We Will Continue With Your Regular Programming...

I must apologize for the radio silence lately! I've been a busy bee getting all my costumes finished for Dragon Con 2016, and it's just a few weeks away.
Things will remain a bit quiet around here until about a week after Labor Day, as my schedule is chock full of events! Unfortunately none of these are mermaid-related, but no less fun ;) Stay tuned, and I'll see you in September.
XOXO!

Viking mermaids, safety orange fins...

Dreams Really Can Come True

Well folks, it looks like my dream mermaid tail is within sight!
Over the last few years I've been saving my pennies, and thanks to a little boost from friends and family via Go Fund Me, I was able to save up enough to finally take the dive!

I received a reply about two weeks after sending my 'Ready To Order' email to Bryn and Abby at Finfolk Productions. I paid the deposit, and have begun filling out all the info needed to start my tail.
I understandably have a long wait ahead of me, and that's ok. The twins are loaded with orders, but their work is absolutely stellar and well worth the wait!
I have not yet gotten my production month yet, but most likely my wait will be over a year, and I still need to send them my measurements.
That kind of wait time is pretty typical in these cases though, and I'll be attempting to distract myself with my own fabric, sequin & neoprene tail making projects in the meantime.

Progress on the t-shirt making front with the new logo is moving slowly, but moving!
I've narrowed the companies I'd like to have make them down to two, but it needs to wait until after Silicon Valley Comic Con this weekend. With tons of last minute sewing to finish up, work, and house guests coming in, there hasn't been much time for anything else.
Funds made from the sales of these t-shirts will be added to the Viking ship prop fund, and the building will commence this summer.

A Logo In The Making

Sorry for the radio silence lately!
Back in the saddle with the creation of my 'Mersona' and brand, for lack of a better term, I've been a busy little fish! Finally getting to order my dream mermaid tail is about to become a reality.
I'm planning Freyja The Viking Mermaid t-shirts, and even completed a final draft of a logo that will be featured on t-shirts and hopefully other merchandise. It would be fun to have patches and stickers etc. with my logo design.

After I finished the final concept sketch for my logo, I put it through Photoshop to clean it up a bit.
Just for fun I ended up playing with filters, and created this carved-in-stone look, similar to carvings on the runestones scattered around Scandinavia.
I wanted something pretty and full of fantasy, but still very Viking, and representative of the culture and ancient carvings. This is preferred over the a 'modern tribal' versions of Viking knot-work designs I see everywhere.
I'm hoping to refine my pencil sketch by creating a vector from it, to make a final logo for print.
The watermark will not be part of the final design, and I plan on cleaning up her trident a bit, too.

Saving up for a Finfolk Productions silicone mermaid tail has gone better than I expected. Thanks to the help of a few friends donations, my frugal saving (as best I could) and a nice tax refund this year, I have more than enough for a down payment to at least get in line for a tail, made by the lovely Bryn and Abbey.
There are a few things I need to do before I jump in that lagoon, however; like loose the proof of my holiday sins. This year was particularly epic with the good food and drink with amazing people.
It's not much, a matter of barely an inch around my waist, hips and butt. With that said, being someone who sews a lot and makes her own clothing, it does matter if I'm going to be taking detailed measurements for a swimmable silicone mermaid tail that needs to comfortably fit like a glove! So, in another few weeks, I'll be back down to my 'fighting weight' and will go for it.
XOXO!

Current Events

I've had to hit the reset button, for lack of a better term, and get back in the water.
Travel, some needed vacation time and performances have taken up a huge chunk of time over the last two months. While enjoyable, it kept me out of my fins far too long.
Saving for the Viking shipwreck prop, and my silicone tail, is going well. That's in addition to the kind donations from friends, and I'm literally halfway to my dream mermaid tail.
www.gofundme.com/thevikingmermaid

In other news, designs are being finalized for my soon-to-be launched clothing label,
Ritzy Raven this spring or summer. Released as very limited runs (to start), single items or micro collections of 3 to 4 pieces will be launched for pre-order each season, or twice a year. The core style of RR is inspired by the Art Deco period between the 1930s and 1940s, and sometimes with a fusion of timeless styles from many eras.
I'm hoping that with enough success in starting out small, I'll be able to grow the business into a somewhat larger model, and have larger collections released seasonally. Hopefully, I can begin producing and manufacturing the clothing in the US. For now, I have a trusted and ethically run resource overseas that actively uses their business model in textiles and clothing construction, to directly benefit and grow their own community.

