Mermaids

My second mermaid doll is Adilah which is Swahili for justice. She also a hero and protector of her people. Her legend is that once, she was a captured slave who was thrown over board while crossing the ocean on a slave ship. Because she was brave and unselfish her life was spared and her broken legs were transformed into a fish tail.

 I wanted Adilah to be a little different than my first mermaid Malika. She is still a strong woman.

 I used more natural elements to create her look. She wears a belt made of glass beads, coconut beads and cowrie shells. Her color palette is watery silvers, blues and teals. She wears a cotton cloth halter that might have been a torn remnant of her clothes when she lived on land.





She carries a fish that she caught for dinner and a bag of shells in a fishnet.

Her thick curly hair is held with a beaded headband and her blue "fishy" tail is beaded with clear glass beads to look like bubbles.