What Is JAGUA, if it’s NOT HENNA???

Please note that this blog post contains a review of a free 10mg sample of Jagua Ink‘s new pre-mixed jagua powder product which was gifted as part of their promotional giveaway.

A contentious body art topic in the last two years, JAGUA is the new ‘Marmite‘ love/hate divider for our industry. Henna Professionals have been plagued for decades by so-called “black henna” and “imitation/chemical henna” products/users/”artists” so when an alternative (but pre-existing) body art medium began to grow in popularity, flooding the mainstream market and appearing all over our social media feeds, many seasoned professionals were understandably wary.

Unlike “White Henna” (which isn’t henna, it’s usually a skin-safe adhesive body paint with enough viscosity to be applied in the same manner as fresh henna paste – ideally an FDA & certified body art product), JAGUA suppliers were promising dark blue/black colour skin-staining properties lasting up to 2 weeks. The newer henna art population were instantly curious; the seasoned henna art population were instantly cautious. While some artists were excited at the prospect of a new colour to add to their palette, a colour that mimics the faded blueish tones of black ink tattoo art, other artists were concerned that the colour would confuse an already chemically compromised consumer market still struggling to accept that “black henna” is illegal and very dangerous. To these artists, the jagua stain looked too much like “black” and in some cases, had even witnessed some businesses further damaging the cause by marketing their jagua services to the public as “black henna”!

So, what in the world is JAGUA?

Full name Genipa Americana, Jagua (also known as Huito) is a fruit (looking a bit like a potato on a tree) that is grown mostly on the African and American continent, historically used by indigenous tribes for traditional body art. Jagua as a word orignates with the Taino, who are

“an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico.” (source).

When questioning the phonetic pronunciation of jagua as ‘Jag-Wah‘ versus ‘Hag-wah‘ versus ‘Yag-Wah‘, there are differing opinions. If asking current day Amazonian indigenous tribes (Kayapo), they have clarified that both ‘Jag-Wah‘ and ‘Hag-Wah‘ are correct. Polyglots argue that according to native languages, ‘Yag-Wah‘ would be more accurate. The final say on the correct pronunciation should come from the Taino – but unfortunately the tribe has now disappeared.

“Some scholars, such as Jalil Sued Badillo, an ethnohistorian at the University of Puerto Rico, assert that the official Spanish historical record speak of the disappearance of the Taínos, but survivors had descendants and intermarried with other ethnic groups. Recent research notes a high percentage of mixed or tri-racial ancestry among people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, with those claiming Taíno ancestry also having Spanish and African ancestry.” (source)

As it stands, there is no specifically incorrect pronunciation of jagua, however you decide to say it. But if in doubt, you could always call it by its latin name: Genipa Americana.

Source: Wikimedia

So how does JAGUA work?

If you are a regular to my blog/website/services then you will have a foundation level understanding of HENNA and how HENNA works – JAGUA is confusingly “the same, but different“. Made from the juice of unripe jagua fruit.The timing of when the  fruit is harvested for ink is crucial as over-ripe, under-ripe or spoiled fruits can all affect the optimum staining potential. The dye molecule in the jagua fruit is the genipa molecule, and much like the lawsone molecule in henna (Lawsonia Inermis) it attaches itself to protein in our skin/nails, thus dying the epidermis until our skin naturally sheds which is typically a 1 to 2 week natural process. Other similarities lie in how long it takes for the colour to fully develop on your skin – 2 to 3 days to oxidise and deepen in colour, also heavily dependent on good aftercare. And here is where the differences begin: Jagua ink comes from the fruit (not the leaves – henna). While indigenous tribal uses take the fruit and juice fresh from the tree, methods to produce for export are expensive, involving a more complex procedure to convert it into a juice/gel or powder form, and then also ensuring it complies with the relevant certifications. Additionally, once the jagua has dried on your skin, you must WASH it off with mildly soaped warm/tepid water (hot water will open your pores and increase the risk of a reaction to the fruit acid). Then for the following 24 hours, you must be mindful not to rest your design (which will appear almost invisible, or a very feint grey) on other areas of skin, as the ink is so potent it WILL transfer to other parts of your body through contact.

Contra-indications

Those of us with strawberry or pineapple allergies will be allergic to jagua. Infact anyone with any fruit sensitivities would benefit from a cautionary approach to jagua body art. In my personal experience an itchy skin reaction (contact dermatitis) developed a full 2 weeks after my jagua application, by which point the design had already faded, so I would strongly advise a patch test at east 2 weeks before having your first jagua body art. However, I have tried jagua products from different suppliers, and reactions seem to vary depending on the processes and preservatives of your chosen supplier. Additionally, the availability of jagua powder products now means that artists can mix their own jagua paste using custom ingredients. Therefore, extra care must be taken to obtain a full list of the ingredients used by your artist to thoroughly check for any potential reactions.

