Book News and Some Gothic Nail Art

I’ve got some more LA Girl colors to show you soon, though the second palette I tried out was not exactly cooperative. In the meantime, I’m getting my work together for a book to be published in fall 2013. I need to re-photograph (and in some cases, re-create) some nails. Natural light is always best, but the weather has been very uncooperative. I can’t release any specifics yet, but it will be a big ol’ coffee-table book of NAIL ART published by a German company. It’s not just my work, of course, it features a lot of contemporary nail artists. I’m pretty excited about it and am looking forward to the publication.

I’ve been working on some gothic looks too, and on my acrylic sculpture in particular. It’s not my strong point. I hate the smell of it, and being a very nearsighted perfectionist, I always have the nail about an inch from my nose and get a snootful of stinky acrylic fumes. I do have a good mask with filters that makes me look like a Hazmat technician, but it’s very uncomfortable and makes me sweat like crazy. So I’m not always eager to practice the sculpting, but I’d like to improve.

This set was inspired by Victorian tapestries and jewelry, but with a bit of a gothic influence:

I really like black and gold together! I might do the roses in a different color next time, though.

I also love black and red, especially when there’s glitter involved! I could not resist adding red rhinestone eyes to the skull. The roses are aluminium so they are very vibrant and light-weight, but boy, the get snagged on hair and clothes.

These are not gothic, but I had fun doing them recently. They’re inspired by Turkish tiles and of course, the Turkish Evil Eye!  I haven’t been to Turkey yet, but it’s high on the list of places I’d like to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since Feb. 20 was National Cherry Pie Day in America, I made these up just for fun. I generally post new nails daily on my Facebook fan page, so be sure to check it out if you like a steady supply of off-the-wall nail art. It’s available to public view even if you don’t have Facebook.

That’s pretty much what I’ve been up to lately. I’m headed off to Bangkok later this week- it’s one of my favorite cities and the art always inspires me, plus the food is just plain fabulous. The Thais like shiny things almost as much as I do (Wat  Phra Kaew is a must-see for anyone who likes sparkles).  I also have a new nail art hero who is Thai, Pisut Masanong. No, I’m not going there to stalk him or anything. But maybe if I practice painting about 12 hours a day for the rest of my life, I’d be that good. In addition to his insane painting skills, he is a fantastic sculptor as well. It’s rare to excel at both. I’ll just settle for painting skills like his- I’m not greedy! 😉