Indian Henna Motif

I decided to practice a little bit today and turned on the camera to document my fun. Yes, even pro henna artists should practice. When I don't practice I notice an increase in hand cramps, and my lines get a bit wobbly as well.

Recently I decided to only take on bridal clients or special projects. I no longer do henna parties so a majority of my practice is brushing up on my bridal henna skills.

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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 

Who hasn't seen or applied this henna design yet?

Finally a tutorial by yours truly! There are several variations of this design floating around the webs, but I took a my copy from @hudabeauty on instagram. I'd like to give credit to @hennabydivya who I was told is the original designer of this pattern, it was lots of fun to apply and has been insanely popular with my customers. I've altered this design slightly a few times on some of my clients, it has a very "gulfy" look and feel to it.

Henna for Holi

I'm a little late with this post, but wanted to share this henna design I created for Holi (the Hindu festival of colors). By request I put this fun design together. The video was uploaded to youtube prior to the holiday, and I hope viewers who are observing Holi had the opportunity to utilize the design I created. What do you think? Please leave your comments and subscribe to my youtube channel.

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Mehndi Mela eBook

Mehndi Mela is now available! I know it's two weeks late, but I just don't put any old designs in my ebooks. Mehndi Mela is a celebration of body art. The designs start quite simple and grow into elaborate designs for the most special of occasions. I'm so excited to share this labor of love with you. Most of the designs are Indian style, but you'll find fusion pieces from Morocco and Khaleegy inspired pieces as well.

Inside you'll find 20 pages of hand, feet, and motifs for you to place anywhere you'd like. Includes designs for all application levels, but most designs fall in the intermediate range.

Hands 30 patterns

Feet 10 patterns 

Motifs 28 pieces

Click here to purchase your very own copy of Mehndi Mela 

  

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. 

Fun Henna Motifs in Minutes

You can create a fun and detailed henna motif in just minutes. Quick motifs are great for festivals, henna parties, or henna beginner classes. I really enjoy creating these fun pieces. You can find several Indian style henna motifs in my new ebook Mehndi Mela including the design in the video below. Enjoy!

Tried this design? Tag me on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #freehandmehndi

Full Length Online Henna Course for Beginners FREE!

I created this video several years ago and until recently it has been on private setting on youtube. Not sure how that happened but it's live and available again. I hope to create several more videos of this style in the near future. I hope you find my teaching method helpful. Enjoy!

Beginners you'll be able to lay out and break down a henna design by the end of this video.

ps. The products offered in this video are no longer available through Free Hand Mehndi, please google the title of the book (Zury by Heena Patel) and purchase from a reliable supplier. If you need help or have questions, please feel free to contact me.

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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