Hi Goddesses
So, this week's challenge was chosen by Caitlin, and I've pretty much hated her all week because of it lol. I detest these "inspired by" challenges. Don't get me wrong, I love it when other people do them, but man I find them hard.
Here's the thing - you inevitably get caught between knowing your skills can't create what you really want to do, and fighting the urge to compromise and pick something you don't really want to do but which you can probably render on the nail. Catch 22. So all week I've been pondering some of my favourite books, but not THE favourite, and thinking of doing landscape nails for Wuthering Heights or blob-shaped things for the Dementors in Harry Potter, or godknowswhat for The Time Traveller's Wife. But do you know what happened goddesses, I decided I must not compromise and be lazy, I must step up to the plate lol.
So here they are, as inspired by ARIEL by Sylvia Plath. She's probably the most famous woman poet of the last century and someone who blew me away when I first read her. The cover of the volume I read at 16 is this one above, and it depicts the vase of tulips which was the inspiration for one of her poems (the other reason I had been resisting doing this was because there's a tulips challenge in the Spring Challenge, but more on that at the weekend).
This book defined me. It really put me in touch with my inner voice, and it set me some very specific definitions of what female power is and can be. To say I was obsessed with these poems for over a decade is no exaggeration, and it does pain me that so many people view them as depressing; they're not, but they do speak from a place of pain about love, loss, motherhood and womanhood, and the struggle between wanting to live and wanting so badly to just curl up and withdraw from the world.
My mani is 2 coats of OPI Skull & Glossbones, and then stamped with SH Insta-Dri in Cherry Blaze using BM-204. I debated free-handing the tulips, but when I was looking through my plates for something that would give the optical illusion of the "ff"s on the cover, I found these lovely bulb-shaped things, and ta-dah .....
I do really like this actually, it's got a lovely retro vibe going on,and it's just sad that the red hasn't achieved full coverage, but it's definitely a stamp I'll be coming back to.
Really looking forward to seeing what the other girls come up with - if you want to join us, just click here :)
Enjoy xx :)
