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Thank you so much!! I'm so flattered that you think that :)
Here are the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4XG...ature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCaKiLQ8p5c&feature=youtu.be
As you can see, it's a little bit loose in the waist. An easy fix though! :)
Love it! The monofin mod looks amazing, maybe we'll get to see how it holds up after enough use! Keep us updated yeah? I just can't get over how gorgeous is it.
magnificent and so elegant in the water!!! It looks great :D
keep us updated on the duct tape method and how it holds up... if you are successful, i might try the same thing! I really need to make a tail soon. my mermaid self is ready to break out over here. just waiting on a tail (and the budget/funds to do so) >_<
I am absolutely stunned by your tail! I have to say, you are very talented! I was also excited to see your zip tie/duct tape mod, since I have been thinking of doing something similar. I'd really love to hear how it hold up, though I think I am going to try it anyway as soon as I can. Again, I'm just in awe!
I looove how your tail turned out! I wish I would have seen this thread sooner so I could have given you some tips! I really like that you used a bag instead of stalkings, that was a very creative idea! I used stalkings, which had a plus and a minus...the plus being the scales start larger and get smaller towards the fluke, but on the downside I had to leave the stalkings on for every coat of paint I sprayed on! Meaning I never got to check the progress as I went! Could have turned out bad, but luckily it didn't! ;)
As for your side fins, it would be easy to sew them on since you're using spandex! Even at this point you can sew them on and use paint to blend them with the scales. If you need help PM me and maybe I can offer some ideas?
Congratulations on your first tail, it is absolutely beautiful and you make a stunning mermaid! <3
I will definitely let people know how it holds up!! Checked out the monofin today now that it's all dried, and I can't see any difference from yesterday so far. I'll update how it's doing after a couple more swims or if I notice any change :)
LindseyLu--well, it'd be easy to sew side fins into the seams, but I want them to be more than just plain material (maybe duct tape as well? It's certainly flowy enough) and having something inside means I'd have to figure out how to have the inner part end exactly at the seam or the fins would want to lie one way against my skin inside the tail or the other. I completely failed at explaining that. Hm. Well, I will probably try adding them and seeing what happens, but it'll have to wait until winter break as my sewing machine is at home. Oh well. I'm certainly happy with how it is right now as well! :)
Jade, here's why I did for my sidefins. Craft foam! Get either orange or white, probably colorless white since you are probably going to paint the fins (thus the while won't show through). What I did was cut the foam to the shape of the fin, leave enough lined up with the inner hem of the fin where you'll be attaching it to the body of the tail. Sew it all in, and trim the foam kinda close to the seam. This gave me more rigid side and dorsal fins that stayed straight but still had a flow to them. Just ONE idea. Duct tape would also work very well in the same method, but I would hand stitch those in so you don't get your machine sticky from the tape.
Ohh, craft foam. I hadn't even thought of that, thanks!
It'll be ages before I can test out anything, but I've already started planning in my head! Whoops! :)
Craft foam? Ohh, nice idea :D I was considering using zip ties, but this idea sounds perfect! ThanQ, Koral!!
looks really amazing. Congrats on all your hard work
I know im pretty late in the thread, but i just wanted to say it looks amazzing! :) And the zip tie idea is soo creative! It also looks really nice in the water. Hope it holds up well! :)
Welcome, ladies. :) I should also throw this word of advice in due to the experience I had with my foam.
Don't mismatch the color of your foam VS the color of your tail. If your tail is green, get green foam (Michaels carries a ton of colors and nice big sheets of it). Orange, get orange, etc! Or, white should work overall if needed. I say this because I used pink for parts of my fins, white and tan on others (I used what I had as it was an experiment only). My temporary tail I had tested with was silver/gray, and I don't know if it was the chlorine eating at my mutt (cotton, rayon, spandex) fabric tail, or the pink foam - but my tail turned pink! Just a heads up. <3 :) But the foam held up great and looked really nice.
