Saving The Best For Last

Hey guys!

After all the practice from the previous blog posts, I decided to do a design that showed my improvement from my first blog post to now. The improvement was great and I'm glad that I could connect with my culture more by practicing henna. As I said in some of my previous blog posts that henna is a major part of the Indian culture. It is mainly worn during weddings and special occasions. Now that I have a bit of experience of doing henna, I feel more a part of my culture which makes me happy.

For this design I did a very complicated design that I had a very difficult time to finish. This is however my best design yet in my opinion. I took my time and went slow to reach the best results I could acquire. A fellow classmate recommended that I do this design therefore, I attempted to accomplish my goal. This design is extended more onto my wrist than did my other henna designs. I got many compliments on this design and I must say it feels great to get complimented on something you spent so much time doing.

I started the part of the design on my wrist. This portion of the henna was more complicated and took longer. At first you had to make the top of the wrist which took a while. I wanted the lines to become straighter which took me longer. Then the second half of the wrist absorbed more time due to the number of details. The second half was the same as the first which I was already used to doing so that part went faster. When the flower portion came along, it took me a a while because I wanted everything to be the best it could be. I was a little proud of this part because of all the time and work it took.

I then reached the middle of the hand. This part was very complicated. It was difficult to accomplish but also turned out pretty nice. When I looked at the picture that I was using as inspiration, the design looked very complex. But, when I looked at the henna more closely, it seemed more simple. I broke the design into simple sections. It's easier to view the designs in portions rather than looking at the whole design and seeing the difficulty. If you break the design in sections, you can conquer one part of the design at a time.

Last came the fingers of the design, this part was also a little complicated. This was because, you have to make sure all the fingers follow the same design and you want them to have equal shapes. I haven't done fingers this complicated in the past before but it felt good to take on another challenge. In the book, "Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo" the author says, "Henna paste can be removed after as little as two hours to reveal the orange-burgundy temporary tattoo left" (Abdoyan 2012). This quote shows that in order for the design to leave a darker stain, you have to leave the henna on for a longer time.

Overall the design together looks very pretty and in my opinion, I have greatly improved from when I did my first blog post as a beginner, to now, my last blog post with slightly some more experience. This design took me two hours but it was all worth it. My favorite part of the design was the wrist because of all the time and energy it took.

This is the henna design right after I finished

This is the henna design after removing the paste

This is the design a day after I removed the paste

Do you think that there was an improvement from my first blog post to this current blog?

Abdoyan, Brenda. Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo: Making Mehndi Art with Easy-to-follow Instructions, Patterns, and Projects. East Petersburg, PA: Design Originals, 2012. Print.

Something new

For this blog post I decided to do a henna design that is more complicated and has a prettier look on the hand. This design consists of many dots that connect all the little flowers all over the hand. The tips of the fingers are also more complicated than the previous designs I have done on the blog posts. I was excited to take on a new challenge and attempt to do something a bit more complex and pretty.

I was scrolling through my Instagram explore page when this design caught my eye. I was really interested on the shapes of the design so I decided to give it a try. This henna consists of multiple flowers on the back side of your hand being connected by dots. There are many empty spaces that make the shape of a square. Then, on the fingers have a little design that are made up of lines.

Just as I did on my other designs, I started at the beginning of my hand. I first finished the part of the henna on my wrist and once that part was completed, I made my way to the hand. It was difficult to do the henna on my wrist because I was scared I would smudge the rest of the design. As I would go down my wrist there was more of a risk of me resting my hand with the cone on the design which would cause the design to get messy and not the way I wanted it. I had to be careful. While doing my wrist I was shaking a lot due to the fear of messing up the design.  Therefore, the swirls in the first swirl in the flower was a little squiggly but became more clear on the flower above it.

I finished the wrist part of the design and it turned out almost exactly as I wanted it to. However, when I reached the hand part of the design it got more difficult. The flowers on the back of my hand had to approximately be the same size for it to look its best. I first started drawing in the flowers on the right side of my hand and they are about the same size. But it was harder to finish the design on the left side because the right side of my hand was still fresh which meant that it'd would be harder to make the flowers the same size. While I was doing a flower on the right side of my hand, I made it too big which made it stand out, out of all the other flowers. I hide to wipe it off but it still stained in the five seconds it was on my hand. Throughout the week, the stain became more nonexistent which made the design look nicer than it did before.

