Sacred Geometry Chakra Mandala...and a Blog Hop Too!

One of the first things I thought of when I unwrapped my package of Artistcellar Sacred Geometry 2 Stencils was—wow, these would make great mandalas! A few years ago I did “lunch time mandalas” where I took a CD, traced around it with a pencil, and filled in the circle with color and shapes. Some of the designs became fabric, which I used in art quilts, and some were used for other fiber art creations.

I experimented with all four Sacred Geometry stencils in my journal, trying soft inks, graphic black on white, assorted colored markers, and white inks on red paper. I tried them with acrylic paint beautiful scrapbooking paper, and on thin deli paper. The results were good, but not inspired.

Then I noticed a pretty piece of paper that had been hanging around my art bin for a while. I had painted some watercolor paper a soft pink, and then printed a circle texture over it using white printmaking paint and bubble wrap.

I liked it, but didn’t know what to do next. It sat in the box for about a year. Inspired by the Sacred Geometry 2 stencils, I decided to try using a round, flat stencil brush, and pounced my favorite shade of turquoise (I mixed white acrylic with turquoise Dina Wakley acrylic) through a sacred geometry stencil. It looked pretty good, but I put it to the side to dry and thought “what next?”

I used the same turquoise shade and printed several stencils on white cardstock. I was wishing that the stencils had a positive/negative image, but since they didn't, I flipped the wet stencils over and used them to get the opposite image, carefully pressing the wet stencil down on the paper with a paper towel.

I got a little creatively reckless and began overprinting stenciled images with different colors, and then I got even more reckless and began printing one stencil over another. I ended up with a whole bunch of multicolored pastel prints.

I also incorporated my Artistcellar mini chakra pocket stencils here and there. Again I thought “what next?”

The lightbulb went off in my head, and I realized two things: the mini chakras could go in a circle on top of the pink and aqua bubble wrap/stenciled paper, so I carefully used a blue mini ink pad to apply color through each small stencil. I did not measure, I just “eyeballed” the placement of the chakra stencils.

I decided that the multi-colored/multi-stenciled paper prints would make a good background. For many years I sewed and made art quilts, so cutting the paper into 3” squares seemed like a natural next step. I pulled out my green cutting mat, ancient long metal ruler (that I purchased in 1978!) and an exacto knife, then sliced the multicolored printed papers up carefully.

This paper print uses most of the set of 4 Sacred Geometry 2 stencils,
as well as the Chakra pocket stencils.

The sliced printed paper using multicolor prints of
Sacred Geometry 2 with Chakra pocket stencils.

I chose the squares I liked best, arranged them as a border, alternating lights and darks and varying the color, then carefully taped them together on the back.

Before adhering the center piece to the border, I “aged” the edges using a combination of sepia Adirondack ink and a brown chalk ink. The 12” x 12” piece is currently hanging on my living room wall, above my art table, and it is a constant reminder to me to remember to regularly slow down, breathe, meditate, and rest.

Here's the really cool thing: if you leave a comment on this page of my blog, you might just win a free set of stencils. All you have to do is leave your name and a comment. Easy peasy!

And please visit all the other artists who are part of the Artistcellar Blog Hop celebrating the release of their new stencil series: Sacred Geometry 2. You can leave a comment on their blogs for a chance to win the free stencils...plus, they are all awesome artists and worth a looksee.

February 29th - Lisa Cousineau/Artistcellar
artistcellar.com/blogs/news
 March 1st - Stephanie Gagos

http://www.stephaniegagos.com/blog/ 
March 2nd - Lisa Chin

somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

 March 3rd - me!

March 4th - Sarah Trumpp

http://wonderstrange.com  

March 5th - Effy Wild

http://effybird.com    

March 6th - Guadalupe Brizuela Cabal

http://guadasartplace.blogspot.com