Islamic Tiles and Mandalas

Islamic Tiles

7th Grade

We looked at several versions of Islamic tilings examining shapes, colors, design and spacing. Next we cut our individual 3" (7.6 cm) tile stamps from E-Z-Cut Printing Blocks which are thick enough to provide each of us with two sides so we could make two different designs. Using Block Printing Inks, we made our tile prints on 12x18" (30.5 x 45.7 cm) colored Construction Paper... placing the tile prints in radial symmetry. After the ink dried, we colored the designs with Cray-Pas. Crystal Clear Acrylic Spray Paint was used as our fixative. Directly below you can see how we began.

Below you can see some of our student works.

Also see:

Islamic Tile middle school lesson

Islamic Eraser Prints middle school lesson

Personal Mandalas

Students viewed mandalas from many different cultures around the world. They reflected on their self-interpretations of personal symbols to create their own mandalas.

These mandalas were constructed on black paper first with white pencil then layered over the white pencil with colored pencils to intensify the colors.

Mandala Links on IAD:

Radial Design Mandalas - Become aware of Radial design in art through examples of Rose windows and mandala designs from various cultures.

Mandala Pen and Ink Drawing - Elementary students will create a mandala design using compass and protractor showing radial balance and/or symmetrical balance.

Digital Mandala Collage - Middle school students will use Adobe Photoshop to manipulate a photograph and create a mandala.

Metallic Mandalas Gallery - This is the mandala gallery of art teacher Gina Grant of Clifton Hill Primary School, Australia.

Mandala Color Drawings - Middle school students will be able to create a nonobjective design from a magazine photo (or personal photograph) using a view finder.

Tree of Life Mandala print - Elementary students make mandala prints.

Mirror Imaging Symmetry Mandalas - Elementary students will learn and apply the basic fundamentals of radial symmetry as they create an original mandala with white paper and colored pencils.

Life Cycle Mandalas - Kara had her 7th grade students design Mandalas that had to do with cycles of Nature.

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