This past week I spend two days photographing parishioners at Zion Church Ministries in Everett, Massachusetts. They are a fun, lively and beautiful bunch of people.

This woman, Deaconess Lolithea Thompson, wears 14 karat gold fingernails. She had them custom designed and crafted by a jeweler. Each nail is emblazoned with a trinket or patterned texture. One of the thumbnails has a stud through the tip, around which a small gold flower twirls. How cool is that?!

Deaconess Lolithea Thompson - Used with permission

When Lolithea’s natural nails grow out she has to remove the gold nails, trim her natural nails, and re-affix the gold nails. She has had these nails for decades and is quite proud of them.

fingernail · gold · jewelry · photography · portrait