The first thing I did was to draw a pattern showing how big I wanted her and the shaping of her tail. Here's a pic of it for anyone who wants to use her proportions. Her arms are 2" across, her "neck" is 1/2", and her torso 1/2" before starting the bend outward for the tail.

On the first one I bent up to the start of the tail and then gently opened the arms back up for wrapping the wire. On the second one I left the arms mostly closed and even had the tail mostly shaped (but not the finally twisting) and I just wove the floss in and out of the tail to wrap the wire for the arms. It reminded me of a maze and I was sure I could feel my brain restructuring itself. ;)

My pattern:
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=796442

Rhea

I take an 18" piece of floral wire and bend it in half for the neck. When the tail is shaped and I'm ready to wrap the wire around it, I have to snip off about 1" of wire on each side first. So if you wanted to you could start with 16", but I do like trimming off the extra at the end. Feels safer. :)

Her arm wires are wrapped first, just like a bendy fairy where you are covering up the pipe cleaner. I wrap the arm wires down to the waist where the tail will start.

Then the arm wires are wrapped as a unit, again just like the bendy fairy. I leave the torso for after the tail has been formed.

To form the tail I used my needle nose pliers, especially on the fins. On the Mermaid #1 I went down the outside of one tail side, formed a fin, and then crossed over to come up and wrap around the opposite side. Hope that makes sense. (On Mermaid #2 pictured below I formed the outside of the tail, crossed over to the opposite fin, and then came up to wrap the opposite side of the tail. I'm sure it doesn't matter so long as they cross at some point for strength and stability to the tail.)

This is what I would have so far:
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=796452

Next up, wrap the torso.

Then the tail. First you have to cover the wire with floss. I forgot to mention this with regards to covering the arm wires - I wrap and wrap and wrap around, then I slide the floss as close together as possible and tighten it up. When I'm done that floss doesn't slide on the wire at all because it simply can't.

I found that wrapping the tail wire takes less floss than I am tall :D ... this last time I undid about 4' of floss for the tail. I anchored the bulk of the floss to the mermaid by wrapping it around her torso and neck several times. (So I have a package of floss hanging off the mermaid's neck, and it provides tension so I can start wrapping without tying a knot on the wire.)

Then I take the 4' of unwound floss and start covering the wires. If you want the fins to come out like mine did it is important to leave the wires where they cross in the middle of the fins as individual wires. Don't accidentally bind them together with floss.

Btw, that 4' of floss allows me to wrap, back track (in order to get all the parts) and to go back up to her waist. The first mermaid I did ended up with the tail floss tied at the top of the fins on the back. The second one I planned ahead and did it as I described above so that the tail floss would be tied at the waist in the back, hidden by her hair.

Here's what you'd have at this point except that this is Mermaid #1 with the floss tied between her legs, something I avoided on Mermaid #2 as it gets in the way later when doing the tail.
So ignore that knot! I'll explain what I did with the floss in the next part...
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=796554

So now, remove from the torso and neck the end of the floss you had anchored there, and anchor instead what's left of your 4' end of floss by wrapping it around her torso and neck several times. Then take all the rest of the floss and unwind it into one long strand. :eek: (If you come up with a better way, please let me know!)

One of your fins will be behind the other fin. That is the fin you want to weave first. So take your floss and wrap it down to the tip of the fin. (That wrapping doesn't have to be close together, just kept snug as you go.)

At the tip, start weaving in a figure eight. Go around one side, through the fin, around the other side, through the fin, on and on and on until your fin is done. It's important that in wrapping the fin you don't have floss going up the outside of the tail because it will mess up the weaving of the tail. Trust me on this one. :D Then wrap to the tip of the second fin.

Starting at the tip of the second fin, weave it just like you did the first. When you get to the crossed over point it gets trickier and I put the floss on a needle to get in and out of cramped spaces. Once you are past that and on to the tail, it speeds up again, so take heart!

