Consulting a Professional (2) (Interview)

Finding an Expert

     As much as my Internet research revealed, it still isn't comparable to speaking with a true henna expert. So I checked with a friend of mine who's of Indian descent to see who did her henna the couple of times I'd seen her wearing it. She told me that her older sister had done it, but for her, it was just a hobby. I was looking for someone with real expertise. So I ran a quick search to see of anyone in my area had a henna shop or something. Nothing. In expanding the distance, though, I discovered the legendary Neha Assar. She's done henna work for celebrities like Kylie Jenner and supermodel Jessica White. Her runway henna has been featured in magazines, along with articles dedicated to her life, and her bridal henna's gone viral with her personalized twist on traditional patterns. How much of a twist is it? Just take a look:

Customized bridal henna by Neha Assar

     And hey, you remember that video from BuzzFeed India I posted before? Take a guess at who the artist was who created that 7-hour design.

     I was immediately hooked on the intricacy and individual detail put into her designs. I found Ms. Assar's website and sent her a quick email through the contact info I found there. Since we live on opposite coasts of North America, I can't exactly stop by for a quick chat, and I have no idea what her schedule is like to allow for a phone call. Instead, I explained a bit of what I wanted to know in my email and asked if she could help me out. Her response was a prompt and resounding yes. She directed me to the press section of her page, where I could find all the articles that've been written about her and the magazines where her artwork is featured.

The Interview

     The articles helped, but I still had a few questions of my own. How had she found mehndi as a passion and developed it into her own business? I sent her another email with my questions. Her beginning wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as I expected. "When I was a freshman in high school, my kid sister had gone to a carnival and spotted a lady doing henna in her booth," she wrote. "She had a sign that said help wanted and my sister came home telling my mom that I should apply as a henna artist. I was very reluctant because I wasn't so interested." As you might guess, Assar's success took off very quickly after that. Small successes built up into a career and her love for the art grew, even while she pursued engineering.

     As a beginner to mehndi, I asked her about the composition of her designs. I, personally, was having trouble coming up with designs to fill in the space of a clean hand, and hoped that maybe her answer could give me a clue as to how I was supposed to proceed, or if maybe I just don't have the right artistic flair. But I was too embarrassed to ask straight out, so instead I asked if and how she planned her outstanding original designs and how she's grown as an artist.

     She answered, "I never have a plan set in place. In fact, I usually meet my clients on the day of their henna session. We talk briefly about what they want incorporated in their bridal henna and I customize it if they wish. If not, I just go with the flow of things. Each piece is uniquely designed for each of my clients. No two henna pieces are the same. I think my style has definitely evolved over the years. I went from doing traditional designs, to creating my own, to drawing flat, two dimensional animals and human figures, to now drawing 3 dimensional figures using shading and stippling effects. I cannot wait to see what is next!"

     Well, it didn't help my quest to become more creative right away. I'm still stuck around the traditional level, and will probably never reach Assar's mastery of mehndi, but it is comforting to know that even she started with the basics and is still working to improve. A few hours later, as I was scrolling through the articles she directed me to, I found another aspect of her process that stuck out to me.

     "Assar tries to stay away from designing floral patterns, which she said are often overused," writes NBC reporter Monica Luhar, "Instead, she likes to challenge herself by creating henna that might resemble pieces of jewelry or specific themes that convey a couple's love story. (...) Assar's artistic inspirations include patterns in nature, Rajasthani art, and world architecture. She's even taken inspiration from the shape of a tree, she said."

     This information, together with what Assar had told me in her email, helped me begin to piece together how to improve my designs. I'm still incorporating floral patterns, but I've started to take ideas from the world around me and copy them in my ink. I took my inspiration first from a Christmas decoration sitting nearby, and then I moved on to one inspired by what I love the most in the world: my cat. (You may have seen my update about it.)

Partway through my cat-inspired henna

     Suddenly, filling in space wasn't nearly as much of an issue. All I had to do was think of my sweet kitty and how I could reflect her personality in my henna. It sounds strange, but it made my work so much easier. I'm very happy with my Christmas design, cat pattern, and a pattern I based on my mom's earring. I've researched some Native American and African symbols and what they mean to  reflect the personalities of the people who've volunteered to be my guinea pigs when my mehndi arrives.

Christmas decoration and the design I drew based on it.

Time Log

Time Spent Practicing: 2 hours 45 minutes
Time Spent Researching (including interview): 2 hours 15 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours

Update: My Henna Came!

Arrival

     Alright, I've finally got some actual mehndi to work with! (Although, I don't think that it's real henna, but it's better than Sharpies.) It came in the mail yesterday (almost 2 weeks before Amazon's predicted arrival date!) in a very dented and battered cardboard box from India.

     It came with 12 cones of red henna and small black caps to put on the cones once they are open. I quickly looked up how to store henna, and wasted no time in packing it away in my fridge with a verbal disclaimer to my family that this was NOT FOOD. It's out of the open air, light, and heat, just like the Internet said, so it should be fine (finger crossed!).

