Suna Mandara

**Written Pattern Only**

In the mid 1990’s strange, circular drawings were found on the sea floor off the coast of Japan. Beautiful, circular drawings in the sand measuring approximately 7 feet across. It was discovered that the artist behind these sand mandalas was a newly discovered species of puffer fish. The small, approximately 5 inches, male puffer fish would work days moving sand and constructing the peaks and valleys of the design simply by flapping his fins, then decorating his work with bits of shells. The laborious design is all to attract a mate. If the female puffer fish likes the design she will lay her eggs in the fine sand at the center for the male to then fertilize.

This design spent a few months floating around in my head. I discovered the art of the Japanese puffer fish not long after I designed Ziggy’s Odyssey, but became sidetracked with Kaleidoscope Garden, Midsummer Nights, and then Flight of Fantasy. The mandala was brought back to my attention toward the end of designing Flight, the rest is history. This design is delicate and flowing. The colors I chose help give the it movement and an appearance of depth without having to use too much texture, which I felt would take away from the design.

Written pattern in English using standard US crochet terminology.

Written patterns are written only. No picture or video tutorials.