My entry for a design contest...

This is the very simple design I did for a contents in a henna artist's group. Here's the contest:

Here's my design:

Nayan's Wedding Mehndi

IMG_2924, originally uploaded by Henna Muse.

Nayan was such a smart, sweet, soft spoken woman, and her mom fed me a lovely dinner!

Erika's belly

IMG_2902, originally uploaded by Henna Muse.

Pics from my baby belly appointment last night. Design from LullaBee – Tammi Glanzer-Boudreau.

I used Rajasthani henna from Magical Mehndi cut with Purity from Mehandi.com.

Accents are done with gold glittermark also available at Mehandi.com

News about HennaSuppliers.org

HennaSuppliers.org just got a huge face-lift! If you don't know already, HennaSuppliers.org is a social website for the henna, body art, and natural personal care community that supports quality artists and suppliers.

The site now offers interactive features such as an events calendar, forums, articles, listings of artists and suppliers, galleries and much more. Please come check it out and see for your self!

Artist banner listings will be only $5 for a year. Banners run at the bottom of site pages and appear in a database that can be searched by location. Our site already has a google page rank of 2 and it was only just born a few months ago. For a limited time, these listings will be offered for free in order to get things moving. Go check it out!!!

Henna Muse is on Etsy!

Lookie!

Henna Muse Fall Rajasthani 2008! -Color Results!

Check out the photos of color for our new favorite henna! Click on the photos to go to flicker and read all the details.

Tags: henna, mehndi, temporary tattoos, mica

Henna Muse has just added a line of vividly colored micas! Mica is the mineral colorant used in makeup. It is nonirritating and hypoallergenic. Mica can be used with medical adhesive to produce colorful mehndi designs that last up to a week!

This mehndi design was done by first applying medical adhesive with an applicator bottle and a precision stainless steel tip. The adhesive was allowed to dry until clear. Then an eye shadow brush was use to brush the mica over the adhesive. Moonlight swarovski crystals were also attached with medical adhesive..

You can use this same method for temporary tattoos that last a week! The smaller particle size gives these 'tattoos' even more longevity that those made in the same way with glitters.

These micas are FDA approved for use on the face, lips, nails and even around the eyes. This means that you can use them directly as eye shadow, to color homemade soaps, or added to your favorite lotion to give you a little shimmer all over. This product has limitless uses!

We have 13 colors of micas. Here's a few examples.

Click here to see the rest up close:  http://www.hennamuse.com/catalog4.html#mica

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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

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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Tags: pregnancy henna, belly henna, henna

This is my best friend's baby belly!!

I wish I had the chance to do this more often. I'm sure I'd be much better at bellies if I could get my hands on more of  'em! So many women are shy about their baby-bellies. What's that about? Be proud, stick it out, and let me paint it!!!

It's importatnt with pregnent women to make sure they get a doc's permission. There's nothing dangerous about it all. But when under a doctor's care you should discuss with them anything you plan to do with your body! Lavender essential oil is the best choice in a paste mix for pregnent women and children. This is because it is the mildest oil that will have any impact on stain quality.

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Tags: goddess art, moon art, pagan, henna, body art

So, I do occasionally do fun stuff at the salon! Here's what I did Saturday.

The Goddess

The moon with flowers

...and from the front

These ladies were wonderful and I really hope they come back to see me again!

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