Exciting times

Hello my dears,
I hope this post finds you well. I've been having a bit of a stress out recently because I, very excitingly, have my first craft fair on Saturday at St Mary's Church in Watford.

If you're local, please come along!

I have no idea what to expect in terms of numbers of anything so I'm just going to try and get as much as stock sorted, as hopefully I'll be able to sell it at some other time even if nothing sells on Saturday.
I had a bit of a sleepless night last night due to some over zealous DIY for my brother yesterday, but made use of it by making up 24 pairs of earrings that have been sitting in my to-do pile for a long while, and re-designing and ordering some business cards and some stickers.

Do you like my business cards?

I've also made some phone cases:

I'm in the process of ordering a load of ethically sourced t-shirts because I think that gives me a better chance of selling things at a craft fair, it's not much more expensive, and it stops so much guilt about little kiddies in sweat shops sewing through their fingers!

So far, what else I can think that I need to do is:

Sort the t-shirt stock

Print the t-shirts

Decorate phone cases 

Make Henna/Jagua cones

Buy insurance

Sort table layout

Get blu-tac!

Make and print henna ingredients and aftercare sheets

Price lists/signs

Print bags

Buy frames for Henna designs

Sort my design book

Make more earrings

Print stickers

Iron all stock

Get change from the bank

Post long awaited items to Luisa and Emma!

.... not infeasible in a week?

I'd better get cracking! 

Over and out

Janet

P.S. I got a bit dusty yesterday!

Designs

Hello, good people.

I've had a bit of a cold and a temperature today so I've been sitting around doing some henna designs to keep myself amused.

I thought you might like to see!

And I tried to think about how I would display them, and here was my result!

Also, this is the full development of my jagua

I'm a little disappointed that it's still definitely blue rather than black, but it's a very strong stain!

You can also see some henna there over the little finger, that's some Zubeda henna (I made the cone myself!) after having sat for 24 hours.  I've put some more on my middle finger at the moment so I can see what the stain is like after 48!

I had LOTS of fun yesterday... sifting some Israeli henna when I'd sifted nearly all of it and my contraption fell apart and mixed all the sifted and coarse stuff together again. I was so angry with myself! Oh well, I sifted it all again so I've got a full box to use. I'll probably mix some up tomorrow to check the colour :)

Anyway, hope you're all well, or better than I am!

Janet

P. S. I drew on my leg too. I was pretty sure it wouldn't stain, and I was right, so there's no trace left but it gave me a chance to test some designs on skin that I didn't want to stay!

Ongoing experiments

Hello internet, 

Just thought I would update you all (and also leave myself something to refer to when I wonder what on earth I did with Jagua and the henna on my hand) on the experiments I have been conducting. 

This is the ~12 hour stain of Jagua!

It's really blue at the moment, which is pretty cool but it should carry on developing for another 36 hours or so so I'm really excited to see how it turns out!

Sadly I made a bit of a boo boo and smudged it, and while I patched it how I would have done with henna, it obviously stains differently and has left a big smudge. I'll have to remember that. I might do a test patch on my foot or something to work out how I can best correct mistakes!

I also found yesterday some achingly beautiful designs by Henna Trails so did an inspired design on my left palm

Here it is, with paste in place.

I then looked into seals as I had been using hair spray but it doesn't really work that well. I thought I needed something flexible, non toxic which stuck to skin fairly well but peeled off when needed. 

I had a brain wave: PVA!

I began a new experiment.

I worked out that the best ratio of PVA:water seems to be 3:1 and then I chucked in a load of glitter. Probably a bit too much because this is what it looked like after I had dabbed the seal on with a soft paintbrush:

Looks a bit mad, but it did work really well! No glitter or henna in my bed this morning!

And this is what it looked like when I peeled off the glue today:

Sadly not too dark but it will develop with time.

I also mixed up some Pakistani henna with just water, as suggested by the seller on eBay when I complained that the stain was rubbish, and I've mixed some zubeda henna up too, so we shall see what the stains look like from those later this week!