I did have a question for you Jade...
when you posted pictures of your painted scales I could see a garbage bag inside of the tail to give it your "form" for painting. What did you stuff inside of the garbage bag to give the form? Its a GREAT idea and I am eager to start making yet ANOTHER tail (although I am buying one from Stevi) just so I can paint scales lol.
also when you used your dryer to "heat seal" the paint...what setting did you have the dryer on and were you worried about your paint coming off and staining clothes/towels/whatever you put in the dryer with it?
I put old sheets we didn't use/need anymore and scraps of fabric inside the garbage bags to stuff it. I don't think any paint bled through the garbage bags, but I'd reccomend stuffing them with things you don't want anymore. I also put a garbage bag between the monofin and the fabric to keep the paint from bleeding through when I painted the fluke.
The dryer... hm. Well I just used the dryers we have at my college, which have 3 settings (whites/colors, wool, delicates) and I put it on delicate. I didn't put anything else in with it, so I didn't have to worry about things coming off. I actually heat it set it twice--once after I did the scales, and once again after I did the fluke. This wasn't really planned but just ended up happening. But the paint seemed to stay on fine!
thanks for the awesome information jade :) i bought some lumiere paint that should be arriving by saturday. i have leftover fabric from my tail that i am going to make into a top and use the paint to make my scales. if it all goes well i am considering taking my sequins off my tail and painting the whole thing over the winter. :)
i just bought 2 lumiere pink/gold 2.5oz 1 lumiere pearl white 2.5oz and 1 lumiere true gold 2.5oz for 17.00 is that good?
I think so! I don't know how exactly you plan to do colors, but for mine I used about 1/4 of a 8oz tub of Crimson (watered down a bit) and about 1/2 a tub of Metallic Gold, though I didn't water down the gold and I mixed the two together a lot to get a 'fading' effect between the back and the front. I also used a lot of gold doing a watered-down gold wash over all of the fluke before I painted on the lines. SO I used about ~6oz total, I suppose, which is what you bought. If you plan to have any of those colors be more predominant on the tail you could always buy another small jar I suppose. Nice job getting all that for $17 though, mine were more expensive!
I've found the non-metalic water down better than the metallic ones--with the metallic you have to stir a lot or the paint separates out.
It actually looks super realistic. When I first saw the pictures, I thought it was like a latex tail or something. The paint job is simply gorgeous! Amazing tail :)
each jar was on sale for $4.25 so I thought it would be a good idea. I have to read the whole "painting" thread because I have only painted on canvas before and that was a little different than painting on fabric. I am just doing the bathingsuit top and bottoms for now ( i found I have enough material to make a bottom with scales, a top with scales, and then another top that I am going to add sequins to so it will match my tail now :]) anyways if you have any tips on painting jade i would love to hear them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadestone
Well, I'd say be sure to stuff your tail with old sheets/garbage bags before you paint it. That stretches it out to the size your body will be, so the paint doesn't crack when you put it on/it looks the same as when you painted it. I'd reccomend stuffing it to be just every so slightly smaller than your body though, so it's still tight when you put it on.
I found keeping a plastic bag layer just under the fabric also helped stop the paint from just soaking through the fabric and into the sheets beneath it. Saves paint!
How are you planning to paint it? Are you going to do just solid paint, or scales? If you're handpainting round scales like I know a lot of people do I sadly don't have much in the way of information, but you can see how I did the fishnet method earlier in this thread :)
Mermaid Jewel--Thank you so much!! And welcome back :)
Your tail is so beautiful and you look very elegant in it Jade! I couldn't understand most of the material terms used, but it was enjoyable reading about each step you took to make it. I don't think I could ever accomplish making a tail :P Hope you're having plenty of fun swimming in your tail! (:
for right now i am just going to make my swim suit top and bottoms (make a bathing suit to wear on occasion but also to wear with my tail) i was thinking about doing fishnetting as a template. my boyfriend has millions of the kinds that go around the big liquor bottles and all different sizes too. so i could make small and big scales. eventually, if all goes well with it, i will get more fabric and do scales on a tail. or i may just remove the sequins from my tail now and paint onto that one. ( i have to fix the fluke anyways, i hate how min looks sooooooo big on me)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadestone
congrats it's a great job, your tail is great :-)
I think you could totally sell these if you worked out how to do it quick enough it looks awesome well done you should be very proud of yourself! :)
Miserere girl-- Thanks so much! And if you do have questions or want clarifications about the materials I used, feel free to ask :)
Mer Adella-- awesome! Can't wait to see how everything turns out :)
starlite-- thank you!
