Create a radial design or Mandala, with glass paints, for an awesome piece of window art! Mandalas are a type of radial design – where your design radiates and repeats from a center point. Mandala comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “circle”. Mandalas can be found in many cultures and can have different symbolic meanings and processes. In Buddhist and Hindu traditions, mandalas are a spiritual symbol that represent the universe. More modern mandalas are used for meditation or just to create and enjoy beautiful designs!
What you need:
- Picture Frame with Glass – we used 8″x10″ frames from the dollar store but any old frame will do!
- Glass Paints – We used Gallery Glass, Martha Stewart and Arti’stick, brands, transparent, glossy, glass paints.
- Copy/Printer Paper – that’s at least the same size of your glass/frame.
- Pencil
- Compass
- Sharpie
- Light box or sunny window!
Step one: Create your radial design! We did this with a square piece of paper, folded into fourths, from corner to corner. You can do this any size, however, ours were approx. 8.5″x8.5″ to fit our frames.
Cut out one fourth of your paper on your crease lines.
Step two: Draw your design on your cut 1/4 of paper – to make your design have a complete circle pattern, use a compass from the center of your paper out.
Step three: Fold another square piece of paper into fourths, corner to corner. We will be tracing your design onto these four sections. You can use a light box or a sunny window to help your design show through your paper – you can also go over your design with a marker before tracing to help make it more visible. Trace your first 1/4 section and then flip your triangle pattern over and trace your next 1/4 section (this will reverse your design and make the edges of your design line up). Flip it again for your next section and back over for your last section!
Step four: Next line up your radial design under your piece of glass and begin outlining your design – We used Gallery Glass Liquid Lead for this (I’ve also transferred the outliner to a small applicator bottle for easier handling and a smaller line). Let your outline dry!
Step five: While you’re waiting for your outline to dry, you can color your triangle in how you’d like to color your glass!
Step six: Once your outline is dry, use your glass paints to fill in the design with color! We used a mixture of different glass paint brands!
No matter what brand you use, you just want to make sure it’s transparent color as we want these to hang in a window and create a stained glass effect!
Step seven: Once your color has dried, place your glass back in the frame (you can use hot glue, silicone, E6000 or Goop Glue, etc. to help hold your glass in if needed), glue a ribbon to your frame or add eye hooks and a chain/ribbon for hanging! Our frames were very light weight so a hot glued ribbon worked well! Hang up your finished artwork in a sunny window! 🙂
Check out more of our radial designs here!
