Seed Mandala Art Project

A Seed Mandala Art Project

Mandalas have a long history of therapeutic use and are often appreciated for having spiritual meaning. There is an enormous amount of psychology and writings on the significance of mandalas and Carl Jung referred to mandalas as “representations of the unconscious self”. Creatingmandalas.com tells us Jung saw a natural process of generating and resolving inner conflicts that brings about greater complexity, harmony, and stability in the personality in mandala creation. This saved seed mandala art project is a fun way to integrate garden learning with artistic representation using saved seeds as the medium for expression while helping students find their zen!

To begin, I like to have students create a background for the mandala. Seeds on paper alone can be stark and young children frequently do not fill the mandala enough to give the impression of a finished piece of art. To begin, provide watercolour paper, or similar quality card stock. Use water colour paints to create a dreamy background that allows colours to bleed into another.

While the paint is drying, collect and organize the seeds for the mandala. If you have an existing garden, collect the seeds from the garden. Here is a quick video on how to harvest kale seeds.

Related: read the entire article on How To Grow Kale With Kids here.

Once you have collected your seeds, organize them on tables so the children can collect them, buffet style:

If you do not have a garden to harvest seeds from, ask your local nursery or seed company for their old stock. Seeds are generally only good for sale for a short while and can be donated for these purposes! Children can sketch out their mandala while they wait for you to sort the seeds and come up to collect seeds once they have a plan. Have students lay out the seeds in the order they wish and only glue them down once the mandala is complete. If you have not yet had a lesson on the different shapes, sizes, colours and textures of seeds and the purpose of seed coats, now is the time to this!

This is a full day project that yields really fantastic results!

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