Experiment

     It hasn't even been a full day yet, and I'm already itching to use my new henna. But I had read some pretty unpleasant stories about how people have allergically reacted to it, so I didn't want to go full-out design right away. With this in mind, I traced a small sun on my foot with eyeliner and filled it in with the paste. It was more liquidy than expected, and the center, which I had planned to be left open, ended up filled in as a result. Next time, I'm probably going to cut a smaller tip to work with. I left it on while I did my chemistry homework and some other stationary work, but it was really late at night. I ended up taking it off after about 45 minutes because I needed to get to bed, before it had fully dried. Even so, the stain was already very dark. In fact, even the little drops I'd gotten on my fingers had stained, and I'd wiped them off after a few seconds! They aren't as dark, but it's still impressive.

     So far, the stain hasn't been accompanied by itching or rashes, so I think I'm safe on the allergy front. My mom saw it and told me it looked like there was a spider on my foot, so I added onto it earlier tonight. I just can't wait to be able to complete a full design in actual henna!

Update: Meow!

Minor Success

     You'll hear more about this a bit later when I've compiled all my work for this week, but I'm just too happy about my latest henna design to not share it right away. (Video featuring my adorable ocicat, Bailey.)

Establishing Goals (1)

The Beginning: 

     When I decided that I was going to learn how to do henna, I knew next to nothing about it. I'd seen it on my friend's hand once, and thought it was interesting. I've always been artistic, but not in the "painting realistic people and landscapes" kind of way. I'm artistic in that I can fill in space with complex patterns and designs with a pen and some time. I've used this ability to make bookmarks and keep my hands busy, even after I stopped taking art classes (my last one was in elementary school). When I chose to learn how to do henna, I thought that it would be exactly the same: mindlessly filling in patterns.

     When I finally sat down and started to try to learn henna, I quickly figured out that it was much harder. Since I don't have any mehndi paste on hand, I traced my hand on a piece of scrap paper and picked up a pencil. Suddenly, a blank canvas was much more intimidating. I Googled "simple henna designs" and was met by an onslaught of intricate flowers, spirals, and lacy curves. My traditional, calculated, graph paper doodles weren't going to help me here. I spent a solid hour that week trying to freehand my own (malformed) henna designs, before resigning myself to a simple fact: I would have to familiarize myself with the style before I could produce anything vaguely graceful. So I pulled up some basic designs that still looked interesting and detailed on my computer and copied them onto my paper hands in pen. Now, a week and a half after I first decided to tackle this art, my original work is looking more and more like henna and less like a math notebook.

The Questions: 

     As I was working, it occurred to me that real henna paste would be necessary later on, and I had no idea what I was doing. Where could I get it? What if I'm allergic? How long does it last? Sudden questions with no clear answers lead me where they lead most teenagers: the magical world of YouTube. There, some teenagers and young adults with real world experience with henna gave me the important piece of information that black henna is NOT FOR HANDS. This type of henna should, apparently, only be used for hair dye because it contains PPD, a chemical that can permanently scar your skin and burn horribly. I also watched some people work with henna paste and got an idea of its viscosity. My favorite video, while not the most directly informative, was this one from BuzzFeed India:

Researching 

     But practice isn't all that it takes. I, a German-descended American, am trying to learn a traditional South Asian / Middle Eastern art. I haven't been exposed to the patterns and culture like most henna artists have, so I had some research to do. Over a convenient snow day, I spent an hour reading a detailed article about the history and tradition of henna tattoos and sorting the information into a Microsoft Word document. Here's the gist of it:

     Henna or mehndi refers to a tree that grows in warm climates and dry soil. Its leaves can be ground up and turned into a paste that blocks damaging sunlight and leaves a cooling, safe stain on the surface of the skin due to a chemical that binds to the keratin in skin cells. Its been used as a sunblock in Asia and the Middle East for over 5000 years. At some point, people decided to use the stains to decorate their skin. It was a practice for both the rich and the poor, who couldn't afford jewels. Women traditionally have henna done on special occasions like birthdays, celebrations, and, most importantly, weddings. A full wedding henna will cover a bride from her toes to her knees and her fingertips to her biceps. The process can sometimes take over 9 hours. Guests to the wedding will usually get small designs as well. In western culture, henna can be worn whenever you feel like it, though it is still worn in South Asian weddings. It is also no longer confined just to women.

     In learning the history of henna, I have a new respect for the women who do it. I can't imagine spending 9 hours just sitting and drawing on a person! And they have to be incredibly careful to not smudge anything. I thought this was just a fancy design, but I have so much more respect for it as a cultural tradition and as a practical sunscreen.

Link to Article: http://silknstone.com/About-Henna.html

The Plan 

     For the first few weeks, I'll be free-handing and copying designs onto paper with a pen or a pencil. I've already ordered a red henna paste from Amazon.com. It will arrive, hopefully, on March 8, when I will begin tattooing my friends and family (whether they want me to or not!) with some of my favorite designs from the paper. After I get comfortable working with the paste, I'll start to work on my goals. I'll probably do each one over a few times until I get a favorite, then post it as a goal completed. 

Goals

     By March 27, I intend to have created satisfactory henna designs (on skin, with henna paste) in the following styles.

     1. a design that is focused on the fingers (like tattooed rings) 

     2. a design on the palm of the hand 

     3. a design that covers / utilizes the forearm 

     4. one other favorite design on any part of the body 

Time Log

Time Spent Practicing: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Time Spent Researching: 1 hour
Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes