Cost of supplies: any tips or tricks?

[Mermiah]

​I am making a partially fabric tail with sewn on plastic scales, but my fluke is going to be molded latex. my plan is that i will make a two piece mold with a large(ish) hole where the foot pockets go and then ill shove a sculpted mold of my feet into the mold (adventurous right :3)
but mostly I was just wondering where the best place to but latex is, and also the best place to buy the ultra cal/hydracal gypsum stuff you use for the molds :)
my fluke is kind of large I may have gotten a little carried away :$ but please let me know I'm open to just about anything :)

[Mermaid Jaffa]

How are you going to stick the fabric to the latex?

Or will you be covering the fluke with fabric like one big sock?

[ShyMer]

If you can find one near you, a store that sells ceramics supplies might carry large bags of plaster. Shipping is expensive for that stuff. If you don't mind using regular plaster of Paris or whatever, sometimes home improvement stores will carry it.

Most of us have used monster makers rd 407 mask making latex with good results. They have a good reputation.

Have you checked out the materials list? That should have links for materials online.

Also I'm puzzled by your description- are you saying you're not planning on using a monofin?

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Maybe she is making the monofin from latex? I don't understand either.

[Mermiah]

Oh sorry I should have gone into more details :$ um, I'm casting the fluke AS a mono-fin, so the foot pockets will be a part of my fluke, and then I will be sewing little snaps to my fabric and somehow attaching them to my fluke as well (liquid thread I think)

My dad seems to think that my one piece mono fin/fluke will work just fine, and I don't see a reason it won't :) (I just am not sure if the snaps will stay glued on :/)

[ShyMer]

The thing is that latex- even as a solid piece, won't propel you through the water nearly as well as a monofin. Even if it feels pretty sturdy out on land, it might not be strong enough in the water. This is of course fine, especially if you're going for a specific look and don't care about propulsion, just understand that you're going to be struggling a ton to move very far.

I think having a removable body is an interesting idea- resizing and damage might be fixed by simply changing the sleeve. Cool.

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[Anahita]

Solid latex doesn't have enough shore hardness to propel one through the water... I'd not do it. I think silicone is the only tail-rubber that can be successfully used without a monofin.

[Mermiah]

Ohh...thanks you guys!, I guess for this one I will just do a plaster of Paris mold and a silicone tail :) and then the Bext one ill use a mono fin, but I also have been thinking about a polyethylene skeleton with a laytex skin as a fluke too (in the future not for my first one)

but maybe I should get my head out of the clouds :P

[Anahita]

I think you should use a monofin.

Seriously. My guess is if you were thinking about doing a monofin-less fluke in latex, you're probably not very familiar with things like shore hardness or working with any of these materials, and how fast these materials can reach insane weights. And that's fine, I'm not trying to shut you down, because everyone starts somewhere. But if you don't want to be disappointed or frustrated, and you don't want to drown, or have some other potential disaster, it's best to stick with safer, proven methods that have been covered, at least in part, by other mers here.

Just trust me (and probably 90% of the mers on here) get a monofin and use it in the tail. Not only will it be cheaper to make the tail because it will require less of the expensive materials,, and not only will it be more easy to move and wear, but you're also less likely to run into functionality problems. There's a reason why even most of the pro-tailmakers use them.

[Mermiah]

Thank you for your concern :) but I have normally been stourborn natured and I found a recipe for a good plastic that I'm making a custom monofin of sorts out of and then the laytex is going on as a "skin" it's mostly an experiment and if it seems unsafe I will NOT be useing it :)


however, if it works not only will it recycle TONS of styrofoam (since that's the main ingredient for the plastic) but it might catch on :)

I may be new to the mer network but I have been doing reasearch on mermaiding for about a solid year :) and I love it more that anything else :) but again thanks to everyone on here who chalanged me and made me trouble shoot/figure out the little details I missed ;)