Hello everyone! I'm going to teach you how to make a bottlenose dolphin today. You're probably wondering, "Why do I need to make a bottlenose dolphin?" or "Is that even possible?" These questions have simple and easy answers that you will get soon enough. And by soon I mean now. Why do you need to know how to make a bottlenose dolphin? The answer to your first question is: you don't. You want to make a bottlenose dolphin. That's why you're here, right? Tursiops truncati are such amazing creatures, you couldn't help yourself! I understand. The answer to the second question is yes, it is very possible. Want to know how? Read on for my tutorial on how to make a bottlenose dolphin. I just wanted to add that this project is for beginners. It is not very complicated, but requires a lot of materials. If you are a beginner at dolphin-making make sure to check out some sewing tutorials before beginning to tackle this project. Grab your gloves!

Step 1: Materials

The materials you will need are:

-A beak (aka snout)

-Shoulder blades (2)

-A melon*

-A dorsal fin

-Pectoral fins (2)

-Cape skin (2 feet by 1 foot)

-Various organs (lungs, heart, trachea, esophagus,

kidneys, bladder, eyes, brain, reproductive organs,

blood vessels, etc.

-Vertebrae (48)

-Flukes (2)

-12 gallons of blood

-Gorilla glue

-A large needle

-Thread

-A knife

-Bottlenose skin (13.3 inches)

-Dolphin teeth (100)

-Keel blubber (27-32 pounds)

-Blubber (660 pounds)

-A sewing machine (optional)

-A soft metal rod (must be bendable and 11.7 inches)

-Clothes pins

-Magic

-A large brush

The quantity of each item is listed after its name. You can probably find these things at the bottom of the ocean or possibly, if you're lucky, a few hundred miles below sea level. Black markets may also carry these materials, though I don't suggest getting your materials from there; the quality isn't the best and the service people aren't very nice. The hardest material to find will probably be the heart, as pictures above, though you can probably get this at the bottom of the ocean or from a large sea predator's stomach. You may have to rent a submarine.

* No, this is not a round fruit. A melon is a mass of tissue that's located in every toothed whale's forehead. It modulates the whales' vocalizations. It's like the lens of your glasses; it's a sound lens!

Step 2: Assembling the Top Skin Piece

The first picture illustrates what your skin will look like. The second shows where you will make the ridge in Part 6 of this step. The last picture illustrates all the parts we will work on in this step. Note that you cannot see the underbelly in that picture. We'll work in that in the next step.

1. Prepping the Skin

The skin of a dolphin has various small grooves, and therefore collects large amounts of soil and dirt very easily. This means that your skin will most likely be very stiff, and will probably be covered in white or gray silt stirred up from the ocean floor. Take a medium-sized, large-bristled brush and some soapy water and scrub the inside of the skin. You can identify which side is the inside by its peachy color. Scrub until all of the dirt is removed, or until the skin is a cream color.

2. Cutting the Skin

With your knife or a large pair of scissors, cut the skin so that it is 13.3 feet long (the approximate length of the average adult bottlenose) and 3 feet wide (the average width of bottlenose dolphins). If you purchased your skin in small pieces, grab your needle and thread and begin to sew the pieces together. Here is a link to a page about sewing, just in case you are a beginner: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Sew./

3. Stretching the Skin

After cutting the skin, you must stretch it in order to make room for the keel blubber. Around the area of the keel (about 2 feet from the flukes), pull at the skin. Continue to do this until the color of the skin starts to lighten or until your skin can be stretched 3 inches upward.

4. Attaching the Spine

Next, grab your Gorilla glue and your brush. Apply thick globs of Gorilla glue to the center of your skin. MAKE SURE YOU ARE APPLYING THE GLUE TO THE INSIDE. The inside of the skin should be a cream color, while the exterior will be gray. Then, gently place the spine along the line of glue. The spines of dolphins often shift towards their eyes and then back toward their fluke(s), so its position vertically does not really matter. The vertebrae should already be attached to the spine. If they are not, glue them in place. Using your clothes pins, hang your skin from a rod or line of wire. Only use three clothes pins in the very center of your skin so that the ends of it droop. This is what is going to create that arched back in the bottlenose. If your skin came in pieces, this is the time to glue the dorsal fin to very center of the skin (where the clothes pins are). You can also sew the flukes onto the end of the skin. You may have to use glue to secure them and close pins to keep them in place while the glue dries.

