World culture mermaid designs

[River Melody]

While I'm waiting for supplies to move forward with my sequin tail, I'm designing tails based on different major cultures and fish found in their area. It's just a fun project and I'm not planning on making any of them in the foreseeable future. I just finished a Chinese/yellow goldfish design and I have an Indian/orangespine unicornfish, Australian/lionfish, and a few others in the works.

My question is, are there any particular cultures you would like to see represented?

I'll be drawing fabric tail plans as well as artistic concepts, so message me if you would like to know how I think these could be made.

[River Melody]

8073

Here's my Chinese/yellow goldfish mermaid.

[Spindrift]

This looks like a really fun project. What about some kind of French or European styled one? I would guess that if it was French it would have some sort of Art-Deco-y kind of look to it.

[Mermaid Saphira]

What a neat project! Something from India? Maybe something native American?

[AniaR]

A lot of these cultures have a version of the mermaid. I do a presentation for kids on the different versions for each one. Like for instance in parts of Africa they have Yemaya, in the Canadian North there is Sedna, Irish have Merrows etc. Each of them are their own variations and I think you'd be able to pull a lot of inspiration from them. (e.g. Sedna is the Goddess of Northern animals, Yemaya represents fertility and life etc)

[Mermaid Annariea]

i was going to say something celtic, maybe... irish/scottish.
and the native american idea is cool. that would probably look interesting.

[babsannee]

I second the Irish one!!

[Koral]

I'd love to see native american as well.
And middle eastern.

[Mermaid Citrine]

Awesome ! I had just suggested this on someone's thread about 'merfolk of color' Looks like a great start !

[Mermaid Melanie]

In Scotland we have the Selkie which is a mermaid based story -

Selkies (also known as silkies or selchies) are mythological creatures found in Faroese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands), Icelandic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland), Irish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology),[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie#cite_note-1) and Scottish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_mythology) folklore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore). The word derives from earlier Scots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language) selich, (from Old English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English) seolh meaning seal).[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie#cite_note-2) Selkies are said to live as seals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinniped) in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land. The legend apparently originated on the Orkney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney) and Shetland Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Islands) and is very similar to those of swan maidens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden).

[spottedcatfish]

I'd love to see a selkie based tail design.

[River Melody]

Thanks for the suggestions! I hadn't thought of doing a Scottish selkie style mermaid, but I'll definitely add it to the list. I'm going to work on a Native American/rainbow trout tonight.

[River Melody]

8112

And here she is. I drew inspiration from the Apache tribes.

[Mermaid Saphira]

^ Wow! She is lovely! You did a great job :D

[Azurin Luna]

Wow, those are very cool! :D

[Mermaid Margarete]

Very pretty! I love this project idea!

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Hmm... I'd like to see an Italian mer, a Romany mer, and an ancient Egyptian mer.

[Gem Stone]

These are really good. I'd personally like to see a German and Italian mers myself

[River Melody]

Ok, here's an Indian/Unicornfish mer.

8214

The next couple will probably be from European cultures, then after that I'm toying with the idea of doing a rendering of Caesar and Cleopatra as mers... :D

[Mermaid Wesley]

Ksdijdivjrfi sO pretty!

[Koral]

Oh my gosh! You did the ones I requested! And they look absolutely stunning! I will have to show Thalassa the native american one, she is having a rainbow trout tail made. :)

[Thalassa]

Thanks for pointing me here, Koral! Looks awesome! :-)

[Bellasea]

8112

And here she is. I drew inspiration from the Apache tribes.

I love your take on a rainbow trout tail. I have wanted one, but I haven't really seen one yet.

[Mermaid Saphira]

Ok, here's an Indian/Unicornfish mer.

8214

The next couple will probably be from European cultures, then after that I'm toying with the idea of doing a rendering of Caesar and Cleopatra as mers... :D

Amazingly well done!

[Miyu]

Ooh, Tibetan or Japanese mers?