o make a ermaid ail, or.....
What I've learned the hard way!

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This is Lilliana
My first - and last, mermaid - made as a gift for my daughter.

The REASON she's my last, is that I can't imagine being able to ship that tail!

From the top! - You need a doll body with a belly button. I used a Barbie, a lot a artists like Jakks for mermaids, and I'd definately give them a try if I were making more!

- 1st things first - you've got to get rid of some of the legs. You'll need an exacto knife and a strong pair of scissors. What I did was play with the legs until I decided on the position I wanted the final mermaid to be in, and the drape I wanted from the tail.

I cut one leg off diagonally at mid calf and the foot off of the other leg - and then took my exacto and split the vinyl at the knee joint, turned her over and cut a "v" section out of the back of her knee so that her knees would bend farther and easier. I then glued her legs together so they wouldn't move around when I was applying the clay....

Ready for the fun part? LOL - I used Magic Sculpt - I LOVE Magic Sculpt, it's a chemical cure, no baking (as with Fema), no waiting days to see if it dries without cracks.... (as you would with a paperclay) it 'sets' in about two hours and is rock hard in 24, no cracking, sticks to EVERYTHING (except talc - this is important!), smooths to a gorgeous finish with water... just wonderful stuff!

SO take your clay and fill in the gap between her thighs and then smooth it over the area you want to work with. I did the tail in several small sections, letting each fully cure before I did the next... and I really recommend (I did something right! LOL) doing it this way - I didn't have to worry about mucking up the work I'd already done while doing more.. -

Now get a straw (if I was doing this again I'd use a 'regular' straw, I should have made smaller scales..... - whooops!) - cut out a section of the end so you have about a 3/4 circle left on the straw and push it gently into the clay to make your scales...

The fin.... - I made the fin while the lower legs were drying and I left them too short so I'd have room to attach it. I covered my work surface in waxed paper, librally sprinkled with talc (baby powder is fine) and rolled out about the shape I wanted and played with it till it looked right? LOL - about an hour into it's cure I lifted it up and molded bends into it and checked on it regularly through the day to make sure it was still doing what I wanted it to do! LOL The next day I attached the fin to the lower legs and voila! - a clay tail!

Again - IF I were doing this again, I would probably make the fin from material to make it more 'flowy' ... but this isn't bad! :-D - She's braced up on that bottle because the clay fin was fairly heavy and I wanted a curve in the ankle area - so...... I needed a brace so she'd dry the way I wanted her to!

Painting.....or, where I really mucked up! For some odd reason I thought this was going to be the easy part.. - every once in awhile I guess I need some enforced humility? LOL - ahhhhh - here's what I did and what I'd change...

The underpainting - I gave the entire tail a thin wash of black to highlight the scales. Made sure I'd gotten the black into each and every nook and crany. I did a great job, it looks wonderful - don't bother with it, by the time I had the colors on that tail, not a single spec of black was still visible and I had to go back do it again **sigh** - well I THOUGHT it was a good idea?grin

Start here instead.... - thin washes of color, nice broad brush, the more shades you use the better the scales will look - wait for the washes to dry between coats - Once you have nice solid coverage THEN wash it with black and put one more coat of color over it.

Irridescence.... - Scales are irridescent - they are - I didn't want flat, I didn't want gloss, I didn't want glitter, I wanted IRRIDESCENT. - hah, good for me, now how to get it? I had, in the bottom of my make up drawer.... :-D....some jars of professional eye shadow from long long ago....., loose irridescent powders even! Yes, I know this doens't help you at all, but if you head to say..... Claire's in the mall I'm sure you can find "body dust" that will do the same thing :-) - I mixed it with the paint and washed over the tail again - turned out wonderfully!

Now keep in mind that between each of these coats I was going BACK over the black with a detail brush to try to "keep" it (I'm not real bright) - and after I'd gotten it all done I went back with a dark blue and gave each scale a shadow at the top - I'm *very* sure that you'll find a better way - but still, not bad for a first!

One more quicky... I strongly recommend you choose the fabric, beads, whatever you're gonna put on her - BEFORE you paint - matching the accessories to an already painted tail was.... a challenge? LOL

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