Mandala Kits Make Great Gifts

Amazon offers some great deals on mandala kits for every age.  Kits are a great idea for these reasons:

• They are simple to use and self-contained, having everything you need in one place.
• They make easy no-brainer gifts for anyone who could use some creative fun.
• The mandalas you make can become gifts themselves, as beautiful framed pieces or personalized greeting cards.
• They are reasonably priced, affordable for any holiday budget.
• You don’t have to be an “artist” to make something beautiful.
• They inspire creative activity and fun for the whole family.

Mandala Designer

Ravensburger Classic Mandala
Ravensburger Ocean Mandala
Ravensburger Romantic Mandala
Classic Mini Mandala
Mini-Nature Mandala
Friendship Mini Mandala Designer

Now you can create your own personal Mandala art with the Mandala Designer kits.

Each kit comes with its own theme; Romantic, Classic, and Nature and can be used together or separately to create a personalized Mandala for you.

Each kit includes paper, tracing pen and pencil, set of six colored pencils, Mandala tracing wheel, and a frame to hold the paper and the wheel.  All you might need to do to supplement these kits would be to add more colored pencil colors, an eraser and a pencil sharpener, but those are optional.

There are endless options in each kit to create different and unique Mandala designs. Great for ages 6 to adult.

Mandala Starter Kit E-Book

What is a mandala starter kit? It’s a set of tools to help you draw beautiful mandalas… even if you’ve never drawn a mandala before. You don’t need to already know how to draw. You don’t need artistic talent. You don’t need to struggle with a collection of instruments like compasses, straight-edges, stencils, or curve rulers.

Now You Can Make Beautiful Mandalas. All you need is a desire to draw mandalas, some paper and pens or pencils, and the Personal Mandala Starter Kit.

Get it here at a special introductory rate.

Without this kit, drawing a mandala can be complicated and confusing.

• You need to find or draw a large, flawless circle within an even square.
• You need to think of things to draw in it.
• You need to try to figure out what makes a mandala.
• You need to visually size up the elements.
• You have to guess at where things should go.
• And you have to juggle a lot of drawing tools at the same time.

On this site we often give tips and tricks for how to draw mandalas with the simplest tools, and it can be done.  The thing is, even with professional drawing tools, sometimes it’s not easy to get things to look right. Even experienced artists find it difficult to draw a mandala with such things.

And you still face what may be the biggest obstacle, which no other tool can help you with… What To Draw!

The Personal Mandala Starter Kit, however, has been created especially with all these needs in mind. It offers you easier tools than you can buy anywhere else, because they’re all integrated into the pages you print off. And perhaps even more important, it gives you over 200 ideas of things to draw.

The best part is, you can use these tools over and over again. They can’t break, wear out, or get lost. So in this one book, you get a lifetime’s worth of mandalas to draw. So is there anything the Personal Mandala Starter Kit doesn’t provide? Only one thing: it is waiting for your touch to bring the mandalas to life.

Spiritual Mandala Templates E-Book – FREE

And as a bonus gift, you will receive the Spiritual Mandala Templates E-Book to download, absolutely free! Spiritual Mandala E-book Cover Here are 56 (fifty-six!) Mandala Templates based on ancient symbols from spiritual traditions from around the world and throughout history. So not only will you have the many “mundane” mandala templates to play with, you can expand your mandala meditation by starting with these spiritual symbols, including . . .

Crosses,

Star of David,

Pentacles,

Yin-Yang (Taijitu),

Om,

Buddhist Wheel of Dharma,

Hecate’s Wheel,

Fatima’s Hand,

Eye of Bridgid (Eye of God)

and more.

Click below to get it at the special introductory price, available for a very limited time.

The Best Colored Pencils for Coloring Mandalas

Mandalas can and have been created with about every artistic medium you could imagine, but in this article we focus on the colored pencil.

Colored pencils are good for people who want to have a very controlled expression whereas markers, paint and oil pastels are suitable for those who want to make a bold statement. If you are exploring the world of mandala coloring pages and coloring books, colored pencils are hard to beat. I prefer using colored pencils for coloring mandalas because:

1. they can be erased if you make a mistake
2. they  are much more precise, making detail easier to handle
3. colors are easily layered and blended
4. the colors don’t bleed like markers

Which Brand to Choose?

Finding the best colored pencil for your mandala coloring can sometimes be puzzling. Different brands vary in quality, color vibrancy and durability.  Lets take a look.

Colored pencils are pigmented pencils which use a wax-based pigment mixture for ‘lead’. Student grade colored pencils (such as Crayola, Rose Art, Prang, etc) are very different from artist quality pencils. They have very little pigment in the wax binder, and so the colors they lay down are very diffuse in comparison.

Watercolor pencils are very much like colored pencils and can be used just like colored pencils except their ‘lead’ is water-soluble. Watercolor pencils are more versatile than regular colored pencils. You have the option of creating colored pencil effects or, by brushing on water, watercolor painting effects.

Artist brands are more highly pigmented, which means a little goes a long ways. They are easier to use, easier to manipulate and easier to blend and mix.  I do find it is more difficult to erase them, so you will want to be sure and experiment with different types of artists’ erasers to find what works best with your pencil and paper selections. always has a great selection. and Derwent Coloursoft are the very softest wax-based colored pencils. Lyra Rembrandt are oil-based, there’s oil as well as wax in the binder, and they have a slippery oil feeling that’s a lot like painting.

Prismacolor Premier fine art water colored pencils are my favorite because they have thick, soft leads that are made from brilliant pigments. These Soft, thick cores create a smooth color lay down for superior blending and shading.  It is a little tougher to get and keep a fine sharp point, and you have somewhat more lead breakage because the lead is softer, but the brilliant colors make it worth the effort for me.

What do you prefer to use?