Jagua Manufacturers

As far as my research can discover*, there are 3 main wholesale jagua manufacturers each based in Peru, Panama and Puerto Rico respectively. The most common farming method is for the jagua fruit to be forage harvested by the indigenous people, minimising interference to the local flora and fauna, and offering a sustainable employment for indigenous tribes. Each manufacturer will then process the fruit and its juice per their own methods to prepare for certification and export. From the little I know of the process I am of the opinion that the jagua manufacturing process is still in its infancy and needs to find some standard regulation across the industry due to the specific and varying intricacies of processing a fruit for exporting for skin application. I believe the henna industry could also benefit from some standard regulation also, though the rate of reaction to ground, dried leaves (not dissimilar to tea) is significantly lower.

*and my knowledge of manufacturing is very limited due to available resources.

Jagua – My First Impression

My first encounter with jagua happened in 2015 through Henna Visa who was investigating the possibility of introducing her own jagua ink product. She sent a 20ml sample of her prototype jagua gel as sourced and developed with the Darien Initiative – part of a family run group of social enterprises operating from the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia. We received the bottled tester gel in the post, which I then decanted into cones and trialled at one of our Monthly Mehndi Meets. As the product was still undergoing tests, the sample was free, however we made a donation to the Darien Initiative towards their cause. More on the Darien Initiative later!

As a group of henna artists, we were at the time very excited about having a new colour to work with, but our initial response to it was mild shock at the difference in texture. It felt a lot like watery jam (jelly) – stringy but it would spring back on itself, rather than drape.  Also, we found that dots and vines would need to be drawn out and filled in, rather than squeezed out and achieved through cone pressure. After the initial excitement and buzz of jagua as a new body art medium passed, the majority of us found it quite anticlimactic. The blue tones seemed unusually cold, at first vanishing before developing in colour 2 days after application. It paled in comparison to the blooming warmth of henna. Additionally, without any context or history of the jagua fruit, we all struggled to connect with it. The recommended retail price for jagua gel (£1 per 1ml) was also substantially higher than henna paste (approx. 2p-3p per 1g), which definitely frightened off a lot of henna artists. And so a couple of us took it home, re-froze it, played with it, but ultimately the majority of us shelved it.

Jagua – Mixed Reactions

By 2016, jagua body art was quickly taken up by the body art market, flooding it, to many mixed reactions (pun intended). I felt no connection to it, unlike the deeply rooted empowering history of henna, so I quickly disregarded it as an alternative. Meanwhile, artists like Penney Halcyon Douglas were pioneering new methods of combining jagua with henna to achieve a spectrum of colours AND sharing the results with the community. From these results, Penney was able to create body art with multiple shades, and also introduced temporary eyebrow make-up using the henna-jagua (newly dubbed “Hengua“) mixtures. Ever intrigued, I invested in some jagua gel to experiment with making my own eyebrow paste (with great results by the way), but remained extremely cautious about offering jagua body art services to my clients.

While one half of the community followed these experiments avidly, inspiring their own tests, the other half of the community continued to view it with trepidation. For some of our henna community who have been fighting literally decades against the confusion and danger of “black henna”, this new fruit ink was blurring the lines for an already confused customer base. ALSO, many countries had yet to even certify insure jagua body art since it had not attained the relevant test results and certifications (even in 2018 jagua is currently not yet certified in Canada, for example).

2017 then became the year of reactions to jagua fruit ink, with some key industry influencers revealing that their citrus allergies were now flaring up with jagua fruit ink and the newly launched jagua powder. Various artists began to notice their own reactions to prolonged exposure to jagua. Reports of contact dermatitis and photos of reactions looking similar to PPD reactions began to surface, and the cautious artists became louder in questioning the professionalism of trading in a body art medium with the awareness that reactions were on the increase. How can a professional artist atone the practice of applying a known sensitizing allergen to a paying client?

Jagua – New Suppliers

By the beginning of 2018 I had practically given up on jagua but as it turned out, jagua was not quite done with me as experienced jagua artist Melissa Addams was announced as one of the instructors at the East West Mehndi Meet in Hungary that I was due to attend. There was a genuine feeling of ambivalence amongst fellow EWMM attendees towards this news. While there was no denying Melissa’s artistic credentials, we were not overly seduced by jagua with its associated risks. Melissa may or may not have realised, but she had a tough audience to impress at the EWMM – and impress she did. With more information on the history of jagua body art originating from the Taino people, bringing her own rooted connection to the communities still using traditional tribal jagua body art, as well as explaining the proper pronunciation of “jagua” (as mentioned above),  Melissa slowly but surely coaxed many of us back into giving jagua another try. She introduced her alternative source of jagua supplies, forage harvested from Peru. Her new items included pure jagua powder (straight powdered jagua fruit) and pre-mixed jagua powder (powdered jagua fruit pre-mixed with xanthan gum emulsifier, with citric acid preservatives). We were taught how to mix each of these powders, given recipes and finally, full demonstrations on how jagua body art could be really, truly beautiful…

Armed with this new information and inspiration, I purchased my first sample pack of pure jagua powder to trial back in my studio. Spoiler alert: It was a big fat fail as I put it into my henna paste mix, left it to dye release and ended up with no dye from either the henna OR the jagua. It seemed my understanding of jagua continued to need more work.

