Ooooh It's Good To Be Back...'Wow Wah Wee Wah!'

   Hellooo all! Wow, It's been a while! I must say...I've missed this and It's sooo good to be back!!! Im sure you can feel the electricity of my excitement through your keyboards, better still, from my excessive use of the exclamation mark! To mark this happy occasion I have titled this blog as my hubby-to-be and my most memorable quote from the man himself, Borat! And yes, i said hubby-to-be! I'm getting married! Hence the lack of attention to two of my greatest passions, henna tattooing and blogging about henna tattooing (I'm not blaming you sweetie I promise!) :)

   Ok so moving away from Borat and all things not relevant to henna designs whatsoever, I have created a new henna design...see below!!!

 



Ideal for Bridal Henna...

  

Special Occasions...



Ahh who needs an occasion to wear henna!?

   You may have noted I mentioned earlier that I'm getting married! Now this will sound a little cliche, cheesy, 'filmy' or whatever you may call it but yes, I've found the one and we're getting married this summer! :) It is the most exciting, uplifting yet bitter sweet moment in my life...moving on to a new beginning with someone so very special yet leaving behind my most treasured posessions of all, my family and friends. This phase in any woman/mans life can be full of tremendous emotions. I know how I'm feeling at the moment and that is the need to have my treasures around me at all times leading upto the big day...rather a dull feeling If I'm honest! However, one ornament which brings heaps of colour to an asian bride is henna! I look at henna on a bride as an ornament, It decorates and enhances the beauty of an individual in it's own very unique way.
   Traditionally, a bengali bride is said to have her hands adorned with henna by her sister-in-laws. As the art of henna is very dear to my heart It's only natural I will only have my hands adorned by someone who is also very dear to my heart, my best friend Rumena Begum. She is also a very accomplished henna artist and the added bonus is that it won't cost me a penny! :) Jokes aside, having my best friend adorn my hands with henna would be so very personal to me, as I'm sure it would be for many women out there! 
   I would love to have henna tattooed all the way upto my shoulders on both arms however I'm sure Rumena would think I was slightly absurd and will be there for days!! So I think I will be going for a design simillar to the one i've designed above..Let me know what you think guys and as ever it was lovely typing to you! Adios for now! Bip xx       

As Leonardo Da Vinci places art...'Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication'. Cheers for that!

   Now, I am no Leonardo Da vinci but I do, like many other henna artists would, place henna tattooing in the 'arts category' (what do you guys think?). 
   I kept this henna design you see below simple yet sophisticated. Although this design is fairly simple i've kept the detailing very intricate. And ofcourse, the more intricate, the less you feel your thumb which does most of the work! But peeps, it's well worth it when you feel a sense of...*sigh* "I did this? I did this" :) and ofcourse the receiver is usually very appreciative! 
Bridal henna is indefinitely very big, bold and beautiful as per usual, so if I were to tattoo this design onto a bride I would take this design further up, possibly repeating the wrist, almost bracelet-like design a fair few times up the arm. That would give us a very simple, sophisticated yet contemporary bridal henna design. Alternatively this design would be ideal for the bridesmaids, even the bride herself if she prefers to keep the henna to a minimum ( I appreciate not everyone has a mutual love for henna as I do, no hard feelings, I swear :p) and not forgetting festivals such as Eid and Diwali were wearing henna as part of the rituals and to compliment that beautiful new outfit is a must!     



   If you want to give this design a go here's something to take into account...Tip: Start by structuring the design well. If you start off by tattooing the wrist design first, then the circle design in the centre and lastly the design on the fingers, the whole proceedure will be faster, more comfortable for yourself and the 'receiver' and smudge proof! Let me know what you guys think of the design, where I could improve and even your own ideas of what design I should try next and which part of the body I should try it on (be as imaginative as you like!) would be much appreciated! Adios for now peeps!xx

Cardiff Wedding Exhibition 2010...The days shenanigans!

  Cardiff International Arena, or better known as the CIA (Mary Ann Street, Cardiff) held their annual wedding exhibition last Sunday 19th September. I joined forces with Cardiff's up and coming wedding and corporate events management company; Arora Events (visit their website at http://www.aroraevents.co.uk/) where we dished out free henna tattoos for all! After getting through a 'thumb numbing' amount of happy customers and muses, we happily declared the day a success! These amazing pictures below were taken by Jaffrin Khan, a keen and hugely talented freelance photographer, a big thank you to you Jaff (you will be seeing more of her work on my blog as she has kindly agreed to be my personal photographer for all the work i carry out...i don't think she realises that she has now quite literally signed away the next 12 months weekends away to me! Teehee!).
  You will see a very distinct flower design which you will find to be quite prominent in all the henna tattoos i applied throughout the day. This specific design is that of a lotus flower which is used extensively and effectively through bridal henna. The lotus flower symbolises the sun, recreation and rebirth...'beauty arising from watery chaos'...perfect description of the wedding process and the hoo-ha that surrounds the very days leading up to the big day i would say! (Tip: When adding shade to the tip of the lotus flower petals, start from one corner of the petal gently squeezing and releasing tiny amounts of henna and pull towards you using the tip of the henna cone. Do this to all tips of the petals to add a shadow effect to any design. You will see a significant difference in the overall design!)  
  So scroll down and take a look at some of the days' work..let me know what you think/where i could improve and so on, will appreciate it! Thanks for reading, ciao for now guys! Bip xx        



Hard at work...

The lovely Murium, my muse for the day!

To peacock or not to peacock?

Work in progress...



To wee peacock it was!

 Earlier this evening i sat contemplating what to do with myself...then remembered i have a new blog which still looked a little, what do the french call it? Je ne sais quoi-esque? So i roped in my little sister who quite reluctantly agreed to be my 'victim of torture' as she quite boldly put it! Which i totally understood, the perfectionist in me tends to SCREECH out the minute she or any of my other brave sisters even flinch as i  apply the henna (it's not as bad as it sounds i can assure you!). And patience is not a virtue my sister posesses so this wee peacock came about. The peacock design can be found throughout many contemporary henna designs. Traditionally the peacock design symbolises love, whereas the flower (within the peacock) symbolises fertility. Therefore, such designs can be found throughout bridal henna. I hope you enjoy this little intricate design and hopefully wont be too hard for you keen henna artists, that are willing to give it a try, to follow (Tip: always start from the elbow and work your way up towards the fingers with any design, this helps minimise smudging!!). Well it's getting late peeps so i better go and hit the sack before i feel like the sack has repeatedly hit me across the head several times! Goodnight...Bip xx

Why you ask?

The art of henna designing or mehndi designing, as known fairly widely amongst various South Asian countries, first originated from the Mughals of India in the 12th century. Formely used as air conditioning, (yes you read right,air conditioning! This herb has almost a magical way of bringing down the human body temperature by simply applying it to the skin by forming it into a paste) this herb was used for many medicinal and cosmetic purposes e.g hair loss prevention and even eczema! Today in the modern world henna is applied as a temporary tattoo which dyes the skin an almost burnt orange to a rich burgundy colour. This intricate art of henna is most often used as adornment for an asian bride on her wedding day. Obviously weddings are not the only time us ladies get our henna groove on, lets not forget festivals and all things colourful! A far cry from those not so glamorous ways of using henna! Right so getting down to the nitty gritty. Why are you blogging about henna desigining you ask? well, the purpose for writing this blog is to a) Advertise myself and my work ofcourse! b) To get potential henna artists' creative juices flowing! and c) Devise a way to get people worldwide to appreciate and experience the undeniable enjoyment and beauty of henna tattoos! Sooo..get GLAM peeps! Adios for now! Bip x