I've been thinking about trying a mermaid for a while. I had a general idea of what I wanted her to look like, but it was easier said than done.
I have been working on mixing colours and made about 6 different shades of green for the tail The body is a very pale green with pearl mixed in.. I formed the body first, and then head. The face was giving me no end of problems so I kind of left it until last - not the best idea but it was frustrating me.
The tail took me ages, I could not figure out how to get the scales to work, plus I wanted to blend all my greens so it didn't look like bricks. In the end I blended the colours together, then cut them with a scalloped blade. Laid the strips so they just over lapped and ran that through the roller. Then I re-cut the resulting clay into scalloped strips again and wrapped then around the tail. I think it probably took me about 2 hours to figure out how to get the tail to work, but know I have a process I like I can do it quickly next time.
Once the tail was wrapped I formed the fin, added the hair and then went back to the face. In the end I just used sniped off headpins for eyes. No nose (well, she is a mermaid!) and no mouth, I am going go have to work out a face I like.
In the end I am really happy with my first mermaid and am going to refine her.