On Mermaid #1, the slender one, I had no problems with the floss on the tail. With #2 and her curves, I had trouble towards the end as the tail narrowed again. So I undid the weaving on the entire tail and did it again, this time adding tiny dots of glue to the outside edge of the tail on each side with each wrap. Time consuming but worth it as I know that floss isn't moving anywhere.

When the tail is done stop there (as with #2) or add some tail color to her waist (as in #1). Then tie the two ends of floss together and put a bit of glue on your knot before trimming.

All that leaves is a bead head and hair!

IF your tail doesn't work the first time, don't give up! On #1 I did the tail AND fins three times before I got it.

I hope the directions make sense.

Please share pictures if you make one. My daughter wants one in her stocking, and my son has requested a merman, so I think I might as well make a baby while I'm at it and they can have a whole family between them.

Rhea

Mermaid #2 is on left.

My kids (7 & 9 yrs old) and my husband prefer the slender tail on Mermaid #1. I'm the only one who likes the curves on #2. I do think that the slender one looks like she has legs hidden inside her tail, and that's cool. The kids also prefer that #2 has a curve to her. From her head to her fins she is curved, kind of like the rocker on a rocking horse. When laying down on a play silk (as though she's on the water) #2 looks much better than #1 who is straight.

Just thougth I'd add that little bit of hindsight info. :)

Rhea

http://www.amitymama.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=796622

Thank you! I've read through the instructions and they seem perfectly clear...now, that doesn't mean I won't have questions when I start, lol.

Do you know what gauge wire it is? Is it the wire I sent? I have some of that here.

Oh, and I love the chin and teeth of that helm the mermaid's chillin' against ;)

Originally posted by WendyLouWho
Do you know what gauge wire it is? Is it the wire I sent? I have some of that here.

Oh, and I love the chin and teeth of that helm the mermaid's chillin' against ;)

It IS the wire you sent - Do you know what gauge it is?

I love the pic of the mermaid against the helm. In the uncropped version she's this petite creation leaning against this huge helm. :D

I've been thinking about merbabies and mermen all morning. Can't wait for my kids to go to sleep tonight! I also need to make a bendy flower fairy for my youngest who doesn't have one yet. Stuffing stockings has never been this much fun before. :)

A BIG, HUGE "Thank you!" to Dannielle for posting her bendy body info. And to you too for sending me that box of crafting supplies! Who knew florist wire had so many uses...

Rhea

Originally posted by Rhea
It IS the wire you sent - Do you know what gauge it is?


nak

yep! It's 20 gauge :D

Thank you so much for posting the instructions. I can hardly wait to start (we're going away tomorrow, but as soon as we get back!) :D One question though, what did you use for the hair? I looks amazing, but it doesn't look like ordinary floss.

They both have some floss in their hair the same color as their tales. The first one I like the best with its two shades of green, but I didn't have any more of that light green floss for the second one.

The shiny gold stuff... I've no idea. It came with a kit and was wrapped on a floss holder just like the floss was. It's rather stiff and unruly, and is what I used to thread the beads onto for braiding into the hair. It came six strands twisted together just like floss, but I seperated them out and used only a single one.

The dark green is the one that you are probably referring to. It is... (have to get the package. It actualy belongs to my husband but I claimed it for crafting...)

Western Filament
Premium Braided Nylon
Squidding Line

Very appropriate for a mermaid. : )

I just asked my husband where he got it. It is sold with fishing stuff and he said it comes in a variety of colors and was very inexpensive. (But the stuff in the fly tying and fly fishing sections is usually repackaged smaller amounts and expensive.)

Hope that helps,

Rhea

Thank you so much for posting the instructions. I can hardly wait to start (we're going away tomorrow, but as soon as we get back!) :D One question though, what did you use for the hair? I looks amazing, but it doesn't look like ordinary floss.

Originally posted by Rhea

Western Filament
Premium Braided Nylon
Squidding Line


Squidding line, the crafter's best friend...I can't imagine why the rest of us didn't recognize it right off :smirk:

Gail

those look so great! thank you for posting the how to. i should wait until after the holidays to try this but procrastinating what i have to do may just result in a mermaid :D