The Open Palms

Henna Photography inspiration

2011-02-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

Spring is almost here and that means henna season will be in full swing soon! Parties, weddings, and festivals galore!

Here's some henna inspired photography to get you in the henna mood!

(Note: Charlotte Henna does not take credit for any of the following photography or designs)

Charlotte Henna is giving back!

2010-09-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

We're Famous! :)

2010-04-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Henna was recently featured in the Charlotte Observer. It was an article about the Middle Eastern Festival at Queens College Next weekend.

Check it out! :)

Middle East Fest brings henna, baklava and live entertainment

Enjoy diverse Middle Eastern music, food, dance - and temporary henna tattoos - at all- day cultural event.

By Karen Sullivan
ksullivan@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Sunday, Apr. 04, 2010

Not everyone is ready for the lifelong commitment that a permanent tattoo demands.

Yet, Suzanne Hamid is providing ample doses of fleeting passion - temporary tattoos of henna, an ancient vegetable dye. Henna fades in about a week.

Hamid learned the art from her mother as a Girl Scout trying raising money for Charlotte's Muslim troop, No. 1101.

Now she and two friends - Ruhi Brelvi and Kawthar Suleiman - are all grown up and have a year-old business creating henna body art for special occasions and festivals.

Their company, Charlotte Henna, will be among a about a seven exhibitors Saturday at this year's Middle East Festival at Queens University of Charlotte.

The festival is a showcase of Middle Eastern culture and brings art, performances, food and games.

Simple henna tattoos will sell for $5 to $10. Last year, Charlotte Henna's booth drew roughly 75 customers.

"It's fun and very creative," said Hamid, 22. "I can go to a kid's birthday party or a retirement party. They'll love it for different reasons."

If the festival seems unfamiliar, that's not surprising. The Middle East Council of the Carolinas first organized the event just two years ago.

The Middle East Council is itself a fledgling. It was formed in 2006 through Charlotte's nonprofit International House, which promotes international culture through programs and events and is among the festival's sponsors.

The council's first festival was intentionally small. Last year, its board decided to make the festival a community event. It drew about 700 people, said Stephen Christopher George, the organization's president.

This year's festival returns with a program similar to the last: a free program during the day and an evening program of live entertainment.

The festival will present traditions of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. The evening concert includes two acts at Dana Auditorium at Queens.

Students from the College of William & Mary's Middle Eastern Music Ensemble will perform Arab, Turkish, Persian, Armenian and Greek traditional music. The London-based Naghmeh Ensemble will perform classical Persian music.

"It's a great opportunity to be exposed to the variety of cultures from the Middle East," George said.

Charlotte Henna Upcoming Events:
April 10 - Middle Eastern Festival(Charlotte)
April 16 & 17 - Turkish Festival (Raleigh)
April 24 & 25- Lebanese Festival(Raleigh)
May 1 - Lexington Multicultual Festival (Lexington)

Happy 2010!

2010-02-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

New Mooooon!!

2009-11-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

So Charlotte Henna was asked to do a promotional event at the New Moon premiere at Regal Stonecrest in Charlotte. Of course we said yes, and offered Freeeeee henna Twilight-themed henna tatoos to the movie-goers. It was quite the experience.

We got there around 8:30 and the movie wasn't starting until 12:01. There were people already lined up! The theater got really crowded after a while and the line for popcorn was almost out the door.

Some people got really into quotes as henna designs. Our most popular one by far was a quote that said

... And so the lion fell in love with the lamb...

people loved it!

We also did other quotes like "I love Edward" or "Team Jacob" and stuff like that.

We were able to advertise our business for free which was great. Maybe we'll be able to do more stuff like this in the future :)

Hope everyone enjoys the movie!

- Suzanne

Back in Business

2009-11-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

A two-toned design I tried using black henna (hairdye) and natural henna

It's been a while since our last update. We've all been pretty busy with school and our "real" jobs.

But in the midst of all that craziness, we were able to do henna at our dear friend Maimuna's Wedding. The henna party was a blast!

The people there wanted black henna so they provided it and we just used what they gave us.

Her wedding henna was amazing (Done by Kawthar :) )

Here's the bride's sister. She ended up getting both her feet done:

CONGRATULATIONS MAIMUNA AND ALI!!

The Bride and her sister

Ramadan and Eid Mubarak!

2009-09-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone...

Yes, Charlotte Henna has been AWOL for a while...

It's been a long and exciting summer, but now we're ready to get back to school and back to business!

Be sure to check us out at some of our upcoming events:

Saturday September 19th - Henna Night at MAS (MAS Center, Charlotte)
Wednesday September 23rd - Festival of Lights (Queens University, Charlotte)

Saturday September 26th - I-FEST (UNCC International Festival)

Sunday September 27th - Eid Carnival (MAS Charlotte)

Saturday October 3rd - Spartanburg International Festival

See Ya there!

NC Turkish Festival

2009-04-24T19:54:00.001-07:00

Let me just start off by saying the Turkish festival was Awesome! We got there kind of early (after staying up all night for relay for life :) ) so we were able to see the facilities before anyone else set up.

People started lining up at 11:00 exactly! As soon as the doors opened people started pouring in. And as soon as we started doing henna we didn't stop until we packed up. It was crazy. Constant henna-ing :) And even though we didn't really get a break, it was a lot of fun. And people really enjoyed our Turkish candy bars. (Apparently they are a big deal.)

We met some pretty cool people as well. We realized that we don't have many "manly" designs. One guy came over and I made a pretty nice sword for him. But our "assistants" Sumaya and Kulsum didn't think it was manly enough. So they decided to add fire. It actually turned out pretty cool looking. He seemed to like it at least.

Besides for our henna, there was a lot of interesting things to see at the Turkish Festival. There were some awesome dancers and this guy who could balance on a ball. And of course the food was great (had to get some of that doner kabab!).

Check us out at our Upcoming Events:

Charlotte Art and Soul Festival - April 25th and 26th

CATA's Health fair and Car show - May 2nd

2009-04-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

Suzanne, our henna professional..at work ;)

** special thanks to Mark Thornton for the photos!www.flickr.com/photos/markthornton/sets/72157615676395785/

So, on March 21, 2009 we attended Charlotte's Middle East

Festival hosted by the Middle East Council of the Carolina's, International House, and Queen's University. There was great food, dance performances, and best of all HENNA!

I offered to write names in arabic,

shown here is "Diane".

Ruhi henna'd one lady, and she loved it so much, she decided to have it tattoo'd! Yes, we are that good. =)

See ya around,

Kawthar

***

***UPCOMING EVENTS***

UNCC Relay for Life - April 17th

NC Turkish Festival? - April 18th

Charlotte's Art & Soul Festival April 25th and 26th

CATA's Health Fair May 2nd

See you there!

The Open Palms

2009-03-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

Salam Alaikum and Greetings to All!

Welcome to The Open Palms. We are a group of 3 great friends, Suzanne, Ruhi, and Kawthar, who are now offering our henna services to the greater Charlotte (NC) area. We will keep you posted on our upcoming events, ideas, and designs, and we hope to include you on our henna adventure.

Cheers!

-Kawthar

Ps. I Love you....JAY KAY!!!! In the meantime, check out our Flickr page for some pictures of our work!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35599936@N05/?saved=1

and Lastly, feel free to send us an email at

Charlottehenna@hotmail.com