At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In that post I shared a few of the many benefits that you may get from picking up a hobby, and I gave you a few simple suggestions for how to turn your hobby into a regular habit (that’s good for you!).
If you follow our Instagram feed or have been a long-time reader, it’s no surprise that my primary hobby is knitting. I always have a project (or ten) in the works. While I don’t need the encouragement to knit more, I’m taking this resolution as a nudge to share more of my projects, in their many phases, on the blog. And if you’d like to find me on Ravelry, my username is winterfoliage.
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Five months into the year, and I’m finally sharing a project that doesn’t involve knitting!
Growing up, this was a project that we would make every so often. We always made them using two sticks, creating four points, and we called them God’s eyes. As you can see, this one is slightly more complicated, and I’ve seen these referred to as either a God’s Eye or a mandala. I use both names throughout this post.
Read on to get pattern info and to see how big this beast really is.
We have a few spaces in our house with high ceilings, large furniture, and big blank walls to be filled. It’s been a decorating conundrum, but I’m slowing figuring things out.
I made this mandala to decorate one of those walls. The mandala is over three feet in diameter, and looks large when in my hands, but as you can see, even that looks small on the wall above… Because the mandala looks like it’s floating in the middle of that big wall, I’m not completely satisfied with it’s placement, but maybe you can chime-in on that discussion at the end of the post.
Making a God’s Eye | Mandala
I first came across these large mandalas on Pinterest, and that led me to Jay’s Mandalas on Etsy.
Jay has provided a basic tutorial for complex God’s eyes on the Etsy blog. There’s a more detailed tutorial available for sale in their Etsy shop. I referred to both the blog post and purchased tutorial for this project.
Since I used those tutorials, I won’t re-write the script here. In the following photo, I’ve labeled some of the wrapping techniques that I used for this piece.
But I am happy to answer any and all questions you may have. Just leave them in the comments, and I will provide detailed answers.
My only requirements for the colors of this mandala were to:
- make something that went with the other colors in this room (primarily the burgundy couches)
- use only yarns that I already owned
- incorporate some bright colors that might not show up in other artwork on our walls
- have a sun or celestial appearance; I’ll explain why below
I’m happy with how I accomplished each of the these goals. The dark wide stripe near the outside and the skinny dark stripes in the orange area are a perfect match with the couches. I love the pop of bright pink, and would have even done more, but ran out of that color. And I definitely didn’t expect to use the variegated yarn with the bits of silver, but it was in my stash, and in the end it went well with the celestial “theme”.
The only thing left to finish on the mandala are the stick ends. I think I want to make them a little bit shorter and possibly paint them a dark color, but I haven’t decided yet (you can see a sample of dark paint on one of the ends in the photos).
Decor Ideas
So, right now I have a God’s Eye floating on this big wall. It looks a little incomplete to me. BUT I can’t move too quickly to put more stuff up. I live with a blank-wall lover.
The reason that I wanted a celestial-influenced mandala is because on the other wall in this room we have a framed copy of The Chart of Cosmic Exploration. I love that poster and all of the info it holds. Plus between the image of the solar system and it’s touch of orange, it pairs nicely with the mandala.
What you can’t see in these images is that we have a crystal and a disco ball hanging in the window. When the sun is at the right angle, particularly in winter when it’s lower in the sky, then the ceiling and upper walls are covered in sparkling reflections and rainbows. It’s so magical.
With all of that in mind, I’m thinking that the only thing I have to add to finish this wall is something to the lower right of the mandala. I’m thinking a couple of small shelves, and on them I would place a piece of moon rock. Kidding, but wouldn’t that complete my little theme? Likely, I’ll just pick up some cool rocks from our backyard and some other little trinket.
I have the small and large versions of this shelf sitting in my office and waiting to be hung. What do you think?
See what I mean? Totally completes the room.