♬ Mermaid Akiko's Lame-O Neoprene/Latex Adventure ♬

[Mermaid Akiko]

- finale


So I planned on finishing this like 2 days ago but whoops. I went shopping yesterday and bought a ton of good stuff, though! I also ran out of white thread so that was a hindrance.
The progress I made: I put a hem on the top (I don't think that was necessary but I feel uncomfortable with raw edges ugh) and then I sewed my monofin in place. What I did for the, was put on my tail and line up where the fin would be if I were wearing it, then pencil along the sides. I also sewed a little around the corner, so I could keep my monofin in place, but be able to remove it while I worked on other things.

I decided the fluke looked stupid and floppy, so I bought some polythylene tubing (mines a little less than an inch in diameter) and sewed little pockets to put them in. The problem was, it was really curved in the circular shape, so the areas that point outwards were getting all weird and flippy, so I cut it off just about where my fin ended. Now the top is floppy, but oh well.

I close odd the ends of the pocket. Then I stuck my monofin back in, and glued down the edge just to be secure. Then, I sewed around the bottom, leaving symmetrical vents. It's kind of not symmetrical flop wise fml but it's not really a big deal in the end.

[Fifi Tigg]

Fintastic

[Mermaid Galene]

Great progress!

[Mermaid Mhara]

I'm loving this one!! Really looking forward to seeing the end result

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Ooo! Looking gorgeous!

Was there a reason why you didn't draw up the pattern in two sides rather than four separate pieces?

[Mermaid Akiko]

Fintastic

Great progress!

I'm loving this one!! Really looking forward to seeing the end result

Thank you everyone! Your nice comments are such motivation.

Ooo! Looking gorgeous!

Was there a reason why you didn't draw up the pattern in two sides rather than four separate pieces?

Thank you! It's because it wouldn't fit on the neoprene sheet any other way. I guess I'm too tall. Erk.

[Mermaid Akiko]

YOOO so I finished my tail.

Haha kill me look at that fluke it's like the mermaid version of Lumpy Space Princess
So I kind of knew it was going to end up like that, and I was really stressed, but I asked my mom, and she said yeah it didn't look awesome, but it was my first try so I shouldn't be so angry about it. I suppose she's right. I finished last night, and this morning, I gave my tail a little pressure hosing to get the excess glitter and dirt and little latex chunks off. Other than my awful fluke, I think it looks pretty okay! The last time I tried it on was when it was only neoprene, so I'm looking forward to getting it on now. I'm heading to my friend's house today for an event, and I asked if I could use her pool, so I should be testing my tail out today as well!
While it's drying, I figured I'd write up the rest of my progress. I didn't really take a lot of pictures, unfortunately, because I was so pissed about how this was going (I strayed so far from the original tutorial)
Here we go!

[Mermaid Akiko]

To pigment my latex, I made a cup of a watered down acrylic mix at a certain ratio that I could recreate (one tbs of water, purple, and white. I got these measurements by pouring one tbs of water at a time into a plastic cup and making a mark on the cup where the water hit, then adding another tbs, etc.)

So I also asked my chemistry teacher for a pipette, and and used it to measure 75 drops of paint to each 1/4 cup of latex. I just tested the amount until I liked the color, basically.
The tutorials all say to do a base coat. Cool.

I did that. I used about a half cup on each side of the scales, and a half cup on each side of the fluke. I just smoothed it on with a plastic spoon. I love how easy it is to clean latex! I just let it dry, then peeled it off my plastic cups and spoons. so easy and cool, less waste. I let the one side dry, then did the other. Cool, I love following directions.

JK!!! EFF THE POLICE Next step was to put down a heavy layer of latex, and put down a metal grate or fishing net, but I couldn't find an okay grate, they were all like hella fancy and unusable, and the idea of fishing netting didn't really appeal to me so I got... poultry fencing.

Yeah that's right 25 feet of plastic chicken fencing. It actually creates a pretty nice pattern, imo, though. problem was, it curved up on the sides because it was in a roll, and the tail was already not level because of the seams from sewing and stuff, so it basically would not stay down. The first side, I just held it into the latex with mason jars and my own hands until it dried enough, and the fencing would stick on the entire surface (would have been a lot easier if I had sewn second, but oh well).

