Tags: bridal henna, bridal mehndi, henna, mehndi, paste off photos
What a lovely woman! Natalie has allready sent me her own photos and has promised more from the wedding photographer. Here's what I have so far.
I think this one's my favorite:
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Yesterday I met Natalie. She knew that she wanted henna on her wedding day since her grandmother from Lebanon, rest her soul, taught her about henna when she was a child. She was in a panic, knowing she couldn't do her own right hand. She couldn't find anyone near her to help. Her fiance found me on the Internet!
Natalie wanted thin-lined, floral, graceful designs that reminded her of the Lebanese patterns that her grandmother had taught her.
The palms are one of my favorite patterns ever from "Love Mehndi."
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I thought I was going to get to do 2 bellies this weekend, but I only got to one. The other was my best friend, so I'll make sure to get her next time I visit. She's due August 20th, so I figure if I time it right I might be able to henna her belly 2 more times before the baby comes.
But anyway! here's the one I did get to. It was inspired by a piece done by Darcy of Henna Lounge.
The hearts should have been thicker, and there needs to be more flow in the leaves and vines. I'm not exactly comfortable doing bellies yet. I still struggle with positioning so that we can both be comfortable AND I have a good spot to anchor my arm. Tags: belly henna, henna, mehndi, pregnant henna, pregnancy henna, baby belly
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So, I finally joined flikr today. I was browsing for henna groups to join. I came across a tattoo group that said your photos should be "real tattoos, not henna." WTF is that? I'm so tired of all the tattoo artists in the world who seem to think their art is "real" while mine is apparently not. I certainly don't begrudge them their own, henna free site. That's fine. The phrase "real tattoo" when compared to henna is just insulting. My art is real. What's more most of work free-hand. How many tat artists can say that? I've even met tattoo artists who work solely by tracing a stencil off a flash sheet and filling it in. To me that AINT art. Don't get me wrong, I've met a lot of stunningly talented ink artists. My point is that ink doesn't mean real, and henna isn't fake!
ARG! End Rant.
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Oh my! This is the stuff! If you didn't like the way last years crop took to days to show good color, well... that's all behind us now.
2 hours after removing paste:
Do you see the curls at the wrist? They were only on for about two minutes. I didn't like them, and I thought I had time to wipe them off.
See the blotches near the fingers? The paste was on there about 30 seconds! It was just from sloppiness while filling cones.
This is 26 hours after removing the paste!
This is going to be my new festival henna of choice. After care be damned. Nobody can screw this up!
Tags: henna, mehndi, Jamila, jamila 2007, stain, festival henna
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DHL arrived in a record 45 hours with my package from Pakistan! I find that to be pretty impressive.
Customs on the other hand -not so impressive. This is what my package looked like inside. Don't mind the torn box, that's my own doing.
The problem is that they ALWAYS cut into one packet of henna in each box. I can kinda understand this and never bothered to get too worked up about it this before. This time the went too far. One packet had a small slice in the usual way, just to get a peak at the contents. Another packet was completely removed from the box, with the wrapper inside completely torn open and the contents emptied into the box. The result was a lot of extra work, the loss of 200 grams of henna, and a terribly messy carpet!
ARG!!!
BUT the rest of the henna is in perfect shape and ready for sale here: http://hennamuse.com/catalog1.html
I've never known a fresh crop of Jamila to be a let down, but I can't attest to this particular crop just yet. Here's my fist batch of 200 grams brewing in the sun.
It should be ready to use tomorrow afternoon and the color ready to show off by Sunday!!!
Now if only the Rajasthani I order 2 1/2 weeks ago would arrive!Tags: henna, mehndi, US customs, Jamila, Jamila 2007, new crop
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My first shipment of the Jamila 2007 crop is on its way! Its coming DHL, which is usually really fast. The last time I got a package from Pakistan via DHL it arrived in about 50 hours!!!
I'm taking pre-orders here. I should be able to ship them Monday July 9th at the very latest.
For anyone who doesn't know, Jamila is the most trusted henna among henna artist. Its creamy, smooth, needs no sifting or straining, and has impressive and consistent color.
The box looks like this:
The stain from last year's crop looks like this:
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