Inspiration
Hi! That's me, Easha | এশা | ايشا ❤️
My journey with henna goes back to this image that you see here, circa late 1990s. From sitting with my Ammu (mother) and excitedly watching her put on this textured paste over my finger tips, and drawing out the perfect circle, to grabbing a mehndi cone myself from the local South Asian super-market in Staten Island when I was in high school, attempting to draw all the curves and vines and flowers to … now!! The years have been many, but I still feel like it's always a new start when I pick up that henna cone (or paint brush and pen!).
I would not take on the title of a pro, because I am anything but so, but to say I am self-taught would also be a little naive. I learned from my Ammu. I learned from this henna design book my Mamoni (aunt) sent me from Bangladesh. I learned from the designs I saw blocked on my Nani's Jamdani shari. I learned from the Aarong decoration pieces in every little corner of my childhood home. And I learned from the flower garden in front of my house that my Baba watered every summer evening. I learned from my sister's colorful sketches, and I learned from my late grandfather's eye for the tiniest of details.
Most of all I learned from that little girl in the 90s who sat on the sofa, with her hands held out in front of her, smiling big and wide, waiting for her Ammu to fill her fingertips and palms with henna- and that was joy in the littlest of things. That little girl looked at everything around her in awe- she always believed that anything is art, and everything is art.
The pages and pages of learning from over the years is what catalyzed the coining of Eashenna.
As much as Eashenna is my creative bubble to try and fail and try again, it is an honest and courageous endeavor I take on to keep alive the many facets of what I have learned and will learn, and create and make, all in one place.
To be able to share this with you all gives me so much joy, because I never thought I would find myself here. And I will always hope you can feel that sprinkle of love in every henna-inspired stroke and fill at Eashenna.
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E.