It was a rather exciting bridal appointment. First of all, because of babysitter issues and the fact that my best assistant is still in the feeding-baby-every-45-minutes stage of motherhood, I had to do a bride, 7 bridesmaids, 2 moms, a sister and an auntie in 4 hours! I warned the poor girl in advance that I couldn't do my best work in this amount of time, but she was still happy to have me. To make things even more exciting a wicked storm blew through complete with a tornado! Don't worry, the tornado didn't get close, but we did lose power for a few worried minutes. Anyway, I did end up staying over an hour late despite my hopes of getting home at midnight for the sitter, and I suppose I did a decent job considering how fast I had to work. I ended up telling the last few bridesmaids not to pick patterns. Just show me a style you like because I can wing-it much faster than copying a pattern.

The bride:

...and the bridesmaids:

...and the Moms and 2 bridesmaids:

I had a lovely time. Everyone was very kind and appreciative and the aunties were unusually hands-off! Then I headed off to chase the storm home for two hours! I was home by 1 am, in bed by 2 and up again to get the munchkins to school by 6:30. I think I'm getting a little too old for that kind of crap!

Tags: Henna, mehndi, brides, bridal mehndi

On Friday I had the opportunity to do henna at an event to raise awareness about Darfur. It included a traveling enactment of a refugee camp put on by stopgenocidenow.org.

The event included many ways to help including petitions and the opportunity to sponsor a solar cooker for a family in Darfur. What's a solar cooker? Check it out:

Of course I did some henna. The students organizing the event encouraged people to get henna on the inside of their left forearm symbolizing the ID tattoos the Jews were forced to were there during the holocaust. The people I met had creative requests and I didn't have to resort to using a design book at all! Of course the better pieces I did were while I was busy so I don't have pictures, but here are a few:

I was really impressed with the students that I met At IPFW. I go to colleges quite a bit, and I have to say, for the most part, young college students are fairly self involved and haven't really learned to empathize and participate in the world beyond their own. The kids the met last week were thoughtful, interested in each other's life experiences, and just bursting with positive energy. They were creative, involved, and a pleasure to spend the day with!

Tags: Darfur, IPFW, stopgenocidenow.org, henna, mehndi, camp darfur

Handy new packaging for 2, 4, and 8 ounce sizes of paste! The tapered tip makes filling cones and smaller bottles easy and the red cap alows you to re-close the bottle to store leftovers. The tip can be cut open to any size so you can even use the bottle directly for large, bold applications.

Get it here!

Tags: henna paste, mehndi paste, henna, mehndi, squeeze bottle

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Tags: henna, mehndi, glitter tattoos, swarovski crystals, bridal henna, bridal mehndiTags: Poe

I did some more glitter work to post on the Henna Page for the monthly Artists' Challenge.

These fingertips are done with moonlight Swarovski crystals in 3, 3.5 and 4 mm size. I got the idea from the cover of a Poe album.

Here it is with blue and silver glitter added.

I also had an appointment with a woman who wanted to surprise her husband with bridal style mehndi.

The backs of the hands are my own design (-read as a quicky take on traditional Indian bridal) and the palms are from the design book Love Mehndi -which I totally LOVE. Its my favorite design book available so far.

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Tags: henna, mehndi, mehandi, glitter, sardozi, glitter tattoos, swarovski crystals

Henna Muse now has cosmetic glitters and swarovski crystals!

Here's the glitter colors. You can order here: http://www.hennamuse.com/catalog4.html#glitter

Check here to see the swarovski crystal colors: http://www.hennamuse.com/catalog4.html

Here's some photos of a quick glitter tat. Its done with burgundy glitter and volcano aurora crystals.

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Last weekend I did my final festival of the season. I admit, I booked myself light this summer, but I'm going to take a vacation with my whole family for the first time ever and school starts (really early!) on the 20th so I just didn't book any fairs at all for August!

This festival was the Celina Lake Festival on Grand Lake in Celina OH. Here's a few photos.

I believe this is from one of Kim Brennan's books.

This one is my own.

This one is from Aloha by Deborah Brommer.

This is a custom piece. She wanted dolphin and the names with a tribal frame. The symmetry isn't that great. Can you tell which way I usually draw my dolphins facing?!? LOL!

I *think* this is another Kim.

Tags: Celina lake Festival, Grand lake, henna photos, mehndi photos, henna, mehndi

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Henna Muse now has applicator bottles!

The bottles are in three sizes: 1 ounce, 3/4 ounce, and 1/2 ounce. The bottle come with an adaptor for the tips below. In about two weeks when we premier our new glitters, these bottles will be available with an adaptor for "poofing" glitter too!

There are 8 different interchangeable tips. Stainless steel tips offer the accuracy and feel of jacquard bottles or syringes. The polypropylene tips have great flow and are easier on the hand. Both types come in small, medium, large, and X large, or gages 15, 17. 19, and 21.

Check 'em out here! http://www.hennamuse.com/catalog5.html#bottles

Tags: henna, mehndi, applicator bottles, syringes, jacquard, jac

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