I created a jointed paper doll yesterday... instead of using mini brads (which I didn't have) I used rubber band pieces and tied knots in them (as I mentioned before, ribbon and string didn't work since the head and arms just flopped around and wouldn't stay posed)
She's kinda lovely, if I do say so myself...
Here are the appropriate credits and a few mermaid facts (I ended up having to use Wikipedia - again!)Photos:
Mermaid Painting by John Waterhouse (1900)
Jointed paper doll mermaid by TJBGoogins, made possible with a template by Kimberly Crick
To see her jointed paper doll template (it's free - if you use it, just give her the credit) and see her other offerings (great rubber stamp sets and other art supplies) visit her web site:
www.theenchantedgallery.comMERMAID
(source: Wikipedia)
The word is a compound of mer, the French word for "sea", and maid, a woman. The male equivalent is a merman.
Much like sirens, mermaids will sing to people or to gods to enchant them, distracting them from their work and causing people to walk off a ship's deck or to run their ship aground. Other stories depict mermaids squeezing the life out of drowning men while attempting to rescue them. They are also said to carry humans down to their underwater kingdoms. In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, it is said that mermaids forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while other stories say they drown men out of spite, while still other fables portray mermaids as benevolent toward men.This singing chant is probably a curse to the mermaid as well.
[There are many accounts of mermaids in Greek and European mythology, and these creatures are also featured in several stories from One Thousand and One Nights.]
The sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaid-like; in fact, some languages use the same word for both bird and fish creatures, such as the Maltese word 'sirena.' Other related types of mythical or legendary creatures are water fairies (e.g., various water nymphs) and selkies, animals that can transform themselves from seals to humans.In some ancient fairy tales of China, the mermaid is a special species whose tears can turn into priceless pearls. What's more, mermaids can also knit an extremely valuable material which is not only slight but also beautiful and translucent. Because of this, fishermen longed to catch them, but it's difficult for them to survive, for mermaids' splendid singing can simply put them in a coma. In other Chinese legends, the mermaid is a wondrous creature -- deft, beautiful, and versatile, and fishermen who wish to catch mermaids are a symbol of negative character.Mermaids were noted in British folklore as unlucky omens – both foretelling disaster and provoking it. Several variants of the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships; in some, she tells them they will never see land again, and in others, she claims they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the same thing. They can also be a sign of rough weather.
Some mermaids were described as monstrous in size, up to 2,000 feet (610 m).
Mermaids could also swim up rivers to freshwater lakes. One day, in a lake near his house, the Laird of Lorntie went to aid a woman he thought drowning; a servant of his pulled him back, warning that it was a mermaid, and the mermaid screamed after that she would have killed him if it were not for his servant.
On occasion, mermaids could be more beneficent, teaching humans cures for disease.
Some tales raised the question of whether or not mermaids had immortal souls, most implying they did not. The figure of Lí Ban appears as a sanctified mermaid, but then she was a human being transformed into a mermaid; after three centuries, when Christianity had come to Ireland, she came to be baptized.
Mermen were noted as wilder and uglier than mermaids, but they were described as having little interest in humans.
In Scottish mythology, there is a mermaid called the ceasg or "maid of the wave."
We will have lovely, sweet cool rain today - wishing you happy mermaid dreams!
