Kia ora koutou: Waitangi Day silver fern and koru

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand (read up on here). Up north there are all sorts of celebrations, marae visits, hui, political speakers, bbqs etc. Down south, where I live, it is a day off and people are upset that they can't go shopping and go to the lake! I am not 100% happy with this mani but am posting regardless as I will be wearing it through to the weekend (Ripponburn tomorrow avo!). In a nutshell, I feel the background is too dark. Maybe. My problem lately.

I started with no base coat and two coats of Layla Coffee Love. This is one of my favourite holos. A beautiful brown shimmer. With these Laylas there is no need for a base coat. The polish works best directly on the nail. It dries a tad matte so a nice top coat makes the colour really shine - especially in the sun!!! I didn't top coat before drawing, just waited a bit.

The silver fern (go the All Blacks) and the koru are two very kiwi icons, and set deep in our culture. Working slowly, I freehand drew a silver fern on both ring fingers. Very fiddly. I dot filled the fronds with Zoya Storm, a black holo. For the green dots I started with my right hand and chose too large dots. So did better on my left with a smaller tool. I am happy with the koru on my thumb. Didn't really know what to do with the rest. A koru (or fern) on every finger would have been too much.

indoor lighting

All in all I love the base Layla colour and am very happy with my fern and koru (also the fern on my right hand, legend!). But somehow, it is all very uneventful, no really "wow" effect. And I am afraid the fern is too hard to see, so no one will really notice. Maybe I am just being too hard on myself.

right hand: great fern but dots too large

Good news: I got called for a job interview early March! Disappointing news: café still not sold and time is running out. Frustrating news: I have been working on a pendant for my daughter and am afraid I messed it up. It had been going so beautifully all these days. Have let it sit by the side while I think and re-think colour choices. Now I am afraid the background is too dark. Jury still out on that one.