Mystic Mandalas

Last year when Mario and I were in Washington DC, I saw this great book in the Smithsonian gift store and bought it for myself. It’s about Mandala designs – you know, in the same way that a colouring book about the Little Mermaid is a book “about” mermaids…

I suffered no end of mocking over my colouring book, until people realised that, actually, it is AWESOME. And so is colouring. HA. I even inspired my sister G to pick up her Disney colouring book again. Colouring is very therapeutic!

Anyway, Mandala designs have been around for a long time. They have been used in Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity to represent the universe from the point of view of a deity, as well as to focus the mind in preparation for meditation  – in fact, they are still used in this way today. They are often circular, and have radial symmetry, making them very attractive to the eye.

For myself, I find colouring in the designs very relaxing, and it allows my mind to wander peacefully. It’s one of my more effortless craft activities. I’ve used some of the designs to decorate my home – you can customise the colours!

This frame was from Ikea – it had other pictures in it originally, and I thought it would be easy enough to switch them for mine. Unfortunately, what I didn’t realise was that the back was nailed on. Still, we got there in the end!

This weekend I decided I’d like to do a few to spruce up my office a little. I printed out a few pages at Officeworks – 20 cents per page of A3. My (awesome) colouring book came with a CD of all the designs, but if you google “mandala”, you can find plenty of free ones to print.

I picked up a couple of frames at Camberwell Market for $2 each – they’re pretty crappy, but they do the job!

Eventually I’d love to try a massive one – a wall-sized mandala. Wishful thinking, maybe, but we’ll see!

Mission “Beautify the Office” partly accomplished! I still have a lot of bare wall space left to decorate – a blank canvas!