A Fiji Mermaid

Hello lovely people! Are you hanging in there? Are you safe and well? I hope you're all dandy.

I've been feeling terribly uninspired but I did manage a creepy something that I've been wanting to make for a long while now... a fiji mermaid!

A fiji mermaid was a side show gaff, in this case a monkey top sewn to a fish bottom, to create a 'real' mermaid. Being a big fan of all things weird and wonderful I decided to create my own terrifying mermaid.

I used a wad of tinfoil to create the basic shape of my mermaid, then built up layers of apoxie and paper clay.

The apoxie clay is really strong so ideal for spindly areas like the arms.

You can see that the resist of the apoxie vs the paperclay has left the paint coverage on the arms blotchy and uneven. I don't mind that at all because it looks a bit like flaky mummified flesh in my mind, and kind of adds to the creepy oldness of it.

That's about it really. A tinfoil, clay, and a smattering of sloppy acrylic paint and I have my very own P.T. Barnum/Ripley's type mermaid gaff with not a single monkey nor fish harmed.

Overall size 8" tall x 7" wide.

P.S. There's a super FeeJee Mermaid at Harvard University take a look here