Sealing painted sequins?

[Ocoree]

I've been digging through my creative problem solver brain, and picking the brains of my engineer friends, my father, and folks at local hardware stores with little desirable luck on how to pull this off.

I'm using the Cartwright 22mm sequins for one of my next tail projects, after Sea Drake is done, where the edges of the scales will be painted black to mimic the Dragonscale betta gene with those gorgeous iridescent scales that appear thick with the black edging.

I was originally planning on using enamel to meet this purpose, as all other means didn't meet my criteria of low-fume, safe for me and my roommate's animals, and workable in a small apartment space situation. I'd like my parakeets and sugar gliders, and her cats to freak out over SUDDENLY FIN, and not SUDDENLY POISONED!

A post I was perusing here caught my attention with a mention of silicone spray used to both prevent layers from sticking, AND waterproofing the silicone/latex tails. It got my cogs whirring again, but I want to see if I can pick the community's brain for further knowledge and suggestions!

For those not familiar with what a dragonscale betta looks like, take a gander at the linked images below -

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(The tail will likely have a color scheme in some form of combo above)

A little more explanation on what that gene /is/ - basically Dragon scale produces a more saturated metallic highlight on the body of the scale, leaving the edges the natural base color. All bettas have this sheen on their bodies in a more muted effect, which gives them that shimmery goodness when they move. This also makes the scales appear heavier/thicker as a result. All color forms can produce the dragonscale gene, but black-base bettas tend to show it more prominently in silvers, blues, greens, and sometimes copper.

I kinda want to capture that with the sequin scales and painting. It's the sealing part that has me stumped...

[lotusauriel]

I've been considering resin, but not sure it meets your birdsafe requirement. You are probably going to have to choose which is more important and just find a way to do it away from your animals. No matter what you decide on, it will be a LOT of work, and you have to remember to somehow leave holes for sewing. If that's what you're doing. I do like your idea though. Been considering something similar myself. On the animal safe thing. I'm sure you know, but you are going to have a really hard time finding anything at all that won't just outright kill your birds. They are extremely sensitive to EVERYTHING.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

[Ocoree]

Yeah, while budgies are pretty durable birds, I don't care for that risk.

With the sequins, they'll be pre-punched, but a thought did come through about dipping the sequins up to the holes in resin. I noticed we got some in stock where I work that is both water and alcohol proof, and I know alcohol is pretty caustic stuff on wood, so it should hold up to cholorine and salt for the duration of a swim.

I saw somewhere else that someone mentioned Krylon/Rustoleum spray to seal paintwork on a silicone tail. An idea had popped into my head on how to handle the laying out of the sequins for my 'pelt' - so it shouldn't be that much farther a stretch to space them out a little further, take them outside real quick to blast it with a few spray coats, and then let it sit in the landing outside the inner door to air for a bit. I'm all prepared for the extra work anyways, since I'll be adding holes to each sequin to increase its durability.

One other thought I had was using enamel paints. Most can be found with low-emission fumes, and once cured is fairly indestructible, and can come in matte or gloss sheen. Downside is the waiting time for a full air cure, but would be worth it in the end if roomate's cats keep their mitts away from it!

[racheldonnell]

Now, in terms of capturing the dragon scale effect using sequin scales and merge fruits (https://mergefruits.io) painting, the challenge lies in achieving the desired appearance and ensuring the scales are sealed properly.