Participants display their nails during the workshop. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, Jan. 25: Making nails attractive has now become the latest fad among teens. But this time it is not the proposition of beautician and cosmetic experts, but the artists who have taken a fancy to decorate our delicate talons.

Nails can also be a part of aesthetics, at least that’s what 50-odd enthusiastic students were taught at a workshop today. The workshop was organised by Indus Fashion Academy, an institute of fashion and art in Lalji Hirji Road.

Sabir Hussein, the main co-ordinator of the workshop, said: “Nails are one of the most attractive parts of the human limb and to keep them clean and attractive adds to one’s personality. The concept of nail art too, focuses on enhancing the organ’s beauty. Here, at the workshop, the first one of its kind in Ranchi, we are not only making the students aware of nail art, but also informing them as to how nail aesthetics has become a subject of interest in beauty circles across the globe.”

At today’s workshop, students were taught to decorate both natural nails and artificial nails. While the former was made of a tough protein called keratin, the latter is false nails generally made of plastic, gel, fibreglass, silk or acrylic. It was taught how by the medium of dried flowers, beads, fabrics, sparkle and colours, a nail could be beautifully adorned. Three categories were spoken about — hand-made designs made with the help of nail-polish, a texture design which involves the polishing of nails by cream and an air-brush designing of nails which is done through a spray machine.

“One can choose to design a nail according to the occasion. For instance, a season-based design involves the use of vibrant colours while nails could be thematically decorated for various occasions. As for interviews, neutral nail shades can be put on clean, short nails. For a party, it can be given dark and dramatic look by application of bold shades and to keep it naturally casual, you just need them to shape and trim,” said Hussein, a former student of National Institute of Fashion Technology.

It was nice to look at beautifully decorated nails of students at the workshop. There were oval shaped, zigzag and serrated nails decorated tastefully. While some decorated their nails by painting them in the three colours of tricolour, others pierced through the flaunting rings. There were yet others who had done intricate work on their nails through marker pens.

The workshop had 50 persons participating in it mostly comprising art students, designers and housewives.