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    Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting
    Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting
    Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting
    Ebook271 pages2 hours

    Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting

    By Loretta Roome

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    About this ebook

    Mehndi, the ancient art of painting on the skin with henna, beautifies the body, rejuvenates the spirit, and celebrates the joys of creativity and self-expression. More than just a temporary tattoo, mehndi offers us a way to participate in a centuries-old tradition still practiced in India, Africa, and the Middle East.

    In this stunning and authoritative book, Loretta Roome traces the origins and meanings of traditional designs, demonstrates how to create them on the skin, and reveals the recipes, tools, and techniques needed to paint designs that range from simple to complex. The result of years of research and the author's experience as one of the nation's foremost mehndi artists, Roome's book offers practical information, creative inspiration, and many suggestions for enhancing the playful, intimate, sensual, erotic, and spiritual aspects of the ancient and amazing art of mehndi.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 25, 2014
    ISBN9781466867048
    Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting
    Author

    Loretta Roome

    Loretta Roome, author of Mehndi: The Timeless Art of Henna Painting, is the founder of The Mehndi Project, which has received international attention for its efforts to help popularize the art of henna painting around the world. She has painted celebrities, schoolchildren, grandmothers, and businessmen alike. Based in New York City, she divides her time between writing, performing music, and continuing her research and practice of the art of mehndi.

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      Book preview

      Mehndi - Loretta Roome

      INTRODUCTION

      This book is intended to give the reader what I was looking for in bookstores and libraries when I first became fascinated with henna painting. There was so much I wanted to know. In the past two years I have heard many others ask the same questions that I had asked: Can I do it? How? Where can I have it done? Is it really good for me? Where does it come from, and what is it all about? Is it the same henna that people use in their hair?

      Like everyone else, I was looking for basic information, and there was something oddly elusive about the entire subject. My first question quickly became: Why is it so hard to find out about this thing?

      The attempt to answer this question has greatly affected my entire experience in researching this topic. The answer is complex and has to do with the following subjects: women, eroticism, mysticism, privacy, religion, sacred ritual and ceremony, matrimonial and romantic love, folklore, and superstition.

      My long search for information about mehndi became as interesting as the art itself, and the reasons why it’s NOT known are part of what must be explored if one is truly to grasp its significance.

      In his book, Art of Rajasthan, written in 1951, Jogendra Saksena made a passionate appeal to the people of India to preserve this uncommon art and protect it from extinction. He wrote: For, unless a fact, which is obscure and shrouded in mystery is uncovered and explained clearly, it becomes difficult to convince [people] about its values and utility.

      In this book, I’m handing over a great deal of what I’ve been able to find out. On the back of Saksena’s book are many flattering comments and reviews. The one at the top was written by Dr. Stella Kramrisch more than twenty years ago and reads as follows:

      The hurried mechanized life of the present has little time for such ritual, visual celebrations. The practice of [mehndi] will not survive. However, the knowledge of its form should become as widespread as that of the great monuments of India.…

      The practice of mehndi has survived. It is my hope that this book may play some small part in its timeless history.

      CHAPTER ONE

      What Is Mehndi?

      Mehndi is the word in Hindi used to describe henna, henna painting, and the resulting designs. Henna is a plant best known to us as a natural product used to color and condition the hair. Henna painting is an ancient cosmetic and healing art whereby the dried leaves of the henna plant are crushed into a powder, then made into a paste that is applied to the body to safely dye the skin. This is done in elaborate patterns and designs, traditionally on the hands and feet. The result is a kind of temporary tattoo, often reddish in color, which will last anywhere from several days to several weeks. The process is absolutely painless and in no way harmful to the skin. In fact, henna is said to condition the skin as it beautifies the body.

      Mehndi is practiced in many parts of the world. From the deserts of North Africa to the villages of northern India, magnificent designs blossom and vanish upon the hands and feet of women as they have for thousands of years. Most commonly associated with romantic love and the ritual of marriage, henna designs are an integral part of bridal adornment in Hindu, Moslem, and Sephardic traditions.

      Mehndi is an art form that traditionally has been practiced exclusively by women. In North Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or any Indian or Moslem community, you will find women who decorate themselves with henna. It is taught and practiced largely in the oral tradition, with recipes and patterns passed from one generation to the next. Henna designs may be used in the East to celebrate a special occasion, much the way one in the West might bake a cake or a favorite holiday food. It’s that natural and that integral. But while mehndi retains an aura of festivity and well-being, it remains a sacred practice intended not just to beautify the body but to invite grace and good fortune into one’s home, one’s marriage, and one’s family. It is a kind of talisman, a blessing upon the skin.

      Henna painting in its purest form is largely improvisational and intuitive. Ancient symbols and motifs are subject to the whim and imagination of the artist, and great emphasis is put on the singularity and originality of each interpretation.

      This art has always involved a marriage of the personal and the traditional, spreading slowly from one culture to another over thousands of years and taking on new meaning with each incarnation. Now we become a part of this evolution by discovering for ourselves what mehndi means today.

      THE HENNA PLANT

      Henna is the Persian name, now used in many languages, for a small flowering shrub (Lawsonia inermis) originally found in Australia and Asia and along the Mediterranean coasts of Africa. Also known as the mignonette tree or the Egyptian privet, it is grown as an ornamental in subtropical regions of the United States and has been naturalized in many countries throughout the world. The plant grows eight to ten feet high and is often found in India as a hedge surrounding gardens, yards, or homes. The flower of the henna plant is small, white, four petaled, and sweet smelling. Although henna grows in a tropical climate, it does well in greenhouses and is therefore available

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