Monday, November 16, 2015

Mehendi

My daughter went to the fair and got this beautiful mehendi (henna) design by a professional. I love her long, tapered fingers -- she has my sister's hand. I have always loved this traditional Indian art form to celebrate the big events in life -- marriage, birth of a new baby -- even the smell is relaxing and calming. And it's a time to share stories.

We bought some online and practiced. I made a much simpler design on my hand. You can see how my daughter likes the more intricate designs. I think with practice, we could become mehendi artists too! So many interests, so little time!

Note that the color darkens after a couple of days from a deep orange to a rustic brown. I got several strange looks at the Marian Eucharistic conference this weekend ... a few people were brave enough to ask me what in the world it was. Strange how people can be afraid of the unknown. I'm like a cat -- curious.




 

5 comments:

Faith E. Hough said...

That's beautiful!
It's funny...I've been doodling on my girls' hands, because something about seeing pretty designs there seems to really help their moods. Little Maddie has made a morning routine of it: she wakes up, gets dressed, and pushes her hands out to me so I can write the word "happy" on them along with some designs. When she was sick with a bad cold last week, I cheered her up by drawing flower vines all the way up to her elbows, and little rings on each finger. Of course I used just a regular pen--red looked pretty at first, but did cause a bit of a panic attack later when she used her arm to wipe her runny nose and made it look like her face was bleeding! I need something a little more permanent than ball point pen. :)

Mirka Breen said...

^These are beautiful, and blessedly temporary...

Barbara Etlin said...

The designs remind me of long sleeves on a lace blouse. Very pretty.

Would this done also on a new store's door? A friend from India made a henna-looking design on the door in a powdery substance. She said it was a blessing on the new store.

Vijaya said...

Faith, you're too funny ... I am sure your girls will enjoy mehendi. As Mirka says, they're temporary (about 2-3 wks) and for the time the mehendi is drying, the girls ought not to get into trouble :)

Barb, what you describe with the powders is rangoli. It's a blessing, a prayer. Almost all Indian girls learn to make these geometric patterns at the threshold of a home. I love both these art forms.

Johnell said...

I've seen the henna designs on ladies hands in some of the places we've lived. So beautiful. I was tempted to get mine done once, but I usually had a newborn/toddler in tow and would never have been able to sit long enough for it to be done. Such lovely artwork and temporary is a plus! Then you can do a new design. :)