Right, I'm off to have some food, a nap, and regain some spoons.

Over and out.

Janet

P. S. The spoons are explained here, it's kind of long but it's a really worthwhile read http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/

Experiments

I mentioned in my last post that I'd been doing some henna experiments and I'm going to tell you what they were. 

In my henna art course, I was given a recipe to mix my henna powder with, supposedly to create darker stains. It basically involved boiling up three tea bags in a small amount of water, reducing it down and mixing the henna powder to a paste with that along with a few drops of eucalyptus oil.

This is the boiling process!

Now, all the recipes I'd seen online said that using tea made no difference and that the useful bit was lemon juice as you needed the acidity to release the dye. 

Being the scientifically (ish!) minded person that I am, I thought I would test this mix against the one Henna Caravan use which involves mixing the powder to a paste with lemon juice. 

I set to work!

I'm using here some finely sifted Pakistani henna I got on eBay.

Left is the tea mixture about to be prepared, and on the right is the henna caravan mixture. 

I left the mix for 24 hours in air tight boxes and then (after some learning how to make cones in class) I piped some onto my right hand.

Here is the result:

On the left is the tea mix, and the right is the lemon. I think the results are pretty conclusive that lemon worked better with this stuff, HOWEVER, neither of the stains were very good at all. I don't know it was dodgy henna so I will have to do more experiments but I don't think I'm going to be bothering with the tea mix too much.

I currently have two more experiments underway. In my henna class on Thursday I made up some purely lemon juice and Moroccan henna. It got put into a cone immediately and so left almost no stain when I played with it in class, and a little bit when I played with it the following day. It's now been 5 days and I've got a bit of it on the inside of my wrist to see how well it stains after that long left in the cone. I suspect leaving it in an air tight container would have done better!

My second experiment is using a gel derived from a fruit called Jagua. It's a bluey black gel, difficult to get fine lines with, but it should develop into a very dark black stain without any of the nasty chemicals in so called "black" henna. Just in case anyone is thinking of using "black" henna - please don't! It uses PPD which is only FDA approved for hair, not for skin and prolonged contact like in henna and can cause chemical burns to the skin. NOT WORTH THE RISK!

This is my Jagua. You can also see here the faded experiments of last week! I shall post an update of its progress! It's pretty expensive, but there seems to be a large market for black henna tattoos, so it might be worth a try or two!

Only points so far is that it's taking a horrendously long time to dry!

Other things I did last week was work out a better way of sifting my henna. The usual way involves muslin or cloth, a spoon and a lot of patience! Something like this:

After a little bit of researching, I hatched a plan involving a cup, some screen printing fabric (because that's what I had), a few coins and an elastic band:

Excuse the mucky hands. The way it works is you fill the cup about a third to two thirds full of your henna powder and a few coins and then simply shake it over a bowl! So very quick and not a problem on my wrists like the other way!

This is my beautifully screen sifted Pakistani henna (SS P). You can't see how fine it is, but this is a picture of the coarse left over henna powder

I'm saving it because it can be used on hair and while I don't want to use it, I might Freecycle it when I've got more, or alternatively pipe some thick designs at some point!

Anyway, apart from my henna experiments, I've had a lovely week with the boyfriend including meeting some of his mates in Bouremmouth. I took the opportunity to draw on someone...

Obviously mine was the flowery stuff, not the tattoos!

Anyway. I'm going to go practice some more with henna. Hope you're all well!

Janet

P. S. 

Isn't JT just SO pretty...... o.O

(They are not his glasses, I am very glad of this!)

Long time, no type

Hello, people.
I've been really really busy recently. First I had a friend's birthday, then a horrible migraine, it was my mum's birthday and we had a lovely family meal,then I had to sort out some courses I will be doing, then I started my henna course, I had a 7 hour job interview in Telford, I've been drawing, buying supplies and visiting my brother and sister-in-law's new house. Busy busy busy! So that's why I haven't written but here I am to tell you what's been going on in the fun parts.

