Being a Mermaid - My Visit to the NC Mermania Convention 2017

Photo by Mertography

January 21-22 found me at NC MerMania 2017: the largest gathering of Mermaids and Merfolk in the world. Performers and hobbyists from all over the globe came to splash around, connect, giggle and play at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, NC.

This was the largest Merfolk convention to date: over 400 mer-people and their families came out to join in the fun.

I spent all of Saturday morning and afternoon in the pool, swimming and connecting and laughing.  There were so many faces I'd only seen online -- mermaids are a close knit bunch on Facebook -- and it was great to meet these incredible ladies in person.  I also got to reconnect with friends from past mermaid portfolio destination trips to the Bahamas and Hawaii and Mexico.

Tail Making

I make all my own mermaid tails (I brought my newest Ariel tail and my Light-up Glimmer tail this year), so I loved talking to the other mermaids wearing handmade creations.  I met one mermaid who'd found my Neoprene Mermaid Tail Tutorial and created her own unique tail based on my methods.  I could barely contain myself.

The range of materials and tail designs was endless.  Sequins, fabric, neoprene, duct tape, paint, glue, silicone, monofins, and real shells or found materials all came together in a splash of form, color and function.

For the non-maker mermaids, there are a handful of companies that create customizable silicone "realistic" tails for purchase.  Some of the larger companies include FinFolk Productions, MerTailor and MerNation tails.  I also encountered plenty of gorgeous tails made by smaller companies or individuals looking to participate in the mermaid craze -- Merbella Studios is one of my favorites among these.

Kid's Swim

I got the chance to participate in the kid's swim.  Watching little girls becoming a mermaid for the very first time is really powerful.  I perform at a lot of kid's birthday parties as a swimming mermaid, so swimming with the kids just feels so right and so natural to me, and I can really connect with them and watch their spirit unfold and soar. This might have been my favorite part of the day.

Photo by Mertography

Fathoms Below Ball

The evening festivities included a gala dinner and a Fathoms Below Ball dance party.  I provided the entertainment with my LED Light Dance Show, which I customized to the event by adding mermaid-themed persistence-of-vision (POV) images to my Supernova Poi and Morning Star Double staffs (with Adafruit inside!).  The crowd went wild whenever mermaids made of light appeared in the air around me.

photo by Mertography

photo by Mertography

photo by Mertography

The theme of the ball was illumination, and lots of people came in light-up costumes.  These ranged from Luminex dresses, to custom-made angler-fish masks, to the cheap but effective method of just adding battery powered light strands to a dress.  I've never performed for such a luminous audience.

Mermaid Glimmer

After the ball wound down, everyone headed over to the hotel pool for an after-hours swim with Mermaid Glimmer.  Glimmer is my own personal one-of-a-kind creation: an arduino powered, bluetooth-controlled swimmable mermaid tail with around 200 addressable LEDs.  When the lights go out, Glimmer lights up the pool with LED rainbows and everyone watching turns into a 7 year old girl.

I am filled with gratitude for getting to be a part of such a wonderful, accepting, loving community.  With the Live-Action Little Mermaid Movie set to come out in 2017, mermaids are coming more and more into the public eye.  Mermaids are the new Vampires!  You heard it here first.

My Little Mermaid FanFic Photo!

First Swim in the LED Mermaid Tail

Making a waterproof LED mermaid tail is ridiculously hard.  What kind of crazy person would even attempt something like that?  

I did my first swim in the tail on Friday night at a friend's house.  I'd tested the tail in the bathtub and fixed any leaks or short circuits I could find, but electricity is sneaky, leaky stuff. I was pretty terrified before that first true swim test -- to the point where I was waking up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, in a cold sweat.  Would I electrocute myself?  Would I electrocute anyone else in the pool with me?  Would the LEDs work?  Would they all just flicker once and then go out?  Was this just a very expensive and time-consuming fruitless dream?

Finally the time came and I headed over to the pool.  After some pretty poolside photos, I slowly and nervously dipped my fins into the pool, and watched as the lights sank gently below the surface.  They calmly twinkled up at me, so I smiled and slipped the rest of the way into the water, kicking gently at first, then with a little more force as the LEDs continued to glimmer on the walls of the pool.

First impression?  This tail swims REALLY WELL.  The competitor monofin and thinner gauge neoprene I used created a juuuust slightly positive buoyancy tail.  That means that in the water I'm nearly weightless, and just a little bit floaty.  I am delighted with this.  My "Ariel" swimming tail is very buoyant -- so much that it's difficult to swim in.  Glimmer's tail is perfect.

I swam back and forth, grinning like an idiot, for about 10 minutes.  After the water started to soak in a bit, I started noticing a few flickers here and there, but overall I was really impressed with the water resistance of the tail.  Once it dries out completely, I hope I'll be able to find the leak points pretty easily and add some more waterproofing.

I didn't get a chance to work on it this weekend -- too many Elsa Princess parties on Saturday, and then I had a photo shoot scheduled with The Mermaid Atlantis and Lance Miller down in Santa Cruz for Sunday evening, so I didn't want to open it up and mess with it.

The photos Lance took are still trickling in, but I'm really happy with how they turned out.   Good thing too -- right after we got the tail's lights set up, the ocean swelled up and swallowed my Nexus 7 tablet.  The tablet is how I control the tail (via bluetooth), so at least we'd had a chance to set the tail on rainbow mode before we lost it for good.

The ocean waves seemed to be a bit rougher on Glimmer than gently swimming back and forth in the pool.  I'm a little disheartened at how much work I'm going to need to do to get her working again.  But I'm pretty delighted with this:

I'll post more pics as I get them on G+ / Picasa or on Glimmer's Facebook Page.  Enjoy!