Henna by Heather - Mehndi Body Art for New England

Henna TV Segment on the Rhode Show

2010-01-12T12:15:00.001-05:00

Henna TV Segment on the Rhode Show

2010-01-12T12:03:00.001-05:00

Nomad Heart

2009-12-16T21:40:00.004-05:00

I'm now officially the booking agent for Nomad Heart. You can now request to book Nic Tharpa Cartier as your artist for painstakingly perfect Moroccan henna! He is a master of North African styles and I am so happy to be helping him bring his immense talents to even more people!

Keep an eye out for Nic's forthcoming book, Moor: A Henna Atlas of Morocco, co-authored with Lisa "Kenzi" Butterworth, available March 15th (the Ides of March), 2010 at HennaTribe.com

Artist At Work video series : #1, Simple Floral Hand Henna on Joni

2009-12-10T19:34:00.001-05:00

...please go to YouTube and leave comments! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muuFVhQPIDg#watch-main-area

Supply Store Down

2009-11-27T18:25:00.003-05:00

The supply store is down today...and I will not be able to devote substantial time to trying to fix it until Sunday, when the Black Friday weekend sale was supposed to end.

For this reason, the sale will be extended until Wednesday.

Everything in the store is 20% off during the sale.

Store at HennaByHeather.com Now Open!

2009-11-09T13:41:00.003-05:00

My online henna supply store is officially open for business!

Featured items for the Grand Opening:

Jessica Simpson's Henna ; cute elephant!

2009-11-04T13:28:00.002-05:00

Here's a photo of Jessica Simpson's henna after it had a chance to darken up a bit:

Here's hoping that people want henna as cute as this after they see it :)

Sonya Masur Fall Show - Thurs, Nov 5

2009-10-27T14:31:00.001-05:00

I'll be doing henna on a pay-per-design basis at this fabulous party that *the public is invited to* for Sonya Masur's fall show. If you've been wanting an individual henna design and live in the Boston area...this is your chance! Free wine and cheese, as well as other fantastic artists! Henna designs will be $5-30, and designs from both my upcoming book and Jamilah's book will be featured!! Thursday, Nov 5, 7-9pm, 66 Thorton Rd, Needham

www.sonyamasur.com

New henna photo gallery

2009-10-27T00:37:00.003-05:00

Work from Summer 2009 is now up on my website:

www.hennabyheather.com/gallery.htm

My henna designs are ALL over this site...

2009-10-26T18:47:00.001-05:00

...and most of the feedback is pretty nice :)

http://www.mehndidesigns101.com/

October's Public Events

2009-10-15T23:42:00.003-05:00

Tues, Oct 20: Boston Melting Pot Girls' Night Out www.meltingpot.com

Wed, Oct 21: URI Dining special dinner featuring henna by yours truly and bellydancing by Tempest www.uri.edu/dining 5:30-8pm

Thurs, Oct 22: Henna at Northeastern University residence hall

Sat, Oct 24: Living Dead Festival @ PJ O'Connors Pub, Jewett City, CT 6pm-midnight (free Halloween/spooky/calavera henna for all!)

Tues, Oct 27: Providence Melting Pot Girls' Night Out

Thurs, Oct 29: Johnson and Wales Intercultural Center

Fri, Oct 30: India Restaurant, Providence

Email me or comment here if you want more information about any of these events!

Henna @ The Big E this weekend!

2009-09-23T19:06:00.002-05:00

I'll be at the Big E in West Springfield, MA this weekend! The henna corner will be within The Earth Shop, near Gate 7, across the walkway from the big yellow slide.

I'll be there this weekend. Jamilah, Terisa, Joni, and Kelly will be there next weekend.

Drum + Dance Circle @ the World Dance and Music Center in Pawtucket, RI (right over the MA border!)

2009-09-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

This Friday, Sept 11, I'll be doing henna 5:45-6:45 before the start of the Drum and Dance Circle at the World Dance and Music Center, 925 Central Ave, Pawtucket, RI.

