Ikat Print & Tutorial

Happy Monday.  *facepalm*.  Won't go into details here, but I've had an awful morning.  I've been so busy this week that Castle Mani Monday completely slipped my mind, but at least I've got some exciting nail art to show you today!  

First things first though, I got my own lamp on Saturday!  Until now I'd been using my sister's bedside table lamp for my pictures, which she made no secret of her annoyance for.  This new lamp that I got is extremely bright, and it actually works with the lightbox I made a few months ago which never ended up being used.  I'm so happy with how my photos are turning out, much more even lighting and glare is drastically reduced.  You wouldn't believe how much easier it is to take pictures of glitter now!  So, YAY lightbox pictures!! :D

Now what you all came here for, les nails.  The other day I was in Winners looking at the nail polish selection (shocker, I know,) and I found two interesting OPIs.  One of them was Chop-sticking To My Story, a burnt orange-ish-red-ish creme (very technical terms there.)  I was skeptical about how it would look on my skin tone, but it was on sale so why not give it a chance?  :P

When I got home, this polish was just screaming at me to do some ikat print nail art.  I'd never done a look like that before but had seen plenty around, so I perused the interwebz for some inspiration.  While most people did a look similar to this, I wanted a more uniform all-over pattern.  When I saw this picture (middle photo on the far right column) I knew that was how I wanted to interpret the ikat look on my nails and this nail art was born!  

I started with two perfect coats of OPI Chop-sticking To My Story, and waited for that to dry.  I used acrylic paints for everything else, except the gold which is a Color Club striper, and topped it with two coats of Seche Vite.  

I realize that there's a ton of ikat print nail art tutorials out there, but since my interpretation was a but different I figured I'd make a photo tutorial!  I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but don't hesitate to comment with any questions and I'll get back to you asap!  :)

Overall, I really enjoyed wearing this look and I'm definitely glad that I picked up this OPI, it's a little unusual for me but I love it!  At least having something something fun on my nails (as well as coming home from rehearsal to some nail mail and a new Castle episode tonight) is helping to override my huge fiasco this morning.  

How do you like ikat print?  Do you prefer this to the way it's normally done?  Is this look something you'd wear?  I love hearing what you think!  :)