Jagua Ink: A Family Business

Now while all this debate and drama was happening in the temporary body art industry, the Cook family were quietly formulating their own powder product. Way back in 1981 the Cook family relocated with their children to the Darien Gap (a belt of undeveloped swampland and forest between Panama and Colombia) to set up Vida Ministries. The family assimilated and grew up among the indigenous tribal community of the Choco-Indian reservation. Contrary to the long out-dated perception of Christian missions as evangelism and conversion, Vida Ministries took the modern mission of providing aid without requiring conversion, alongside an understandable and culturally adapted presentation of their beliefs with the hope that people will choose to follow the teachings of Christianity, without removing them from their indigenous culture in any way.

In their +35 years of living with the community the family enabled the development of a one room facility into a 48 bed hospital – often providing the ambulance service themselves with their family jeep. They facilitated a vaccination program which reduced the child death rate from 65% to 10%, and formed a regional radio station which broadcasts not only local news, issues and economic information, but also educational programs – and has become a vital form of communication. From this beautiful connection to the Darien region, they created the Darien Initiative aiming to protect and help the tribes to live the way they want in the current changing world through education or by improving their situation doing what they know (for example basket dyeing/weaving and bow and arrow fabrication). From this also came Sunara Farms (an agricultural cooperative with the objective of finding markets for the local, natural resources) and finally, Jagua Ink.

“Plant a seed of charity and harvest for a lifetime” – Darien Initiative

Over the years, the Darien Initiative/Jagua Ink has supplied numerous international jagua artists and suppliers, often assisting with product development, lab tests, certification processes and packaging. Jagua suppliers who invest in wholesale jagua gel or juice from the Darien Initiative/Jagua Ink include Nature’s Body Art, Jagua Japan, Jagua Canada, Inkbox tattoos, My Henna Germany, Jaguahenna, and Jagua Gel (Ukraine).

Forage harvested from wild rain-fed jagua fruit trees, the tribe teams handpick the ideal unripened jagua fruit based on inherited experience and expertise. The timing is crucial as over-ripe, under-ripe or spoiled fruits can all affect the optimal staining potential. Wages for fruit picking are calculated by the amount of fruit foraged, which offers a lucrative way of increasing one’s weekly income. This fruit is then processed and frozen on the same day within a HACCP certified food grade facility, and does not involve freeze-drying, additives or preservatives, thus promising a “100% pure jagua” product with a 3 stage quality check. Variables such as how much pulp to leave, the age of the fruit (determined by the fruit peel), whether the fruit is good/bad and the volume of the each batch is all overseen by the tribe team. Any lab tests/science results are in turn shared with the tribe team to involve them in the entire process. The Darien Initiative/Jagua Ink also boasts a 96% recycling rate from tree to tattoo as any imperfect fruit is fed to the sheep (charged with maintaining the surrounding grass), and the fruit grindings are composted.

All of this, I think we can agree, sounds incredibly informative, transparent and impressive.

Jagua Ink: My Review

So now we reach late 2018, with a slightly jaded and weary experience so far I begin to see sponsored posts in my social media feed, promoting their new jagua powder as “not the first on the market, but by far the best” due to its lengthy development behind the scenes. I spotted a giveaway post following my 2 week visit to Hong Kong where I had met with a fellow body artist who has chosen to move her business focus towards jagua over henna. She had told me how she had recently switched to Jagua Ink due to concerns over an increase in client reactions to her previous jagua supplies, and so I tagged her in this prominent Jagua Ink promotion hoping that she may win the 100g jagua powder. Unexpectedly, I was then contacted by Jason Cook (CEO and Founder of Darien Initiative/Jagua Ink) as a selected recipient of a 10g sample of their new product. Bemused to be selected as an “experienced jagua artist” (see above, haha), but never one to turn down a freebie (Yorkshire mindset, people – Yorkshire mindset!) I forwarded the requested information and was surprised at how quickly the sample arrived. I opened the envelope to find the [teeny tiny] 10g airtight foil packaged powder, along with 3 documents – a packing/invoice slip and two thorough product information sheets. From this, I saw that I had received a pre-mixed powder – where the jagua powder has added xanthan gum. This is an emulsifier – basically the proper word for thickening agent (a bit like how corn starch works for gravy, or flour for cheese sauce). With this information I knew that I would need to take the powder to my studio, access my EWMM workbook notes and revise before mixing it up. I was determined NOT to waste another jagua product like last time (it’s like 10p per milligram – that’s a lot to waste!) You can see my mixing experience of it on my instagram highlight reel.

