Do you ever chase your curiosity, find yourself following google links and utterly swept down a rabbit hole? Isn’t it great? My latest hyperfocus has been making labyrinths.
I’m not sure what triggered my curiosity one afternoon, but I found myself googling labyrinths, and how to draw them. I already knew that labyrinths and mazes are not the same; mazes have wrong turns and switchbacks and dead ends, but a labyrinth usually has just one long meandering path and is “unicursal”. I liked this maze blog’s distinction: mazes have choices in the path you take while labyrinths do not.
While reading, I came across some fascinating tidbits about the history of labyrinths and their uses through the ages. I read about sacred geometry, defined there as “the contemplation and utilization of the archetypal geometric patterns of Nature for the purposes of spiritual communion and healing.” I also came across quite a few references to walking labyrinths to quiet the mind, calm anxieties, enhance creativity and encourage meditation. I could see more than a few connections between labyrinth and how I use tarot cards for self-reflection and insight. And that’s how another link was forged in my ongoing and increasingly esoteric chain of curiosities!
Spirituality and historic significance aside, once I started reading I was quite intrigued by the design of labyrinths. This article about how to draw a five-circuit labyrinth helped me understand basic labyrinth form, especially studying this graphic:
It was Discover Labyrinth’s video on how to draw irregularly shaped labyrinths that really fired my curiosity, though. Star-shaped labyrinths? I need to make those!
But first, I figured I should aim for something a little easier. I’m enjoying the practice of slow stitching right now, so I had started out with that idea, but ended up leaning more toward traditional embroidery in a hoop. What if I were to embroider a finger labyrinth, one that would give a nice tactile experience as you traced your fingers back and forth through the path? A little more contemplation the next day in the shower fused some elements into a plan: a simple 5 circuit circular labyrinth, traced on linen with a sun motif.
There was a little bit of mathing involved. And a compass, a ruler and a printout of concentric circles. It didn’t take long to pull it all together. I printed out a page with evenly spaced concentric circles, then realized I couldn’t see the paper through the two layers of linen I had fused together with fusible web. (My projects are often much harder than they have to be. I make a lot of mistakes and learn a lot of lessons.) So I used the circle printout for a guide and replicated it with a water-soluble pen and a compass. Next time, I’ll draw the circles first and cut around them. Lucky for me, I tend to favour a more rustic look to precision.
I followed the designs above and marked the breaks in the circles for the path. I collected some fun new beads lately, so I incorporated them into the design. The stitching was easy and enjoyable – simple backstitch, trying to be mindful of keeping a mostly regular stitch size.
I had set out with a sort of idea to make a sun motif, thus the yellow circle with fiery orange embroidery floss against a turquoise background. I didn’t leave myself a lot of room for sun rays though, and since this was more of a prototype than a final product, I chunked out a few triangles and stitched them down, too.
I like how it turned out. It’s not exactly art, but it was really fun to figure it out. I enjoy tracing my finger along the path, and think something like a small mat or pillow or quilt with a finger labyrinth embroidered into it would be lovely. I almost made a complementary moon labyrinth out of some black and grey linen for the back of this one, but I might save that for another project. I think this one is complete, and a success for what it was supposed to be: an experiment.
It would be pretty straightforward to make these as kits with patterns and supplies, once I cleaned up the idea a bit. Hmmmm.