Stay for Middle Eastern drumming lessons by George Rizk, followed by the drum and dance circle!

A small henna design, drum lesson, and drum circle participation will run you about $20 total.

It's an amazing way to spend your Friday night!!

Visit the homepage for the World Dance and Music Center for more info!

4th annual Northeast Henna Gathering

2009-08-20T18:57:00.002-05:00

Announcing the 4th Annual Northeast Henna Gathering!

March 27-28, 2010
...plus some activities for early arrivals on March 26 :)

Updated flyer and most current info will always be at:

http://www.hennabyheather.com/northeast.html

Some preliminary details:

All Saturday & Sunday activities will be
@ The Spot on Thayer
286 Thayer St, Providence, RI
This is the best artist space in the whole artsy city! Light, airy, and perfect :)

Workshops

Intro - Heather Caunt-Nulton of Henna By Heather
Moroccan henna - Nick Cartier of Nomad Heart (....and/or a quite-easily-guessable friend?)
Scientific Method for Henna Artists - Jen Schafer of Henna Muse
The Science of Aftercare - Colleen Finnerty
Group mixology experimentation
Henna crafts
Sangeet Designs + Festival Favorites are a STRONG possibility but not 100% confirmed...can't say who...but...when we do...you will want to come even more!

If you want to teach a workshop, please submit your workshop proposal to Colleen at starfiend3@aim.com by September 30, 2009.... super-strong proposals on interesting, not-yet-covered topics that show obvious evidence of true expertise and teaching ability will be HIGHLY favored...
...you should have extensive supporting materials to prove your awesomeness...website, videos, pattern books, articles etc...
Teachers get their registration fee comped.

Registration :
$100 preregistration fee covers
-ALL Saturday and Sunday activities - workshops, demos, crafts, etc
-unlimited free supplies! henna, glitter, aftercare stuff... you name it, we'll have it!
-a goodie bag with lots of cool stuff including, at the least:
Jamila henna powder, cajeput essential oil, glitter, pre-rolled henna cones, cocoa butter, bindis
*if you're a supplier who wants to donate to the goodie bags, please contact info@hennabyheather.com

To register, please fill out this contact form.
Include a note saying you're registering for the Northeast Henna Gathering.
Heather will email you a PayPal invoice for the amount owed
as well as an address to mail a check to, in case you prefer that.

Much, much more info is posted at www.hennabyheather.com/northeast.html. We'll continue adding and updating as more stuff is confirmed!

A breakdown of the important points in case you're too lazy to click the link:
-we'll be supplying you with EVERYTHING you need to do henna all weekend!
-we've scored and amazing group hotel rate of just $125 at Hotel Providence!
-by popular demand, there will be no bellydance stuff this year... it'll be all henna (and perhaps other temporary body art) all the time!!!
-your co-organizers are Colleen Finnerty, Heather Caunt-Nulton and Nick Cartier
-this is not-for-profit! any $ leftover will be reinvested in next year...perhaps for travel stipends for our teachers...

Henna Recipe

2009-08-18T11:06:00.003-05:00

How To Make Your Own Henna Paste
the Henna By Heather way :)

What you need:
100g Jamila henna powder
1oz cajeput essential oil
a bottle of lemon juice

1. Put 100g of Jamila henna powder in a bowl that you're going to dedicate to henna mixing.

2. Mix in lemon juice. Start with 1 cup and check the consistency. Keep adding more lemon juice until the henna is the consistency of thick mashed potatoes.

3. Let this sit on your kitchen counter (not the fridge, which is too cold, or by the oven or heater, which is too hot) for 12 hours (give or take...I may leave my henna anywhere from 8 to 16 hours depending on what else I have to do that day.) My kitchen counter is 60-90 degrees, depending on the season. In the dog days of summer, it may be ready before the full 12 hours. In the winter, it may take a little longer. You'll know it's ready when the top layer of your henna is much darker than what is underneath - this shows you dye release has been achieved.