Recipe used:
  • 10g Jagua Ink pre-mixed Jagua Powder
  • 3ml Essential Oils (Monoterpenes – Cajeput with a few drops of Geranium)
  • 70ml Water (50% rose water used for scent)
  • 10-20ml Maple Syrup

I added the essential oils, roughly 50 – 60ml of water to the powder and stirred thoroughly until a fairly smooth paste was created. I then left the paste to stand for 10-15 minutes to allow for the xanthan gum to activate and emulsify. As it thickened up, I then added more water and the syrup one teaspoon at a time, stirring and checking the consistency with each addition until I was happy with the consistency. I aimed to achieve a mixture as close to my usual henna paste as possible, which a little bit of stringiness, and a lot of sticky/adhesive quality hopefully from the syrup used. Once happy with the consistency, I then strained the jagua paste through a gauze bag, into a piping bag, and then piped it into my rolled mylar cones. Surprisingly, the 10mg of powder resulted in 10 of my 7-10g mini cones. Once sealed, I then put them all into the freezer for storage until I would have time to test them out on some skin.

Usage Test

In total, I created 3 test designs. Two of these were bold lined designs on the fingers/hand/forearm (typically warmer with more layers to the epidermis), and one a fine lined, transfer reliant design on the thigh (typically a cooler, feinter staining skin area).

As I had mixed the powder up to my own recipe, I had optimal control over the paste consistency. I had managed to create a jagua paste that was as thick, as smooth and as sticky as my preferred henna texture. The stringiness however was difficult to achieve. As it’s a fruit based medium it still maintains a sticky jam type of texture – so while I could squeeze and drape, any line breakages would have a slight shrinking quality (imagine a snail retracting its antennae). It’s not disruptive to the application process. It’s just a difference in behaviour when you compare it to the experience of applying henna. The KEY difference for me in using my own jagua recipe was that I had added a few drops of geranium essential oil, blended with cajeput essential oil. As a result, I was able to benefit from the effects of the geranium fragrance which is said to relieve anxiety and elevate ones mood. When using henna I prefer to use lavender Bulgaria for similar beneficial reasons, so I have to concede that I really enjoyed using the jagua paste.

Once the designs had dried, I then sealed them with tegaderm medical film and left on overnight.

The following day the designs were washed off with tepid soapy water.

Left with a murky grey toned design (pictured above), it then took another 4 to 5 days (slightly longer than expected) for the colour to fully mature into a very deep and rich indigo blue stain on the fingers, hands and forearm.

The colour is so alarmingly deep and rich that it crosses your mind to question whether the ink is permanent – but to our relief by day 10 the stains showed visible signs of wear and fade (*PHEW*).

So, what is my final opinion on the new Jagua Ink powder?

My misgivings with jagua as a medium for body art have been due to a lack of:

  1. Information on it’s historical and modern uses,
  2. Information on the manufacturing methods,
  3. Feeling a connection to the medium
  4. and ultimately the rate of reactions to it

Over the last 3 years my experience has given me the history, background and modern uses of jagua through the teaching of Melissa Addams , research and the informative updates from Panama by Jason Cook (Jagua Ink). Information regarding the processing of jagua is also more forthcoming from suppliers in the form of not only certified processing plants but also an increased social media focus on showing behind the scenes updates on the production and procedures. With the ability to import powder (lighter and cheaper to ship) we now have the opportunity to form a connection to our jagua paste through our mixing process, fine tuning it to our specific needs. And finally regarding the rate of reactions, suppliers have now linked the majority of contact dermatitis reactions to the use of citric acid/preservatives in the jagua products. This knowledge has been shared amongst the community of jagua manufacturers to ensure improved safety across the market – and thereby vastly reducing the risk of reaction. All of this makes me very happy to begin to embrace jagua body art.

However.

I will still refrain from offering jagua body art in a fast-paced festival setting, preferring to reserve this for in-studio appointments only. I will also continue to require clients to book in for a jagua patch test 2 weeks prior to their booking to ensure no delayed onset reactions, and also provide them a thorough list of ingredients to check for any potential allergens.

To summarise:
  • YES! We have the safest possible jagua product yet from a credible and transparent manufacturer who is able to work with professional artists on safety and certification.
  • YES! We have a jagua manufacturer who is dedicated to providing valuable, sustainable aid and preservation of indigenous lifestyles by putting profits back into the initiative to continue their work.
  • YES! We have a jagua manufacturer who is happy to spread information on the current uses of jagua within the tribal communities.
  • YES! We can now have more control over our own jagua paste.
  • BUT! Maintain your professionalism when adding any new service to your body art business, and always, always ensure that the safety of your client is paramount.

 

Thank you so much for reading this very lengthy blog post. Here’s a lil reward for all your hard work:

Bonus picture gallery!

Here is my use of the same jagua paste with the transfer/stencil technique as used by tattoo artists

 



Henna Faery Dreams Come True (Pt. 2)

At long last – the long overdue, and promised PART 2 for the most beautiful photo shoot I have ever had the privilege to be a part of! Thank you all for being so, so patient –  I would like to thank my next blog post* for giving me the kick up the backside to finally get to updating!!

AND SO the day of the painstakingly planned photo shoot arrived. On the morning of Friday 6th July, I woke before my alarm, but of course.

