Recently I've seen a lot of mandala dot art on Pinterest and Instagram and I really like it. So I started a Dot Art Pinterest board for inspiration and took a couple of classes about it that I found on Skillshare. I was just about ready to give it a go, but then while tidying up my craft stash I came across some acrylic rhinestones and gems that have been sitting around for a very long time. I bought them about four years ago planning to create lots of sparkly Christmas decorations, but, as is so often the case with me, I didn't do anything with them. Anyway, I thought why not use them to create a mandala instead of the paint? So I did and this is the result. 😍
I was so eager to get started that I didn't map the mandala out first. I basically stuck the large gem in the middle (approximately) and then played around with the design as I went. At least I had the good sense not to glue down the rhinestones until after I was happy with their placement, but because I was designing it on the fly it took much longer than it probably would have if I'd mapped it out first. I also might have gone a teeny bit overboard with the decoration, but then again can you really have too much sparkle? No. No you can't. Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.
As I was working on the design I noticed a few gaps in my rhinestone collection - I wanted more teardrops and horse eyes (the pointed ovals) and more of a gradation in size, so of course I went and ordered a bucket load more! 😄 Surprisingly I haven't found many references to rhinestone mandalas online, which is kind of surprising considering how pretty they are. But I guess that just means that I'll have to create some more myself!
In case you're interested here are the mandala Skillshare classes (if you aren't already a member you can get 14 days of free Premium membership):
Learn Beautiful Dot Painting - Mandala Design
The third class has a good lesson on designing a mandala.
