String Art Mandala

Rosemary made the most amazing book for this round. Her theme is mandalas. She asks each of the artists to create a mandala about 8 1/2" in diameter. Her book holds several pockets to house each of the mandalas. Let me tell you, there are some pretty tough acts to follow in this book! Rosemary made a beautiful iris folded mandala to decorate the cover of her book. Debbie West made a replica of the Rose Stained Glass window using a transparency and alcohol inks. Mike created a kaleidoscope effect using photos of Nelson Mandela (the "Nelson Mandela" mandala) and Howie Mandel (the "Howie Mandel" mandala)--hilarious! And DebZ did the most fabulous free-hand mandala. How could I follow acts like that?

Fortunately, I found a beautiful piece of scrapbook paper that inspired the mandala I made for Rosemary's book. It reminded me of a beautiful persian rug. But in order to make it into a mandala, I decided to decorate it with string art.

I started by reducing the decorative scrapbook paper until the circle in the middle measured 6" in diameter, then mounted it onto chipboard. I used a pattern that called for 80 points. Traditional string art utilizes small nails, but that would not work for an altered book. Instead, I carefully placed 80 mini brads around the 6" circle. Once the brads were in place, the fun begins!

This pattern is done in three sections. I used the black string for the first section, white string for the second section and the gold string for the last section. I followed the stringing sequence for the first section--or tried to. Somewhere along the way, I lost track and had to improvise. Stringing for the next two sections was much easier. Here is the finished product!