Ikebana, the “way of flowers,” is a tradition in Japanese culture that involves the arrangement of flowers and other natural materials in a stylized manner - can be traced back to the sixth century. Simple flower arrangements (called kuge) were created to honour Buddha, and this practice evolved over time into the more formalized art of ikebana.
Why not create your own simple, single stemmed arrangement for a stunning winter display?
This is a great activity for the autumn/winter months. Part of the activity can be the walk to collect material from hedgerows, woodlands and gardens. This part of the activity would take one to two hours and each participant needs a carrier bag of different seed heads and berries. Secateurs or scissors are used to cut berries from bushes.
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To make it easier for those who are blind/partially sighted to take part. Ensure that the materials used to create the mandala can be easily identified by texture or shape or smell. A tray with shallow sides can be used to navigate by and ‘contain’ the mandala. Use a coloured sheet of paper e.g. yellow, to provide good colour contrast in the bottom of the tray.
Look out for the symbols indicating which activities build or suit those with specific skills - featured in Year-Round Gardening Activities book.
Mandalas can be very ephemeral – changed in a second or slowly fading back into nature if created outdoors. However, you can capture the beauty of your /your groups mandala’s in a photograph . Why not print your photos and create a mandala art display ? Or use natural materials which will keep (the kitchen cupboard may yield up lots of beans, lentils, rice or use scrunched up coloured tissue paper), glueing them into position, to create a more permanent mandala for display or for individuals to take away.