Last Summer during my church's district retreat I taught a workshop on henna with a very close friend, Julie. Julie, who is a licensed cosmetologist, handled the henna-for-hair and I handled the body art. Well the retreat is held at Kenyon College in Mt.Vernon, OH. This college seems to be prone to fires so in many of the dorm buildings, especially the one that serves as the starting point to this whole adventure, has heavy fire doors every 6 feet, and no that is not an exaggeration. My room happened to be all the way across campus from where the workshop was being held, so in the interest of saving time and energy I decided to keep my kit along with a large Rubbermaid tote and a large tote bag that held all the essentials for the class in my mom's dorm which was located one building over from where the workshop was. Sounds like a great idea, right? Not so much. You see I can be a very stubborn, no-thanks-I'll-do-it-myself kind of person. On the first day of the workshop I turned down my friend, Ali's, offer to help me carry my stuff over, stating that its not that much and its only one building over. I must have had some crazy idea that I had suddenly developed some kind of super human strength that would allow me to balance my kit, and tote and a tote bag with one hand while opening and closing doors or telekinetic abilities that would allow me to either float the stuff in mid-air or to magically open the doors without the use of my hands. When I got over to my moms room and started trying to move my stuff I came to the quick realization that I did not have super human strength or telekinetic abilities and that this whole thing was about to get very interesting. Well I managed to get everything out of my mom's room and stacked neatly out in the hall. I was feeling like this couldn't be to hard and that I was probably just making it seem harder than what it was, so again I turn down the offer of help from another friend who happened to pass by me. Bad idea number 2 in this adventure. I realized the extent of that poor decision when I got to the first fire door. Convinced that it was best to do this in one trip, I picked everything up at once, my kit balanced on top of the tote, which was heavier than I expected it to be, and the tote bag slung over my shoulder. OK, so far, so good. I managed to get the fire door open and I rushed through as quickly as I could before it shut on me. I was feeling so proud because I had gotten through, but of course there had to be a down side, which came to light when I realized that I had not heard the fire door close all the way. Turns out that my kit had slid and the edge of it had gotten caught in between the wall and the door. A huge stream of profanities slipped through my lips and I'm pretty sure I was ready to cry. After about 5 minutes of me having a meltdown I chose not to assess the full damage til I got to our workshop space and I pressed on. I managed the rest of the trip pretty easily, someone opened up the last door for me and I negotiated my way down the curved, concrete steps, across the yard and into my workshop space without any more issues. Then I looked at my kit... The side that got caught was coming apart, threatening to make the entire kit turn in to nothing but a pile of wood for a fire. Upset but knowing I couldn't do anything about it there, I managed to press it back together, knowing it would only serve as a temporary fix and that I would have to go buy a new kit. On the brightside the rest of the week went by fairly easily, except for an incident involving a container of very fine gold glitter.
My mom bought me that wooden box to use as my kit from Hobby Lobby when I was first starting my journey as an artist. The contents was built up by things artists had given me when I was first starting out and things I have bought and accumulated over time. Needless to say every part of that kit is important to me for one reason or another. Sadly though I have to retire it. The hit it took from that fire door and a couple years of festivals has caused it to not be road-worthy.
So here I am sitting here writing about a kit that I have yet to permanently replace. Sadly, after trips to several different Hobby Lobby's I have found that the box that was my kit, is no longer made. This put me at the proverbial square one. Instead of being frustrated, I decided to take this opportunity to research what other artists use and what I really want my kit to be. Simple tupperware, tote bags, tackle boxes, custom-made boxes, make-up artist train boxes, you name it and I have seen artists use it. I didn't really know what I wanted though, I just knew that I needed something. I took a tip from another artist and began looking for a tackle box. I managed to find one, though it was hard, seeing it is winter in Northeast Ohio, that would be an acceptable henna kit. I was not overly thrilled about this being my new kit though. Then one day it hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted. I was watching Face Off on SyFy when it clicked. A train case used by make-up artists is exactly what I needed and wanted. Its the perfect case for me. They are durable, which is perfect because I travel and need something that at times can take a beating. They are easy to clean, a definite plus when it comes to henna. And thankfully the sides of the case are reinforced with steel just in case I have another run in with a fire door.
