Mandala CCXXXVIII

(Above:  Mandala CCXXXVIII.  Found objects hand-stitched to a piece of a vintage yellow tablecloth over canvas.  Custom framed:  20" x 20".  Objects include:  A blue faucet wheel handle; a Sesame Street color wheel; pewter coasters; Cinderella figurines; tiny bells meant for ringing during a wedding reception; a braided coil place mat; six, yellow toy chairs; four, green cog wheels from a kid's building set; laminated grocery saving stamps; bright aqua plastic tops of vaping pods; vintage capacitors; orange and blue plastic lids; assorted buttons and beads. Click on any image to enlarge.)

I approach each mandala as a challenge.  This one had more than one!  First, I really wanted to use the braided coil place mat but it was thick ... thicker than I wanted to use with a quilt base.  Thus, I stapled a piece of a yellow table cloth over a piece of a canvas apron to a stretcher bar instead of using a quilt.  Next, the Sesame Street color wheel looked very balanced with the place mat.  I went from there ... adding the coasters and lids ... but needing "something" between them.

 

(Above:  Detail of Mandala CCXXXVIII.)

At that point, I knew I needed to bring the yellow onto the place mat.  The toy chairs worked well but weren't really tall enough for the space.  I kept eyeing the Cinderella figurines.  They weren't really right for a mandala because the dress stuck out fully in the back.  My challenge was to cut away the back with my Dremel tool without cutting myself or breaking the figure.  It worked!

 

(Above:  Mandala CCXXXVIII at an angle.)

By this time, I knew I wanted the perimeter to be a row of colorful buttons ... but not yellow ones.  Yellow buttons wouldn't stand out against the yellow background.  The final challenge was the space in the corners.  It looked empty ... but I wanted the overall perception to be "yellow".  Thankfully, the laminated grocery stamps did the trick!  I might not ever use another tablecloth but this time it worked out well.