5. Attaching the Eyes

After that, grab your eyes. Your skin will have eyes sockets in its front. With your brush, apply a small amount of glue around the rim of the socket. Stick the eyes into the sockets and twist. The back of the eyes should be covered in glue. Leave them to dry.

6. Forming the Top of the Beak

Boil a pot of water. Place the beak in the water to soften it, and then use your glue to attach it onto the rest of the skin. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE GLUE TO DRY. Instead, push the end of your glue brush into the bottom of the skin directly above the beak to create a ridge. There is a picture above (top of the page) to show you where the ridge is. Try to replicate this.

7. The Blowhole

Using your knife, cut a small 3 inch hole in the top of the skin. This will serve as your dolphin's blowhole.

Continue to Step 3 after all of the glue has dried!

Step 3: Assembling the Underbelly

Dolphins are one of the slimmer toothed whales and carry very little fat or blubber in their underbellies. Because of this, assembling the underbelly will be a lot easier. We will assemble the underbelly and then attach it to the top skin piece in the next step.

1. Preparing the Skin

Prepare the skin the same as in the second step. Return to Step 2 for a review. Realize that both sides of the skin for the underbelly are white. The inside will be completely smooth, while the outside will have small grooves.

2. Cutting the Skin

Cut the skin so that it is 13.1 feet long and 2.9 feet wide. Be as precise as possible. You may not need your knife for this step as the underbelly is considerably softer than the top skin piece. A pair of scissors should suffice.

That was easy, wasn't it? Continue on to the next step to attach both pieces.

Step 4: Attaching the Two Halves

(FYI: The above dolphins are BFFS! :D)

1. Beginning to Sew

Using your needle and thread, attach the fluke end of the underbelly to the top skin piece. Sew forward 7.5 feet and then stop.

2. Inserting the Organs and Blubber

Next, flip your skin upside down. Insert the keel blubber. Above is a bottlenose dolphin's anatomy so you can tell where it goes. After that, insert the brain. Add half the blubber (330 pounds) and pack it in there. Then use the anatomy chart to place the rest of the organs inside the body. Insert the pelvis as well. Add the last 330 pounds of blubber.

3. Sealing Up Your Dolphin

(Pun intended by the way). Lastly, seal you dolphin up. Using your needle and thread (or your sewing machine), sew the remaining 6.5 inches or so. The dolphin should now be one piece entirely, or one large, closed system.

Continue on to the next step to add the final details!

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Your dolphin is almost done! Complete the final steps to create your very own dolphin. 1. Attaching the Flippers (if you haven't already)

Sew the flippers and fins in their appropriate places. Use the picture above for reference. The flippers should be sewn about 1 foot horizontally and 1.3 feet vertically from the eyes (again, that's an approximate measurement). Dolphins rely on echolocation to survive (they use it to navigate and find food. Without it, they'd starve or be captured), so don't cover or obstruct the melon's area with the flippers.

2. Attaching the Dorsal Fin (if you haven't already)

Grab your Gorilla glue. You won't need your brush for this. Squeeze glue all over the underside of the dorsal fin and glue it to the very center of the arch. Again, refer to the anatomy picture if you need some help. Use clothes pins to secure it. Sew around the base to secure it even further when the glue dries. Then remove the clothes pins and continue.

3. Attaching the Flukes

Grab your needle and thread for some sewing. Then grab your flukes and sew them to the very end of your dolphin. You may want to use transparent thread for this part as the thread will be very noticeable at this particular area. Test the flukes by placing two fingers underneath their outermost tips flicking upward. They should bounce up and then back to place again.

4. Bringing the Dolphin to Life

Using whatever magical device you choose, cast a spell that will breathe life into your dolphin.

5. Name Your Dolphin

Lastly, you must give your dolphin a name. My dolphin's name is Roger. Leave a comment below telling me what you named yours! If you're having trouble picking names, use one of these name generators.

-http://www.behindthename.com/random/

-http://yourpetname.com

-http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/fnames.cgi?d=1&f=... (this one's especially cool)

-http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_rand...

Some names I think would sound really cool:

-Willard

-Oswald

-Jaylen

-Petunia

-Pearl

-Jemima

-Winifred

-Wisteria

-Alfred

If you need any more name suggestions, just private message me and I'll get back to you ASAP!

Step 6: Final Product and Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading my tutorial. I hope it helped. Make sure to feed your dolphin regularly, give it time to swim around in large areas and make some friends, and make sure to give it lots of love!

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Here are some links that can lead you to websites or videos that will help you properly take care of your whale:

-http://www.dolphins-world.com/how-do-dolphins-rais...