Lois-- aha, thanks! I'd really enjoy making/painting tails for people, but I might be too worried about getting it to fit someone right without having them there to try it on. Though, I probably spent more time than I needed to making mine fit perfectly.
I have a question about : will your monofin be in contact with water ? As you used duck tape does it come off with water ?
It will be in contact with the water when I swim, as the fabric lets water through it. Duct tape does surprisingly well in water--the stuff on the outside is stickking to itself and it will be a VERY long time before it comes unstuck this way as I've "sealed" the edges. The strips attaching the extension to the fin may loose their hold over time, but can easily be replaced with more tape! So far I've had no problems, although I haven't gotten out in it too many times :)
I think I am going to do some "test" painting tonight and start painting my top finally! lol thanks jade for the inspiration
Ok Jadestone. I love your fluke...especially because you didn't cut the monofin down you added to it. now my question is how big is your fulke from your heels to the end of your fluke? i feel that mine is too long and unporportionate to me...and i was wanting to see the length of yours because it looks both natural and amazing.
Ok thanks, i will keep in mind this tip ;-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadestone
I will measure it later when I get back to my room :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mer_Adella
Thiss is wonderful. I am beginning my fabric tail and wanted to extend my my monofin. This thread has helped me soooooooo much. Thanks to ALL who contributed :)
OMG i saw this earlier and thought this was a silicone tail! jkashfgiquvhcbow I AM NOW INSPIRED!!!!!! IM GONNA COLOR NOW BYEE
Glad you like it! :) And yes, there are a lot of things you can do with a fabric tail to make it look nice!
If you're looking for scale-painting ideas, I'd also check out LittleOrca's tails--she uses a different technique than I did and they also look very nice!
Hey i was just wondering mermaid jade, what kind of fishnet did you use and where did you buy it? Your scales are the PERFECT size!!!
I have seen her tails :) I am getting really excited and I would love to use your technique of using netting like a stencil... If I ever get the cash haha maybe Christmas....Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadestone
great job! the way you did it and they way it came out is very clever <3
Thanks Odette :)
alliegator--the netting I used came from some bags we happened to just have around at our house (we won them many years ago). But I looked them up online, and this is basically what I used:
http://www.ecobags.com/core/media/me...6dac6e8caf770e
Except mine was pink! It's just a stretchy cotton netting. I cut off the handle/rim, and it spread out into a rectangle shape. I was able to cover my tail by placing/pinning it down and painting, then moving it. It took four steps to cover all of it, top front, top bottom, back top, back bottom. I painted by hand so I filled in each scale individually, but the material is thick enough that spray painting it would probably work fine.
you can see the bags here: http://www.ecobags.com/Natural-tote-handle#.ULehL45AGQs
They're like $7, which isn't so bad I suppose, but I encourage scouting around your house or thrift stores for other netting-type things if you're on a budget like I was :)
Sounds great! I might just get one of those bags anyways.... so great for the farmers market!! then i can cut it apart lmao! I found like netting on a wine bottle, but its plastic and that would cause variation in scale sizes... I was just wondering, how is your fabric holding up? My first spandex tail is like a nightmare it ripped the first time I swam with it!!! I want to know whether to go with milliskin (which has a color i like more) or high performance spandex. Also, how is the monofin mod holding up? I think i'm gonna make that!! My friends and i are making tails sorta like this (different color and fluke shape but same method) , and the problem is that we have finis mermaid monofins (yuck i know but they won't buy waves) and they are SO HARD TO TAKE OUT. I might end up doing velcro at the bottom. Would that work? Plus i thought velcro might decrease the drag because water that got in would flow out.