Surinder Marbha

about  Marbha's work I wanted to know the materials she uses and the process of mehndi and she says
"Well, my primary medium is mehendi or henna – which is a tropical plant, whose leaves are crushed and made into a powder. I mix this powder to create a paste, that has staining properties and hence used for body art. It is a safe and healthy way to decorate your body!

I've been practicing this art for probably 20 years now, and still love every minute of it! "

all about henna blog

This blog consists of a 2 artists but im concerntrating on Surinder Marbha who does Home decor, body arts, events and gifts all which in some way includes Mehndi in substance and form.

She works with wax and mehndi,this is combination I need to work with to try make beautiful jewellery from turning wax into metal in forms of casting. But i need to find out how can i make these patterns out of wax. I admire her flowy patterns and that she uses Mehndi on differnt surfaces and seals it in such a way that is does not crack and fall off.

im trying to get in contact with Surinder Marba and find out if she uses certain materials and methods to create her wonderful art pieces which could help me solve my technical process problems.

Surinder does Mehndi as body art, she also uses mehndi on other materials such as glass, wood and wax.here are some examples taken from her blog allabouthenna.com

Surinder Marbha (All about Henna)

Mehndi by Surinder Marbha allabouthenna.blogspot.com/

Looking at mehndi designs by Surinder Marbha is Intriguing I can spend hours just gazing at her mehndi designs.This seahorse pattern really facinates me,the way its been stylised but you can still see the creature.I know I want to make that seahorse real but I dont know what piece of jewellery should I turn it into.Maybe I should make it and then see what I can do with it.

Below is my design and process of creating a mehndi sea horse.I used silver and 18ct yellow gold wire to create this sea horse.I think the fun part of making jewellery based on mehndi is that they all dont need to be perfect and accurate,it looks hand-applied and hand-made.I bent my wires and swirls with caution although I wanted it to look hand-made, I did not want it to look untidy.I really took pride in soldering,tried not to melt anything,but unfortuatley I did melt a few wires along the way.

By this stage I was tired working with the sea horse I forgot why I wanted to make it in the first place.I feel as though I wasted so much time and effort just to chuck the idea away,I want to start something new im not enjoying this anymore.I thought it will work out according to this idea I had in my mind and when i saw things were falling apart I knew this was not going to work. I still have my sea horse somewhere in my bench locker,maybe I will get inspired in the future to make something off it. For now I just think.....gosh I wasted all that 18ct gold wire,now I would probably need to send this for refining.

Surinder Marbha (All about Henna)

http://www.allabouthenna.com/

mehndi by Surinder Marbha from All about Henna

 Surinder Marbha is born and bought up in Mumbai, India, Surinder has been doing henna for as long as she remembers! She is also the founder of All About Henna and initially started as offering henna services from her home. She wanted to share her love of henna to more permanent and long term use for her customers and started making henna decorated candles for her friends and family. The encouragement she received was pretty much the birth of All About Henna. Now, she not just offers henna body art services, but also designed this website and pretty much most of the items available in our online store. Her other hobbies are painting, reading and loves music. She has a full time career in advertising and also serves as a Board member of ThinkIndia Foundation, where she designs & develops props for their broadway style productions.

below is my jewellery designs based on her mendhi patterns