Tail Makeover!

[JamesGunnels]

Jij bent Nederlands?

nee, ik kom oorspronkelijk uit Canada maar ik spreek Nederlands mijn moedertaal is Fraans, wat ik nou heb al vergeten. Ik spreek ook Duits en Afrikaans

[CowgirlMermaid]

Okay.. Da's een flinke talenbundel. Toch apart dat je je moedertaal ben verleerd..

[JamesGunnels]

haha ja, germaanse talen vind ik heel makkelijk

[mermaid_lover]

waauw ziet er echt goed uit, ik wou dat ik eens aan de mijne zou beginnen, maar ik heb gewoon zoveel ideen dat ik er wel over denk maar niet aan begin

[CowgirlMermaid]

Ik vind het voor mij genoeg dat ik Nederland en Engels spreek, haha. Daar red ik het prima mee.

Ik heb ook zat ideeën, maar omdat ik nog niet geleerd heb met een naaimachine te werken, begin het nu eindelijk een beetje te leren (maar heb vanmiddag bijna de machine gesloopt), en daarvoor dus mijn moeder nodig heb ben ik afhankelijk van haar tijd en zin om aan m'n staart te kunnen werken. en mijn vader voor het eventueel ooit maken van een monovin.

Shall we switch back to english now?

[JamesGunnels]

probably for the best as most don't speak Dutch.

I myself have a TON of ideas, but not enough know-how to actually start the actual mold making process. I am also just a beginner in sculpting, but you give me pencil and paper I can draw just about anything. Luckily, one of the tail makers on MerNetwork lives in the area and is going to allow me to use their scale board when I am ready to make my tail currently, I am making a tail for a friend of mine (Latex/Spandex hybrid tail) the tail itself will be spandex with neoprene underlining to make it tougher and the side fins, dorsal and fluke will be made from Latex.

I have been sewing most of my life, thanks to my grandmother, but for some reason the machine that we have...well...it kind of sucks =/

[Atlantisblue]

Good luck with your project. I hope your next monofin works out well. I tried to make a monofin a few years back but my son broke the sheet

[CowgirlMermaid]

Thanks!
I will try making another one some day, but I need more money, or a cheap sheet polycarbonate, haha.
Sorry about your sheet...

The only thing I feel sad about is that I had to ruin my old pair of swim fins for making my, failed, monofin.
They were the first swim fins I ever had, bought them 7 years ago, when I was around 11 years old and they still fitted me
Now I have a new pair, but they don't swim a comfortabel as my old fins...

Ah well, soon I will have tail completely to my liking,

[mermaid_lover]

I know that in hubo they had cheap plates, maybe you can look there

[CowgirlMermaid]

Tail is done!!!
Well, almost... I still need to cut a whole bunch of scales and sew them on, haha.


There is only one problem, i swam with it Friday, and the edges of the fluke wich are supposed to hold the fabric fluke onto the monofin let go while swimming. So, my mom and I are trying to come up with a solution. We have two ideas for now, drill two holes in the monofin and attach a string to hold the edges in place or just try to use a string to hold it in place without drilling holes...

Other than that, I swims perfect! With the Foil swimming was very heavy and tiring in the tail because the Foil doesn't give me the power I'm used to with my Waterway. With my Waterway in the tail I get much more power and it's easier to swim in the tail.


Thanks mermaid_lover. I'll see if I can go over there one day.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

How bout sewing some kind of sheer fabric for the fluke. That way the sides stay where they are.

[CowgirlMermaid]

That could be a good option. Thanks for the idea, I'll look into it!

[OceanWhisper]

How bout sewing some kind of sheer fabric for the fluke. That way the sides stay where they are.

just what I was thinking!

[CowgirlMermaid]

No progress on the fluke, my mom and I decided we are going to try and sew it a little higher at the floppt tips ans see of it stays on better that way. And if that doesn't work then we'll look into adding fabric.
I have made some progress on the scales. I calculated that need around 400 scales to cover the tail and so far I've cut 179 scales. 99 black, 80 orange and I can cut another 50 scales from the orange fabric piece, which leaves me with cutting another 271 from the black fabric.
In the between cutting scales I've been playing around with scales patterns and I've come up with three styles:

Stripes:


Single Scale Spots:


Bigger Scale Patches:



After showing the three test patterns to my mom and asking her opinion I decided to 'test-pin' the scales onto the tail to see how it would look and it looks cool!



The black fabric reflects light differently on each side so depending if you pin the with the front or the back showing it glows in a different way. And it feels so soft smooth and nice! I couldn't stop stroking it.

[PearlieMae]

Sweet! Very Koi!

[Dancing Fish]

hey, now that's a neat idea! Looks great!

[CowgirlMermaid]

I hope I can get the scales sewed on as nice as I pinned them on... It's really tricky fabric

[CowgirlMermaid]

Another picture I took with the scales pinned on. I had to remove them from the tail a few days after because I took it for a test swim at my former swimclub. I just love, love, love how they look on the tail.



And this is a close up of one scale, aslo schowing how big they are



Can't wait to be home and work on making the other scales, having them all done and finally sewing them on,
even though I freak out a little when I think about sewing them on myself, I still don't trust the combination of me, a sewingmachine and lycra

[CowgirlMermaid]

No progress last weekend and coming weekend.
Last Friday was my birthday and my boyfriend surprised with tickets for a themepark this friday.
So saturday my my friends came to celebrate my birthday so i was to busy to be able to do something with the scales of the tail.
and next weekend we're at the themepark and not at my parents home.

Little sad that I can't work on my tail, but superexited for coming friday.
Wanne see where we're going to? http://www.efteling.co.uk/EN/thepark.html

[OceanWhisper]

I wanna go there!!! wauuuww and those scales are gonna make this tail super amazing! I can't wait to see the finished tail