Clockwork Tape Mani

Some of my polish buddies decided to do tape manicures today, and I sighed because this is another of my NOT strong suits. The tape usually pulls up whatever base polish I have on, and if it doesn't, then it is not sticky enough to actually keep the secondary polish from seeping under the tape edge. Ah well. So here is my attempt at a tape manicure.

The idea was to have this be a sort of 'behind the scenes' glimpse manicure, where you see a glitter mani and peek behind it to see the cogs and gears making it work. Meh, not really successful.

I started with a base of OPI San Tan-tonio and then taped off the upper half of my middle and ring fingers on a diagonal. Then I painted on my Sonoma Nail Art polish called 'Clockwork', added some cogs with acrylic paint, and then hand painted the black stripe following the tape line. That black stripe makes it look like I didn't use tape at all in this mani. Ug. But I did this last night at midnight, so dang it, it will have to do. 

Here is a look at Clockwork, one of the 4 polishes in my Great Handcar Regatta themed set. I really love this glitter polish because it creates gorgeous instant artwork. No tape required (HALLELUJAH)!

The Great Handcar Regatta 2011

This past weekend was really busy! I went to the Halloween and Vine art show on Saturday, and on Sunday it was the Great Handcar Regatta. This is an insanely awesome event. It's a steampunk/utopian extravaganza featuring all sorts of cool handcars that are raced along tracks in downtown Santa Rosa. People dress up in great costumes and there are fun performers all over the place. This is the Regatta's 4th year in Santa Rosa, and hopefully not the last. We are supposed to be getting high speed rail soon, and that may mean no fun on the old railroad tracks in downtown next year. My outfit was fun (I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of me wearing it!) and of course, I did steampunk nails to match.

Here are the finished nails. I did these based on a design by Robin Moses, but changed up the colors to match my outfit (which I didn't take pictures of, grrr!). Watch Robin's great video to see how to do these nails.

I used Revlon Creme Brulee for the base and then sponged on Orly Glam Rock (which has a matte finish) on the tips to give the nails a slight gradient. This design on its own would look great, if you didn't want to steampunk it up.

I added the first set of gears and cogs using a small nail art brush and a copper colored acrylic paint by Folk Art.

Here's the second layer of gears in a gold acrylic paint. I like how the Orly Glam Rock is peaking through the design.

And finally I added some white paint to the gold acrylic paint to create a lighter gold and did a final set of gears and cogs to finish the design. I topcoated with Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat.

I found these lacy cuffs at Hot Topic. Gotta love goth kids for their cool accoutrements! It cracks me up to shop at Hot Topic, where kids are trying to find their own style at a corporate clothing and accessories store. "I'm so different, just like everyone else!"

Here are the polishes I used in this mani: Revlon Creme Brulee, Orly Glam Rock (matte finish), Essie All In One Basecoat, and Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat.

WARNING! The next picture may offend some people! Part of the fun at the Great Handcar Regatta was demos by cheesemakers, sauerkraut makers, Ask a Vegan (LOL), and this next one: Butchers. Sonoma County is foodie central, and our local food blogger actually raised and slaughtered this pig, to understand the whole food chain. Many of us like to know where our food comes from, and some of us raise our own food in gardens and such. But few will actually raise livestock and harvest it. So this was really fascinating to see.

I watched this butcher take this young pig apart using just one knife. And it wasn't a big knife. He was quite expert at removing each of the cuts. What was so interesting was the amount of waste that is left over after getting the meat from the animal (about 40%). I guess that is a good argument for eating less meat. Choose high quality sources, and eat it sparingly. Meat is much more wasteful than vegetables. But tasty!

Here are a few of my friends at the Great Handcar Regatta. They had a booth where kids could make small cars from zucchinis and such and race them on a track. I love that little Jackson made his own little car from wine corks. Who needs a freakin zucchini?? Hilarious.

And here is my antique beaver skin top hat that I gussied up with ribbon and feathers. The pink matched my blouse. I am really bummed that I didn't get a picture of my whole outfit. Ah well...

If you want to see some of the fun of the Handcar Regatta, check out this video montage. I will have to try to take more pictures next year, besides tons of pig butchering photos. LOL