Freshwater Floundering with Tops...

[SIF]

Salutations MerNetwork Mers!
As the season picks up, I have more events scheduled and prepped and it has come time to ask the question I struggle with about tops.
I am a Freshwater Mer, Lake-mer specifically and I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on what to do about tops, because the best I got in shells is clams the size of quarters, 1-inch snails and (freshwater) oysters. I've got Mil-weed, Reed Canary grass and blackberry bushes for fauna, several of which could be useful.
I'm not saying I don't have materials, but they're primarily small items and when I've purchased and played with the false fauna and collected and cleaned shells, the tops always come out looking.... cluttered and hectic and messy.
Any freshwater Mers out there have ideas on making tops from materials one would find in our environments, without them looking cluttered and over-done?

[Merman Storm]

Small items might not look cluttered if you lay them out in a regular pattern. For example, layer those small quarter sized shells like scales.

[gay-mermaid]

for my top i make both sides the same! making it symmetrical helps a lot! if you want it to look more?? organic i guess? dont think about where you lay things!

Sent from my Shell Phone

[MarkF]

Salutations MerNetwork Mers!
As the season picks up, I have more events scheduled and prepped and it has come time to ask the question I struggle with about tops.
I am a Freshwater Mer, Lake-mer specifically and I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on what to do about tops, because the best I got in shells is clams the size of quarters, 1-inch snails and (freshwater) oysters. I've got Mil-weed, Reed Canary grass and blackberry bushes for fauna, several of which could be useful.
I'm not saying I don't have materials, but they're primarily small items and when I've purchased and played with the false fauna and collected and cleaned shells, the tops always come out looking.... cluttered and hectic and messy.
Any freshwater Mers out there have ideas on making tops from materials one would find in our environments, without them looking cluttered and over-done?

The mythical story has tunnels connecting all bodies of water.
If any fashionable Merperson decided she wanted abalone shells or clams shells-she could ask a friend to pass one along or travel the tunnels and get whatever makes her happy.

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[Mermaid Jaffa]

Do you mean using found items like netting, fishing tackle (plastic lures, sinkers, swivels etc), metal tabs from drink cans, bottle caps. Making pretties from human trash. Obviously not all human trash is usable, but I always think if merfolk were real, that is what they would use because those things take forever to degrade! And its a way for them to recycle, rather than leaving it in the ocean for some poor creature to get stuck in. And some of them, like the fishing lures can be quite pretty and cute to attach to a netted top.

[SIF]

Small items might not look cluttered if you lay them out in a regular pattern. For example, layer those small quarter sized shells like scales.

...That's a LOT of shells, but could be really pretty if I can get the grime off!

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[SIF]

for my top i make both sides the same! making it symmetrical helps a lot! if you want it to look more?? organic i guess? dont think about where you lay things!

Sent from my Shell Phone

Thank you gay-mermaid.memory.
Symmetry is something I'm a little neurotic about, but in terms of your top I don't have any shells or items larger than a 2×1inch.

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[SIF]

Mermaid Jaffa, urging mostly found items, or store replica/fakes of items I've found in my water bodies is generally what I meant and an trying to use. Unfortunately everything is either sharp or too small for coverage and my tops end up cluttered. I agree that lures are pretty and a fellow NW mer and I are working on our Mersonas' jewelry with them. I actually have a fish-hook necklace I made on a backpacking trip one summer.

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[gay-mermaid]

Thank you gay-mermaid.memory.
Symmetry is something I'm a little neurotic about, but in terms of your top I don't have any shells or items larger than a 2×1inch.

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i was mostly trying to show the smaller shells! but i understand your predicament. layering will help you as well, have some shells overlapping other ones!

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[Mermaid Jaffa]

When we used to go fishing, my Dad put tiny tubes on the sharp end of the hooks, and stabbed other hooks into bits of cork. Then we'd remove them for using and put them back on to protect fingers from getting poked

[Mermaid Tuwala]

I know this is a couple months old but what about lillypads? You can buy big ones at craft stores. I've always loved lillypad tops but I'm an ocean mer