Our daughter in law Ella spent 3 months in India on a mission trip to help teach young women trades to help keep them out of sex trafficking, and to teach them about the love of Jesus. She is very artistic and was fascinated with the art of Mahindi practiced there. Yesterday she brought over her tube of mahindi dye and doodled on my feet and hand! Free handed.....glancing occasionally at a design....but liking her own better so free lanced parts of it. I am amazed at her abilities. And YES.....it's temporary!;)
What is Mahindi? Mehndi is the traditional art of henna painting in India and the Middle East. You may see it written as mehandi, mehendi, mendhi, henna, al-henna, and a myriad other names and spellings. In recent times, United States henna artists have come to denote the art with the term "Henna Body Art." All of these words describe the same timeless art form, body painting for festive occasions. However you spell it, mehndi is pronounced meh-hen-di (with a soft, dental d sound like "thee"). The dye used to create the beautiful designs is made from dried, ground henna leaves and various other ingredients.
Henna was first applied as a means to cool down the body. A dot was applied to the palm of the hands and helped to cool the body.
After becoming bored with the look of the single dot on the palm, the early users of henna began to add lines and other shapes. Eventually this elaboration became the beautiful designs we see today.
In the different cultures where the practice of Mehndi flourished, different styles and ways of application developed. There are the fine lines of designs of Pakistan and India. There are the more geometric patterns and designs of Morocco. There are the bold geometric shapes and patterns of various parts of Africa created with a method of tape resist. Mehndi patterns are created with the application of paste with gold rods, plastic cones, plastic bottles with tips, syringes, toothpicks and other tools henna artists have developed to get the job done and express themselves through the art of Mehndi.
Welcome to our Mahindi party:) This is the first stage, it goes on as a thick paste that you let dry and then flake off.
The next day it looks like this.
Iley was begging for Ella to do some Mahindi on her, so she did a simple design on each of them.
My turn next:)
Problem is.....you have to leave it on for an hour or more before you flake it off for it to really show up nicely......and you shouldn't bathe for a while......they didn't think it was worth missing out on swimming......so theirs are pretty faint this morning.
Wren's
If you want more info on Mahindi you can read at the bottom of the blog page. I googled Mahindi and this is what I came up with.
Here are a couple of pictures from this morning before Wren headed off to summer school. I let her pick her outfit today, and this is what she wanted to wear. She loves her flowy skirts!
I showed her the picture and told her "no smile?" can you smile for me?
Is this better mom?
Here here here.......let ME help you!
Are you done yet? Can I go already?
If anyone ever hears of a bed head contest......let me know. I'm SURE we could win a prize with this one!
What you doing mom?........ummm nothing dear, just taking a picture of you:)
What is Mahindi? Mehndi is the traditional art of henna painting in India and the Middle East. You may see it written as mehandi, mehendi, mendhi, henna, al-henna, and a myriad other names and spellings. In recent times, United States henna artists have come to denote the art with the term "Henna Body Art." All of these words describe the same timeless art form, body painting for festive occasions. However you spell it, mehndi is pronounced meh-hen-di (with a soft, dental d sound like "thee"). The dye used to create the beautiful designs is made from dried, ground henna leaves and various other ingredients.
Henna was first applied as a means to cool down the body. A dot was applied to the palm of the hands and helped to cool the body.
After becoming bored with the look of the single dot on the palm, the early users of henna began to add lines and other shapes. Eventually this elaboration became the beautiful designs we see today.
In the different cultures where the practice of Mehndi flourished, different styles and ways of application developed. There are the fine lines of designs of Pakistan and India. There are the more geometric patterns and designs of Morocco. There are the bold geometric shapes and patterns of various parts of Africa created with a method of tape resist. Mehndi patterns are created with the application of paste with gold rods, plastic cones, plastic bottles with tips, syringes, toothpicks and other tools henna artists have developed to get the job done and express themselves through the art of Mehndi.
