Emergent Mandala Making: Creating without a Map

June 28, 2025 • 10:00-11:30am EDT Learn how to make mandalas improvisationally - one layer at a time - as you create it. Receive easy-to-do techniques and tips to create your own unique mandalas. All hand-drawn from the inside out. No art experience expected or necessary.
The mandalas pictured here each took multiple sittings and many hours to create. You will be learning the same process and techniques used to create these for 90 minutes in this workshop, which you can build on later with time and practice.
Emergent Mandalas ©Michelle James 2025
Manadala making is an ancient practice used by every society throughout history. In this workshop, we explore making them emergently, letting the structure emerge one layer at a time - a visual improvisation - as a practice for presence, creativity, stress-reduction, and getting more comfortable creating in the unknown. We focus on your creative self – including the self-talk, judgements, and stories you carry when creating with no outline - and the tools and techniques, such as what to do when you make a "mistake" in the process and there's no starting over, among other things. There are no pre-prepared templates or outlines in advance to fill in. Instead, you will learn how to build on the mandalas in easy-to-follow ways that make it do-able and accessible to anyone - and repeatable with any mandala you want to create in the future. Creating this way is about choosing presence over polish, adapting in the moment, and creating as you go. The practice of doing them regularly can open you up to new levels of presence, intuition, creativity, and confidence in uncertainty that transfers to all areas of life. And, you will leave with a mandala that you made in class - that expresses your unique creativity. The emergent process is transformative. Engaging what emerges in real time as it emerges - in a safe, creative space - helps you enhance your relationship to , and confidence in, your own creative flow, your resilience, choice making with no map, and engaging the unknown.
Registration
Details
When: Saturday, June 28 • 10:00am-11:30am EDT What: Learn the emergent process, and a series of techniques you can use anytime on your own to make simple or elaborate mandalas. Leave the workshop with your own unique mandala. Where: Zoom Materials: Colored pencils and art paper. Prismacolor brand colored pencils are suggested, but any brand is fine. Smooth surface thick art paper is also recommended, but any art paper is fine. Registration: $27. Zoom link and other information will provided after registration. Class size is limited for more personalized attention. There are no refunds for this workshop if you miss it.