Glass Painting Vases With Henna

I made this painted vase for my mother over a year ago, in 2009.

Vases are essential for a household that is decorated with fresh cut flowers. But we usually reuse pots, jam jars and hand-made clay pots. I thought, why not create something more colourful?

So I went with henna. In Indo-Pak culture, henna is a detailed art form used to express celebrations and personality.

I scaled out an Arabic design onto parchment and traced it onto this tube shaped glass vase with fade-out markers (they don't leave a mark, excellent for fabrics).

Then, using glass outliners and inks the design was filled in. With these projects you need a little of patience. Depending on the room temperature (my studio is a dungeon), the paints take a few hours to dry completely.


The Arabic henna pattern is first drawn by hand then traced onto the glass, by inserting the parchment behind the vase wall. I use this pattern for Eid cards too.

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