Firstly, I've had an idea. I've been making things that I don't think I'm going to sell online, only at craft fairs, because they'd be one off, or limited numbers, so I was thinking about creating some "Surprise bundles". For example these might cost £15 but contain stuff worth at least £20, so that might be a stamped t-shirt, a bag and a pair of earrings, or it might be a blanket and a completely customised t-shirt, or it might be something else entirely! Obviously, people could tell me things like their size, and if they had pierced ears or not, but other than that, it'd be what I decided to send so it'd be like having a present sent to you because you don't know exactly what you're getting! I'm also thinking of doing surprise earrings at £4 a pair. Those'd be pairs that aren't available on the website because they don't fit into any category, and so you'd not know what you're getting, but hopefully you'd be pleased with what you end up with!
So that's something I need to add to my website. I also need to attach findings to the large numbers of half completed earrings I've got sitting around my flat.

The birthday was my of my friend Tulsi, and she got some handmade things from me, including some earrings, a bag, and this t-shirt:

It's completely hand painted in a silver 3 dimensional fabric paint. I personally find it ending up a bit too stiff for how I like to wear my t-shirts but luckily the recipient liked it!

The second birthday was my mother's. She also got a hand painted t-shirt, which I helpfully forgot to take a picture of. C'est la vie. She also got two pairs of earrings (my mother has a LOT of earrings).

Last Thursday night I started a henna course at Harrow College. I was amazed that I seemed to have the most experience of using and mixing henna there, but this wasn't a problem and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of weeks! I've been buying lots of supplies, all on eBay so the last few days I have been staying inside waiting for parcels rather than doing anything interesting outside the house, but it's worked well because I've done some work!

When I went to Telford, there were two three hour train journeys to fill, and I'd found recently a pad of triangular coloured card and thought that it would make awesome bunting to go round a stall so I spent my train journey decorating some bits of it. Here's some of what I ended up with:

I think they'll look pretty cool, don't you?

I've also made these:

And some clear gloss varnish arrived today so I can start test driving them on my phone. 

I've also made this today:

It's an oyster card holder. That's going to have to find someone else to test drive it because I don't use one of these very much. Anyone like it in exchange for keeping photo evidence of how the design holds up?

Anyway, that's enough for one post. Join me next time for the henna experiments I've been conducting today!

Janet

P.S. 

I've also been drawing on naked women. As you do...

Mixing my first henna

Yesterday I started mixing my own henna for the first time properly.
I bought this henna powder from ebay a couple of weeks ago, it came from Jerusalem so it took a while to arrive. I don't know yet really about the quality, and I'm not sure why exactly I chose that one, but I did!
The recipe I used was a variant of the Henna Caravan KISS recipe. I used mainly lavender oil, but some eucalyptus and bergamot because that's what I had.
I left the mix on the radiator for 24 hours and then put it in a cone this evening and have done the following design:

Now, It's definitely not one of my best ones but it's a start! I had a few problems with it and these are the things I would definitely do next time:

• Sift the henna - this batch had bits of branch and leaf in it which I didn't notice when mixing but made it a complete bugger to get out of the cone!
• Use castor or icing sugar - I only had granulated and I think using that made it a bit more difficult to pipe it. 
• Not make it quite so runny - while it was a lot easier on my hands, it blobbed! 

I'm going to try some different types of henna powder, and try sifting the stuff I've got and will hopefully be able to make something slightly better next time and will update this with the results!

Janet

New t-shirts and bags

Hello dear people who live in the internet.
I have been making things today!
After a brief episode of body-gone-crazy-not-work, I got around to doing some printing, making some fabric paint ink pads, and reinforcing the stamps I had already made.
The fruits of my labour look a little like this:

As you can see, there are two distinct styles: patchwork geometric and floral.

I think they're pretty gorgeous. All the t-shirts are made to order, so you can choose what colour and size you'd like, and the bags are ready to ship. 

AND they're available on my shop! It's all very exciting.

www.colourfulcrafter.com

I'm knackered so I'm going to leave it there. Hope you're well.

Over and out.

Janet

P.S.

My hands are still this mucky even after a good scrub!