This article was taken from the April 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
London-based Mary Stephenson is a master sculptor at the mini scale -- and her fingernails are her mobile exhibition space. "First, I recreated my favourite paintings, with the finest details," she says. "Then it escalated from there to sculptures made from acrylic, gels, resin, plaster and wax." The latest step is 3D-printed nails. "It's an intricate process: you could do something like a Henry Moore, and then print that in sculptural form," she says. "Our nails are tiny canvases." She has recreated works including David Hockney's A Bigger Splash and Claude Monet's Water Lilies.
For her 3D-printed nails, she is making digital bespoke designs. "Getting it 3D printed means people could come in and have their own jewellery that they love, something they want to recreate, and you could scan their hand and perfectly model them to their nails," she says. "For me, it's about making artwork you can have at your fingertips."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
