Production Process of my Latest Nail Art Book... continual blog

Continual of previous blog on the production process for Volume 7 Nail Art Book. As you can see, the model has such nice long fingers right? This photo was taken in the taxi and she is posing so naturally...

Inside the studio, with the lighting and posing..it get much more complicated. As we need to see all the "fishes" on the nails, getting the correct angle becomes much more challenging... add that to the fact that the photographer speaks only Korean... faint!
My poor model had to try so many various poses...can't tell from the final photo rite?
My poor model had to try so many various poses...can't tell from the final photo rite?
Besides the book, we held many photo gallery exhibition too.This one below was a Charity Exhibition that we did for World Vision in Sept 2009. The tables & chairs in front of the gallery of photos are for the nailist that volunteered to provide nail service for the public at a discounted price. All money collected for the service was donated to World Vision Korea for a "Deep Well" donation.

About the "Deep Well" - A deep well fitted with a hand pump can provide up to 2,800 gallons of safe water a day to benefit as many as 300 people! In many communities, clean water lies hundreds of feet below layers of hard rock. Children have no choice but to walk long distances to find water that is often dirty and disease-ridden. When our drilling teams strike water, entire villages erupt in celebration because a clean water source can cut a community’s child mortality rate by as much as half.
(*taken from World Vision website:http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10373)

Production Process of my Latest Nail Art Book

Was writing an editorial on the production process of my latest Nail Art Book: BongSoonga Sontop Volume 7. Juz thot that since I'm compiling all the materials for this article, I might as well use the same stuff for my Blog entry..haha..kill 2 birds with one tiny stone.. :pBack to the Production Process - ^.~
This volume 7 was unfortunately produced during the cold winter February month in Seoul, Korea. Thus, I really hated it coz it's so so so cold... i mean like for penguins type of cold, it was like about -10°C! But duh....come to think of it, Korea is always been cold; except for about 2 months in a year when the temperature goes above 20°C, the rest of the months are below 20°C. So their temperature for the year is = cold, very cold & freezing cold...haha!
Check out the cute footprints we made...Back to the Production Process - ^.~My messy work-space. I like to have everything laid out onto the table while I work, especially liked to keep all the color powders opened to cut wastage of time opening & closing the bottles... next to the table is a huge electric heater, it'z that cold..
Also, for this design, I wanted to do realistic fishes instead of "cartoon" ones..thus I made use of books & photos to give me a better reference for the sea creatures. Do they look real enuf?Below was my attempt to photograph a step-by-step process of the acrylic sculpture extensions. Glitter pink at the cuticles, followed by pastel matte pink; the extension sections are a mixture of blues & greens & whites... aka like the sea.
oh yar..I also added green & blue glitters to "beef" up the glam for the photographs.As you can see the step-by-step stopped at step 5...haha! coz the photo shoot was scheduled at 6pm & I only have less than 1 hour to finish all the nails before rushing to the studio.

Rushing to the studio in a cab, the model can only wear half of her winter jacket; coz the other sleeve cannot make it through due to the complicated nails... poor gal, she was so cold! I was also quite worried that the "fishes" would break from frequent e-brakes by the taxi-uncle..as usual, traffic jams are normal in seoul..we took about 45 mins to reach the studio...to be continued...
*coz I'm hungry for dinner oredi...haha! cheerios!

Visit to Japan Nailist Association

Had an interesting evening visiting the Japan Nailist Association in Tokyo. They've moved to a nicer premise and is bigger than before. We spend much time exchanging ideas & catching up on the nails industry in both our countries. Look forward to opportunities in future for both our associations to work together for a better environment for those passionate about nails in our Asia countries.


















 Had a nice walk to see the beautiful Christmas lights after leaving the JNA office.






 












 

 During my time in Japan, I also had the chance to meet up with many Japanese Nailist in the exchange of nail techniques & culture. The most memorable one would be learning to wear a kimono & incorporating the Japanese Kimono Designs into nail art. We were able to incorporate elements from the Japanese Culture & Kimono print into nail art designs



 
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 But the most interesting part for me is when we had trainers from a Kimono School teach us to wear the traditional kimono the correct way, I can say that it was both exciting & difficult. There are many steps involved to enable us to be nicely "covered" in what looked like pieces of beautiful cloths.








