Henna is something that I had seen before, but hadn’t had any personal exposure to until around a year ago, when I went to a small gathering teaching about henna. I didn’t do any myself, but was shown how to and had a design done on my hand. I was hooked! I immediately went home and started researching, reading as much as I could. I ordered some from Henna Caravan shortly after that and started practicing. I honestly haven’t done much yet, but I am slowly working to build my confidence.

Here is some designs I did last summer. 

All my designs up until this week were done be drawing them in a sketchbook, making a transfer and then using the transfer as a guide to actually apply the henna. I’m happy to say I have finally started doing some freehand work for the first time this week!

I forgot to take pics of most of the application processes, but did remember to take ones of the design on my hand and arm! For this design, and one of my legs, I started with a design in my sketchbook, transferred it, and then added to it once I got going.

The transfer has to be done in ballpoint pen, in my understanding. I have used another type of pen once and it definitely didn’t work! So this is what I stick with 🙂

This always feels a little weird to me, since I first have to rub my arm down with Speed Stick! Out of everything I’ve researched, that seems to work the best for getting the transfer to work, so that is what I do.

Here is how the stain looks now:

All of these stains are between 5-7 days old. Most haven’t faded yet, though a few lines around my hand have.

The one part of this set of stains that I’m not happy with palm of my hand. Many of the lines smudged and, even though it was done last, it is fading the quickest.

The following are pictures of the stains at 13-15 days. Should be able to do more new stains in a week or two!

That’s it! I am really enjoying learning more about henna, as well as getting more comfortable with my drawing skills! I’m hoping next time to figure out how to not smudge the design on my hand. Any suggestions?

I would love to hear what have you been learning lately! Let me know!