Got this done last night. I love how the beads changed the shape of the tail. To my relief, the seahorse does stand alone. I was right, the weight of the beads added to the back perfectly balanced the weight of the beads in the nose. Took this snapshot before the fog rolled back and to my delight found the colors more true than with the shadow of the sun. And for some reason, Blogspot let me place the prose above the photo. Just looking at blessings today so I will not report on the progress with the fish. . . (Where is the Grrr emoticon when I need it?)