Correction; On the morning of Friday 6th July, I was still awake, struggling to sleep, applying a sheet mask at around 1 AM. I had carefully rolled up any outfits I had considered using, packed a minimalist make-up kit (mostly comprised of lipsticks – which I never even used in the end), some cereal bars (which weren’t eaten until the walk back to the cars afterward) plus some waterproof sandals for the expected river walking. When it came time to sleep I had to resort to listening to a calming podcast to lull my mind into away from worrying whether the lack of sleep would cause puffy eyes in the photos. I eased myself out of bed with more enthusiasm than on a typical morning, washed and styled my hair, spraying it liberally with a temporary grey hair colour, and threw some extra hair products into my bag. Choosing to wear a floral wraparound dress (with the intention of using it as a dressing robe if needed) I fed myself a sizeable stodgy breakfast and filled a water bottle for the day ahead.

 

Coordinating closely with my model Tegan the night before, we had discussed meeting at Georgina’s salon to tackle the addition of false lashes to Tegan’s eyelids. While it’s a bit much on a typical Friday morning, lashes are an absolute MUST for photo shoots (I’m pretty sure that’s a law, somewhere). When Tegan parked up next to me and stepped out of her car it was perfection. Her hair was GLORIOUSLY curled and her henna had stained AMAZINGLY. Such an exciting sight to behold on the morning of a photo shoot. Georgina, through her jealousy and FOMO swiftly started to apply lashes to Tegan which is when Tegan pointed out that *gasp* a noticeable chunk of the sun emblem henna design on Tegan’s chest had come off with the Tegaderm sealing tape. “You might need to put some more henna on top of it for the photos” she warned me – but then, the henna paste would come off in the water… and then the henna stain would be the wrong colour. What to do??

As coincidence would have it, 7 days prior I had been practicing with the Henna Caravan product ‘HennaGlam.’ This is an FDA approved coloured body adhesive for temporary body art that lasts upto 3 days. I had bought the ENTIRE range of colours on my last trip to Henna Con – one of the colours is “Henna Brown”. Georgina immediately insists “Go. Go geddit geddit geddit geddit!” Me: “But..” “No, just go geddit.” It really was a no-brainer when you consider that my studio, where the henna glam is, is only 0.2 miles walk from Georgina’s salon. Yep, that’s roughly 322m. Or a 0.4 mile drive. It’s ridiculous that I even hesitated. I grabbed the Henna Glam, plenty of alcohol wipes, and even more importantly several J-bottle tips just incase of blockages.

Now jogging out of my studio (I usually never travel faster than a gentle ambling pace) I zipped back to the salon to find Georgina putting the finishing touches to Tegan’s DOUBLE stacked eyelashes. “They’re a bit extra and I wouldn’t normally… but for the sake of the photo shoot, it’s just gotta be done really” Georgie justified. Tegan looked fab – even though her eyelids were now undertaking a major WOD. Once we were confident she was still able to see well enough to drive, we set off in our coordinated white cars (no joke) to Louise’s studio with an ETA of 10 AM.
Under the gaze of a beautiful summer sun we arrived at Louise’s studio, paused momentarily while Louise gushed at the sight of Tegan, swiftly gathered up most of the dresses and fabrics hanging on Louise’s wardrobe rail (along with a new changing tent) and zipped off to meet our photography assistant Charlie, as found on the internet only 2 days before (not at all dodgy – right??) We met him in a car park – public spaces are always wise – haha. He had his camera and drone in his kit. Laden with all our props we began the walk towards our chosen location: Goit Stock waterfalls.

I am not an enthusiastic walker – I am prone to very unbecoming behaviour when forced to walk anywhere. We had heard from others that the walk would be between 10 to 30 minutes. I was praying it would be 10 minutes – that’s when I spotted *a* waterfall – not Goit Stock, but still quite pretty. I didn’t hide my disappointment when we didn’t stop – instead we plodded onwards. Another 15 minutes walk later we could HEAR the waterfall – it was LOUD and as we turned a bend we had our first sight of Goit Stock – It was magnificent. Far beyond what we had hoped for, and the most beautiful sunlight too! Enthusiastically, we threw up the changing tent on a [slighty inclined ledge] and precariously changed into matching dresses, while Louise and Charlie checked their lighting and best vantage points.

While I remember, remind to get contact lenses for my next photo shoot. Wandering around location with slightly blurred vision is really quite impractical.

Cracking on with the shoot, we perched, sat, pointed our limbs, elongated our necks, leaned, gazed, laughed, smiled, glowered and glared until the time came to take the plunge and WADE INTO the river.

Gingerly, I made the first steps in and was pleasantly surprised – not that cold, infact quite acceptable considering the cooler temperatures as a result of the waterfall being shaded by surrounding woodland (thus offering the wonderful dappled sunlight we had). Behind me however, plucky Tegan was not so plucky as she accused me of lying – “It’s freezing” she corrects me. “It can’t be that bad, come on!” say Louise and Charlie from their welly-encased positions, trying (but failing) to stifle their amusement at our discomfort. We didn’t curse them… Much. Okay, maybe I shouted a little.

