Floating Mandalas

Fuchsia bougainvilla bracts, aloe

vera seed pods, and honeysuckle

leaves.

This weekend I offered an ongoing workshop for the Whitewater Preserve's  2nd Annul Water Celebration, where participants created beautiful floating mandalas made with natural items. Using stems, sticks, leaves, petals, and blossoms visitors arranged these colorful plant elements in a variety of patterns and designs to create their own, wonderful floating mandalas. Mandala creators of all ages enjoyed this relaxing activity throughout the day.

A traditional mandala is an ancient circular design which typically represents the universe. It can also be a symbolic expression to connect with the self. For our mandalas, we were hoping participants would connect with their creative self through nature.

Definitely try this at home! All you need is a bowl of water, small dish towel for clean up, plant clippers or scissors, and some plant material from your yard like: flowers (to keep whole or for petals), leaves, sticks, seed pods, lightweight bark, etc. Experiment with different ways to use your materials, some of our participants ripped up petals into tiny pieces of "floral confetti" that added a delicate touch to their designs. Sticks were used in many different ways to add visual lines, accents, floral rafts, bridges, barriers and more in many designs.

Here are the mandalas created by my family and myself, plus some other favorites from the 40+ participants throughout the day (to see all the beautiful mandalas created visit this album):

I love my husband's traditional spoke 'n wheel style

mandala using whole roses and stems.

A beautiful huge lily is the center of the universe in

in this participant's dramatic design.



I love the layering in this delicate mandala and

how its creator used color, texture, and tiny

flowers resting on floating petals in this personal

expression.

 

My son (4 yrs. old) created this and three other rather

lovely mandalas!



I decided to use sticks and stems as a raft which

made it easier for me to keep flowers in place, plus...

I really loved the simplistic look that resulted!

Another beautiful creation by a workshop participant,

I really like the way the bright yellow ray flowers

(petals) pop around a huge orange rose, on a bed of

red petals, accented with those bright green leaves.

What one word describes the way I feel after

creating a floating mandala? Peace.

For more images please visit this album.