I created the Seed Exchange Project many years ago and it is reprinted from my book below. I have always had a fascination with the potential within a seed. The project was to paint and make “seeds” of ourselves and exchange them in class with each other. We then incorporated the seeds into our mandalas. I created these mandalas from the seeds I received from my students: The Crayola Kid (my inner child created with my non-dominant hand and the seeds are in her balloons,) Seeds Grow Into Flowers in My Garden and The Seed-Creating Tree.
Created in the Spring of 2013, The Mandala of Seed Mandalas was the last group mandala created from seeds I received in class (as of this blog post.) You can see some of those seeds came from the floor seed mandala. I glued the seeds together in a way that I could look at the backs of the seeds to see what was written. Many of the seeds being created now are signed, dated and some of them are titled.
The seed exchange projects have evolved over the years. Now we make and collect seeds during the weeks of class, keeping them in a “seed bank,” reserving then for the floor seed mandala we create together on the last day of class. When we create the floor mandala we lay our painted seeds down with real seeds, beans, leaves, flowers, etc. on a children’s small Indian blanket. At the end, we close the class with a ritual of gratitude for all that we have received from each other and we take our painted seeds. Bringing the corners of the blanket together, we gather the natural seeds and materials and throw them to the winds. This is similar to what is done in traditional sand mandalas and symbolizes impermanence.
Through the years our painted seeds have grown from the size of a quarter, to 2-3″ or more. One student, Wendy Nolan, has developed the seeds into small, round mandalas which are beautifully decorated. Everyone loves making them because they are small, fun to do and the sky’s the limit when it comes to materials to use. Wendy’s seed contains a real leaf, and isn’t Lotus Miller’s seed painted on a rock fun? It’s these decorated mandalas which then evolved into the Circles of Love.
Seed Exchange Project
During one series of classes, I had a dream in which a friend and I were exchanging seeds and bulbs from our gardens. That gave me the idea to have students paint small seeds or bulbs, and exchange them with each other, like we used to do with valentine cards on Valentine’s Day. The idea was to give one of our painted “seeds” to each class member, and receive one back from everyone. Then we would “plant” these seeds—these gifts from others—by incorporating them into our next mandala.
If there is a large enough group to do so, this can be a fun project. Make a seed which represents yourself, and paint it on your watercolor paper. Keep it simple. Then cut it out so that it’s about the size of a quarter. The seeds can all be different, or all the same. Exchange one with each person in the group. Now incorporate these seeds into your next mandala. It’s an interesting exercise which most everyone enjoys doing. The idea here is to create some fun, play and interchange between each other. I incorporated the seeds I was given into the inner child mandala, the class assignment in the next chapter. See The Crayola Kid.
