Flower Skull

Tattooist and painter, Emma Sailor, is our contributing artist today with this lovely flower skull.  Perhaps this is her reminder to all of us of how delicate our skulls really are.  The soft shades of color and textures could resemble the many emotions we endure in our lives that always wind up painted across our faces.  Or, it could just be one colorfully kick ass skull.  It's all about perception.  Thanks for sharing you work with us, Emma!  

Gradient Nail Tutorial for Lulu*s!

Happy Monday, all! Just a quick post for right now - wanted to share my latest collaboration with the Lulu*s Blog! It's a super simple but fun gradient mani to go with their back-to-school week! Be sure to check out the blog post for the how-to on these :) 

Happy Polishing! :)

Polka Dot Porcelain Skull

NooN, from France, created this polka dot porcelain skull through K.olin Tribu. I love the anatomical detail of the sculpture itself. The polka dots are an unexpected playful addition. Since skulls are related to death, the polka dots remind me of the red and black fabric dots and beauty marks people used to put over small pox scars and blemishes on their faces. This was popular from the 1600s through the 1800s. Other than covering facial flaws, they were placed to signify many things. Here is a little guide to the history and meaning behind the popular beauty practice. I wonder what it would mean if they were all over someone's face...perhaps that they needed to visit a doctor.

Sunday Simulacra - Version 7.12

Today's simulacra come from the great outdoors....

The first is a great looking calf with a scowling skull pattern on it's face from Susan Scofield of York, PA.  The second is a juicy Black Krim tomato, reminiscent of "Ricardio", from the garden of Thea Brown.  Thanks for sharing these, Susan and Thea!

31 Day Nail art Challenge - Day 11: Polka Dots

I'm so sorry that I'm posting this mani late - I suppose that's par for the course for me this challenge, but I'm still fighting this silly cold and it's seriously kicking my butt. I'm so tired! 

I was so excited about today's theme. I've been wanting to do a scene of some sort using polka dots for awhile and haven't had an excuse to do so lately. However, when I sat down to do the design that I've been thinking about for a long while, I was suddenly uninspired by that concept. To my frustration, my tastes vary per day - some days I'm feeling floral and other I'm feeling tribal or geometric (or anywhere in between!) and even if I had loved an idea the night before, suddenly I'll hate it the next day. Does this happen to anyone else?! 

Anyway! I recently splurged and bought OPI's Euro Centrale collection (I know everyone is obsessing over the San Francisco collection, but I'm really not feeling it) and I really wanted to use some of those polishes in today's look. I ended up doing a funky and simple triangle pattern with some tribal print undertones and I really love how it turned out. It definitely shows the touch of the hand, but I like that so much. When I think of Polka Dots, I tend to think of larger dots than these, but I think I'm still staying within the theme for today. 

This was a really simple look to create, but definitely requires some patience to get your dots evening spaced and sized similarly. I used OPI's My Vampire is Buff as my base (big surprise there!) and then I used the smallest dotting tool I have (which is probably equivalent to a thick needle) with OPI's OPI...Eurso Euro to do one straight line across my nail with then added in the triangles lines. I repeated these steps with the light purple (OPI's You're Such a Budapest) and the red (OPI's My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours) to finish off the look. Funny how You're Such A Budapest looks like a light blue next to these colors!

I feel like I need a dress made out of this pattern and coloring - I think it would be so fun! Hopefully everyone is having a fabulous Saturday! 

Happy Polishing :) 

An InLinkz Link-up

Lenore's Super Ceramic Skull Saturday

French artist Lenore62 can clearly be regarded as a skull fanatic when you peruse the multitude of skulls she's creating. These ceramic skullptures are quite the impressive group, but it's just a fraction of her body of work that includes drawing and painting as well.  I posted my favorite of the bunch first, but the plant holder and spike mohawk skulls are tied for a very close second.  Thanks for sharing all of them Lenore!

Science Skeleton

Peter Istenik from Slovakia, created this artwork from Black granite. I love the anatomical design of this skull and hand. The shading made by using a hand engraver, is delicate and works well with the multi-tonal shiny granite. This particular granite reminds me of outer space, for which the science theme seems appropriate. To see a time lapse video of this piece being engraved, head to the bottom of this post.

Here is the time lapse video of this engraving being created.