More about mehndi (revised*)

* I revised this post a bit since the pictures disappeared and the overall layout was annoying me. Please excuse the awkward start–comments and suggestions are of course welcome.

my mehndi attempt (palm)

I have all these crazy ideas for this blog and future projects and such, but I figure I should focus on my original goal–showcasing some art and craft (and food?) that I’ve recently created or contemplated.

So, I shall start by giving you the rest of the mehndi design series and sharing some thoughts about it.

I worked on these in my dorm room in my crazy pre-thesis state senior year. I was desperately in need of a productive and creative distraction and mehndi designs are the most satisfying craft I’ve found so far. They use soothingly repetitive motifs and can be as simple or complicated as I desire. Most importantly, after sketching out a basic outline I can spend hours filling them in and can really get into one piece without being stuck/blocked.

Paper is also easier to work with than actual mehndi on hands. The medium is less forgiving–I find it hard to make precise designs or fix blurry shapes using the thick paste. And it is difficult to plan a design that works with the shape and contours of hands. The designs I enjoy creating on paper don’t seem to work well on hands as you need more confident and bold strokes. Experienced mehndi artists impress me because they are able to create complicated designs (like the one below) consistently and quickly. And their work is gorgeous.

I think I’ll stick to paper for now, but would love to experiment more with mehndi on hands in the future.

mehndi design series

mehndi design series 2

mehndi design series 3

mehndi design layered with plain and patterned paper

mehndi…in color!

another mehndi design for a greeting card

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