More than you might realize, there are times when I’m creating mandalas and it just doesn’t work and I get duds.

Sometimes it’s a particular source image that just doesn’t work, no matter what I do  the mandalas are just “eh” or even really awful.

Sometimes, it’s just one particular mandala in a series that just doesn’t wow me.  Or in the case of using images with stones, you have to be careful or you wind up with a mandala that looks like you’re looking a someone’s rear end over and over again.

Or sometimes, I just think that the source image is enough and that there is nothing new revealed or gained with the mandalas from that image.

It just occurred to me that I should share a little of what doesn’t work when I’m creating mandalas.  Happily, there are more that make me say “wow” than “eh” but part of that is learning what works and what doesn’t.  But even still, there’s always a surprise.  Life would be boring if we had it completely figured out!