Jewel's New Purple Tail has begun!

[Mermaid Jewel]

So I've been bouncing ideas around for quite a bit of time while my 7yd roll of neoprin sits in my sewing room waiting to be used. I finally decided on going ahead with using Mermaid Shelly's process (thanks for the permission and the steps! You're amazing <3) to create my dream tail, purple and black with silver detailing.

The neoprin will be painted purple and black/dark purple shadows on the sides and bottom of the dorsal fin (which will hide a zipper). Then I'll do the scales and fluke texture and the plan is to take the silver paint and rub it into the cracks of the silicone, so it will have a silver sheen to it. I tried it on a necklace i made and I quite like the results so I'm gonna play with samples beforehand.

The neoprin I have is only 2mm vs. the 4mm Shelly uses so I'm grabbing some silicone Sunday and going to try it out on scraps and make sure it won't leak through or anything. I'm also grabbing purple Createx paint from an art store (from what I know, the biggest size they have is 4oz so I'm gonna have to grab 4-5 bottles) and some opaque black and a small bottle of silver to play with.

Pretty much the plan for this weekend is to cut and paint (hopefully). The silicone will probably not take as long as me and my mom trying to figure out how to pattern and cut so... xD

I have a vague sketch that I'll put up later as well as my pattern!

Updates as soon as I can! I'll also begin updating my Facebook page for whoever's following. Wish me luck :)

[lasserine]

Good luck.

I would also make my tail purple.

[taom]

My very first tail was this thick spandex (not quite neoprin) and it took ALEX no problem. I had little to no bleed through so you should be perfectly fine with the stuff you've got.

Good luck! I can't wait to watch you build your tail!

[Mermaid Saphira]

Yay! Sounds exciting!! I love purple tails! Good luck :)

[Mermaid Jewel]

Got the paint! I couldn't find createx paint but I found some 8oz jars of screen printing ink in pearl purple and pearl black/charcoal that were about $10 each, which was a relatively good price. I got 2 jars of purple but I might need more, I don't know how opaque it is. I'm also going to try to get some silicone and the grating today as well as cut the pattern out and maybe pin it together to make sure it fits.

I'll put pictures up as soon as I start cutting :)

[Sea Pearl]

Good luck with your tail! It sounds like a fun project.

[Neria]

Oooh! A purple tail sounds pretty, can't for pictures!

[Mermaid Jewel]

Okay so I was waiting to update until I got pictures but I have the pictures, they're just on so many devices I'll figure out how to upload them later lol.

Basically, neoprin's been measured, cut, and painted. It got a little streaky though (trying to conserve some paint lol) so I'll have to do touch-ups and add the pearl charcoal before I silicone the thing lol

Silicone scale tests been going pretty good. I've been wearing gloves when handling the stuff and so far, no problems with the caulking being toxic but I've done a ton of tests. WORD OF ADVICE, if you're ever using this tactic, make sure you test making the scales! Took me like 3 tries to get the right thickness, now I'm going for technique.

The silicone's definitely going to fade the color, but I think that it'll work. Planning to paint the charcoal on tomorrow night, first layer of silicone Saturday morning, scale it up Saturday afternoon, sew it up Sunday and hopefully put in the monofin the same day. If not, I guess I can push it over the week but I'd rather not, since I want it done as soon as possible so I can possibly bring it to my next trip to the beach.

Questions though, anyone have any idea if I need to leave some of the fluke un-siliconed for drainage? Because I made the monofin fit pretty tight in there and I'm not sure I have the room, though I can make some if needed.

[lasserine]

Can you add a color of purple to the scale mold so it stays on the silicone?

[Mermaid Jewel]

Well I can mix the purple paint into the silicone but since I already painted the neoprin, I see no point. The color is pretty deep so it'll make it a light purple, though I might have to paint charcoal-paint-silicone mix on top later to deepen the dark parts.

[Mermaid Jewel]

Scale test...top one was way too thick, bottom one is what I'm going for
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More scale tests...Far right is ideal look
1916
AND EVEN MORE...testing fluke texture too
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If you think this is a lot of patch tests...there's more on all the backs of these swatches lol. The purple streaks are testing color fading (the first one is actual paint, after that it's all sharpie).

[Mermaid Jewel]

I have more!
1918Close up of the fluke. You can see the awesome purple color and some of the streaking...I'm going to touch up the worst of it but I like a bit of the streaking...adds character :)

[lasserine]

Oh, pretty.

[Mermaid Jewel]

One more!
1919
Shows the purple color a little better

[Mermaid Marla]

Wow - that is a beautiful shade of purple! I love the streaking in it also... It's going to look fabulous with the silicone over it!!

[Odette]

YIPEEE! lookin good!

[Mermaid Jewel]

AHHHH!!!! I folded these up to put them away for people coming over and they have really deep creases that won't go away! I'm painting with them the best I can right now because they need to get done but I have no clue what to do :( I don't want them permanently there after the silicone. Anyone else have this problem??

[Mermaid Jewel]

Adding charcoal details...You can see the creases in this picture. I dealt with them while cutting patterns and such but they normally went away, but slowly! Hopefully they'll be gone by tomorrow.
1928

This shows more charcoal but the color is off...the one above shows how you see the color. Cause the blue is underneath and I didn't completely saturate the fabric, it turns blue-purple sometimes
1929

It's actually really dark and I'm trying not overpower the purple but I'm liking it so far. I'm so excited, my dream tail is coming to life right before me!

[lasserine]

pretty

[Mermaid Jewel]

Phew I'm on a roll tonight! Last ones for tonight...tomorrow is going to be packed! I've basically given myself 2 hours to knock out painting the other one (took me an hour for this one) and siliconing it. I'm guessing I'll probably paint the second one and let it dry while I'm siliconing the first one...

Here's a picture of the complete charcoal accenting
1930

Here's a close up of the fluke and the crease lines I mentioned earlier...
1931

The paint's still wet so it'll look like that shiny dark grey when it's completely dry

[Winged Mermaid]

Exited for you! It's looking good! Neoprene looks really thirsty for sure- gulping up the paint!
I hope the wrinkles come out! Can't iron neoprene, or use any heat on it really (not even hot tubs or leaving in the sun.. sigh). I have some in my neoprene too where my husband moved it and wasn't careful about how it was sitting >_< You're not supposed to hang neoprene where it puts too much strain on one spot (so pretty much not hang it at all but store flat), but maybe if you hang it for a few days it'll help? Wish they'd make crease resistant neoprene.. it creases so easy

[Mermaid Jewel]

They're kinda slowly de-creasing, especially when i saturated parts of it with paint. I'm leaving them flat overnight to see :)

[lasserine]

I can't wait to see when it is done.

[Mermaid Jewel]

Something I forgot to mention, the tail is cut about 2 inches extra at the top so it can be cut down after scaling...it's actually a bit too small for my waist (from what I can judge) at the very top but that's where it'll be cut down anyways. The tail will start about right on my belly button, which isn't my true waist (the smallest part of your torso) but I think it might work okay.

[lasserine]

Good idea to have it a little long. Better to have too much, than to little.

[Mermaid Jewel]

So I decided not to rush the finish of this tail because I thought I wouldn't be able to take it to me to the beach. TURNS OUT I can now, and I have only a few short days to finish painting, silicone, and sew to take it with me...oh dear, this should be interesting

[Odette]

the pointe shoes in the shot made me smile. the tail is lookin just great. even the crease will be alright, i think.
and be careful when rushing. i messed up on my tail that way.

[Mermaid Jewel]

Well it's been a while since I updated. I let it sit for a while and most of the creases seem to be gone or at least better. And I'm planning to finish it up this weekend!

Odette, I didn't even notice they got in there :) The tail painting was next to the (overflowing) bucket of dead pointe shoes haha ^.^

[Mermaid Jewel]

Okay so I just tested rubbing silver paint in the cracks on some of my swatch tests. Sorry for the weird lighting. What do you think? Do you think it'll look good with the purple? (this is just acrylic paint, I'll probably use the same color paint but mixed with a little silicone for the whole tail)
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[Ilonka]

I think the colors look good together, gives it a magical look.

[LindseyLu]

How did I miss this!?!???? This is so cool Jewel!!! I'm super excited for you, I know you've been wanting a purple tail for a really long time! Your progress so far looks great! I can't wait to see you swimmin around in it this summer!!!! YAY!!!! :)

[Nim]

Oh wow!!! This is beautiful! I love the blue ^_^