Recently, Debbie Ward a nail technician at Artisan Salon in Livermore, Calif,, sculpted a set of 10 pink-and-white acrylic nails, each no bigger than a tic tac. Her client, Don Goody, is a doll maker for whom no detail is too small to consider. He painstakingly crafts each porcelain doll by hand even gluing on each eyelash individually. To ensure the dolls have the perfect manicure, Goody delivers newly made limbs to Ward, with a description of each doll’s “personality” or theme. The tiny pink-and-white nails were made for a doll that is “sophisticated, feminine, and career-minded.” The dolls aren’t for sate, but if they when. they would run over $1,000, says Ward.

To make the tiny talons, Ward folded a form in half lengthwise and built a nail that measured one grid wide by two grids long. She used a pair of tweezers to hold the nails so she could buff them, then used glue to secure them to each finger. Ward used a drill underneath the free edge to perfect, the curve, knowing that Goody checks the nails from every angle. The cost? $25 for 10 nails. Nail art is extra.

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