We continued on, trying different outfits, different positions until the time felt right to try out a few new techniques – slow frame photography and DRONE photography. We turned to the old favourite blue floral dress in Louise’s bag of wonders. Fun fact about the blue floral dress: This was a dress I found at a car boot sale with the full intention of wearing for a fancy occasion one day. That day never seemed to come and the dress seemed to fit too loose. In the end I took it with me to do the bath tub photo shoot with Louise – and it has stayed with her ever since! Very slowly I returned myself to the centre of the river, perched on the most accommodating rock, carefully removed my sandals (tucking them behind my legs), adjusted the angle of the flowing fabric around me and tried to looked “relaxed” for the camera. After a few shots, Charlie advised me that the shots weren’t quite working: “We’re just not getting a great shot of the HENNA.” Okay. Duly noted, I tried to turn my henna towards the camera.

I should mention that a few minutes before this there had been an arrival of a group of teenagers. Being the month of July, many year 11/GCSE students were on study leave and enjoying the sunshine – and a group of them had decided to take a long walk from Clayton to Goit Stock. Not an easy feat! It was unfortunate however that it coincided with a day when we were shooting photos. So, as Charlie told me that he needed a better angle of the henna, a group of teens had gathered next to Louise, watching curiously while a woman in a blue dress sat in the middle of the river, staring off into the distance. Then, just when I thought it was feeling pretty awkward we heard a dramatic SPLASH as a couple of the more bold and fearless students plunged into the pool from the top of the waterfall. It looked AMAZING and it crossed our minds that maybe we should try it – for a photo before swiftly changing our minds. But also, the bold waterfall jumpers were in our shots… Oh dear. We were on bought time as we then engaged the help of the students next to Louise, to negotiate with their fellow students at the top of the waterfall, to hold off while we shoot a couple more slow frame shots before switching to the drone so they could resume the pool plunging antics – oh, to be young, restless and immortal again! The shouting back and forth, and the cringeworthy moments of me posing, seriously, resulted in some magical work from Charlie. Behold:

Did you know: The drone generates a strong downward wind – It was COLD under that lens!

Once done, the celebratory group of students had grown exponentially – they were now a veritable pool party, so we felt maybe it was a good time to wrap it up, pack down and finish for the day. As we towelled off and put our walking shoes back on, a couple passed by and stopped to tell us that they were also planning to shoot at Goit Stock in the following week and had just spent some time scoping out the location for ideal scenery. They advised us that just a few minutes further up river there was another, smaller waterfall but a very lovely pool – quieter, less disturbances, probably ideal for more photos. We all exchanged looks. We had roughly 2o minutes of time left – maybe half an hour, but I would have to call for school-run back up to give us that time. We agreed that we wouldn’t have this chance again – sunlight, bag of dresses, photography assistant, drone! – so we gathered everything up and forged onwards and upwards towards for a second shoot. Greeted by a peaceful pool, we realised immediately that it was worth the extra effort. Even a couple of outfit changes and possibly an optimistic swimming shot – maybe! By this point Tegan and I were tiring. Walking into the river was taking us 3 times longer, with more stumbles and wobbles. I thought the terrain had become more precarious, but the truth was that we were tired. With the drag of wet dresses, the cold water temperature and the (albeit gentle) current of the river, we had been putting our bodies through quite a workout. Gritting our teeth, we plowed on – when would we have such an amazing opportunity again? Truly? When?! Scrambling into the river on all fours, clinging to each other for stability and shouting words of encouragement we achieved the final shots of the day – among my most favourite photos ever.

Finally satisfied we made our way back to the river bank very slowly. grateful for the extra hands from Charlie hauling our drenched and tired asses out of the river. Throwing all our wet outfits back into the bag and accepting Charlie’s offers to carry the heavy loads we began plodding back to our cars, drained but invigorated by the anticipation of seeing the resulting photos.

 

Bidding a fond farewell to each other as we all parted ways, and hoping beyond our wildest dreams that we would be able to put together another opportunity to meet and shoot more photos we returned home to recover, process, edit and await the unveiling of all our hard work.  I knew then and I know now beyond a shadow of a doubt that all the hard work we had put in as a team was entirely worth it. Louise and Charlie produced outstanding work that I am proud and honoured to have been a part of, and having the empowering force of Tegan by my side was a sheer joy. Please, please let this not be the last time! For now, enjoy these beautiful images and always, always be grateful for the beautiful souls that cross your path when you decide to pursue your creative passion <3

More photos (click for enlarged versions):

*My first review post – coming soon!

Henna Faery Dreams Come True (Pt. 1)

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I’m sitting here, frozen in thought, attempting my 2nd rewrite of this blog post. Final shots from my latest collaborative photo shoot with Louise just went live on her Facebook page and the reaction has completely stunned me.

The images are, of course, exceptionally beautiful – there is no denying Louise‘s skill and artistry. And when you throw in a spectacular waterfall, a fully committed and passionate first-time model and friend, AND the enthusiastic energy of a fresh graduate as a photographer’s assistant, it’s inevitable that something magical will happen.

