Malinghi's silicone tailmaking thread

[malinghi]

Here is the first entry about the making of the tail:

Design

I’ve wanted a silicone tail for a long time. This project was actually begun in early 2014. Below are the concept drawings I made last year showing what I wanted the tail to look like. The drawings were actually made as part of an application to the tailmaking competition at Mercon, from which I later withdrew.



Since the concept drawings were for a competition they’re more ambitious than the tail I ultimately made. In addition to details on the tail like additional fins and more detail work on the fluke, the costume features prosthetic gills along the torso and armor on the shoulders made from lions paw shells, along with a trident. The trident is meant to look like the MerNetwork logo, of which I’m unsurprisingly very fond. I still plan to make that trident eventually, though I’m taking a break from making stuff after spending May and June on tailmaking.

In the process of designing the tail I looked over tons of images for inspiration, and Anita and I bought salmon from a local grocer just to examine its scales. I was already convinced I wanted the tail to be shades of silver, gray, and black since I love how salmon scales look. I also hoped dark scales on the sides would make the seam less visible.



One of the major reasons I wanted to make a tail rather than buying it was because I was very concerned about the waistline. I wanted the top of the tail to sit along the edge of the hip bone like a pair of jeans, but many tails come up higher. In my opinion this doesn’t look so weird on girls, but it’s less flattering on guys. As a short guy I was especially concerned that having the waistline too high would give me a Steve Urkel look. Speaking of which, in all the times Family Matters jumped the shark, did Steve Urkel ever turn himself or Mr. Winslow into a merman? I’d like to see that.



Next time: Designing the scale pattern!