Tuesday, March 29, 2011

another construction update

Hi Kids!
Popping in with an update on where I'm at in construction. It's been a slow moving project. I get 1 full day a week to work on it with a few single hours here and there throughout the week. The size of my new area is
7' x  10' , what used to be my dining room, but has never used as one. It's in an open floor plan that includes a large living room converted to sewing studio for me, and workshop area for dh.
The U shaped table I'm constructing will have 3 sections. The largest is, of course, my mani station. Next to that, in front of the window will be my make-up area, and to the right, will be a small section for my jewelry making supplies.
Anyway, my under stamping plate storage is almost complete. It's ingeniously designed using supplies meant for a totally different application. Have a look...


tab
From mani station
le
From mani station

After I finish with plate storage, I'll be completing work on cotton ball storage (haha, yes, another idea that got turned into a project)
Just below this section of the table is the bottom part of an old bookcase, flipped up-side-down. There is a deep recess that's perfect for storing cotton balls, so I cut a rectangle door out of the table to access the recess. Now all I have to do is decide whether I want to use hinges on the door or do I want the access door to lift off...decisions...

From mani station
Once that's finished, I'll have made my decision on what type of ventilation fan I'm getting and how I'm going to install it.
I'm not sure how much longer this project will take.  When I'm finished, I'll have to re-organize the space where my old mani station was and give that stolen space back to my sewing studio.
One thing is for sure, I cant wait to get back to my nails. After several construction accidents, one of which sent a screw through a nail, I went ahead and took them all down to a manageable working length. In addition to that, since I don't have time to maintain polish, I've been wearing the strongest polish known...
glitter.
A whole week wearing 2 coats of Milani Gold Glitz, 1 coat of a franken made from SinfulC All About You, topped with 2 coats of Seche, with nary any tip-wear.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

New polish shelves

Hey Kids!
Since I won't be posting manis while I'm in construction mode, I'll be posting my progress with the new mani station. First up, my new polish shelves. The empty area on the right will be home for all my stamping polishes. The shelves will look much better once they're trimmed out, which I'll do at the end of construction.

Today, I will be starting the most complicated part of the project- building and installing my work-table. The table itself is easy- construction under the table is what's going to be time consuming and tricky. I'm incorporating the way my table is supported with the need for storage using two 46" high stereo speakers my husband was going to throw out. It would be much easier to build with all new materials, however, I love the rewards of repurposing something that was destined for the landfill. It's a passion of mine, and one that never fails to give me a sense of pride and accomplishment.
















Close-up of how I notched out the shelves and of  Streetwear Elf- recent find at the bottom of a bargain basket in a discount beauty supply store for $.50.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Cloisonne inspired- layered fauxnad

Hi Kids!
Oh my goodness...almost 3 weeks since I posted! I'm in the process of moving my manicure area to the other side of my studio, which means I have to build new polish shelves. In addition to that, I'm going to build a U shaped work table and new storage space for my stamping plates.
Polish shelves are almost completed, except for trimming them out, and I've already moved my polishes to their new home.
Since I'm doing this construction all by myself, I haven't had much time for nail stamping. I do, however, have the following post of my last mani, that I've been sitting on for far too long.
I also still need to get polishes out to peripatetic33. Hoping to get them out by Friday.
Anyway!...
There are 2 questions I get asked repeatedly in regards to my layered fauxnad/Konad manis.
#1- How long did it take?
#2- How can you bear to take it off after all that work?

The answer to question #1 is somewhat complicated. Since I don't often have a concrete plan, I tend to work in sessions/stages over the course of an evening, or over a couple of days with a loose idea. During these stages I do a lot of test stamping on plastic that's been covered with my base coat. This is also the stage where I work on frankening stamping polishes, or more often, tweaking one I already have to work better for my current mani. Practically *all* my time is spent in this stage... I guess it's a good thing that it's also my favorite part of nail stamping :)

Now, getting back to time spent...
The truth...
It took 5 hours to create the Cloisonne inspired mani you are about to see. 4 hours for testing & choosing stamping colors, testing & choosing images and  re-frankening several stamping polishes, and 1 hour for actual stamping on the nails.
A mixture of 22 stamping plates, fauxnad, Konad and Bundle Monster, were used here...the most I've ever "worked" for 1 mani. I chose so many plates because I wanted each of my 5 nails to be different from the next (x2, right and left). There are only 3 or 4 images that repeat and appear across all 10 nails.

As for question #2... Given the enormous amount of time I put into many of my layered manis, you would think I'd be upset when it came time for removal. 
Surprise!
I'm usually more than ready to remove my work and get started on something new. Since I do a pretty fair job at documenting my manis in Glammed-up, I can always come here when I feel the need to relive a mani.

I'm beyond happy with the following Cloisonne inspired mani. I wore it for a weekend, and it was a huge hit! More customers commented on this than all my other manis combined.

I'm really bummed that this looks so much better irl than my pictures...and I took a lot over the course of 3 days. I'm posting only 1 picture, because I'm pressed for time. If you want to see more, click on the mini pic and it will take you to my Picasa album.


















Drop Box