USA Clay Cane Designs Absent From Fimo Nail Art Trends in Google
Nailart design craze – Is Malta winning the race?
Just yesterday I received an email from nail artist Debbie Doerrlamm at the Beauty Tech Shoppe. She referred to the current fingernail Fimo canes frenzy as being "…very hot and heavy now. I will say that in 18 years in the industry, I haven't seen anything like this level of creativity!"
This spurred me to do more research on the topic and I ended up at the Goggle Trends site. As you can see in the above graph, the nail art industry has been growing very quickly during the first half of 2008 from January to June.
Of note is that Malta has been kicking some serious butt based on the bar chart showing that it is responsible for the highest number of searches per region. The countries ranking under Malta (way under) are: Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Greece, Croatia, Malaysia, Slovakia and finally the United Kingdom.
USA and Canada don't even show up! So what's up with that North America? Why are we out of the loop?
When I received a request from Monique Neal, one of my readers, on June 4 asking where she could get some "…fimo/sculpey canes that are 1/4" in diameter to put on nails," the only thing I could say at the time was, "…that sounds so cool! I haven't really heard of people using cane slices for fingernails, but I will definitely look into it. I want to know more. I will post it on my site when I find something."
But let me tell you, it wasn't very easy finding information about this highly unique topic. My quest began with searches like, 'miniature nail art in polymer clay' and 'nail art clay canes'.
I looked all over the net and ended up in some beautician forums hoping to find clues. Lot's of nail art technicians were asking where to find Fimo frooties and fruity canes for nails. They seemed desperate!
More research led me to a woman out of England by the name of Angie Scarr who creates Fimo fruit slices for the miniature dollhouse market. She had the brilliant idea of selling her canes for nailart design… Bingo!
So after about a week I finally had enough info to provide Monique with some decent resources. Here's a link to my June 10 post: Fimo Nail Art – Polymer Clay Canes for Fingernail Art Designs. In the comments section of that article, you'll also see some great tips from polymer clay expert Charlene ("Cat") Therien; and fingernail cane artist Debbie Doerrlamm; about proper use of clear acrylic and gel products with fimo nailart and baked cane slices.
Ever since my June 10 post, the polymer clay community and nail salon industry have been all a buzz with excitement! It's very fun to be on the cutting edge of something new. I hope that my efforts at least will have something to do with putting North America on the map to give those Maltese nail artists a run for their money. All in good fun of course :-)
But I'm still itching to find out why Malta is dominating the Fimo nail art design industry. This tiny little country consists of a just a small group of islands off the southern tip of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. I think the total population is only about 350,000 people, most of which must be beauty estheticians and nail technicians for them to be doing so phenomenally well. Way to go Malta!
Hopefully this article will inspire you to leave a comment below to share your thoughts. Let's hear what you have to say about the "Why Malta" question… or perhaps you'd like to address why North America is not even showing up on the radar? Ouch! Speak up countries of the world! Bring some clarity to this crazy Fimo nail art debate.
Hey… maybe the Google Nail Art Trends numbers are wrong… Could that be it?
Filed Under: 07: Cane Work, 13: Musings-News, 14: Feature Guests by Comment. 
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Comments on USA Clay Cane Designs Absent From Fimo Nail Art Trends in Google
8:27 pm
I hope this blaze of interest in polymer clay cane nail art really injects some creativity and spurs the cane makers to test the limits of their abilities when it comes to cane designs. It's a win-win situation, no matter what country you're from!
4:48 pm
You are so right Cat! All right you Nail Art Technicians… I know you're reading this, I can see it in my server logs!… What country are you from?… What do you think about this whole thing?
Cindy's last post..Hand Made Jewelery Making Vendors Venting About Etsy Server Crash
1:12 pm
I just received the following email and wanted to share it here…
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"Thanks to the internet I found this site, I too am a Nail Artist, researching to find if there are classes, dvd's, and step by steps to creating minitures of polymerclay faces, patterns that I could inlay into my naildesigns and finally there is although I've had this idea for years and someone just beat me to it!! Would you please keep me on the list for classes, tutorials, dvd's, sample ideas and the likes? Thanks for being here. – Deneen-"
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Deneen – Glad you found my fimo nail art articles. I see that you have also subscribed to my Polymer Clay Tutor Guest List. So you are now officially in the loop to receive the free weekly video tutorials and subscriber-only perks. Stay tuned! There's lots of exciting stuff coming for all of you nail artists interested in making polymer clay canes.
