Victorian Steampunk 3D Bat Manicure

Today I am trying to participate in two different Facebook group nail art challenges with one manicure.

The first group is the "Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge", run by Debbie "The Crumpet". On Mondays there is a "Monkey See, Monkey Do" challenge where members create nail art inspired by other bloggers, or try to recreate something they have admired on another blog.

The second challenge is from the Facebook group Polish-aholics Anonymous, where this week the challenge is to do something Steampunk.

My original intention was to do something inspired by Robin Moses. I was going to stamp  skulls on my nails, then glue on some  vintage cogs and gears from old broken watches in their eye sockets. Keep in mind that I make jewelry so I already have the tools & skills to take apart the watches, and in fact had already done so because I was contemplating making some Steampunk jewelry.  So I go down to my basement workshop and I start sorting through  my box of watch parts, and I don't have any gears small enough to work with my design idea. :(  Time to come up with plan B.

So, I start looking through all my boxes of beads, charms, chains, and other jewelry components. What  else could  I glue to my nails instead of watch parts? What would look even remotely Steampunkish?  Then I found it! Small brass bat charms that were made from Victorian era dies.  I spent a few minutes modifying a charm so it would fit my nail. I carefully used pliers to gently bend and shape it to fit the curve of my thumbnail, the only nail this charm would fit on, and even then it is still a bit too big.

I painted my nails with 1 coat of Orly Bonder, and 1 coat of Sinful Colors Black On Black. To my thumb I added a thick coat of Orly In A Snap, then carefully positioned the bat in place.  I took  my pictures, then  immediately removed the bat, because no matter how cool it looks, it is totally impractical and I know it wouldn't last more then a few hours anyhow before it drove me nuts.   I repainted my thumbnail, and now that it is dry, I am going to go create something else for my next post.