MEET MY NEWEST MERMAID!

This little mermaid is my newest creation, and I just finished her today! I was so delighted with her, that I thought she deserved to have her photo out here.

She was just 6.5" tall before sculpting her into her current, permanent sitting position. These tiny little mermaids are very hard to work with, and to get them to sit, through the use of wire armatures in her tail and arms, takes a bit of doing! Sitting, she measures just about 4.5" tall from her "seat" to the top of her fluffy hairdo. Her fins span approximately 5" wide.

I used a shimmery dark teal fabric for her tail. When using a silky textured fabric such as this, it is necessary to use iron on interfacing on both sides of the fabric, to give it more strength. Her upper body and face are 100% silk tussah fabric. Tussah silk comes from wild moths whose's main diet is oak leaves. It is the amount of tannin in the leaves that determines the silk's natural color. Tussah silk can vary from a light beige (this is what I have used for this mermaid) to a darker tan color. Tussah silk is getting very hard to find, and keeps going up in price. The lowest price I've found so far is $15.00 per yard, and it can go as high as $40.00 per yard depending on the supplier. Her face, of course, has been individually hand-drawn, needle-sculpted, and hand-painted. I use a Micron .005 pen for the features, and acrylic paints for the eyes and lips. Her little face is approximately .75" long, and .50" wide. I can't get much smaller than that and get a good face.

Her wild hairdo was designed from a unique textured Italian yarn with wisps and poofs in it, accented with a metallic thread running through this yarn. I added another yarn call AURA, which makes her sparkle even more.

Her accents are all hand-sewn onto her, using a 4# test, clear fishing line. She has a Swarovski crystal belly button, necklace and her waist is also decorated with Swarovski crystals, and a real sea shell.

She is sculpted so that she can sit all by herself.

If you'd like to see more photos and learn more about her, click on the link below:

MERMAID