PS: You wouldn't happen to be from Malta would you? I'm not even sure if the Maltese people speak English. Anyone know? My only previous reference to Malta was from the 1941 classic film, "The Maltese Falcon." It was a mystery thriller starring Humphrey Bogart. And in case you are wondering…. NO I'm not even close to being old enough to have been around to see that movie on opening night :-)
Still waiting for someone to shed some light on Why Malta is kicking butt when it comes to fingernail art design.
10:15 am
The other reference that I remember is that the 1980 film, "Popeye," starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, was filmed at Anchor Bay on the island of Malta.
"Well, blow me down!"
—- Popeye
,
Sharon (who watched Popeye cartoons as a child)
3:00 pm
Thanks for the Malta reference Sharon. I remember that Popeye movie you are referring to but had no idea it was filmed that long ago… 1980 almost seems retro now. Time flies by so fast!
Last post..Mokume Gane Polymer Clay Canes for Pendant and Bead Jewelry Making
10:09 pm
I got this email from Becky and felt compelled to post it here because as you can see from her message, Becky is from Malta! I love it how the Internet can so easily bring people together from opposite sides of the world!
BECKY'S QUESTIONS:
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"I was wondering if u ship to malta.. i have been trying to find instructions on making rose canes and butterfly canes and i cant seem to find anyone to help.. can u ? Thanks a million, becky"
Hi Becky – I have several Polymer Clay Cane making courses in production right now, and when they are ready, the answer is to your question is a big YES! All of my courses are web based which means they can be viewed any place in the world that is hooked up to the Internet (which is pretty much everywhere I think).
If you get a chance Becky, please do tell us something about Malta… like why is FIMO nail art so popular in your country?
Cindy's last post..Making Beads with a Mod Polymer Clay Cane for Cool Jewelry Projects
4:16 am
I'll be looking forward to hearing what Becky has to say.
Cat
4:25 pm
So am I Cat! Paging Malta.
Cindy's last post..Making Beads with a Mod Polymer Clay Cane for Cool Jewelry Projects
6:27 pm
I would love to learn this technique from begining to end with step by step instructions from buying the cane to slicing to applying it correctly on the nail. I think this is going to be huge! Can anyone tell me where to find directions on how to do this? I dont think i am ready to actually make my own cane yet but i would love to use it in my design works with my clients!
3:21 pm
Michelle I totally get where you're coming from. I have not really found any clear instructions for doing this, though I do have a vague idea. I know that the Fimo slices react badly to regular nail polish and must be used with acrylic gel medium.
But since I'm not a nail tech, I'm not totally sure where to buy that or how it is used (the acrylic gel medium). You probably do though.
In order to get a feel for how the process works, I bought some fake nails and have been experimenting with acrylic paint and gluing on the slices with Krazy Glue. Of course with the gel medium the slices are embedded and the result is much sturdier than what I am currently mocking up.
I would love to find a local technician that I could work with, so that we could put together a how to video. I am super excited about this technique too and have been working on some cane designs to start teaching people how to make.
Keep popping by, because I want to get something going like that as much as you do!
6:45 pm
Thank you so much for your help on this and if i come across a Tech that does this technique i will be sure to send them to your site! and if by some chance i figure out how to do this correctly and it turns out good i will let you know and maybe we can put it all together! While i am not into the bead making yet myself i do enjoy all of your information. Thank you again and keep up the wonderful site it is GREAT!
9:47 am
That would be excellent Michelle! If you want to learn a little about slicing the canes click on the link by my name to read a short article about it. If you read down further into the comments there are more tips there.
Also you should know that you can easily sand the cane slices once they are glued on to get them as thin as you want. We polyclay artists sand our beads all the time. They buff and polish up nicely as well if you want to try that!
12:09 pm
Hi Cindy,
Please help! I have a beauty supply store, and would really like to know where i can purchase these Fimo polymer clay cane nail art pieces. I have so many customers asking for them. Thanks a billion!!!
Kelly
1:16 pm
Hi Kelly,
I provided a link to where you can purchase polymer clay canes over at another article. You can click on the "Fimo Nail Art Designs" link by my name above to go there.
Hope that helps
4:23 pm
I would love to be able to get canes in order to use them for my nail art. However i hardly have time for myself, imagine what time i have to learn or go to classes. How can I learn the most at a good fast pace from home or comp.? Your feed back would be greatly appreciated. Susan
4:10 pm
Susan, the best and fastest way to learn how to make fimo nail art canes will be through video. I have a few videos on making leaf canes that would work for nail art. I will have more videos specifically for nail art soon, so stay tuned.
If you are interested in those leaf cane videos click the link by my name for more info.