Yesterday we thought about the wisdom of ancient Tibet when we painted a lovely rainbow with our colorful sand.
Today, we talked about Buddhism as we made a miniature Zen Garden.
We learnt that a Zen Garden is a place of meditation and we experienced how calming it is to work with sand… to rake it, let it run through our fingers, watch it change shape as we move it with our hands.
This is what we needed to make our Miniature Zen Garden…
A glass, wooden our metal container
A spoon
Sand (we used some of the beach sand that we colored the other day)
And Zen treasures, we decided upon pretty rocks and earth-colored marbles.
We put the sand in the dish. The green and purple sand mixed together to make a lovely pink. We used the spoon to make the sand level.
We took our little rake and made a spiral marking in the sand. We positioned our Zen treasures in our Miniature Zen Garden, making use of the spiral markings to maximize our gardens aesthetic appeal. We placed and removed our treasures many times until we thought it looked just right.
Mr T was very impressed!
And then we played in it… for a very long time… raking, placing treasures… covering treasures, making markings in the sand… arranging treasures again. We ‘meditated a lot!’
Can you believe that we made the Zen Garden Tools too? You won’t believe how easy they are! Have a look at the link above to see how we made them.Blessings and magic.
20 Responses
I can’t wait to see how you made the zen garden tools, especially the rake!
Love this! We will do this soon. And I’m looking forward to seeing how you made the tools.
I love this! What a beautiful, creative and peaceful project. Now I need to get some sand. Thanks!
Beautiful and simple! I love the little rake!
I love the creativity I find with bloggers! Thanks for sharing.
Lovely idea. The tools are very sweet too!
LOVE this! Love the colored sand too. Great idea! Hope you are having fun with your mom.
lisa
That is very cool. I can imagine it would entertain for hours!
Oh I love the Zen garden!! My mum has one and we play in it when we visit…maybe we should make our own, thanks for the inspiration.
Jamie :)
This looks like so much fun! Can’t wait for my little one to get older and do things like this.
What a cute craft! It’s too bad we don’t have any space left (busy decluttering actually) or I’d be wanting to add this one to the decor.
Thanks for such a wonderful idea! My daughters (6 and 9) have had hours of fun with theirs using stones, tiny driftwood pieces, shells and sea glass. Yesterday’s creation was a miniature Stonehenge!
They’ve loved photographing each of their new worlds. Thanks for the inspiration (and a few quiet hours!)
It looks like playing to make a little desert with some gemstones,that is so entertaining for the kids, maybe my kids will have fun doing it. They can also make a small Solar System too.
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Thank you for the info. It sounds pretty user friendly. I guess I’ll pick one up for fun. Thank u.
Hi! I love your site! I am researching how to make the tools for your zen garden and the link does not seem to be getting me to the page which will teach me this. Could you advise? Thanks so much. Lee
HI Lee,
Thanks for the kind words. I recently moved my blog from blogger to wordpress and a few links didn’t update … thanks for letting me know. I’ve fixed the link now. Here it is – https://www.themagiconions.com/2009/09/how-to-make-miniature-tools-for-your.html
Enjoy!!
Blessings and magic,
Donni
I forgot to check the boxes below. Thanks!
Aw, that’s a cute little zen garden you made, and the little shell shovel too! I’ve always loved the idea of a zen garden; it seems so calming, and it can look beautiful as well. I’m thinking of adding one to our backyard on a slightly larger scale than the one you made here. I’ll probably use similar materials, but I’ll definitely need a larger container (I don’t want the sand to get mixed in with the dirt) and lots of sand. Thanks for the inspiration; hopefully my kids and I can be making designs in the sand in our own little zen garden soon!
Hi Hazel…. I’d LOVE to see your zen garden when you are done :)
xo Donni