Teenager commercialises henna art
Dumisani Ncube | Friday December 16, 2016 18:00
Artistic 19-year-old Natasha ‘Daey’ Letshabo has found a niche as a body artist that specialises on henna art. In a brief description, henna art is body art of various patterns applied on human body using henna inks, which stay on the human skin for a certain period of time.
“I have always been an artist specialising on drawing, painting and crafts. Upon learning about henna from my mother who came with henna ink from Singapore, I learnt to work on it and decided to major on it because its something different within our local art industry and there aren’t many people who practice it,” said Letshabo who is already operating under her company name Daey Creations.
She fused her artistic skills with henna art to come up with different designs and patterns, which become the end result of her various works that she apply on human bodies.
With henna art being familiar to the Indian community, the 19-year-old noted that she is well aware that the form of art is applied when it comes to cultural and traditional events in certain communities. “We are living in a multi-cultural and national environment whereby we should be practicing and appreciating other people’s practices as well”.
Apart from the fact that she finds the form of art significant and different from other forms of art practiced in the country, Letshabo noted that she is passionate about doing art on a human body and this also led to her being passionate about henna art. “I would love to do some work on pregnant woman or someone with a bold head”.
The young lass seems to be more focused as she is taking everything professionally and planning on even attending classes to better her knowledge on this form of art.
“I however face certain challenges such as ordering the henna powder which I order from Asia. At times it is delivered late. Henna is an organic product. It durability on humans is unpredictable sometimes”.
When working, she uses the required tools for the various designs that her clients would have asked for. “I sometimes conceptualise designs from my head; sometimes the designs are determined by the skin texture and complexion of the client that I will be working on,” said Letshabo.
It seems business is not bad for the teenager who stated that she gets clients calling her on daily basis. Every month end she camps at Redd’s Chillstep Sundays where she will be applying her artwork people.
“Before venturing into this form of art I was scared thinking that I will not get clients but to my surprise I get calls on a daily basis. Most of my clients are young people with a few adults that are also interested”.
Just like many in the modern day, the body artist markets her craft through digital platform such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Henna art has also led to Letshabo practicing airbrush tattoo.
These are artificial tattoos that one can apply and they come off at a certain period of time. She also specialises on different forms of art such as crafts and costume design.