Monday, July 9, 2012

9-pointed zendalas

It dawned on me a while ago that Zentangle's new round tiles with 'pre-strung' mandala designs are divided into different numbers of sections. This despite the fact that Zentangle actually mentioned this in some promotional material! Oh my brain!!! While working on this one, I realized that it has nine points, or sections, or petals, or...
Tangles: Circfleur, EarthRising, Flux, Paradox, Phuds

The pre-strung mandala design on this tile reminded me of a beautiful building in India that I would love to visit some day: the lotus temple near Delhi. Here is a photo of it from above and you can really see the mandala-ness of it. The blue-green areas are water pools.

This Baha'i House of Worship is the first in India and was opened to the public at the end of 1986. It now receives more visitors than the Taj Mahal, four million each year. I have difficulty with really big numbers so that translates into about 13,000 every day or 9 every minute. It is a bit of an architectural marvel and has received much attention in professional architectural, fine art, religious, governmental and other circles.

Here's a short video about it from Seven Wonders of India:

I pulled out another tile with the same string on it and drew a zendala inspired by this building. I think the Opus curlicues don't work so I might try it again.
Tangles: Auras, Caviar, Cubine variation, Opus, Tipple, Tri-dots

I've printed the arial photo above in black-and-white and made a mandala template that is of this building. Because of the angle of the photo it's slightly irregular, which will be interesting to work with. It will be 10 or 12 inches across. If it turns out well I'll show you, but it may be a while!

5 comments:

  1. I love seeing your mandalas - they're fantastic! Your shading is so balanced, and really brings out the tiles. I'd be interested in seeing one before and after shading. Thank you for sharing your talents!

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    1. You can see a few examples of before and after shading in these posts:
      -- http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.ca/2012/06/zendala-dare-10.html
      -- http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mondays-tile-development.html
      -- http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.ca/2012/04/monday-tiles-beginning-blind.html

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    2. Great, thanks for the links!

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  2. i really like the pre-printed zendalas, yours turned out really beautifully. the first one really takes on the lotus temple appearance - wonderful!

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  3. Margaret this is so interesting. What an amazing building. I love both of your Zendalas but the second one looks much more detailed. Your talent amazes me!

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