Making a New Fabric Tail (purple and teal)!

[Dancing Fish]

Wow, I LOVE that fluke painting! So cool!

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Hello, fellow merfolk! I know that I haven't posted on this thread in a long time, and, honestly, it was because I was so disappointed with the results of my test swim. However, I realize that I may be doing the community a disservice by withholding these details, so here goes. Pictures forthcoming.

Ok, so I went swimming on the night of June 22-23. When I left the pool, I was expecting there to be a bit of damage in the knee area as the pool was only 3 feet deep. I did not expect to see two black smudges where my kneecaps had been. That's right, abrasion causes the holographic design to fade...to black. COMPLETELY. I also noticed that most of the paint job had come off, but I expected that. I knew that craft paints aren't the best to use, but the reason why I used them is because the fluke on my old tail (the orange one) was painted using some old craft paints that I found in my room. I found that the paint seeped into the fabric and turned plasticky, which was perfect! However, when I bought the same set of paints, I found that the application was thin and smudgy, so either the formula was changed, or the initial paints only worked well because they were so old. Regardless, I wasn't surprised that most of the paint job wore off. The Elmer's paint markers held up fairly well and so did the airbrushing (Createx). However, they DID FADE, so please take that into account if you plan on using them and not reprinting your tail often. Still, that I could deal with. I went home that night-morning very tired and ready to patch up my tail and get to work on finishing it. However, the next time I saw my tail in daylight, it was a mermaid horror story come true. Pearlie, I never should have doubted you. So what did I find? Well, I found that a about a foot-length section of the tail body had turned from shimmery purple-green to bleach-colored. Obviously, I was very discouraged by this as I was very excited to have the shimmery black, purple, teal, spotted tail of my dreams.

So, tl;dr If you're using this fabric, COAT IT IN SILICONE. It WILL NOT last if you don't. ❤️ Cheers.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Discoloration of the tail body.

Abrasion damage


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

So, now, I've just got to accept that my tail is going to be more colorful than I wanted it to be.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

So here's the plan: I'm going to make a body form so that i can see the full impact of the discoloration. Then, I'm going to go with my original plan of airbrushing besides black or maybe a dark purple and painting spots on the tail body. I'm hoping that that will hide the discoloration at least a little bit. I also bought some translucent purple Shimmery sequins, so I am going to put those over some of the discolored area and hope that that brings it back to the purple color at least a little bit. And then I'm going to add more sequins. Almost every scale will have at least on sequin on it. So hopefully the colored sequins will also help to bring the color back. And then, I'm going to coat the tail body in silicone.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

However, I'm not sure what to do with the fluke. Should I repaint it with some better quality fabric paint like Lumiere or Permaset Aqua? Or, should I repainted with the same paint, and then cover it in silicone? If I cover the fluke in silicone, will I be able to take the fin in and out? Or will I have to so the monofin inside? I was thinking about maybe getting a new monofin anyway, though.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Does anybody know of a monofin that has more propulsion than a Fin Fun, but essentially the same shape (can replace a Fin Fun in a tail made for a Fin Fun)?


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Slim]

Magictail classic monofin can fit into any fin fun skin and it a lot more stiff with no floaty. I only use my tail of the same fabric in a salt water pool or spring. The person that made the tail decide to use a different fabric than the one I sent her and use a even cheaper fabric for the fluke. That cheaper fabric caused damage by the skin swim where the scale fabric survive. I feel your struggle though I put my in a tail maker.

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Magictail classic monofin can fit into any fin fun skin and it a lot more stiff with no floaty. I only use my tail of the same fabric in a salt water pool or spring. The person that made the tail decide to use a different fabric than the one I sent her and use a even cheaper fabric for the fluke. That cheaper fabric caused damage by the skin swim where the scale fabric survive. I feel your struggle though I put my in a tail maker.

I DEFINITELY feel your pain. RIP our old ideas of what our tails would be like! I know it super-sucks, but the most important thing is to not be discouraged and try to think of ways to integrate the damages into a new and cohesive tail design.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Here's the tail wrapped around the body form:
You can see the large patch of discoloration here. But I think a nice paint job could hide it.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[lotusauriel]

Over the weekend, I went to Maryland for my cousin's graduation. As it turns out, she lives in an area that contains a Walmart, a Michael's, AND a Jo-Ann's all within a few miles of each other. Needless to say, I spent about 6 hours shopping, and I got some beautiful fabric from which I will make...wait for it...A NEW TAIL! I'm so excited as my old reliable tail baby is getting a little worn and I've wanted a tail with this color scheme for a while. Since I'm planning this tail out much more than my others, I thought I'd start a thread to document my process and get some input from my fellow mers. Here are some pictures of what I have so far;




Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

That oilslick fabric is to die for.

Sent from my SM-N910H using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Ankhali]

That oilslick fabric is to die for.

Sent from my SM-N910H using Tapatalk

Yeah, I may have to give it another go since this tail isn't coming out exactly as I wanted it to. I really hope all of this trial-and-error turns out well.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[lotusauriel]

Yeah, I may have to give it another go since this tail isn't coming out exactly as I wanted it to. I really hope all of this trial-and-error turns out well.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

I'm sorry it's not going as you wanted. I didn't read through the whole thread, so I missed that. I hope you can fix it.

Sent from my SM-N910H using Tapatalk

[Nerdmaid Faith]

Does anybody know of a monofin that has more propulsion than a Fin Fun, but essentially the same shape (can replace a Fin Fun in a tail made for a Fin Fun)?


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

A suntails monofin is pretty good!

Sent from my SM-G386W using Tapatalk

[Arking]

That is a stunning material, what an exciting project to be working on. :O I wonder what kind of fabric paint they've used to create that iridescent effect.

[Mermaid Fenicia]

So here's the plan: I'm going to make a body form so that i can see the full impact of the discoloration. Then, I'm going to go with my original plan of airbrushing besides black or maybe a dark purple and painting spots on the tail body. I'm hoping that that will hide the discoloration at least a little bit. I also bought some translucent purple Shimmery sequins, so I am going to put those over some of the discolored area and hope that that brings it back to the purple color at least a little bit. And then I'm going to add more sequins. Almost every scale will have at least on sequin on it. So hopefully the colored sequins will also help to bring the color back. And then, I'm going to coat the tail body in silicone.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

Sequins will cut through the silicone

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Sequins will cut through the silicone

What do you mean? I have never used silicone before. I don't understand.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk

[Dancing Fish]

Pearlie found that if you try to cover sequins with silicone, the sharp edges of the sequins will shear through the silicone and leave holes. The silicone also won't stick to the sequins themselves. You might have better luck coating the fabric with silicone first, then adding the sequins. If you sew them on a little loosely, so they're not pressing down too hard on the silicone layer, you might have better luck.

[Mermaid Bree]

I just received my tail with the SunTails fin. I'm extremely impressed with it - while not a 'pro' dive type, it seems to really stay on your feet, and the way the foot pockets wrap around the fin, it's not sloppy... In other words, not a TOY.

[Mermaid Ankhali]

Pearlie found that if you try to cover sequins with silicone, the sharp edges of the sequins will shear through the silicone and leave holes. The silicone also won't stick to the sequins themselves. You might have better luck coating the fabric with silicone first, then adding the sequins. If you sew them on a little loosely, so they're not pressing down too hard on the silicone layer, you might have better luck.

But I already sewed the sequins on. SO MANY. They're not she'll-shaped or anything, just regular round ones.


Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk