One of my favorite things to do with an old henna cone is to squeeze out beautiful mehndi designs on my hands. But unfortunately, since most of these henna cones are old, they don't have much stain quality left in them, so while I do cone out a gorgeous design, I am mostly unable to sport it for the rest of the week because the stain is so light.
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| A super light henna stain because of old henna paste (perfect for practice) |
So instead of hearing the constant "why would you do that to yourself?!" from my most loving partner and marketing guru (upset because a gorgeous design could have been a huge marketing tool for the rest of the week, not to mention, would have just been plain beautiful to have on the body), I have decided to resort to henna on the skin with fresh henna paste with yummy staining power. And as far as practicing is concerned... I'll stick to old henna cones on paper.
I used to not practice as much as I have been recently. This was brought on by a "slow henna" movement on instagram. This movement was actually inspired by
Lisa of Kenzi Henna. Read more about
slow henna on our other blog post. If you are on instagram, make sure to follow our company
@HennaArtCanada
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| Comparing henna pastes on a scrap sheet of paper |
Instead of using just a new sheet of paper, I have decided to commit to recycling. So whenever I have an old henna cone that needs to be used, I rummage through our recycle bin to find creative papers that I can use for my henna practice.
Sometimes, I land on old documents from condo board meetings or scratch paper from various flyers and brochures, and sometimes, I get lucky with kraft paper from packaging. Every once in a while, I do get my hands on blank security envelopes, the ones with a crazy print on the inside so people don't see what type of document you are sending (thereby stealing the bank routing number from a cheque that you send for a bill payment--if you still use cheques). The security envelopes are my favorite to work with. I even turned one envelope into my receipt cover. Just added a little bit of bling and viola!
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| Receipt book cover made from recycled security envelope, self adhesive stones, and henna |
The best part about doodling with henna on paper is that the paper doesn't talk back or wiggle. So instead of feeling rushed because the person (or yourself) needs to move or starts to get fidgety, you can take your time with the design. Plus, on paper, you can just grab a new sheet if you decide that you don't like the design, or the direction that it's going in, or if you have a big mess (like a huge smudge)!
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| Gulf or Khaleej henna elements practice on kraft paper. |