Leading up to Halloween, I was sort of stuck on the sidelines. Most of the costume involved sewing which is Dejathoris' main domain. Don't get me wrong, I kinda know how to sew, but I can't whip up a costume, let alone a skirt in less than ten minutes like she can!
So I decided to undertake a very detailed three day process. To ensure proper nail preparedness (dry nails before each step) I waited overnight before moving on. Turning my nails into Wonder Woman-esque Nails! I thought I would share the pics:
- Step One, Paint with base red.Keep in mind, I always use a base coat to help prevent staining and to assist in proper nail health and all that jazz. I am particularly fond of Essie's All in one Base.
- Step Two, using reinforcements, a tip I picked up on Jezebel.com cover the base of the nail. That way when you're painting the tips you get the perfect curve. Reinforcements also don't peel off the base coat, like tape will in many cases.
- Step Three, I WANTED to use those sticker templates to paint gold stars onto each nail. However, those things are garbage. They rip right off and are essentially a one nail use. Unless I'm using it wrong. However, this is the second time I tried, and I got the same results. After all that work, only one nail got the gold star. I then painted stripes inbetween the blue and red.
- Step Four: TOP COAT! If you're going to spend three days painting your nails, you're going to want your work to last!
What we're working on: In progress: Perseus - Clash of the Titans (2010) Staging: 1) Andromeda & Medusa - Clash of the Titans (2010)
2)Katniss Everdeen; Effie Trinket - The Hunger Games
So Guavious was home last weekend and I got to watch him create his shield! It was pretty impressive... Who would have thought this piece of armor would have only really taken one afternoon! Last summer he purchased a large piece of styrofoam about two inches thick. He then took a blow torch to it and it created the exact look we needed to make Persus' shield! So this weekend he purchase a much thicker piece of styrofoam for durability, approx 4 or 5 inches thick. He cut the top and bottom curves into them to mimic the shape of the shield and went to town creating the shape. The video below is how he created the edges. He had to be really careful with the flame! And I'm going to CYA and say "Don't try this at home!"
He then used the flame to carve out the base of the shape. It took a couple of passes to get the dimension and the look that we wanted, but you want to take your time. If I've learned anything it's that you should start your definition slowly. Not only so if you make a mistake you can work around it, but also you don't go to far! All the ridges should be fairly equal, from what I observed, and that's just for stability's sake!
The Styrofoam was pretty hot so it took about an hour to cool off, he then took some different acrylic paints to create the different layers and dimension. The base is a mixture of Asphaltum Americana Acrylic paint (Grey/Brown), and Lamp Black Americana Acrylic paint. Once that dried he then used Dazzling Metallic Elegant Finish Acylic paint in Dark Patina (greenish) to add highlights and extra dimension. On the left is just the black and grey/brown, below is the green highlights.
After letting it dry overnight we then attached a piece of construction quality aluminum to the back to mimic the mirror. We were originally going to buy and adhesive mirror for the back. One of those decorative wall stickers? But those are EXPENSIVE for anything larger than their standard size, and the shield is anything but standard size!
Haven't really done anything this week for Andromeda and Medusa.... So moving on to the Hunger Games. Effie Trinket's Eyelashes arrived! YAY!
So in three weeks we've been able to get 90% of Perseus complete! Woot Woot!
- Step Three, I WANTED to use those sticker templates to paint gold stars onto each nail. However, those things are garbage. They rip right off and are essentially a one nail use. Unless I'm using it wrong. However, this is the second time I tried, and I got the same results. After all that work, only one nail got the gold star. I then painted stripes inbetween the blue and red.
