Fresh start: my own Etsy shop!

Inspired, ironically, by the site Regretsy.com, I've started my own Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/OmandalamamaO Right now I'm selling $1 mandalas, JPG designs to download and print as you like. I will do custom designs and retire existing mandalas for just $12, giving you full copyright to use the mandala however you wish. My daughter, Bean, said one morning "If you make mandalas for $1 and sell a million mandalas, we'll have a million dollars!" Such a bright idea, we'll see how it goes. I'd be happy to sell just a hundred.

My health has been really crappy this year, and my hands are near-frozen by carpal tunnel, arthritis and deQuervain's tenosynovitis. I can no longer do the "Mandalas of the Lunar Quarter," I'll try those again in the future.

Would you like your initial in the center of a mandala? Contact me on Etsy to request a custom "monogram mandala" for just $12!

Graph Paper for Creating Mandalas

While searching for free printables for my daughter, I just found a great page of free printable "polar" graph paper, perfect for starting your own mandalas. Try drawing designs or doodles within each cell - or even just simple lines - and watch for patterns to appear! Polar graph paper is great for kids, too - even if they don't want to draw a mandala, they can color in the cells and learn about patterns and geometry. Now I want a tablet of this stuff - super geeky!

I will be back creating mandalas for you all, just having a rough patch. I'll be using this polar graph paper myself to get over my artist's block. Enjoy, and as always, pass it on!

First Quarter Moon Mandala, March 12, 2011

More than just circles

Doodling has been a passion of mine since early childhood. Even when I could color inside the lines, I'd draw all sorts of extra lines and designs until it felt "right." In the example below, only the series of rings and four pointed ovals are the original image; everything else is my doodling. If you think a design is too plain, embellish it! For example you can print any blank mandala and add all sorts of designs into it; try printing out several blanks and see how many variations you can come up with!

The next sample is something I doodled for my daughter. It's hand-drawn in pencil, using a simple little one-dollar "spirographic" plastic template tool that had a few extra circles in the template. I used all the circles, the spirograph wheels, and the straight edges as well as a little free-hand drawing.

Doodle on something today!

Carl Jung on Mandalas

I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego. … I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point — namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the centre, to individuation. … I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.

- C. G. Jung, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections"

New Moon Mandala, March 4, 2011

Mandala of the Lunar Quarter - New Moon of March 4, 2011

We're buried in snow, ice, tissues and cough drops for the last few weeks. We're recovering from a flu after a cold after a flu, achoo! Just one of the joys of having a young child in public school. On a good note, my daughter split her resting time between playing on her DS and coloring mandalas - I need to scan in some of her work! Given a choice between a mandala and her DS, the mandalas win every time. I noticed she uses different colors when she's feeling sick, surprisingly much brighter colors than when she's well and energetic - perhaps it's her way of getting well? As always, right-click and "Save image as" so you can print the mandala out and color it. If you'd like to show off your finished work, be sure to upload it to my Flickr group (link at bottom of the page).