Of all LongLocks hair jewelry styles, my RomanzaStix hair sticks have the most unusual history.
I am somewhat obsessed with interior design, and though my home has a decidedly Asian influence, it remains eclectic, as you would probably expect the home of a somewhat whacky (but reasonably tasteful) artist to be. Shortly after we moved into our Pennsylvania home in 2003, I started suffering from "ugly countertop syndrome," and I would cringe and choke every time I walked into my otherwise beautiful kitchen. The guy who owned the house before us had custom designed the kitchen and sunk all his money into the tall cherry cabinets and ceramic tiled floor but apparently didn't have anything left over for half decent countertops. Instead he installed Formica(!) in a mottled black/grey pattern. While it wasn't the most horrible Formica I've ever seen, I was not happy about this substance infiltrating my living space.
We went to Home Depot and ordered and paid for beautiful black granite with just a tad of sparkle. We arranged for the installers to come and measure our countertop and island, and were to wait for them to call us and schedule the visit. We waited. And waited. And called. And waited. Needless to say, I eventually stormed into Home Depot and canceled the granite, else I'd probably still be waiting. Left with nothing more than a gag reflex every time I walked into the kitchen for all my trouble, I decided I was going to use my own devices to do something temporary until I was ready to tackle the granite issue again.
I covered the counters with the same genuine copper leaf as I now use in some RomanzaStix hair sticks, did the hand veining in silver, gold and copper foil flakes, and then dry rubbed black acrylic to darken and shade the counter to create the effect I wanted. Finally my husband poured on a layer of Bar Coat to create a really thick, self-healing, uberglossy finish. The results were amazingly beautiful (enough to never replace it with granite) and I loved it so much, I wanted to make hair sticks with a similar effect. I adapted the process I used for the counter and my RomanzaStix hair sticks (as well as the since retired MineraliStix) were born! It just goes to show, inspiration for my hair jewelry can come from just about anywhere.
