Mandalas - #craftastherapy

For a long time I've been a fan of @craftastherapy over on Instagram, and recently had the privilege of joining the team of talented and lovely makers that moderate it.  It gave me the opportunity to really talk to the community of people that use craft to help with everything from mental and physical illness, to relaxation and fun.

One of the things that kept popping up was crochet mandalas.   I tend to make useful, practical things, and while I know mandalas are a growing trend in crochet world, not knowing what they're 'for', had never felt compelled to make one.  Encouraged by the @craftastherapy community, I decided to give it a go, and in my usual, doodling with wool fashion, I came up with this.  I enjoyed the process immensely, within a couple of hours I had a lovely thing in my hands, and had learned some nice, techniques for making spokes on the way.

I did a little research and found that mandalas are a spiritual device, a thing that when finished represents the completeness of the cosmos used by a variety of faiths.   They're also used in some therapeutic practices  as "creating mandalas helps stabilise, integrate, and re-order inner life" Susan F. Fincher.

I thought that was all rather nice, went back to my practical makes and left it at that.

 

A few days later I went to the funeral of a beautiful soul and it was shattering.  On arriving home I couldn't find any where to put my sadness, and I thought of those words.  

I  found yarns that reminded me of him, in colours of the earth,woods and cosmos, and set to work.  

Each round thinking of him and who he was.  

At the end I had a small sense of closure, a certain completeness that had been missing, and a physical thing with which to touch him.

It's a not practical, but it's the most useful thing I've ever made.