Experiment Mandala with wood slices

DIY Project, , , , ,

One day when I look online I find out some wall décor piece made by wood slices. As you can see from the search results, there are so many kinds of this type of wall art. But I like the idea, I want to try it myself. I plan to make a mandala artwork with these wood slices.

Wood sign board

The base is a 19.75″×19.75″ wood sign board. I seal it with shellac and apply black gesso on the targeted painting area. Once the gesso is dry, I paint background with acrylic paint.

Wood slices

They are from local crafts store. First I sort them out by size and try to map them into a pattern on the board. Once I am satisfied with the pattern, I sand them and stain them in different color using wood stain. After that, I finish the wood slices with polyurethane and glue them one by one as the pattern I planned.

Finally, I paint the wood slices with gold pigment. I can leave the them blank but I prefer more details on each slices. Since I want to make a mandala artwork, I choose the mehndi style pattern.

Finished piece

Here it is, the finished wood slice mandala artwork.

I hope you enjoy this little side project experiment. ❤

Posted by

My paintings are an outlet to express the imagination I have inside my head that I can not put into words. After trying many mediums, I always find myself coming back to paint and brushes. In my current artistic practice, I use oil paint and mainly create portraits of mythical creatures and animals transfixed in the shifting colours of seascapes and landscapes. There is a natural spirit and magic to these creatures and their energy draws me in. Choosing to paint these creatures as real living wildlife rather than abstractions, I use bold and vivid colours to express the imaginary intertwined with reality, finding magic between the seams. Using a saturated colour palette, I create bold and striking imagery, contrasted between foreground and background, subject and landscape, and light and darkness. Weaving their bodies and the surface of the landscape into each other through organic forms and flowing brush strokes, I find beauty, strength and innocence in these creatures that reflect my inner world.