It has to be said that 2018 has been a stonker of a year so far – a year of many extremes (and that’s just the weather). Creatively, pieces have been falling in to place for me; Business-wise, I have found my stride and things are ticking over in some semblance of a routine. If you have spoken to me recently, you’ll know that I see this as the first year I have gone “full throttle” on festival season. If only my bookkeeping was the same. But we will not be discussing that here today (!)

Earlier in April this year, Louise and I took ourselves to Esholt woods for a fresh attempt at a river photo soot – a reboot of our original ‘Cold Feet’ shoot which was over two years ago – how time flies! In the woods we found the lovely babbling brook, atmospheric woodland backdrops and plenty of wild garlic for me to dig my bare feet into. The water was typically cold as you would expect in April, and we confused many a dog – and their respective dog walkers. I changed outfits under my outfits, and waited for hikers to pass before switching to another new outfit. At one point we stopped completely as Bella the dog was totally and utterly thrown by our activity, barking maniacally in confusion and subsequently running off with one of our flower crowns in her jaws. Louise was unimpressed. It was retrieved with no damage – thankfully.

The resulting shots from this low-key crazy spontaneous photo shoot were a wonderful surprise. Given how understated our planning had been, I think even my expectation levels were calmer. But Louise, as ever, delivered the most gorgeous album of photos. Truly. Yet, she was determined that we could do better. When the anniversary for ‘Cold Feet’ came up, she was super keen on a re-shoot by the river. And so, I started checking everybody’s calendars and availability.

We scheduled a date for June with a plan to reunite the original threesome from the River Wharf shoot in Ilkley. Everything was set to go ahead until I threw a spanner in the works by spending an afternoon at the BIASAN Eid party, donating henna artist services from four artists representing the Home of Henna CIC. I felt that the likelihood of rescheduling the river shoot was slim – but consoled myself with the beautiful Esholt pictures.

Then, two nights later as I lay in bed scrolling through my Instagram feed at crazy o’clock (don’t lie, I know you’ve done it too) I came across an image from an account called the California Witch Camp. Impulsively I wanted to send it to Louise immediately. I tempered my enthusiasm, clicked ‘save’ and then sent it to her it at 7:53AM instead (which is remarkable restraint if you know me at all).

An hour later, Louise responded:

“Oh come on!! Let’s do this!!! Summer is calling and that water would be lovely and warm**”

So, on 24th of June the wheels began to set in motion and my organisational hat was *on*. We set the new date there and then: 6th July, a mere 2 weeks after the original date that I had cancelled. It was then a race to get all the pieces aligned for the shoot. Our first obstacle was that Helen was sadly unable to make the reunion shoot. It began to look like I would need to self-henna and be the lone model, which really didn’t feel like good enough for something that I had ambitious plans for. I had to engage more brain cells in finding another adventurous solution.

And then I remembered Tegan.

I met Tegan a few years ago – at our Onna Ju-Jitsu dojo. She was, as long as I knew her, training for her black belt – Junior, Senior and also 2nd black belt. As far as I know, she has always been a black belt – maybe she was born a black belt (it honestly would not surprise me). The reality is that she started training as a 6 year old. Our Sensei often described her as seeming like a 40 year old in a child’s body, and it’s true – if you have ever spent any length of time with Tegan, she does seem like an old soul. Or at the very least, it feels like she has been here before. Intelligent, mature and bright, a scholarship student at our city’s grammar school and an aspiring lawyer, she was also *my* black belt uke. This means she assisted my black belt grading by [happily] being thrown by me, no less than 25 times using a variety of methods. Actually, maybe it was 32 times since there were 7 combination throws after that. With each throw she would spring back onto her feet and throw some encouragement back my way to keep on keeping on.  This is someone whose hair I have braided for her first  National Ju-Jitsu competition in a sisterly-like fashion. She is less than HALF my age.

I should warn you incase it isn’t clear already that you should never be fooled by Tegan’s 5’3″ stature and unassuming presence though – this woman will move mountains. Now 18 years old and a trainee lawyer & student in Sheffield, AND a lifeguard at the weekend, Tegan had actively notified me back in March that if I would ever be in need of a model, she would be very happy to help. A few hours after re-arranging the date with Louise I then sent the inspiration images to Tegan and asked:

“Lemme know if you’d be up for a shoot like this during school hours on the 6th July (and if so, available to be henna’d on Mon/Tues before the shoot)” [I had given her 7 days notice]

Within 60 seconds she had responded – “Absolutely!”

The levels of excitement were beginning to mount.

We had just passed lunchtime when I informed Louise – I was internally squealing.  The following day sent her a link to a pop-up changing pod as an investment piece of equipment for location shoots recalling the struggle of getting dressed out in the open in Esholt woods. It felt like things were coming together and my mind was racing with excitement and anticipation. Louise was making plans to scout out another location in Bingley when a moment of inspiration hit me: A Sun and Moon / Light and Dark theme for the henna designs would be PERFECT. I was SO excited, I squealed loudly – on my own, in my home. AND I did a lil hop/jump and a few excited claps. Yes. I was definitely alone. I had left my designs sketch book in the studio (my fellow notebook addicts will Feel My Pain), but ever determined I drafted designs and layout in whatever drawing book I had to hand. The levels of excitement were dangerously approaching unsustainable levels.

