This is just a quick post to announce that Ancient Arts now has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. You can find us under the user name Ancient Arts Henna on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at Ancient_Arts. The Facebook posts will automatically appear as tweets as well.
I also wanted to share some of the designs from this summer...
Tribal swirls shoulder piece
Persian hand/palm
Sun and stars sole
Cherry blossoms hand
Arabic strip on leg
Arabic strip on leg, close-up
Close-up of Persian leg piece
floral strip
Arabic/Persian arm/hand piece
Persian/Arabic palm
And finally, I learned an important lesson today that I thought I would pass on to folks. I have a small scar on my calf, thanks to a run in with a sharp seashell. It's barely noticeable normally, but look what happened when I put henna over it...
Scars + henna = bad news
So, lesson learned. Don't henna over scars. Fortunately, it's not all that noticeable in the bigger piece:
Japanese-style cherry blossoms with "ribbons"
I hope you've enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment.
So July arrived and was gone before I knew it. It's been far too long since I've done a post. I've been putting it off until I obtained pictures of the work I did all month, but my photographer is unusually busy and so those are still to be seen. In lieu of a those, I thought I would share the designs I've done in the last week using thinner paste and new Arabic designs.
A dear friend of mine, Ellen, is a henna artist out in L.A., and has offered me excellent advice on a number of occasions. The last time that she put up her work on Facebook, I took a look and noticed that her henna paste looks a lot thinner than mine, almost runny. At the same time, I was experimenting with some new designs and having difficulty getting them to work. They took forever, and the paste would be dry and cracking off before I could finish. I would end up frustrated, with cramped thumbs and a design that wouldn't darken very well. So, I went to the expert, sending Ellen a message asking about the paste. She responded by saying that I almost certainly needed to thin my paste, and that most people start off with paste that is too thick, making it difficult to deal with and prone to drying too fast. She also included this video, on proper paste thickness:
Needless to say, this green gloop was significantly thinner than my mix. I didn't want to use "good paste" to practice a new technique, so I proceeded to pull all of my "old" cones out of the fridge. By "old," I mean between one week and one month old - still retaining some dye, but certainly not good enough to use on clients. I squeezed all the old henna into a bowl, added some lemon juice and a little bit of essential oil and dextrose, and put it into a small cone. These are the designs that I did (on myself) to practice with thinner paste:
My first try with the thinner paste and an Indo-Arabic motif, 24 hours after paste removal.
Same design, 5 days after paste removal.
The old paste doesn't darken as much as fresh paste, but seems to last well.
Delicate Arabic floral design with vines, with paste just removed.
Another view of the above design. Please ignore the paper tape "wrinkles" on my skin, the tape had just been removed after sleeping with it on overnight.
And that same design again, 24 hours after paste removal. Even with the "old" paste, it darkened pretty well.
A large Indo-Arabic design, done with my non-dominant hand, paste just removed (in fact, there are still specks on there). It's not a crisp as with my dominant hand, but I'm trying to learn to be ambidextrous when it comes to henna, so that I can do pretty designs on both hands.
Finally, a bold floral design, with both modern and Arabic influence. I'm not sure how to feel about these leaves. I like them, but they are much less delicate than the leaves I usually use.
All in all, I think I will like working with the thinner paste. I believe it is still thicker than that used by many artists, so I'll be working my way towards that. The next time I mix up some fresh henna, I will use a lot more lemon juice and dextrose than I usually do. I know that there has to be a balance with the paste - too thick and it doesn't like to come out of the cone and dries too fast, too thin and it becomes runny, making it spread too much for delicate designs requiring thin lines. From what I've found and what I've been told, every henna artist is constantly learning new techniques and revising their paste pix formula. I'm glad I can be learning something new and experimenting with it.
I hope you've enjoyed the designs. I'll be at Pennsic in Slippery Rock, PA from August 5th through 14th. I'm hoping to do a lot of henna on people, and get good photos to share. See you mid-August!
