" Of course I said it was magic. I got my shell on ebay

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[Mermaid Miradis]

Oh that makes sense! Haha, I would have loved to see his face!
what pool was it you used (blow up or not, the material that covered it, how deep and big was it)? I won't steal your idea of course, it is just that I am looking for a nice little pool myself at the moment. :)

[anami]

Its ok this is a stealable idea ;) I used a snapset kiddie pool and attached wool furniture pads around it like "rocks" and then I surrounded it with drift wood. I push some fake seagrass and shells in it and the kids really loved that but next time ill put weights on the seagrass...

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[anami]

I used the 8 ft diameter 18 inches deep pool. We had a water source problem and I only had it filled halfway and it still worked so I think ill be pretty happy when its all the way full ;)

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