seahorse brooch

mehndhi jewellery

Why do I want to make jewellery based on mehndi patterns???

I’ve been fascinated by Mehndi patterns for a long time. I first came across Mehndi when I was 5 years old, at my neighbours pre-wedding celebration (Mehndi party). Whilst being in the process of getting Mehndi applied to my skin I wondered what they are doing to me. Of course I was impatient I couldn’t keep it long for too long. I simply love going to Mehndi parties, now that I’m all grown up, family and friends ask me to decorate their hands with Mehndi. I love Mehndi motifs that were traditionally used like leaves, flowers, and vines mixed with geometric shapes that work well together creating endless designs. Then I learnt through research, Mehndi has the power to protect, to provide spiritual and material wealth, brings luck, wards off evil eye, guards against black magic or anything supernatural. Mehndi patterns that have Hindu deities remind me of teachings at spiritual school, my guru used to say that the day is too busy, we forget about god, it’s important that you write gods name somewhere so when you look at it you are reminded about god. When I look at these deities I’m spiritually enlightened.

I’m trying to incorporate these beautiful images into my jewellery, after some experimentation and practice, I’ve finally figured out a method to express my design ideas freely. It requires a steady flow of hand movement; I therefore think it’s preferable I design using the actual Mehndi cone. Besides jewellery I’ve also incorporated Mehndi patterns on wood that I’m building into display stands etc.

wedding souvenirs

Making the souvenirs were not easy as I thought it would be,the ink of the pictures were running because I used laquer that had thinners,the pictures were losing their stickiness for the same reason.I had to print them with a lazer printer so the ink did not run.I bought jumprings and keyrings so I dont spend anymore time working on them.
They do look attractive and feel light, I know people will use them because people at tech saw me working with them and they asked to have one.
It took me about 2 months to complete them whilst now I think the casting option would of worked quicker.

wedding souvenirs

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I painted the pieces and they got stuck together so I had to break the pieces apart from each other.

These were some of the pictures I chose to use for the souvenirs

wedding souvenirs

My next mission is to make a keyring that would be faster to make.For example my dad is a carpenter,he has off cuts of wood so he can cut them to the size that I want. Im thinking off getting religous pictures,hindu gods and printing them and sticking them on either side and sealing them with clear laquer with glitter.

wedding souvenirs

This is the keyring that I bought from the festival and made a mould of it,it was plated gold,however when i made the mould the plating sort off peeled and stuck onto my mould,I like this keyring because it had print on both sides. I engraved our names on them.

It was really painfull injecting wax into the moulds,it took me the entire day to inject 70 keyrings,this was because the keyring is thick and the wax took longer to dry and I only had one mould.

By this time I was over it,I wanted to something that would go alot faster because I would still have to make the jumprings and the key rings.

my wedding souvenirs

My plan for wedding souvenirs was to make something that people would use and not a statue that just lies in thr house somewhere and people forget about it.I went to the ratha yatra festival of chariots, thats usually held at the durban beach front but for the past two years its been held at the old durban drive-in.Its usally held in April during the easter holidays

these are some pics I took at this years festival

Lord krishna's chariot is yellow,his brother balram is green,his sister lady subhadra is red

chariot procession throught the night

I been told all my life he importance off pulling the chariot,it cuts down your karma

the deities of krishna and balram along with other devotees

matha-ji's dancing for lord krishna

I was not allowed to take pictures inside the souvenir tent that was on site,they stock everything you can think of, that comes from India,from jewellery,clothing,bags,shoes,souvenirs,etc.

I bought a brass key ring that I want to make a mould off and and cast them.I have to make 500 key rings so im thinking this is the fastest method of doing this.

colombo jewellery is art too exhibition

My first display attempt was not really attractive because you could see the jewellery pinned to the sari,and did not want to draw attension to the pins. Therefore I used old jewellery boxes that belonged to my mum and one that belonged to Chris.I re-lined the inside with black veklvet and sewed my jewellery onto the velvet .

There were many changes that were made to get my exibit looking like this,many changes still could have been made like better stands with better patterns,better arrangements, but there was no extra time,but it was a learning experience that will be useful in the future.Some times we have the best of objects around us that can be used for good displays that we turn a bling eye to because we dont see it the way other people do, and its really important to view all the options and have people view your stuff and see what works and what doesnt. Tryind to display jewellery in its context can be abit difficult,people see things differently,nothing ever works out according to the way I planned, I realised things fall in place when you start moving things around and when you have lots to work with and lots to choose from as opposed to having a few things and forcing them to work.

 The exhibition was successful, the display area was never empty people were sociable.Me applying mehndi at the exhibition also drew lots of attension to my jewellery and to mehndi itself. Many people already know what it is and how its works.Viewers saw the connection between my jewellery and the patterns that were on their hands.

colombo jewellery is art too exhibition

It was a last minute idea to decorate the stand dont think it was a good idea,i should have spent more time doing mehndi on the stands than using glitter glue,infact it did look quite untidy.I should plan these things in the future,have a set design and technique

colombo jewellery is art too exhibiton

I been making trays/wooden  boxes that I designed to display my boyfriends gifts for before the wedding. These were made to fit the gifts that I bought for him.I realised I can use them as the base for my jewellery display.