Mandala Sacred Geometry Designs

By Andy Kahn

The word mandala is of Hindu origin also used in Buddhist practice. In Tibetan Buddhism it has developed into sand mandala pattern. Mandala generally speaking is a term for any geometric symbol that represents the cosmic energy metaphysically or symbolically. Mandala is Sanskrit for circle, polygon, community, connection. Various forms of Mandala design is also used as an aid to meditation and trance induction. Read more

Creating Mandalas For Spiritual Growth

By Kevin Forrester

Mandala is a Sanskrit word, which means, “Circle”. This hallowed diagram or meditation symbol is normally round and is a symbolic representation of the cosmos and its energy. It is utilized in Eastern and Native American medicine for curing body, soul, and spirit. Meditative reflection of the mandala can bring the internal light of the soul to awareness, trigger secret powers of the mind and open the heart chakra to the therapeutic power of absolute love. Read more

Mandala as Light as Air

I so love the photos that are shared on PD Photo from Ireland.  I want to go there sometime myself.  This mandala, entitled “Khaga” (Sanskrit for air) was inspired by the flight of birds and a gorgeous rainbow.  I sought to express a feeling of “lightness of being.”

Air is the element of the East, connected to the soul and the breath of life. If you’re doing a working related to communication, wisdom or the powers of the mind, Air is the element to focus on. Air carries away your troubles, blows away strife, and carries positive thoughts to those who are far away.

Currently prints are available at Zazzle, and other products will be available soon, keep coming back, or let me know your requests.

And the photos that inspired it are:

Waters Mandala Poster

Lately it seems I’ve been into an “elements” theme.  This image is a tribute to Waters, entitled by the Sanskrit word “Sindhu”.  I used three different photos to compile this image in Photoshop.  They are public domain photos kindly shared with the world at PD Photos, and are created (to start with, anyway) using the Photoshop technique so kindly explained at Earth Mandalas.  And of course prints are available at our Zazzle Store.

Water is a feminine energy and highly connected with the aspects of the Goddess. Used for healing, cleansing, and purification, Water is related to the West, and associated with passion and emotion.

And these are the three photos I used:

MandalaColors on Zazzle

make custom gifts at Zazzle

We love Zazzle!  They’re quick, they do a good job producing a large line of products.  If you’re an artist and create your own work, consider using them to share your work with the world, without having to carry an inventory!  And of course we humbly share our own products here.  Articles listed below tell the story of how some of these images were created.  Enjoy.

Tibetan Sand Mandala Painting in Action

This is a great video that shows Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Mystical Arts of Tibet constructing a sand mandala at Saint John’s University.

Here is a news report about monks building a sand mandala at Central College in Iowa.

The Building of a Sand Mandala

In 2004, 2005 and 2007 I was able to witness and photograph the building of three different sand mandalas in the sanctuary of my home church by Tibetan Buddhist lamas (monks).  In this article I compile photos and observations made during those three different events.  The three constructed were “Buddha Akshobhya”or the Global Peace Mandala,  the “Avalokiteshvara” or Buddha of Compassion Mandala, and “Manjushri”, the Spiritual Wisdom Mandala.  For extensive views of photography (by myself and others) from these events, go to these galleries on my SmugMug site:  Spiritual Wisdom and UNA Archives.

Opening Ceremony

The first event in the building of a sand mandala always involves consecration  and purification of the space where the mandala will be built.  There is ritual chanting and music, and then upon a large square table the design is carefully drawn from memory.

Though it is a two dimensional design, a sand mandala is actually the representation of a three-dimensional palace that is the home of the deities that will be visually represented.  The deities to be illustrated in the mandala embody the philosophical views of the particular mandala being constructed, and serve as role models for those constructing and viewing the mandala.

Construction

After the design is laid out, the monks begin to lay down what will eventually be millions of grains of brightly colored sand into the pattern.  To carefully distribute the sand across the design, they begin from the center working out. They use a traditional instrument called a chakpur, which they vibrate by rubbing a rod across a bumpy ridge on the top of a long narrow metal funnel.

In ancient Tibet, sand ground from brightly colored stone was often used for making the Mandalas. Today, white stones are ground and dyed with opaque watercolors to produce the bright tones found in the sand paintings.

The finished mandalas were around 5 feet in diameter, and took 2 weeks for 4-5 monks to complete, working 7-8 hours per day.

Learning with Ritual, Music and Dance

An important part of these experiences was not just witnessing the construction of the mandalas, but interacting with the monks, seeing their colorful dance rituals, and feeling the deep unique resonance of their chanting.  Music, colorful costumes and lively traditional debates were an important way of understanding the life and times of Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The Mystical Arts of Tibet tours the monks throughout the world to share their sacred spiritual traditions in the hopes of building world peace through communication and understanding.  Tibetan Buddhists believe that in each person’s mind there is a seed of enlightenment that can be discovered by contemplating a mandala. Tibetans believe that even viewing a mandala, with its visual representation of an inner, perfected vision of reality, has profound influences on those who are fortunate enough to view it. Seldom, they rightly reason, do we see such spiritual energy in a fixed and human form.

Dismantling the Mandala

Buddhist philosophy states that everything in the universe is in a constant state of flux – that all things are characterized by impermanence, and that the only permanent feature is impermanence itself.  As Buddha said, “No matter whether perfect beings arise or not, it remains a fact, and a hard necessity of existence, that all creations are transitory.”

A sand mandala is an example of this, being that once it has been built and its accompanying ceremonies are finished, it is systematically destroyed. The sands were swept up and placed in an urn.  To fulfill the function of healing, half was distributed to the audience in little packets at the closing ceremony, while the remainder was carried to a nearby lake, where it was deposited. The idea is that the waters then carry the healing blessing to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.

« Previous Page — Next Page »