Let's get ready for Diwali

It's that time of year again and henna is appropriate for just about every celebration. I created this video per viewer request. I created the design myself and it will be featured in an upcoming ebook. I love the double mandala connected by dainty jewelry like chains.

Hope you enjoy and Happy Holidays!

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Sojat Supreme Rajasthani Henna Powder

After many many many months of testing she's ready! Sojat Supreme is my very own henna powder, milled just how I like it, stringy, and stains super dark. This stuff is super smooth and drapes like a dream. 

Over the years I've sampled henna powders from all over SE Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Each henna from each region has a unique consistency. When I was dreaming about the perfect henna powder I needed the stringy texture of Morocco, the stability of the Punjab Region, and the rich stains of the Middle East. My dream came true in the form of Sojat Supreme, a henna powder from Sojat Rajasthan India.

In addition to my testing I sent this amazing powder out to several other artists to try. Below are their results. 

 

 

So here are the specs...

Sojat Supreme 2015 Crop

Lawsone Dye Content 2.89%

Harvested Rajasthan India

Triple Sifted

Free from chemicals and artificial dyes

Sojat Supreme is available in my etsy shop

freehandmehndi.net 

Sudanese Henna Pattern Book

One of my local long time customers sent me this awesome henna design book from Sudan. I can't wait to start applying some of these awesome designs, you'll see a video soon. I wanted to share this gift with all of you. I scanned all of the pages including the front and back cover. The pages are tissue paper thin so preserving this little book is a must. Enjoy! 

Thank you Pat, for sharing this wonderful gift with me. 

Feel free to save and print the pages below. All I ask is that you do not reproduce these and sell them or watermark them, and please link back to this blog if you use the designs. 

Henna Design Placement Moroccan Inspired Henna Design

I get a ton of questions about design placement. Especially for parts of the body where you don't usually have henna applied. I did this Moroccan inspired chest piece back in December and used her cleavage and base of her neck to map the main part of the design. I then based the rest of the design off of the center piece. After finishing one motif I'd stand directly in front of her and map the other to match on the other side. It's more difficult than it looks, as you can see it's a little out of balance, but hey, who's perfect?

 I'll do a more detailed video explaining design mapping in the future, but this video shows a little demo.

Pieces of this video are missing unfortunately, but I hope that you can benefit from it.

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She brought me a shirt

With henna the possibilities are endless so when a friend brought me a shirt and asked me to create a design, I was excited. Free hand henna designs with inspiration from objects, is one of my favorite ways to do henna. If an object is not available I get inspiration from veins in the hands (sounds crazy, I know). This design was lots of fun, and this shirt was easy to get inspired by.

Can you see what I used from this shirt? What would you have done differently? What do you use for inspiration? Check out my instagram @freehandmehndi for daily inspiration

Floral Strip Fun

Floral strips have taken the henna design world by storm. While they've been around forever they've recently become more popular in bridal and special occasion henna. The awesome thing about floral strips is they're super easy to do, even for a beginner, and they look impressive when finished with very little effort.

Floral strips are made up of 3-4 shapes, accents, or motifs that are repeated until the design is complete. Below is a video of my most recent floral strip adventure. As you can see it took almost no time to complete and looks rather full.

Floral strips are fun for just about anywhere, the arm, hand, foot, leg, and even down the middle of the back.

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All images and video copyright Free Hand Mehndi

Another bit of fusion henna fun inspired by the gulf

I love trying to fuse new styles of henna together. In this bit I mixed Bahraini/Gulf florals and accents with Indian mandala pieces. Much of this design was inspired by designs found on Hennaalakhawat's instagram. I love this style and look forward to trying more designs from this region.

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eBook Rerelease! Naqashat Moroccan Designs

So excited I was able to recover an ebook I thought was forever lost. Naqashat was the ebook that transitioned me from amateur ebook author to a pro. It took months for me to finish this ebook and it was a true labor of love. In this ebook are fusion designs and some traditional Moroccan pieces as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved creating these patterns.

Naqashat is the word used to describe a traditional Moroccan Henna Artist.

Hip Hip Horay! Naqashat is back!

Naqashat includes 6 pages, 12 motifs, 2 hand patterns, and 4 foot patterns. Recommended for intermediate, but a nice challenge for beginners.

Naqashat is only $5 and can be purchased here 

Henna Fusion

When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be an illustrator. In one way that dream did come true, I mean henna is an illustration, isn't it? A few years ago I started drafting ebooks with henna patterns. My first books were awful, but my skills have improved since then and has become another creative outlet. 

For the past few months I've worked hard to complete an upcoming ebook release. I sketched, tested, re sketched, and then drafted in ink many designs. Some designs didn't make the final cut, yes I'm a little obsessive about my ebooks lol. 

Fusion henna designs have become my new passion. Fusion happens when I combine several different styles of henna into one design. The design pictured below is a mixture of Moroccan (the shape/outline), Indian (fillers), and Arabic (bold lines and accents). I've now decided to do an ebook just on fusion designs alone, but this is a great start. 

What do you think? What are your favorite styles of henna to mix? Join me on Pinterest, where I'll start previewing my fusion designs.

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