Morgan and the Mermaid

	I chopped the styrofoam into lots of little pieces so I could get a nice curve to the tail portion. This was a much more lengthy and irritating process than you'd expect. (Not to mention the fact that I did it all in a corset.) It took several hours of hacking, along with lots of time spent staring blankly at the tail, in the vain hope that inspiration would strike. Eventually I got it figured out and things started falling into place.
	I wanted the tail to be nice and sturdy before I added the clay, so I layered it in duct tape. Yes, I tear duct tape with my teeth--sue me. I can tell you that you only rip the skin off your lips ONE TIME before you learn not to do that again. (I learned when I was twelve and I haven't done it since.) I do, however, have a firm belief that none of my projects are really right until they bleed me. Although I didn't rip my lips on duct tape, I did manage to badly gash my thumb on the blade of a box of plastic wrap that I was using to cover portions of the doll while I worked. The clay was hardening fast and I couldn't stop to apply a bandage. As a result, there are numerous sacrificial droplets of my blood underneath all those layers of tape and clay.
\	Another quick positioning check before I built the tail fin. The ship was parked right next to the road between camps. I had to hold the doll up to the ship quite often, and by this time several of the neighbors were carefully observing the apparent madwoman with the big, bald, duct tape-covered Barbie doll. I imagine they were wondering what kind of a nutcase they had for a neighbor. (To be fair, we were at an event where thirteen thousand of us dress up in medieval costume for two weeks in the middle of August for fun. Mine was just another degree of weirdness.)

I chopped the styrofoam into lots of little pieces so I could get a nice curve to the tail portion. This was a much more lengthy and irritating process than you'd expect. (Not to mention the fact that I did it all in a corset.) It took several hours of hacking, along with lots of time spent staring blankly at the tail, in the vain hope that inspiration would strike. Eventually I got it figured out and things started falling into place.

I wanted the tail to be nice and sturdy before I added the clay, so I layered it in duct tape. Yes, I tear duct tape with my teeth--sue me. I can tell you that you only rip the skin off your lips ONE TIME before you learn not to do that again. (I learned when I was twelve and I haven't done it since.)

I do, however, have a firm belief that none of my projects are really right until they bleed me. Although I didn't rip my lips on duct tape, I did manage to badly gash my thumb on the blade of a box of plastic wrap that I was using to cover portions of the doll while I worked. The clay was hardening fast and I couldn't stop to apply a bandage. As a result, there are numerous sacrificial droplets of my blood underneath all those layers of tape and clay.

Another quick positioning check before I built the tail fin. The ship was parked right next to the road between camps. I had to hold the doll up to the ship quite often, and by this time several of the neighbors were carefully observing the apparent madwoman with the big, bald, duct tape-covered Barbie doll. I imagine they were wondering what kind of a nutcase they had for a neighbor. (To be fair, we were at an event where thirteen thousand of us dress up in medieval costume for two weeks in the middle of August for fun. Mine was just another degree of weirdness.)