That was really dumb and time consuming. The second time around, which I heavily recommend for those in the same boat I got out my mom's hair dryer and just heated the plastic enough that it could be warped into the shape needed. Wow.
After the plastic had finally stuck to the latex, I realized that it wouldn't give me all the depth I wanted, so I spooned over another layer of latex, and just covered the whole thing, trying to keep the least latex on the fencing as I could. I used my hands. The tutorial said to get a latex thickener, so the slip cast latex is as thick as caulking but I mean like?? I just decided to not do that. Maybe I should have. So meaning when I pulled the fencing off (I did tests, of course) the latex would just settle and be flat again, and if I waited longer, it would just form a skin on top of the grate, and when I pulled it off, the texture would also come off, leaving the flat, uncured latex underneath. So the only solution was to let it fully cure with the fencing on it, then pull off the fencing. Then you got pretty scales!

Actually, not really, since the latex was also on the fencing, when I took off the fencing, the latex that was on top of it stayed on the tail, and I had to clean the scales up, But it was okay.
To do the fluke, I just poured latex on it and spread it around with a crappy paint brush. Worked like a charm for texture, too bad the fluke is so awful.

I sewed my monofin in, since I just don't trust glue, but now it's super obvious and weird and I regret it so hard. AHghhg it's okay though.
I also sprinkled glitter on the wet latex. I realized mixing it in just made it lumpy, since latex is actually pretty opaque. I love glitter! I didn't really want a pearly effect. I wanted like a freaking barbie princess tail. It worked out pretty well with the glitter! It actually sticks well. I hosed it down on a heavy pressure and scrubbed it to get the excess off, so what stayed stays. I wish I had a sealer just for security but eh I leave on a long vacation soon, so that would be impractical to order now.
I think that's it. I screwed up a lot. But it's my first time, so after being really angry with myself, I'm cutting myself some slack. If anyone has any questions, I am the trial and error expert at this now! Mostly the error part. Thanks everyone!

[Mermaid Adriel]

AMAZING JOB! *w*

[Mermaid Galene]

I think it turned out really well! Congrats! If you wanted to de-emphasize the monofin hump, you could paint shadow and highlights on the fluke in a way that would mask the monofin's shape.

[Mermaid Akiko]

SO UPDATE I can't even get my tail on cries
I looked it up: I rolled it down, put one foot in, then the other, cool, pulled it up, had a really hard time getting the wrinkles out of my ankles, but got it to look acceptable, kept rolling it up, but I could only get it to like halfway over my ass, and definitely way too close to my crotch. What's annoying is that I could see the wrinkle of extra material around my thighs, I know it's long enough to fit over me, but I guess it's too tight to pull up, I could not get it any higher no matter how I pulled or rolled, I even stood up in attempt to pull it up, but it didn't budge. I was kind of devastated a lot. Hrgghhh I hope these sad hamster gifs will illustrate how disappointed I am in my judgement. But it's really not the end of the world, I'm thinking of picking up some lube at target to try and maybe help? And if that doesn't work, I'll sell my tail to someone who's okay with having things that look bad for cheap, and use the money to help start a new one. Lesson learned here, kids, is that latex prevents some of the stretch in neoprene, so don't get too preoccupied in the fitting, in fact, PAINT YOUR NEOPRENE WHILE IT'S FLAT AND SEW IT LATER seriously you will be a sad hamster like me.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments! This has been quite the experience.

[Fifi Tigg]

Lubrication will work
We have quite a few tails just like yours that you think it will never fit over the bootay but with some wriggling for 5-10 mins and lubrication it will go over eventually

[Mermaid Momo]

Have you tried pulling it on again?

[Mermaid Akiko]

Erkk sorry it's been a while. I'm on vacation for a month, and I couldn't bring my tail. But yes, I got it mostly on! I determined that I accounted for too much stretch from the neoprene, when the latex did not stretch as far. So I'm like mersagging right now. My friends call me the straight white boy mermaid. But that's okay, I can swim in it just fine, if not easier than normal, the monofin is really powerful, dang. So basically, I should have fit it after I latexed it. Would have looked better, too. I plan on making another one soon! I think the latex on neoprene method may look less realistic, but it's very reliable and simple, and only cost me ~$300, with a lot of leftover latex.

[Imogen Finnly]

The same thing happened to me and I was so upset I cried for like three days. I had to toss it because it was seamed so tigjt from the latex. Im now doing each side separately.

formerly jayy