Construction Details:

the fin was pretty easy. i found a gorgeous scaly, shiny blue fabric and some very sheer green lyrca - on a whim i tried the two together and ended up loving the shimmering effect it gave. for the lighter green i did a similar method of mixing very shiny fabric with sheer. the blue fabric wasn't 100% lyrca, so i put in a 7" invisible zipper on the side to get into it.

for my hairpiece, i had to make the starfish as i am vegan and don't want a real one on my head. also, real ones are super brittle and i'd hate to customize one only to have it shatter along with my dreams before a con. this one is foam and sculpey, then hand painted with acrylic.

for this costume, the main piece for me was the shells. i started by making a quick papier mâiché mold of my chest and sculpting the pieces on top of it with sculpey. this way i'd have the curvature of my body and wouldn't have to worry as much about wardrobe malfunctions (though carpet tape had a part in avoiding that as well). after baking the sculpey and sanding it, i made silicone molds of them using smooth on mold star 16 fast. i would recommend using the mold star 15 (slower dry time) if you are in the south like me, because the humidity made this stuff harden as i poured it over the sculpey. after the molds (quickly) set, i made a mother mold out of papier mâiché (it's cheap!) and made the final shells with smooth cast 300 plastic. after that, it was just some minor dremeling, priming, and spray painting! i attached a band of shiny violet lyrca to help the whole thing stay afloat.

overall, this costume took a few weeks to complete (i simultaneously made the prince eric costume, so hard to say exactly how long) . it may be considered a medium difficulty for some, but since i had little experience with plastic casting, it was harder for me!

Personal Thoughts:

This costume was really fun - it was my first major project in plastic casting. i learned so much in the process and i am really proud of my work.

Styling Notes

to get ariel's "swoop" i bought a long track in the same colour and sewed it onto the side of the wig (the big starfish covers the seam) and pulled it over to the opposite side to create extra drama. then i sprayed the living crap of of that to keep it in place!

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