Mandalas are Everywhere!!!

Mandalas are Everywhere!!!

Mandala:

Definition: (Collins Dictionary) - any of various designs symbolising the universe, usually circular.

The basic pattern of a circle with a centre- mandala is found in nature and seen in both physics and astronomy.

You can see Mandalas everywhere, if you look.

Look at the pretty purple Alyogyne Heuglii West Coast Gem to your left.... it is a mandala...... Flowers like daisies and gerberas are mandalas, cactus, kaleidoscopes, eyes, snowflakes, spider webs, planets, tree rings.... nature's wonderful mandalas.

Mandalas are also referred to as healing circles, and their creation and symbolism is particularly important to many groups throughout history- Tibetan and Native American sand paintings, Hindu Yantras, Muslim Mosques and Christian Cathedral Rose Windows are all mandalas. Mandalas are common themes in architecture.

Mandalas are excellent tools for transformation and healing and representing wholeness and change.

This is a mosaic mandala tray I made from vitreous glass tile, japanese ceramic tile, glass tile, mirror, millefiori, smalti rounds, unglazed ceramic.

Below is a wire and bead mandala I made, that changes into 36plus different shapes.....

A fellow mosaic artist and I recently visited a temporary mandala installation in the Barossa Valley S.A. It is part of the SALA- South Australian Living Artists programme and we trekked off into the Barossa Bush gardens late one Sunday afternoon.

It was a wild old woolly day, and the "city slickers" were without jackets which was fine in the warm car, bbrrrr cold....but armed with cameras, we set out to find this installation. Yay for the locals! With some directions from a lovely Barossa Valley local we located the installation.

Barossa Bush Gardens Mandala
by Kristin Wohlers, Kate Jenkins, Jude Prest and Rebecca Falland.

We both thought it would have been great to have it as a permanent installation. You can't help but love Mandalas. There is something in the creation of mandalas that they should be impermanent and return to the earth- such is the intention with the beautiful sand mandalas created by buddhist monks.....

I can only imagine the joy it must have been for these artists to create this mandala. I spend a couple of hours making the wire ones, and it is such a joyous and peaceful experience.

The wonderful materials used in this mandala were all local and are black granite, green epidote, sunset gold marble, cudgee marble, calca granite and quartz pebble.

Another thing I loved was a pile of large pebbles around the signage of the installation which asked for people to write their comments on the pebbles. Someone had to do it- my comment was "YOU ROCK".

Notice the wonderful rainbow as we were leaving..... joy joy joy.