Wednesday, November 11, 2009

How to create a Simple Design - A step-by-step presentation!


When somebody said "Practice makes a man perfect", surely they must have had the art of Mehndi in mind! I still remember those days when my mom and myself would try to squiggle out some random designs out of the store-bought cones. As I had said in my previous post, we had a lovely Mehndi tree in our home and were never short of leaves. So cones were not our cup of tea and we were quite satisfied with the usual little Polka-dot patterns!! Occasionally mom would sneak in a few grains of rice or chana dal under the regular polka to achieve a pattern! She is so creative and excellent in Kolams and Rangoli's and it is probably that gene of her, that I have inherited to sketch out decent mehndi designs.. Now if you let me, I'll go on and on..

I had put Mehndi last weekend, and this time I took step-by-step pics of how it turned out. Before going out to the mehndi desgins, I just wanted to give you an idea of the main parts of a complete mehndi design.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional Mehndi designer nor a teacher. Whatever I have presented here are born out of my own imagination and I don't claim that these are the rules of Mehndi designing. Your imagination is the best guide and let it lead you to play around! :)

1. Motifs or the Main shapes: These are the basic shapes that adorn all over your hand. Usually you draw them big and extend them to join another Motif to make a pattern.

Some of the often-used and famous motifs are peacock, mango shaped, a mandap-shape, floral designs, etc.
2. Fillers: After you draw these motifs or the main shapes, you start filling them with recurrent patterns, curves, or lines. You can alternate with as many filler designs as you want to achieve the most complicated design.

Some of the commonly used fillers are curves, checker-board designs etc.
3. Enhancing designs / Accentuators: These designs are not enough by themselves to create a design. When they are used along with the exisiting pattern, they beautifully enhance the whole design. While these are not a part of a regular design, adding them makes your design stand out. (like biting into a cashew when you are enjoying a sooji halwa or kesari!)
Now that these are the essential components, it only takes our imagination and play around with different combinations.




So here are the steps:



Sorry about the poor quality, I had to take it at quick succession and I used to my mobile to make it easy! :(
And the final design:



As and when the mehndi dries up, use a dash of lemon juice mixed with sugar to wet them again. You can leave this on for about 2 to 4 hours, depending on your patience. When you are removing it, use the back of a spoon to scrap the dried mehndi off. Do not wash with water; instead apply a little coconut oil and leave it on for an hour for better results.

This is how the color turned out to be!


Hope you all enjoyed these!! See you soon with another interesting post!

17 comments:

  1. Thats really beautiful designs.

    Vijaya

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  2. Wow.. this is a lovely post. you have so much patience to take so many pics and organize it.. amazing yaar :) keep it going. waiting to see more.

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  3. I'm going to use these tips to further develop my mehendi skills :-). Thanks for those step by step pictures as well, Rohini.

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  4. This post brought my memories of watching the deft and skillful hands of mehendi makers on the streets of Delhi, and of how quickly they cast the designs on outstretched hands.

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  5. Lovely design Rohini. Kudos to your patience in filming shot by shot. Thanx for sharing such fine intricacies. Waiting for more designs. You have the art in you and keep developing.

    Chitchat
    http://chitchatcrossroads.blogspot.com/

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  6. Wow, thats so cute...love mehandhi, but never tried them on my own:( Wish I was ur neighbour, he he..just kidding:)

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  7. Thats really cute design rohini .. you have so much patience I really appreciate your effort dear.. wonderfully you have organised it too. Hats off to your great job !!!!

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  8. Rohini one small suggestion why dont you keep option of enlarging the image when clicked so that we can have closer look at the images last 2 post able to enlarge otherpost not able to do so..

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  9. wow! great post dear
    Will treasure this.
    Very useful for beginners like me.
    I will try and let you know.
    I am planning to try this as a reward after my job search is over :)

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  10. Really the art of mehndi is amazing!

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  11. Hey.. beautiful explaination... I am going to try this.....hats off to u rohini....

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  12. Its a fine art which some have perfected so well.

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  13. Art of mehandi has been explained in simple words. Innovative designs.
    :)

    Best wishes.

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  14. Hi friend this is vijay here.. ur doing a really good job.. can we exchange links..

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  15. Hi friend this is vennilla here.. ur doing a really good job.. can we exchange links..

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  16. Oh another one on Henna.......
    now we have competition.

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  17. hI.. m going to mehendi classes since a month, what you've taught here is all precise and correct. thanks..

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