mothers day

I need to make gifts for mothers day,for 3 grannies. Im making copper bangles which I know all 3 of them would wear as opposed to any other jewellery.It can be used to ease artritis pain because its made out ouf copper.

im gonna pierce out mehndi patterns that I found in a book (Roome 1998:121)

Il solder copper wire all around the cuff so that it will be wearable.

draped head accessory

This is a piece I was asked to make for a mehndi night,there are two versions I want to make. One will be made with beads and diamantes as per the bride and the other I will make that has more detail including mehndi patterns.

 This prototype was made with wool and held together by tape,perose of this was to get an idea of how much beads will be needed to round up quotation.

 I bought plastic combs and cast them and cleaned them.

kruger coin pendant

I was asked to make a pendant with a given gold Kruger Rand coin.It is made for a baby ordered by her grandmother. Must not be sharp as to hurt the baby or catch onto her clothes. I made a prototype to show them using wax.

I cut 3mm of a wax tube and used the 'cheese slicer' the tool used to shape the inside of the wax ring to a specific size, I made little balls out of beeswax to go around the ring like little beads to  look like this. I decided to make the prototype in this way so that is the lady likes it, I can just cast it.

I left a space for the jumring and v-loop.i stuck the balls with supperglue so that they dont fall off.i would have to make claws that keeps the coin in place after casting.

The grandmother wasnt very happy when she saw the prototype she wanted someting as she describes as plain and simple so I decided to draw a simple pendant with twisted wire which she liked.

 And now she loves it.

Coral ring

I was given a ring with a coral to re-design, the guy wanted it to be rounded,by this he meant domed.He wanted the ring to have a swirly pattern, he sent me a picture of something that he liked.He had taken the picture from the movie that he had been watching.

It is my first time trying to make a ring like this.I wasnt sure how i was going to make it.All I know is that I want to include mehndi in some way to this piece so that it becomes apart of tech work.

I decided to make this ring in a way I feel is theraputic.The only way I see this ring being created is by carving out off wax and adding on wax rolled patterns.

I this way the ring realtes to mehndi. Mehndi application process I feel is very theraputic in that im am relaxed whist applying mehndi onto someone or something.Just in the same way I feel wax rolling is a theraputic process.

Mehndi process also relates to filling in spaces just in the same way im going to file a wax ring with spaces into which I will fill the wax  rolled elements.

Still making application tools

 I have been making tools.I need a tool that will allow me to apply wax onto a surface using the same application technique that is used to apply mehndi.

So far ive made my own plastic piping bags and tried melting it by placing it into a basin of boiling water.Water began seeping into the bag and mixing with the melted wax.When the wax is in its liquid state it just spills out of the cone. In order to draw using the cone the wax needs to slightly cool.By this stage the wax begins to cool very quickly so its hard to have even a quick pattern done.

the syringe with and without the needle worked in the same way the cone works.The wax needs to slightly cool from its liquid state but to maintain that temperiture is impossible with these tools.

 I used a tea jug to melt the wax on the stove and pour into the bottle that i made with a nozzle.I tried melting the wax in the bottle in a microwave,this did not work,the wax took way to long to start melting as opposed to a stove,and couldnt see properly at what was happening through the microwave screen.

I havnt yet found a tool that works successfully in applying wax.I feel as though this is holding me back from making jewellery. I need to start making jewellery. Im going to find another technique of making mehndi jewellery so that I dont spend the year just trying to create a tool and then not knowing what to do with it.

why is what im doing important to me?

Looking for relevant information based on mehndi seemed to be so difficult to find.It seems as though its ignored as an art or field of study that there not much books or articles about it.This was said by Dr Stella Krarisch more than 20 years ago he said,"the hurried mechanized life of the present has little time for such a ritual,visual celebrations. The practise off mehndi will not survive,however the knowledgeof it form should become widespread as taht of the great mountains of India......".So I know that the practise of mehndi has survived but the knowledge about it is very scarce.

I met people that have been doing traditional mehndi patterns for years and they do not know that these patterns have a particular meaning,therefore it was difficult for me to find writing on this topic.Its obvious that its the traditional woman that are keeping the tradition of mehndi alive but they dont know what it means niether can they explain.The only way I know about these is by trying to find information that is out there.

Jogendra Saksena from art of Rajasthan in 1940s said there is a lack of awarness,he says that varous lines and dots are put together to compose a design tell alot about it but woman of today are forgetting all about the details of the design,they probably think theres no perpose in the designs ar they just dont understand them.They just use it because its religion that taught them it brings goodluck to marriage ad house hold.So I believe many people create things that they cannot explain.

act1

okay so ive tried using the wax in the plastic tube.I kept a tub of boiling water so that the wax will be kept warm and soft.The piping bag idea sort of works.

Just a few problems I encounted.One was the boiling water was seeping into the cone and mixing with the wax,two the tip was soft so when I applied pressure it squirts out a blob.

My intension now is to find a new tool that I could use to make the technique work. I need some sort of metal tip if I want to use this applicator.Loretta Roome uses a jacquard bottle with a metal tip to apply mehndi she says its found in craft shops,they are dye bottles prbably used for batiking fabric and she says they are also available in dispensers of your choice.