Mermaid Statue

I bought a resin mermaid statue recently from our local swap meet. Here she is after I painted her... I have been wanting a mermaid for my backyard, and with a lot of little kids about--- it is important that I have a "modest mermaid." You'd be surprised at how many well endowed/nude mermaids I've had to pass up! The tip of the seashell she is holding was broken off. That didn't discourage me from buying it-- in fact, it made it cheaper. *wink* For me, I knew it was an easy fix. I grabbed my favorite, Fix-it-all. It is a really great product that I find super easy to use. Here you can see the repair I made using the patch. It comes in a powder form and you add water to create the consistency you'd like to use. I always mix it up to form a type of clay. It is very much like using paper clay in my opinion.
Once the patch job on the sea shell had dried I began to paint the mermaid. I didn't take a before photo, I was in so much of a hurry to jump into the fun task of painting! The mermaid was the color you see in the previous photos. I used metallic green paints to paint the mermaids skin and tail. For the seashell, I used muted colors so the shell would look as real as possible. I did the paint on the mermaid in layers. This is the first layer before I sprayed it with a clear gloss sealer.

 The next coat was a black wash over the mermaids scales and body. With the previous paint sealed it made it a breeze to do a wash of color over the existing paint without so much as a smudge.
For the mermaids hair I started with black paint and then used different dark colors that I imagined would be in the oceans water to make her hair a little more interesting. I guess you can't do anything wrong with painting a mermaid... since you don't have one to compare it too. Next, I sealed the newest painting I did and began the last layer. I used some shimmering glitter gloss paint to her tail and added some small rhinestones around the scales at her waist and a few on her tail and then some more at the tails tip. One last coat of clear sealer to finish her up. I have plans of putting her in a cage filled with sea shells.... but for now she is just on a shelf.

I've also been working on putting up some outdoor lights in my backyard that tie into the overall theme of my yard. I purchased seven wrought iron lights for the crazy low sum of $20.00. I did have to take the glass out of each one and spray paint them, but that was an easy fix. We had to create a wooden hanging post for each light to hang from... here you can see the two we have started with. The lights have not been wired yet, but in the near future I see it coming together! I'll add some more rope at the top where the lights hang from--- I'm not to thrilled with the rope at the bottom... but from close-up nothing looks good. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 I also wanted some mood lighting on the side of my house. This area called for a softer light source. I bought some round wooden tree supports and cut them so that they would only stand six feet high when placed in the ground. I spaced them eight feet apart and I am going to string outdoor cafe lights from the tops of each pole stringing them all together.

 I have also been working on making some outdoor games. Here is a pirate themed ring toss game I've made... It is still needing a little bit more work, but the majority of it is finished.
 
At the top of the ring toss game I have a deer antler, a pulley/hook and a silver candle sconce.

In the middle I have an old pirates cup, a sword handle and a ships cleat... and the extra space is reserved for a hook from some unfortunate pirate who has lost his hand...

at the bottom of this new game... a jaw bone from possibly a cow? and a skull and cross bones.

 I have sooooooooooooo many projects that are in different stages of completion.... and that is just the way I like it.
big hugs,