Art Elements August Theme - Mandala

 

Link to image on Pinterest

The Art Elements Theme of the Month is the Mandala. I thought that was a cool theme and a different idea.

What is a Mandala - a mandala is a diagram of geometric patterns. Each aspect of a constructed mandala has a deep symbolism and meaning. You can find out more about the mandala here.

The colors I used in the mandala were: blue, green, red, yellow and white. The five colors from nature and each color has a deep meaning. You can learn more about the colors I used by clicking here.

I found lots of images on Pinterest and I have a board where I save images for the Art Elements Theme for ideas. I have a board called Pretty Rocks that gave me inspiration for the pattern I used on our piece.

Mom was drawing on one of our copper pieces for this month's piece. We have made this piece two other times and each time I forget to scan the pattern into our computer. So, I actually had a photo of the copper piece after it was sawed out, so mom used that to draw in the parts that needed to be sawed out. This time I actually remembered to scan the pattern into the computer (finally).

Mom worked sawed out the piece. I am just so glad mom likes to saw out all the pieces; this is so not my favorite thing to do. I can do it, but I complain the whole time (in my head).

After mom saws out the piece she then files and sands the copper. Once the copper has been filed and sanded we then clean the copper to start the enameling process.

The piece is ready to be enameled. I always start with the first layer of clear enamel. I don't know if anyone else does that, but that was how I was taught when I took an enameling class at Purdue.

Here is the layout of the piece as I added all the colors. After I put the clear enamel on the piece I then added a layer of black. Once the black was fired I then started adding all the colors. I used a stencil to put the dots on the piece. I am so happy with the way it turned out because I was winging it.

So, here is how the piece turned out.

If you would like to see what everyone else has created please go to the Art Elements Community Facebook page and check out the month's challenge album.