4. After dye release, mix in 1oz of cajeput essential oil.

5. Let sit on your kitchen counter for another 12 (give or take) hours.
6. Test the consistency of your henna. You will probably want to add more lemon juice unless you like your henna very thick. Just add lemon juice until henna reaches a consistency you think will be pleasant to work with. For me this is somewhere between thick Greek yogurt and thin grits. You should experiment a bit to see what works best for you.

7. That's it! Put your henna in a carrot bag, use the carrot bag to fill your cones, and you're ready to go!

FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION

This is an explanation of how I make my henna paste. I love my recipe. It took me almost 10 years to finally decide I was done experimenting and would just use this recipe all the time. It always serves me very well, but you may want to tweak it a bit to serve your own circumstances or preferences. Here are some tips for ways you might change up my recipe.

I. Increase or decrease amounts as needed. I typically mix 3-5 100g boxes of henna powder at a time. You could also mix just 25g (1/4 box) at a time. Less than that would probably be a bit of a pain and yield too high of a percentage of waste (henna stuck to the sides of your bowl when you go to put it in cones). 100g of henna is what most henna artists I know seem to mix at a time, hence it is what the recipe above is for.

II. Some of the most important reasons for changing your henna mix are climate-related. Here in cold, damp Southern New England, I definitely don't want to put sugar in my henna mix. In addition to making the henna stringy (which I don't like, but many do), sugar makes the henna take muuuch longer to dry. In fact, if you put the amount of sugar some others (who may live in arid or even desert-like climates) recommend, it feels like it will *never* dry. If you do live in a drier area, you may want to use table sugar, fructose, dextrose, hard candies, molasses, tamarind, or other sweet stuff to ensure that your henna doesn't dry and crumble off prematurely. If you live in a more humid region but you do like stringy henna, start by mixing just a tiny bit of sugar in with your mix. Experiment until you find the right balance of stringiness vs drying time for you.

III. Many people prefer not to use lemon juice to mix their henna. Water works just fine! Tea and coffee are also great, if you and your clients don't mind the fact that caffeine easily travels through the skin. Just keep in mind that using water or a water-based liquid may change how long you should let your henna sit before it reaches dye release and is ready to use. If using water, be sure that it is fairly pure / well-filtered, as chemicals in the water may affect your henna. Also, some people like using fresh lemon juice rather than bottled. If you have time to squeeze lots of lemons, or are just doing a small batch, by all means, give this a try!

IV. You may want to use a different essential oil. Anything with monoterpene alcohols ("terps") will work. I use cajeput because it is the best combination of the factors I consider important:
QUALITY
it has lots of monoterpene alcohols, which is important...and the sources you can find for it are almost exclusively for aromatherapy or henna artists, who insist on the highest quality supplies...unlike the teatree oil you might find at your local easy-to-find-teatree-oil source that may or may not have the best stuff...
PRICE
You could use naoli and get similar or even slightly better results, but boy would it be expensive!
AVAILABILITY
You can find it online very easily (although the best price you'll find for it is here, you'll notice:) It's near impossible to find locally... You could find tea tree oil in a health food store pretty easily... but it won't be as high quality.
SIMPLICITY
Sure, you could use a fancy blended specialty oil after you've confirmed that all of its ingredients are safe for use on skin... but will you be able to remember its ingredients list when a customer asks you what you put in your henna paste? The fewer ingredients you use, the less likely you'll throw something into the mix that someone will be allergic to...
One note about these blended oils: NEVER use "mehndi oil" that you don't know the ingredients of! If the manufacturer won't tell you what's in the oil because it's some sort of secret, or they don't bother to list it on their packaging, don't buy it. Make sure you always know exactly what you are putting on your and others' bodies.

Free henna @ Lush, Providence Place, Sept 28 6-9pm

2009-08-14T10:45:00.001-05:00

Super Amazing Providence Hotel Deal for Northeast Henna Gathering!!!

2009-08-13T11:25:00.003-05:00

The Hotel Providence is giving us approximately 60% off their normal rates for the Northeast Henna Gathering!!