 

 Having successfully wearing the kimono can transform the entire posture & feel of a person, you'll feel more graceful... perhaps because you'll need to take small steps now due to the cutting of the kimono. I managed to make my own Obi bow...the "ribbon" sash behind the kimono. There are many many types of Obi bow- hanaba obi, anesa obi,etc.
They say a woman looks the most beautiful from the back view, technically with the face turned 45° to the side... we practiced many many times, as a woman need to memorize & wear a kimono on her own... this is exactly what they practise at the Kimono Academy.



Something I admired about the Japanese people, they truly take the effort to maintain their heritage & culture. It is so easy to lose all that during the process of development & progress. I am happy to be able to help retain something so beautiful of Japanese Culture with them.

Japanese Plastic Food ^.^

Happy New Year 2010! There's totally no time to upload the blog, the backlog is so hard to keep up..haha.

Here's a peek at my messy table. Also there's something that had been my fascination for a long time. You can see it next to Tinkle-Bell... yeap! The "delicious" strawberry ice-cream on cornflakes!

When I was in Japan last month, brought back a whole lot of "real desserts".

Adding to my already huge collection this time are: a strawberry+red bean parfait, ice-ka chang with condense milk, iced-cold beer and another full miniature sushi collection ...haha..

Well.. they looked real enough to eat! Totally made from resin & soft plastics, they are a feast to the eyes... The parfait, in all its creamy majesty, has a calorie count of precisely zero. That's because this parfait is not meant to be eaten, except with the eyes. It's a yummy example of another unique Japanese innovation -- replica food.

You can see them outside some Japanese Restaurants, to show customers just what kind of food the establishment offers. These kinds of replicas are rarely seen outside Japan, and they are known as a unique aspect of Japanese culture.

The cost is steep --starting from about 5,000 yen --no calories included, perfect for those on diet.. I also used them as references when creating the 3D nail art that we see in Fantasy Nails or Mixed Media Category.

Do not be mistaken that because the above parfait is made of plastic, that is why the strawberries looked so fake... in actual fact the real strawberries in Japan all looked so perfect that you'll think that they are unreal...the strawberries in the boxes below are what you see being sold on the streets.

NAIL EXCHANGE KOREA - Seminar Teaching at University

Seminar Teaching at Daejeon University. It is a university for students after collage to study beauty,hair, nails full time. They have many topics to choose from , even special effects make-up!

I was there to do an exchange seminar of Singapore Gel Nails Design Technique to the students.
It was quite an interesting experience for them. They are amazed at our techniques that is so fast and saves time for their gel nails.

Below photo of me with Chairman of KONEA, Ms Kim Mi Won and a male student after class.

Hope for them to come for an exchange program in Singapore soon. ^.^
 












 












 












 












 
















 

NAIL EXCHANGE KOREA - Int'l Nail Competition

N.A.I.L.S is honoured to be invited again by the Korean Nailist Expert Association [KONEA] to participate in their annual international nail exchange event. I am again on their panel of International Judges for their annual Korea Nail Design Festival[K.N.D.F]. Judging next to Nailympics Head Judge Lysa Comfort and Russian's nail-industry mover Galina Stepanovna.
There was more mixed media nail art entries this time round, much to the delight of our Singapore nailist team. They were snapping away at the Nail art displayed for all to view. It is indeed a learning experience for all of them, I am sure they learnt much more in terms of nail art design than their salon experiences can bring.

 

















 The satisfaction of winning amidst the thousands of contestants brings Singapore nailist much honour & pride. Overall, every nail exchange with KONEA is always very fulfilling for everyone.
We had benefited so much collaborating with KONEA since 2006. Our association looks towards more fulfilling collaborations for the improvement of our nails industry.

Would try to upload more nail art from KNDF when time allows. ^.^