I pinned the jewellery with office pins onto the red sari,however the jewellery looked to flat so I now have to find some other way of displaying the jewellery with having it look like a gift.

I chose to use red,symbolically red is the colour used for weddings,represents love,the bribes outfit is red,when shes married she uses a red bindee and red powder call sindoor on the centre path of her hair

Colombo,jewellery is art too exhibition

My plan for my display for the Jewellery is art too exhibition that will be held at Colombo tea and coffee on Gale street,is to display my jewellery in a way so that it creates an indian atmosphere so that the viewers get some sort of understanding of the mehndi theme of my jewellery. My display needs to look atistic because its not just about the look of the jewellery its about its play of art. My jewellery needs to connect with  my display.I feel its needs to look like a dowry from the grooms family to the brides family.The tradition about the dowry is the gifts that the brides usually would wear on her wedding day, they would send the brides sari and blouse and underskirt,usually red and her jewellery,underwear,shoes,handbag. These are well displayed,the idea if the gift is to be visible so that everyone around her can see her status,how much she is worth because of the value of her dowry.This is wrapped in celophane plastic in clear or a very light transparent colour so it is see-through like the examples below

pictures from http://www.etawau.com/HTML/Culture/MalayWedding/MalayWedding.htm

Looking at the space we are displaying our jewellery,its quite dark. There are many windows which bring in natural light, however our exhibition will take place later parts of the evening on the 5th october 2011,so iI have to come up with some sort of plan for lighting.

For lighting im thinking of using clay lamps which does tie in with the eastern approach to the display,having many small oil lamps will brighten up the display area,using scented oil that has oriental fragrance may work to get rid of the smell of coffee being manufactured. I also need to fill the lamps with oil when they are burnt away and keep having to light the wicks when they blown off.

arabic gold bracelet

when designing the bracelet,it seemed as though it would be firm when its bent up into its bangle form,however it felt fragile and bent easily.In the future if I happen to make this piece again or something similar I would make a inner sleeve,or outside frame to give it more stability.It was my first time gold plating and I think it worked quite well, I realised if you plate many times and for a shorter period the plateing looks better and it probably last longer

arabic gold bracelet

I explored this pattern in many ways trying to you bits and pieces and in the process got designs for possible spin offs.

I included forging to give the metal the texture of mehndi being squashed out the cone.used wire in different shapes and thicknesses to give it differnt dimesions of mehndi aplied with thick lines and thin lines.

arabic gold bracelet

looking at Arabic patterns from a mehndi pattern book called Nikhar :Arabic and traditional present-day mehandi designs.This book includes designs of tatoos and bindees.My idea is to use this pattern shown above to create a piece of jewellery,not sure on what it could be.I think it makes sence becoming some sort of hand or arm jewellery because the pattern is drawn on the wrist and looks it could represent a bangle or bracelet.I want it to be flat,not to have any hieght or different layers, all must be one layer just like the way mehndi is applied

My mum on her wedding day

 mums mehndi was so beautiful,had a branch sort of pattern running all the way down the front and back of the palm.Relating to the henna encyclopedia, mum uses the fishbone pattern,although now that pattern has transformed and used in many ways,before this was the standard way the pattern was used.To see other uses of this pattern,check The Henna page

 mums forehead was decorated with red liquid dots, now most brides use the stick on bindis that are easier to peel off and stick on to skin and they are highly decorated with rinestones and beads that make it look more attractive when the bride is on stage and the light reflects of the shiny bindis, below is a picture of the bindis I bought from the Sunday TimesEastern Bridal fair thet was held in August

Shanal Ramlall is a jewellery artist that worked with similar jewellery forms like the one my mum is wearing.
The word “Hathphul” translates directly to “Flower for the Hand” this specific ornament is worn by an Indian bride for the purpose of adornment. “the ornament literally bridges the gap between bracelet and finger rings with delicate gold chains” (Krishnan- 1999).

The henna page

http://www.hennapage.com/

http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/mastersessay/index.html

This Henna page website is owned by Catherine Cartwrite Jones,she has been a henna artist and researcher since 1990,most of the information on the website is her own work.She has also done her masters in liberal studies on developing guidelines on henna: a geological approach.Most of my primary research is gained from this website.

these are some of the designs and their meanings

the patterns resemble plants,fruits,ancient symbols that have been past on through the ages from one generation to another,geometric shapes,deity impressions(flower ans petal shapes)they are appropriate for given celebrations or happy occcasions such as diwali,weddings,births,etc.The most common patterns found are lotus flowers,paisley,vines and peacocks.