I went to First Friday downtown last night to peddle mehindi.  It was successful in that Windy was good company and the atmosphere was relaxing, but not successful in that I didn’t convince many people to get henna done.  Also, I’d brought a lantern, but the children must have left it on all night because the battery was completely dead.  Hence, I could barely see what I was doing.

Today I have lots and lots of henna leftover, so I did designs on my daughters’ backs.  They have no patience. They smeared them in ten minutes and pestered me with ‘is it done yet?’ after twenty.  I just gave them a palette knife to scrape the henna off.  The design won’t last very long, but that’s not really the point.  The point for me is that I get to do something larger and more elaborate, and the point for them is that mommy pays attention to them.

I was experimenting with a new recipe tonight and wanted to test it out on my arm.  My first problem was that the goop was too thin, so I had to add more powder.  I worried that the henna had indigo in it again, because it was bright green, but it didn’t.  It’s just fresh.

I don’t think this design will turn out very dark. I had to scrape it off after an hour because my skin was itching.  I thought maybe it was lemon juice in tiny cuts, but it was hurting all over, not just in one or two places.  The culprit is the mustard seed oil.  They didn’t have eucalyptus oil for sale at the Indian Grocery, and I didn’t want to think that I drove five miles out of my way for nothing, so I got mustard oil.  I’ve heard it’s a good mordant for henna, but that it can be harsh on the skin.  They got that right.  Next time I’ll stick with olive oil.

I had more fun with henna tonight and Friday night.  Some people volunteered to let me use their skin as canvases, though I didn’t remember to photograph all of it.  I’m afraid that the batch tonight was mislabled and contained some indigo, because it was unusually blue-green. :(  Either that or I added too much oil to the mix.  A little oil helps it flow better.  Too much and it drips and seeps.

Last night I got bored and decided to make a batch of henna.  I’ve experimented with a lot of different recipes, none of which have worked very well.  I think what I decided is that A. putting lemon and sugar on it after it starts to dry really does help, and B. adding a decent quantity of oil to the mix helps with the flow.  I used the thicker jaquard bottle tips, because I didn’t want to deal with clogging, but I think I could have gone one smaller.  Still, it was fun and it turned out reasonably dark.

Tiffany was kind enough to let me use her hands as a canvas.  I also did my own left hand, but the photo didn’t turn out well, so please just imagine that it looks fantastic and I’ll be sure not to dissuade you.