PearlieMae's Silicone Tail Journey

[Azurin Luna]

Hehe, I thought you were making icecubes when I saw the mold :P
but it sounds like a nice idea

[Mermaid Reiko]

Your video was amazing and even more the seaglass idea! I love how this is turning out girl! :3

[deepblue]

I've been going through this thread again all day, at all my free moments, and taking notes. I have one question that I haven't seen answered- I'm only on page 33 so forgive me if you did answer this later, but I won't be home for a few days and might not get to the rest anytime soon... so, when you infused the power mesh with silicone, did you simply have it in a box such as the kind people use to pour the scale sheet, and if so, what did you have under the fabric to keep it from adhering to the surface it was on? Or is that even a concern? I'm thinking just plastic would work, right? Perhaps a shower curtain liner.

Edit- I just realized you wrote this:

I made a version of a duct tape dummy, using plastic grocery bags and clear packing tape. LOTS of tape! Since I was alone, I made it in stages, each foot, each lower leg-knee to ankle-and I marked my ankle bones, knees, shin bones with permanent market, then taped it all together, stuffing it with plastic bags, pool noodle pieces, packing peanuts, wadded paper...whatever I had on hand. I wrapped the power mesh around it, and I'll glue it all together with dragonskin. Once cured, I'll peel it off like you said.

And I'm wondering if the mesh was already silicone-infused when you wrapped it or did you apply it once the mesh was on the dummy?

Thank you ahead of time!

[Prince Calypso]

I love this tail like obsessively lol
if i ever get enough money i'm definitely coming to you for a tail

[Koral]

Sorry sweetie for being one of many to jam your inbox! In reply to my last question, is it better to have the slime/silicone top coat to prevent the actual scale from peeling? Or does the extra top coat cause the peeling you mentioned? Debating if I should even do a topcoat or just repair any damaged scales with more tinted silicone.

Thank you, hugs and fish kisses!

[Koral]

Cool that mooostly answers my peeling question. Sounds like it's not worth it before it gets wet, which was what I wanted to know.
Thanks darling.

[Seatan]

Koral, I have been doing my "slime coat" to get a glossy finish right after each scale cures to make each one shiny and have put them through quite some rigorous testing. If you do the glossy slime coat right away while they are clean and freshly cured there are no issues at all. I am not sure if it matters how LONG its been cured since I always shine them up right after... But I think being very clean is probably a big key.

[Seatan]

Actually, I just wrapped the dummy in power mesh and once I peeled it off I added more silicone inside. In hindsight, I would infuse the mesh first. You could do it on anything smooth. I'd do a test on a shower curtain first, just in case there are cure inhibition issues.

So you think it's best to paint the mesh with silicone first then attach the silicone scales to the silicone base filled with mesh? How thick would you make the mesh coat? Very thin?

[Koral]

Okay, I can give it a try on a few while clean - also note I'm presently a thrifty mermaid using the caulk instead of Dragonskin. I'm not sure what difference that makes. I do know my scales came out pretty shiny own their own but I haven't been able to test the krylon coat in my shells yet since the shells only worked uncoated for only two uses (yep, thrifty). I wish I knew what Jesse of mermaid creations uses. :x

Thanks gals, you're amazing. I'll keep stalking here.

[Seatan]

The main reason mine didn't come out shiny is that I textured my molds for realism, then realized that texture took away the shine. So I added another coat of silicone.

[Koral]

I messed around with it for a little while but I can't tell you if this is going to work with caulk rather than Dragon Skin.

Do you mean scales? what do you mean it only worked twice?

Remember, sometimes "thrift" means 'false economy'. How much money are you really saving and is it worth the hassle?

I mean instead of making molds with resin and clay and all that, I'm doing it directly in the shells themselves. I was able to do it no problem without a krylon coat, because they were so slick. After two uses of this with the tinted silicone directly into the shells, the silicone was starting to eat the shells own slick-ness or oils but did not visually or texturally change. So I've sprayed them with krylon like you tipped me to make it slick again to release the silicone. I ran out of the right silicone caulk, I am buying more today to test a few shells. That's the only thrifty I mean, using krylon coated shells instead of a mold.

It has been working great until the problem I stated above, I think it will work again, if not I'll have to just wait until I can afford the clay and resin. Spending 80+ is a lot for me right now on resin and I don't even know what affordable clay I should get to add to that cost.

[Seatan]

Yeah, I use plastalina. And how are the scales flat if you cast them inside a shell?

[Koral]

Inside. They come out flat on the back, I pack the silicone down and flatten it with my metal painters knife. Sorry to explode your brains or upset you guys?... it seems to work for me so far. o.o

[Seatan]

Inside. They come out flat on the back, I pack the silicone down and flatten it with my metal painters knife. Sorry to explode your brains or upset you guys?... it seems to work for me so far. o.o

You weren't upsetting us or blowing our brains... not sure where that comment came from. Scales are usually flat on both sides since they have to be layered tightly to fully cover a tail and Pearlie and I were just trying to figure out how you got scales flat on BOTH sides from a shell, as it is hard to imagine how you could layer three dimensional scales on a tail. It doesn't make us UPSET if people do something different, it makes us INTERESTED, as this entire thread should show (it being mostly an experiment-and-share thread).

Edit: Maybe a picture would explain better? They are worth a thousand words!

[Koral]

Sorry, text is just hard to understand sometimes; easily misconstrued.

I'll take some pics asap, today is a really off day for me as I lost my 14 year old cat yesterday so my motivation isn't quite here yet.

[PearlieMae]

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear about your kitty!

The leave a heart-shaped hole in your heart when they go, don't they?

[Mermaid Galene]

Koral, so sorry to hear about the loss of your kitty.

[Koral]

Thank you guys. She'll be with me in spirit. I don't mean to take us off topic though.Gluing down some sample scales to show (edit: to better explain) what I've been doing, anyway. They definitely have to be flat backed, I have a few I didn't fill in the shell all the way, but flat backs are sticking just fine.

[Seatan]

Can't wait to see it! Sounds like it will be an interesting look! Do you have a tail making thread?

And I am sorry about your cat... Dogs and horses make up my world so I know how much it sucks to lose a pet.

[Anahita]

I think the "do you have a thread" question was maybe more of a polite way of asking you to make one so that everyone could help you there instead of filling up PearlieMae's thread with your tail project. It could get confusing, as this thread is already really long, and is specifically about one tail by one mer.

Especially since you're making a caulk tail instead of a platinum cure tail.