The finger tips were the favorite part of my design. After about two hours of having the henna on my hand, it was time to remove it. In the book, Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo, the tips on removing the henna are very helpful. On page 21 it says, "The simplest way to remove the henna paste after the appropriate amount of time has passed (as little as 2 to 4 hours, but 12 to 24 hours if possible) is to let it crumble up and fall off on its own like an autumn leaf falls from a tree in due time" (Abdoyan 2012). The author gave a very thorough analogy on how to remove the paste that makes the process a lot more clear.

This is a picture of the henna a few minutes after finishing.

This is a picture of the henna a few minutes after removal.

This is a picture of the henna the morning after removal.

What kind of design do you think I should do for my next blog post?

Abdoyan, Brenda. Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo: Making Mehndi Art with Easy-to-follow Instructions, Patterns, and Projects. East Petersburg, PA: Design Originals, 2012. Print.

Henna on the Palm

Hey guys!
So for this blog post I decided on changing things up a bit. Instead of doing a design on the back of my hand as I usually do, I decided to do one on the palm of my hand. This was a new challenge for me because I have not done a palm design before so it compelled me to get out of my comfort zone and do something that I wasn't used to.

I was nervous on where to start because of my lack of experience in henna on this part of my hand. I took my cone and started at the bottom of the design which was at my wrist. While starting the design at the bottom of my hand, it was very easy for me because I could easily rest my hand on my palm while working on my wrist. My lines on my wrist were straight and looked exactly the way I wanted them to. However, as I made my way to my hand, the design started to get harder to finish. There was no place to rest my hand which made my hands tired and my right hand started shaking due to that. This led to the lines in the flowers getting a little squiggly and not as straight as the lines on my wrist. The design started looking less as I wanted it to but still turned out nice.

The hardest part about completing the henna was that I couldn't move my hand. If I tried to rest my hand even a little bit, the design smudged which threatened to ruin the flower. Therefore, you had to keep your hand in a awkward position for about an hour and a half. My hand kept getting the temptation to close which made the task even harder and the design took longer to complete. Doing henna on my palm was definitely a challenge for me but I overcame that challenge by being patient and finishing the design to the best of my ability.

In the book, Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo, on page 34 it says, "Using henna to create tattoos on human skin is a unique way to express your individuality in a not-so-permanent fashion" (Abdoyan 2012). Doing henna is now a hobby that I enjoy very much. It helps me become more intact with my culture and do something fun on my free time. Henna helped me recognize my strengths and weaknesses. I plan to improve my strengths and overcome my weaknesses the best I can.

This is my palm minutes after finishing the design.

This is the design after removing the henna.

This is the design the morning after removal.

What are some techniques that could help keep my hand straight and open so there would be no smudges made to the design?

Abdoyan, Brenda. Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo: Making Mehndi Art with Easy-to-follow Instructions, Patterns, and Projects. East Petersburg, PA: Design Originals, 2012. Print.

Henna 101

Hey guys! So this blog post I decided to do a more complicated design but this time on my sister. It filled up her hand a little more. 

So this design is basically made of swirls and curvy lines. It was a little harder to make straighter lines on another person. In the book on page 32 it says, “Inconsistent lines will result in a tattoo with lines that are not sharply defined, which will make the tattoo look a bit sloppy” (Abdoyan 2012). This design was more difficult for me to do because applying henna on another individual is more difficult than applying it on yourself. It took a little longer for me to do since I didn’t want to smear the henna while applying it. My hands ached because of the more variety in shapes that I used and didn’t have much experience in doing such a design. 

The design isn’t as complicated as it seemed in one of the pages in the book. At first when I started at the bottom of the design it was harder for me to make straight lines the way I wanted them to look. But, as I made my way to finishing the design and getting to the top, it started getting more clear and easier to depict the design. My lines started getting straighter and I got used to using the cone a little more which helped making the design the way I wanted it to look.

You apply henna on your hand as if you were icing a cake. You hold the cone like you would hold the pastry bag and draw to the best of your ability. The henna flows out of the cone depending on how much pressure you put on it. If you make a mistake you quickly take it off however it will stain even after a few seconds so you have to be careful. 

This picture shows the henna design a few minutes after applying it.

This picture shows the design after removing it. As you can see, the henna is a light orange.

This picture shows the henna design the day after removing it. The stain turns into a darker orange. 

What kinds of designs or images do you think would look nice on a hand?

Abdoyan, Brenda. Teach Yourself Henna Tattoo: Making Mehndi Art with Easy-to-follow Instructions, Patterns, and Projects. East Petersburg, PA: Design Originals, 2012. Print.