1) Consider the weather

Working in nature means working WITH nature!
The weather may not perform how we prefer. It is tricky making nature mandalas in heavy rain or on windy days.
You may adjust your plans to a more suitable day, seek out a more sheltered spot, or even bring your mandala creating indoors.

2) Consider your site

Your site for making a nature mandala will ideally be

• Flat – you don’t want your mandala rolling down a hill!
• Clear – make sure there are no larger rocks, branches or even long bit of grass onsite. This will make it easier to create especially if you are using fine items like petals.
•  Out of the way – Ideally you’ll want to create away from a pathway or high foot-traffic area so you know your creation will not be disturbed while making.

3) Think about background and contrasting colours

• If your background is on brown leaves, you’ll will want to make with light or bright items.
• If your background is green, you may want to choose dark and bright items.
• The same applies to sandy sites – on white sand darker items are best, on dark sand lighter items are best.

4) Gather your materials

Making a nature mandala begins with a treasure hunt! This can be done wherever you are – beach or forest, backyard, park or garden.

Find items such as –

• whole flowers
• individual petals
• leaves, of different sizes, shapes and colors
• collect seeds
• variety of shells
• stones
• twigs

Collecting wind-fallen items are ideal. If you need to pick items, check you have permission to pick. It is important to check that the items are not harmful to the plant, or poisonous to people, especially if creating with children. Pick gently so as not to damage your items, and place them in a basket, grouping together similar colours or items. Collect items of different sizes and shapes and colours for interesting texture. 

5) The shape of your mandala

Typically mandalas work from the centre outward and because of this they naturally lend to a circular design. Don’t let this limit you though, you can create what ever shape feels right!

Mandala shape ideas:

• Circular
• Sun shape
• Star shape
• Spiral
• Hexagon

What items did you collect? What shape do you think will work best with those items?

6) Start with your centre and build outward

A nice centre piece is a good place to start your design. This cold be a beautiful flower, something harvested from the garden, even a candle works nicely here. From the centre you will work outward on your design.

7) Build with symmetry
 

Place items down evenly. You may like to break you design up into halves, quarters or thirds. If you place and item, place another of the same size shape and colour down opposite it. This will help to have a balanced design.

8) Start with larger items

You can make your nature mandala with different sized items, it helps to place larger ones, such as leaves or ferns down first, then layer smaller ones in spaces, or on top.

9) Layer smaller details on top

Add petals and seeds on their own patterns on top of, or arrange in between the larger items. These little items can form their own little, repetitive patterns. Continue to keep it symmetrical.

10) Bonus ideas

Other learning naturally occurs as part of this process.

This may be learning about:

• Plant cycles and care
• Harvesting without damaging so the plant can continue to grow
• What grows in what season
• Dive deeper into learning about particular plants you work with, seeds you find, or insects or animal that may be about
• Fractions
• Colour theory
• Shapes

How can you extend on one of these topics?

11) Real world context:

When we made this Autumn Nature Mandala, my girl layed 4 pinecones down, symmetrically with one at each quarter, then exclaimed excitedly:
“Oh! Look – it’s North, East, South, West!”
She’d laid a design but made a compass!

This was great to start to other  conversations, asking:
“Where does the sun rise? Where does it set?”
Which tied in wonderfully to learning about the Equinox.
We talked about where wed observed the sun rise from our home and adjusted the pinecones very slightly to mark this observation.

It was clear that she felt proud that she’d discovered something.
And I felt sure that understanding would stick because it involved her head, hearth and hands.