DIY Mermaid Skeleton for Halloween

 Happy Halloween, Dear Reader! For your treat, I am going to show you how to make a cheap and easy mermaid skeleton. It will fit right in with your holiday decor, and later you can add to it your curiosity cabinet of animal oddities...;) You know, the one in the corner with Aunt Ida's head in a pickle jar.

 I first had the idea when a dear mermaid friend of mine (Hello, Raquel, dearie!), put one on her Facebook page. I was immediately intrigued and went to the site that sold these amazing creatures. Then I slumped in disbelief and despair. $89, without the shipping, for an incredible 6 foot long mermaid skeleton with opposable tail. First I was sad, my vision of the mermaid hanging from the beam of my dining room ceiling vanishing. Then I got angry. And as I sat there fuming, I decided I could just make my own and for much cheaper. So there!

 I went to Wal-mart and got two 3 foot skeletons for $8.99 each. (I really wanted two BIG ones, but I am too cheap.) I told hubby my idea and he got all fired up and told me to bring my crew of bony men to the shop. My first step was to simply remove the legs from the pelvis of one skeleton. This was super simple, as they were attached by one screw in each hip. When he was legless I through with him for the time being.

 But the other guy was going to have some severe work done on him. I mean like, "Fire up the bone saw, doctor," kind of severe. My bone saw was a small hand-held hack saw. But it made short work of cutting his spine off right above the pelvis, see above. Then I took the arms and shoulder bones off my skeleton's upper portion. You can see, below, the small holes at the top of the ribcage where the unwanted bones were attached. Next I used strong fencing nippers to cut the sides of the ribs, removing the front set. I'm sure that strong pruning shears would also do the job. The thought was that the ribs mimicked the shape of the fan for the tail.

 Below is a picture of my hubby using the shears to  cut the spine out of the remaining ribs. See my nice little rib/fishtail cage sitting to the side?

 The extra spine that he extracted like a particularly naughty tooth was going to be the vertebrae that formed the tail. I decided the tailbone on my first (now legless) skeleton would be a perfect joining place. My hubby used a table saw to make a groove in the top of my new "tail spine", but it could also be done by hand with a hack saw. It would just take longer.

 I used some E600 glue that I had laying around to fill the groove and then smooshed the two pieces together and left it OUTSIDE in the well house to dry overnight. You are not supposed to breathe the fumes from the glue, and it smells so terrible that you can tell it is eating brain cells like crazy. Throw it outside somewhere!

 There's my guy/gal laying on the table and grinning happily at the thought of becoming a mythological creature. And a dead one at that! See the extra bones? Good to throw in a pile for more decoration. Or you could get really creative. There are four sets of legs left. Make a table with four bony legs? Attach them to some big stuffed animal to make a freakish skeleton/spider thing? The possibilities are endless. And one of the arms makes a really good back scratcher...

 My hubby had the great idea to just use a clear zip-tie to attach the rib cage/tail to the spine. It was perfect, because it already had the two holes, and it cinched up very secure. We don't want a mermaid with a defective tail, now do we?

And here is my bathing beauty, looking like she just got through laying in the sand and tanning for far too long a time. I'm thinking of adding some scraggy bits of long hair and many a strand of pearls about the neck. My middle son suggested gluing some seashells to the upper bosom area. I figure the dead aren't that modest, and none of the real-life mermaids that I have ever seen (there's been scads of them, people, don't be doubters) had anything but their hair to cover themselves with. When I was small, I decided that I would always have mermaid length hair. That is, hair long enough to cover you in case of emergency. Hey, it made total sense to me then, and still does.

I made my lovely mermaid weeks before the holiday, but you all are just seeing this, so you will have the opportunity to look for the BIG skeletons at a sale price. Oh, to have a 6 foot mermaid!! If you use my idea and make one, please tell me about it. And if you make a big one, I'm begging you to send me a picture. Yes, it may cause a tiny tear of green jealousy to drip down my cheek, but I'll get over it. 

Happy Halloween, sugar, and may many skeletons smile upon you!