So that's the gist of my world for now. I'm looking forward to a mermaid meet up tomorrow at the SJSU pool, too. I've been having swimming withdrawals!
XOXOX

The 'Tail' Of The Mermaid Cove - Funding Campaign

Here it is folks; the crowdfunding campaign for my Viking Mermaid project, and a future mermaid cove event attraction.
Since I've been adding to my own 'cookie jar' and saving up funds for this project, I still want to try the crowdfunding route as an addition to my own savings. I have more content to add, and will be posting more details, images, designs and video to the campaign page soon.

http://www.gofundme.com/thevikingmermaid

While I still feel like I'm stepping out on a limb here, there is nothing wrong with exploring different options when trying to save and raise funds for anything.
Having my own reservations about crowdfunding in general, and after hearing many people speak negatively about it, it was not an easy decision for me to create this campaign.
I know other artists and performers that didn't go this route for similar things, and understandably have issues with crowdfunding of this sort.
All I can do is continue to stay positive, save my own money to the cookie jar, and get the ball rolling.
 
Any amount helps, especially if you just want to be a cheerleader from the sidelines :) so thank you in advance for your support.
XOXO!

A Deep Breath

Today I discovered that my breath hold while swiming underwater has gotten longer.
A good 10 seconds longer, and even if that doesn't seem like much, it is when you are propelling your body under the water for any extended amount of time.

While my current breath hold time is nothing to get excited over, today I realized that when I focused on something other than how long I had before I needed to surface, I was able to relax. The jittery feeling in my diaphragm melted away. I ignored the little bit of water filling my nose; it wasn't going much further than that. When I was a kid, this just came naturally, but I've found that getting back into that mindset as an adult is really interesting. Challenging would be a better term.
There are, I'm sure, so many psychological barriers that weigh on us as adults, that just weren't there during childhood. The daily grind of adult responsibility can trigger all kinds of stress, even if it's not outright noticeable. We stash the little stresses away like old receipts, that for some reason we don't just throw in the trash. These little shreds, impacted by larger ones, accumulate like paper-mâché, and it gets harder to shake them off with each passing year.

The one thing I can say that initially distracted me today, were the tiles on the bottom of the pool. One long dark glazed line extended beneath me. I simply focused on my surroundings and less on an actual speed I was trying to travel at. The almost-panic knot in my chest loosened even more.

It really comes down to relearning how to enjoy spending time underwater. I always have; diving down as much as possible for that feeling of weightlessness. But learning how to leave my day floating on the surface, or sitting on the side of the pool, while I frolic beneath is a little journey of discovery in itself.

A Quick Clip & Waterproof Makeup Review

While it's not much to look at, yesterday Anders and I were able to get some quick footage during an afternoon swim in my tail.

Hopefully we can splice more of the footage we caught later, too. Sorry for the blurriness, the iPhone (enclosed in an underwater case) kept trying to focus on the bubbles instead of me.
I was having some uh...technical difficulties with my bikini top; each time I dove down from the surface, or simply swam forward underwater, it would pull down and expose more than I'd like to at a public pool, hah!
So, even after I tightened up the halter strap, this still kept me from doing much of the underwater tricks and lengthy submerged swimming I wanted to capture on video. Especially if I'm going to be sharing it online.

Regardless, this was also a good test for some of my waterproof makeup!
I need to find a better waterproof concealer, but the eyeshadow and lipcolor stayed intact.
My brow pencil wasn't waterproof, so it bit the dust pretty early on.
The mascara was supposed to be waterproof, but it also evaporated as I suspected it would. I'm hoping to track down some of Urban Decay's 'Cannonball' waterproof mascara. I've heard rave reviews from other mermaids about this one.
The waterproof eyeliner by Rimmel stayed put.
Maybelline's 24 Hour Color Tattoo cream shadow also stayed put, and was easy to blend.
My lips were wearing Cover Girl's 'Outlast', recommended by Mermaid Iona; it's amazing. Completely comfortable compared to most lip colors like it, it even survived lunch and drinks at the Hukilau after our swim.

So stay tuned for more (better) footage. We may have access to a GoPro camera soon!