The 2nd day, I made a quick trip around a charity shop for anything suitable for the shoot and also picked up some temporary hair colour sprays: Red and copper for Tegan’s fair hair, and grey for myself, in keeping with the sun and moon concept. As timing would have it, my bi-monthly hair appointment was also on this day and my poor hairdresser Joanne – who had intended on giving me strawberry/peach blonde tones – had to re-plan the entire colouring scheme for my hair when I specified I needed grey for the photography concept. It turned out that when I told her I was aiming for a “Witches in the Woods” feel, she envisioned black pointed hats and green skin. Err. No. Fast forward many hours (actually 5 hours) and my hair had never been so white/blonde/grey. Lunar Witch step 1 completed in time for the festival-filled and henna-mixing weekend.

Henna application day rolled round in what felt like SECONDS thanks to the distraction of the Shipley Street Arts Festival. Soon Tegan was parking up in our driveway by the Creative Arts Hub after a 2 hr commute, armed with fresh pizza for our sustenance. With my very freshly mixed batch of henna paste containing Rajasthani henna powder, a splash of Jamila henna powder, lavender Bulgaria essential oil, rose water, maple syrup and a few drops of sweet orange essential oil we cracked on with making her henna-fied. Despite turning up with some very fresh sunburn damaged skin and radiating heat from her chest (no joke), she was an absolute JOY to henna. Tegan was a super still and relaxing model. After over 4 hours of application, she was the instigator for *more* henna on her upper arms when I hesitated, citing “I just think that when we’re shooting on Friday, you’ll wish you put more henna there.” And she was absolutely right. In the end, we were in the studio for 6 hours, which included the taping and wrapping of all the henna using a variety of mefix, tegaderm and vet-wrap. Once she was safely wrapped she could finally make the 2 hour drive back home (!) She had attempted to assure me that her previous experiences with natural henna had resulted in deep and long lasting tones, but I was never truly comforted until I learned that she had 100% committed to perfect aftercare procedures having familiarised herself with ALL my aftercare requirements before we had even arranged the shoot.

When I woke the next morning, it was time to begin my own henna designs. Having taken many, many notes from the experiences of my fellow henna friends regarding self-henna on the chest, I prepared by straddling a stool, and facing a wide, full length mirror and ensured good lighting, The key advice for self-chest henna is to not look from the mirror to your own chest as it confuses the brain – true story! I tried it!

The next part of the body I tackled was my right arm – which involved applying henna using my non-dominant left hand. So here’s a key tip – when applying self henna and you want matching designs on both sides, try using your non-dominant hand first as your dominant hand will have far fewer problems mirroring/reflecting a design. Expecting your non-dominant hand to match a design you created organically with your dominant hand is a very frustrating learning experience. Once both my chest and right arm were fully dried and wrapped for protection, I continued with my usual school run duties and evening duties until the henna could re-commence after the bedtime routine. As I sat awake that Tuesday night, waiting for my henna to dry for wrapping I began my usual scrolling habit which is how I discovered Yorkshire Waterfalls Photography.  “OMG” I thought to myself, “A WATERFALL WOULD BE EPIC!” And proceeded to spam Louise on messenger with multiple links to potential waterfall locations that we could use. The time stamps on these links are roughly 1:50AM… Oops. But! It was totally worth it as by 11AM, Louise had opted for Goit Stock, a hidden gem of a waterfall right here in Bradford. If you thought our excitement levels must have been high, they went stratospheric after this decision.

In the end my self-henna was not finished until Wednesday night. I even managed to experiment with henna designs dried onto mefix tape and then applied and rehydrated to my back and backs of my legs by employing the assistance of my husband for positioning. He was thrilled to be faced with the pressure of symmetrical alignment (!)

It dawned on us at this point that we really needed a photography assistant. As Helen was unable to join us, we were one team member down. Louise and I agreed that an extra pair of hands was really essential for more creative freedom. Having asked around with no success, Louise resorted to a public call out on her page for an enthusiastic volunteer, not knowing what on earth to expect from the potential responses. Luck really must have been on our side as the call-out brought Charlie to our project 2 days before the shoot. A recent graduate in Business Management with a burgeoning skill and enthusiasm for photography, primarily in landscapes Charlie offered us not only his helping hands with a willingness to get his feet wet***, but THEN on the day before the shoot he suggested he bring along HIS DRONE.

Louise: “Hell yes let’s bring it along!”

With pinterest boards pinging back and forth between us, plus henna stain updates, plus dress and hair ideas flinging around and then THE POSSIBILITIES of drone photography I chattered excitedly to Georgina during my lash extension appointment (also remarkably well timed for the photo shoot) and it was virtually impossible for me to fall asleep the night before the shoot…

(continued in part 2, coming soon!)



**By the way, this did not turn out to be true, incase you were wondering

***He brought wellies – his feet did not get wet.