Spiritual Spirals of Sand

Artist Barbara Veena Scialo’s inspiration for this next project, came from the Hindu celebration of Diwali.

During Diwali, Hindu’s draw bright Rangoli patterns on the floor, by the front door, to entice Goddess Lakshmi, to visit their homes. Traditionally, materials used for this are: rice, flour, chalk, grains and sand. Veena chose to use a selection of coloured sand.

To start with, the children drew patterns using pencil and dotted paper. The dots were in squares, to help map out a pattern that would emerge symmetrically from the centre, growing outwards in concentric or mirrored designs.

Classical subjects can be floral, peacock, fruit and swan designs. The children used their imaginations to produce original, individual ideas, such as this striking spider.

Next it was time to refine the designs and add colour. For this, there was a simple template worksheet, which was coloured in using felt tips.

Finally, it was time to put all of the careful design planning into practise using sand on a round paper plate. Small heaps of sand were poured onto the paper plates. Once all the sand was in place, the children used their fingertips, brushes and sticks to manipulate the coloured sand, as it it were paint, into their beautiful individual designs. Be careful not to sneeze now everybody.