The Making of the Mandala

It all started with some mindfulness colouring in one quiet, calm afternoon. We discussed making our own cushions to lie on for our Smiling Minds meditation sessions. 

"What if we write an inspirational quote on them?" suggested one student. So we designed our quote, font and began planning a stencil. The problem was the quote was going to prove too difficult to cut out from our contact stencil. "Why don't we design our own mandala?" I asked the frustrated students.So we did...

Mandalas are very bright and colourful and have rotational symmetry, so we set about creating our own personal design. The process started with a pencil sketch and then we transferred to contact by tracing it through the window. 

The next step, we all got creative! Out came the sponges, rollers and paintbrushes to create the colourful masterpieces. It was so much fun to play with paint and experiment with blending and marbling to create the desired look. 

Great idea painting the design on the sponge!

Peeling off the contact was exciting- revealing our mandalas in their finished state.

How were we going to make these into cushions you might ask? Sewing machines of course! 

We headed north to Joseph Banks Secondary College, on the bus, to utilise one of their awesome Home Economics Textiles rooms. Miss Williamson was on board with her trusted helpers, including Year 9 and 10 students. I was proud of the conduct and concentration of LA8 as they 'cottoned on' to sewing really quickly. In no time they had mastered the machine and whipped around the hemline to make one Mandala cushion!

It was a treat to head up to the high school and perhaps ease some early transition nerves as well as complete a project we had been working on for some time. LA8 are very grateful to the team at Joseph Banks for making this excursion happen.  The students have taken their finished cushions home to stuff and hand sew all ready for meditation in Term 3. Until the next time we get arty it's paper, scissors.....