Fortunately for us, Providence is billing itself as The Creative Capital these days, and all hotels in the city are REALLY interested in hosting artist conferences! Artists having leverage... who would've thought, right?

I just had to share this as soon as I found out!!! The actual booking information (including the group code you'll need to use to get that awesome rate) will be provided when the first "official" announcement of the Northeast Henna Gathering (which will be March 27 and 28, with pre-gathering activities for early arrivals on the 26th) is made. But I figured some people would be interested to know about these awesome rates if they were trying to plan a trip and see if their budget would allow them to come... No, you don't *not* have to rent a car this year and stay outside of the city in order to get budget-friendly accommodations!

$125/night for a gorgeous, posh hotel right in the nicest part of Downtown Providence... You will be SO ridiculously pleased with this hotel! Especially if you booked a room last year at the similarly-priced but much farther away and not nearly as posh Holiday Inn Express in North Attleboro... The difference is really astounding.

Also, we've confirmed that the main days of the Gathering (the 27th and 28th) will be at The Spot, the coolest artist space in the whole artsy city!

We are amazed and astounded that we are able to bring you such awesome locations this year...

We can't really mention who will be teaching workshops quite yet...but when you see those...you will be even more ridiculously excited, I think :) I am!!

Day-long henna workshop, Sunday, Sept 27

2009-08-07T09:43:00.000-05:00

Next henna class

2009-07-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

Henna body art class

Wednesday, August 5

7-9pm

@ The Learning Connection, Wayland Square, Providence, RI

Visit learnconnect.com and search for "henna" for registration information

WTNH segment

2009-07-29T12:56:00.002-05:00

Many thanks to Connie, Kate, Karen, and everyone else at WTNH's CT style for being such gracious, wonderful hosts!!

TV segment on CT Style, WTNH

2009-07-23T11:59:00.000-05:00

I'll be doing a 6 minute henna segment on WTNH (channel 8 in New Haven / CT) next Wednesday!
It airs 12:30-1pm (it's a split segment, so I'll be on at the beginning and the end).

CT Style on WTNH

You can watch it live on TV or streaming from their website, or view it after the fact in the saved segments on their site :)

Henna Supply Store Now Open!

2009-07-22T13:20:00.003-05:00

The Henna Supply Store is now open!

Here's a complete product list for you:
100g of Jamila henna powder - $7.25
1 kilo of Jamila henna powder - $55
1oz of cajeput essential oil - $8
1 pre-rolled henna cone - $0.90
15 pre-rolled henna cones - $12
Henna pattern book (printed) - $12
1 package of bindis - $3.50
6 packages of bindis - $20

click here to go to the store and buy some...

If you'd like to receive updates about the store and other useful tips for henna artists, please sign up for my Henna Artist Mailing List:

East Providence Heritage Festival

2009-07-19T11:47:00.002-05:00

Come see me today at the East Providence Heritage Festival, Pierce Stadium, 201 Mercer St, East Providence, and get $5 off any $15+ design! Just print this blog posting out and bring it with you for your discount :)

Walk-in henna appointments and East Providence Heritage Days Festival

2009-07-15T11:24:00.002-05:00

I'll be taking walk-in henna appointments at the World Dance and Music Center this Thurs 5-7pm! $30 for up to 15min. 925 Central Ave, Pawtucket.

Also, Fri-Sun, I'll be doing henna at the East Providence Heritage Days Festival! Look for my booth near the end of the row along the 3rd base line.
Visit http://www.myspace.com/heritagedays for details.

Sailfest in New London + Main Street Stroll in East Greenwich

2009-07-08T12:35:00.002-05:00

I'll be doing henna body art (aka mehndi) all around New England this weekend!

Thursday: Main Street Stroll, East Greenwich, RI

Saturday + Sunday, July 11 + 12: Sailfest, New London, CT
Sailfest is the most fun festival I do all year - come see the tall ships and fireworks!
Note that there are usually three henna booths at this event...so if you're looking for me, make sure you find me :) My parents or husband will be minding the front of the booth - look for them.