Mistakes/Things I would change for my next tail
1a) Mirroring my fluke. I was so stupid! I knew I had to mirror my tail (so I originally did the whole paper mirror thing) but then I got carried away with sculpting and making it look like h2o that I forgot to make the sides even! GRRRRR It was such a trouble to seam the fluke! I did the best I could for what I had. And then I realized it would almost look like the tail has layers when I would paint it, so I stuck with the idea and it came out fine! They somewhat disappeared (kinda).
1b) I will sculpt my fluke evenly!
2a) Sculpting on the monofin. It was harder since the finis foil has ridges the rise up from the monofin. It also required more clay. Lastly, when I poured silicone in my mold I ended up using much more silicone then intended because of how it rose.
Sculpted straight on wood with trace of monofin. Looks how high the edges rise. I tried to fill the whole thing!
2b) Will trace design on wood. Will make a mold wall to keep clean. (Keeping everything clean was a huge problem.
3a) Different clay. I found monster clay to be extremely hard to use in the fact of smoothing it out. I bought test trials of other clays like sculptex, van aken's klean klay alternative, and le beau touche hm. They are much, much easier to sculpt and smooth in my opinion.
3b) I will use an easier clay.
4a) Seaming. When I seamed my tail, I had no luck since it came out extremely large some way somehow.
4b) With a pattern of my legs, I will cut out 2 of my body shapes from the scale sheet. One will have an extra 4 inches. You know how when you make the cubes you need an extra piece to fold and glue underneath.
Well that what I'm doing. I will fold the extra 4 inches underneath my original body shape of scales. I will clip everything together, and then do the "gluing" part with more silicone.
5a) Painting and following the design. The green in the front body of my tail came out slightly messy. There is way to much yellow! I hate the color yellow, but it like it when it blends with blue and green. The green it slightly faint (in real life it looks a lot better) and in the pictures I hate seeing mostly yellow and blue. I really dislike those colors when there are head to head.
Kinda what I wanted. What I basically got.
5b) Really stick to your design and make sure it's the color you want before you spray it on. I will spray a more even line and will be more careful. The back came out much more of what I wanted and I was extremely happy!
Lastly, and most important- DO NOT rush it! This is a process that takes time and effort. I got extremely impatient and excited and did things I was really disappointed about. De-molding the shell shock from the fluke too fast and the whole corner of the fin cracking off! I had to fill it in with clay and it eventually came out fine. There were many moments where I really wish I had an undo button. But that's what this process is about. Learning and growing based on your mistakes. Just keep pushing through and trying to solve your problem. I wish everyone who is going to make a silicone mermaid tail good luck! I hope you succeed! It will make you feel very proud as I do right now. There will be hard times and many problems but keep pushing through. Overall it will be very easy if you have much confidence in yourself
As for my next tail!.... I recently posted a ruft draft, quick sketch design.
This is my color scheme:
It's a beautiful tail done by finfolk productions! My tail will include a bubblegum pink though, and lighter lavender purple. I'm hoping that one day, I will be able to sell these tails at an affordable price to transgender kids. The money I receive would be donated to my foundation: http://www.transkidspurplerainbow.org/ Some of if would go to making more tails though. I'm really excited about this and I hope it works out! I'll be updating more on the new tail in a few weeks, and I will post a video of me in this tail soon.Hugs and kisses and mermaid wishes! Good luck on your tail!- Weeki Wachee Mermaids' before I was going to make my first spandex tail when I was 8.
My 8th birthday at Weeki Wachee
Lastly, a little boy at age 5 who always knew he was a girl, a true mermaid. And the moment when his dream actually came true!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by ShyMer
FUN!!! 
Bookmarks