Hi everyone,
I am going to share one more mandala conversion to parchment craft, however, this time I will also include a link to lots of mandala designs and I will have a few photos that will probably create a bit of "oh no" in every purist parchment crafter who reads my blog, but I'll explain all that a bit later!!!
I call this particular mandala "Pinwheel" but it could be made in many different ways. Instead of lots of grid work, as I have done, it could be made with only embossing and showing the different techniques of shading.....or it could be painted and made into a 3D project and I could go on and on with different parchment techniques that could be used on this single design alone. Every project we begin is a vision in our own minds....the pattern/design is only the foundation on which to build.
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| Parchment Mandala - Pinwheel |
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| Pinwheel Mandala Pattern |
Now, I promised a link to many, many more mandala designs. These are a small portion of my own mandala collection I have gathered over the years and they are now in my
GALLERY in two albums. You can download each of the complete albums or you can download a single image if that's all you wish to have. If you have any problems with this process, please feel free to
CONTACT ME and I will assist any way I can.
Okie dokie, now comes the "oh no" part I said I would address later!! I truly love all traditional 'pure' parchment craft and all the techniques, however, I do not own all the parchment craft/pergamano tools of the trade and there is absolutely no way I could ever afford them, so I make do with what I do have and that leads me to sometimes be very creative in how I produce some of my work!!
These are the items I use for the majority of my tracing to parchment paper. Yes indeed, what you see here is a standard Pental .05mm mechanical pencil with a container of standard .05mm black leads along with an Staedtler Mars plastic eraser...especially
for paper and film. These three items can be found in any office supply OR department store. The other item I always use when tracing is a paper dining napkin or paper towel.
The reason I use these items instead of the required parchment craft tools is because I am a retired senior on a very fixed income and these items are what work for me in my own circumstances. Where there is a will, there is a way and one can still totally enjoy this awesome craft using 'tools' one may already have on hand. Of course, this is where the "oh no" part comes in, from lots and lots of my wonderful friends who are very loyal traditional purist parchers who adhere very strictly to preserving the ancient way of the craft.....and that's as it should be!! However, for those of us who simply do not have the means to be totally 'purist' parchment crafters, I have proven over the past 5 years that the craft/art can still be done with a few alternative items!!
In the two photos above, I mistakenly placed the paper napkin (with flowers on it) I was using, under the parchment paper, to take the photo and I then removed the napkin and continued on with my tracing. When I was done with the tracing I took more photos and it was only then that I realized I had put the napkin under the parchment paper instead of a piece of plain paper to cover up the pattern that still remained under the parchment paper because I was still tracing when I took these two photos!!!!! Silly me.....*embarrassed* Sooooo, this was the beginning of the tracing on the mandala above using the 'tools' described above.
The reason for using a paper napkin/folded paper towel is because IF, while tracing, you do not work from the top of the pattern, down to the bottom, you will easily smudge the black lead onto the parchment (and your hand as well). The cure for that is to lay the napkin/towel under your tracing hand and move it accordingly as you move your tracing area. **TIP** Prior to beginning any parchment project I always gently rub ONE side of my parchment paper with a dryer softener sheet. Now, because I do not use white lead pencils/leads for my tracing, the one side that gets the rub down is the OPPOSITE side I will be tracing on. Thus, when all the tracing is completed and you remove the parchment paper from the printed pattern, you will then flip your parchment over and place on your embossing mat. **
These last three photos show the mandala has been fully traced
and is now ready to be removed from the pattern and flipped over on the embossing mat. You will now take your Steadtler eraser and gently erase all of your pencil tracing. When that is completed all you will have remaining is the embossed outline of the mandala....shown in the last two photos.
Now, because I have used black lead for my tracing, and I have now placed my parchment paper, traced side down, on my black rubber embossing mat one would think the tracing could not be seen.....not so!!!! It is necessary, however, to secure your parchment paper to the mat with low tack tape. You will now use your STYLUS tool and begin tracing (embossing) the pattern you have just traced from the pattern. This is the side of the parchment paper you rubbed down with softener sheet already so there is no need to repeat that step.
Okay, some will say it takes more time to begin a project this way and they are pretty much correct because in essence, an extra step has been added right here!! Yes, we have already traced the project from the pattern....and now we're tracing (actually embossing) again?? Yes....we are!!! This is how I have made every single project since I began parching because I never could get the hang of using the mapping pen and I did use white gel pens for a long time but didn't really care for the results so this is, again, what works "for me" and I'm sharing it in this post for those who may also have difficulty with mapping pen and ink, or the white gel pens, or other methods of getting a pattern to the parchment paper without totally messing the project up before it's really even begun!!!
On the last photo here, you will see the mandala has been completely traced (embossed) with the stylus and is now ready to continue on with whatever parchment craft technique you have chosen to complete your project with. For my Pinwheel mandala I used the Pergamano Multi Grid #4 and the Ergonomic Embossing tool #1 for all the pinwheels. I used the Pergamano single needle tool to stipple the center diamond shapes and I simply embossed the true center area of the pinwheel.
Hugs to all,
