Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, cannot discribe how happy I am to read all of them!!! :-) I have been a sculptor and painter all my life and in the last years I used to create silicone mermaid belts, bracers and other stuff to get used to the characteristics of silicone and some other materials. I´m an artist, a perfectionist in detailing and quite an experienced mermaid but what I was unsure about were the swimming abilities of my tail. Is it usable? Stable? Buoyancy neutral? Does it swim fluently and elegantly? Thank god, yes. But it was difficult to achieve this by intent because of my lack of experience in technical tailmaking. I think, all of this is high risk. You invest a lot, work so hard months and months but there´s no guarantee that this thing would survive even one dive or propel you even one meter. It just came out great but that was also.... luck. As for the veins: I love it that you discribe them natural!! (because my main job is veterinary anatomist ;-))