Re: HELP-need "hard henna" recipe for wood, leather, paper!
Posted by Natasha Papousek on March 07, 2000 at 14:31:38:
In Reply to: HELP-need "hard henna" recipe for wood, leather, paper! posted by Carrie on March 07, 2000 at 06:59:10:
I've hennaed lots of things -- paper, drums, fabric, wood.
The recipe that I use has NO sugar at all.
For less porous items, use really fresh henna, enough lemon juice to
make a thick paste and some dark clove tea (Constant Comment is nice)
to thin it to the right consistency. That's it. I let the mixture
rest for a couple of days in the fridge, but you could probably use it
sooner.
Paper and fabric (because they get ironed) turn out just fine with
henna that's too tired for skin. Same recipe as above.
For paper and fabric, I let the henna dry, then rub off the paste
before ironing. After it is ironed to the right color, rinse
thoroughly to get rid of any lingering henna scraps and dust.
For drums and wood, I leave the paste on. On drums the paste wears
off with use and eventually oxidises (takes a couple months) to a
perfect color. The paste seems to like to stay on wood -- I haven't
done extensive experiments, but with the 3 pieces I have done, the
paste was very stubborn. Scraping wiht a knife removed bits of wood
along with the paste. Rinsing removed the paste, but also the stain.
So I just left the paste on. I suppose you could polyurethane(sp?)
over that to make it to give it some gloss and protection.
All the best to you. Your gift sounds lovely and thoughtful and I'm
sure the happy couple will treasure it!