merpony for a 6 year old?

[TwistedRainbow]

my roommate has commissioned me to make a merpony for his niece. she is 6 yrs old. i know she is going to want to carry it around with her and show it off so im lookig for some suggestions on how to go about scupting the tail. do i need to use lots of wire mesh? should i makke a base for it? im kind of at a loss here. i know shes going to play with it and i want it to stay together as much as possible.

thanks in advance

[blackestbird]

Would there be any possibility of making it with cloth instead of clay? Probably the same concept, foil and wire mesh inside for support, but maybe use material and sequins for scales instead of clay? Maybe even some cotton batting in between to help protect the inner structure from getting misshapen? I've never done a merpony at all, so I dunno how doable it would be, but for that age I think I'd try to avoid clay altogether; it's a lot of work to risk being broken.

[Colorscapesart]

I agree with blackestbird.  I have two six year old girls, if it's sculpted it will probably get broken :/  What about a removable cloth tail?  That could be a lot of fun.

[reyl]

You could take the tail end off a Mermaid barbie or other size-appropriate mermaid doll, and use that instead of sculpting. It would be less likely to smash like large amounts of clay.