Boss Babes Retreat

Just a paisley doodle from the Boss Babes retreat.

Henna party

Tonight I invited some girlfriends over to practice henna. It's a wonderfully stringy henna from Rajasthan. It was so easy to draw nice lines, and I added a little cosmetic glitter just for fun. Missed out? I have frozen the rest, and need more practice, so let's get together and I'll draw on you.

Color Theory Study

I've finished my color theory course, and now feel much more comfortable using color in my compositions. I would definitely recommend Jane Dunnewold's online classes, and I'm going to be participating in her Artist Strength Training this summer.

Blue Green study with complement

Here's a piece I made for my Color Theory class. I'm using a bunch of stencils and stamps from the craft store, but I'm pretty happy with the way the colors and composition turned out.

Finished Wax Resists on Linen

Paisley patterns

Fun folding

My mom made this one :)

Soy Wax Resist

My mom's visiting from Montana this week, and tonight we experimented with soy wax resists. Yes, that is a wax warmer for depilation, but I bought an empty can and filled it with soy wax. It keeps it at a great temperature with no smoking.

Wax resist on white linen

Gigi Wax Warmer used for art, not pain.

Wax resists for overdying

Rajasthani Textiles

I just returned from a tour of India. My best friend got married in Kochi, and then I spent the rest of my visit between New Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. My favorite place was Jaipur, Rajasthan. As this city is high in the mountains without a great source of agriculture or water, the city relied on trade for food, and hence developed a great arts and crafts culture. It is well known for fine textiles, including block printing and embroidery. I purchased enough textiles to fill two large duffel bags (acquired at a New Delhi market for 500 Rs. total, or about $8), and will share photos soon.

I wanted to post a brief update of some of the block printing demos from Jaipur:

All the inks are vegetable or plant based. They had a stamp-pad like tray with cheesecloth and ink.

This is a four color print.

First, the key image is printed.

Other layers are hand registered by carefully aligning one edge and then setting the block down. You pound the block with your fist to apply pressure. (Hello Iron Palm training!)

All four colors.

Typically the fabrics are dried in the sun a few days and the colors change. They did a shortcut here by dropping the cloth in these two solutions.

White on color

For tonight's pattern postcards, I colored the cards with solid blocks of color and then drew on the surface with white pencil.

More postcards

I made a few more pattern postcards tonight to send out. There's still more if you'd like to sign up!

Sign up for a free card

I will not sell or retain your address. This is only a fun project to promote 365 Days of Pattern and to share artwork.

Henna Patterns

Last night I did henna with a friend. Here's my recipe, adapted from The Henna Page.

Always use body art quality henna from a trusted source. I recommend the following suppliers:
http://www.mehandi.com/shop/
http://www.hennacaravan.com/
http://www.castleart.com/
FYI: Never buy anything labeled as "black henna." There is no such thing in nature -- Products labeled black henna contain a nasty hair dye that gives bad rashes. See the warnings here.

The simplest henna mixes just combine lemon juice and henna powder. I prefer a more complex mix.

The night before, I simmered some black tea, cardamom, cloves, lime peels, sugar, and fenugreek for 30 minutes.

Next I mixed in key lime juice and let the mixture cool.

After the mixture was room temp, I mixed in 200 g Jamila henna and a few tablespoons of honey, adding enough liquid to make a thick paste. I covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight. Here's what it looked like the next morning. You can see the top layer is dark because the dye release has begun.

Now that we've let it sit overnight, it's time for terps. If you want a darker stain, you can use essential oils that contain terpenes to help the dye release. For more info on terps, read here. For this mix I used a cajeput oil blend purchased from the Henna Caravan. I added 42 drops because I like that number.

Let the mixture sit another 8 hours or so, and it's ready to apply. I rolled cones out of mylar and filled them with henna, sealing the end with a rubber band. For other application techniques, you can read here.

Here's the henna applied when still wet:

 We taped up our designs to avoid staining the house:

Here's the finished result, before oxidation:

Green

Today's suggestion is to use only the color green. I used a bamboo pen and some moss green calligraphy ink to draw some paisleys.

Powder room paisley

Outdated lipsticks, plus some pencils, in henna-style paisleys on the mirror. The lipstick was too red so I covered it in sparkly blue powder.