Nat King Cole chose to immortalize the Mona Lisa in song. Wendy Weldon chose to recreate Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting on a fingernail.

"I’ve been drawing since I was 2 years old, and da Vinci is my idol," says Weldon, who works at the Main Street Nail Station in Plymouth, Mich. Weldon first did the design about 1 ½ years ago as a challenge to herself. It takes 25 minutes for her to paint it freehand on one nail while looking at a picture of the painting, and she charges $20. Among her palette of nail art designs, the Mona Lisa is undoubtedly Weldon s most intricate offering.

Her Mona Lisa portrait displayed on a pendant attracted a lot of attention from nail technicians at the NAILS Magazine Show in Dearborn, Mich., last November.

“Nail technicians were coming up to me with interest in my jewelry so it may be a blossoming thing,” says Weldon.

Weldon also wore a pin comprised of three painted nail tips — a cameo, a rose, and Our Lady of Guadalupe (patron saint of Mexico and unborn children) — at the show, which aroused interest. Weldon says that her Lady of Guadalupe design is so popular with one of her clients that she gets it every two weeks when she comes in for a fill. “She plans on getting the design regularly for the next 30 years,” says Weldon with a laugh.

Weldon, who has been a nail technician for two years, began competing when she was a student and placed second in nail art at her first competition at the June 1994 NAILS Magazine Show She won fourth place in nail art at the 1995 NAILS Magazine Show in Dearborn with her “Herald Angels” design, which featured carved tips.

Where does she get her ideas from? “They just pop in my head,” Weldon says, which proves that her mind is just as creative as her hands.