How To Make Buddhist Prayer Flags

Prayer flags accept been effectually for thousands of years, but today's fiber artists are putting their ain spin on the ancient tradition. A growing number of artists are using these small but meaningful flags as an outlet for expressing their hopes, dreams, and concerns—and the design possibilities are endless. You tin can use shibori techniques, sun printing, stencils, embroidery, and much more. In Jane LaFazio's article below, featured in our March/Apr 2012 issue of Fabric Paper Pair of scissors, read all well-nigh Vivika Hansen DeNegre's inspiring Prayer Flag Project and learn how to create your ain prayer flags (Vivika is the editorial manager of Quilting Arts and Modern Patchwork magazines, and Quilting Arts Idiot box).

In June 2011, Vivika Hansen DeNegre started The Prayer Flag Project and invited people from around the world to bring together her in making prayer flags. Each flag would exist created in the artist'southward own style, and then hung outside for a while, its words and sentiment dissolving in the breeze to spread to all whom the wind touched. (Photo by Larry Stein)

Prayer Flag Projection: On a Mission of Hope, by Jane LaFazio

The tradition of hanging prayer flags is ancient, dating dorsum thousands of years to India and and then to Tibet and Buddhism. I've always loved the Tibetan prayer flags that you lot oft see hanging in people'south yards and on their porches.

The almost mutual prayer flags are block printed with Buddhist imagery on a rectangle of loosely woven, brightly colored cotton, and strung together in groups of x. They are ever in the same 5 colors and hung in the same sequence. A little research informed me that the colors represent the v basic elements and should always be hung in social club, from left to right. Blue signifies space, white: air, carmine: fire, green: water, and xanthous: earth. This type of prayer flag is sold commercially throughout the world.

I often purchased prayer flags and hung them exterior, not thinking besides much about their purpose, other than that they were pretty and information technology fabricated me feel adept to see them. Then, my online friend, Vivika Hansen DeNegre, posted a notice near starting The Prayer Flag Project, and invited people to join her in making prayer flags every bit a "living, animate, kinetic journal of our hopes, dreams, and concerns." I signed on immediately.

The Prayer Flag Project is a web log (theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com) and a Flickr group, where anyone who makes a prayer flag can participate and post their work (Editor's note: While the blog is still attainable, the last post was in 2016.). At Vivika's request, I took over the blog. Our goal for the project is, as Vivika wrote, "spreading positive hopes and prayers for peace, compassion, and creativity beyond the borders of our own little world."

The definition of a prayer flag, in this context, is a piece of cloth approximately v″ × 8″ that is decorated with an prototype(south) and/or text that has special significant to the maker. Making and hanging the flags is a fashion of speaking an intention out loud and expressing it visually, tangibly—a way to keep the important things in life within view. The flags hang outside for a period of time, and I love how they fade and tatter as they are affected by the wind and rain.

Sometimes I have an objective before I start a flag. Other times it develops as I run up. I observe making these flags most meditative.

Some of my flags were for specific people who were going through a difficult time. Other flags were for a trait that I wished to embody. Still others were for far-reaching hopes: a starving country, or a universal wish such every bit peace, promise, and love. These flags have get sort of a journal of my life, and they all share the common theme of leaving the world a improve place.

I remember learning in high school that nosotros exhale in a considerable number of molecules that one time passed through Leonardo Da Vinci's lungs, and I'd like to believe that the wishes on my prayer flags, carried by the wind, will be shared with others in much the same way.

How to Make Prayer Flags

i. Cut pieces of textile to 5″ × 11″. Use materials y'all already have on manus.

2. Fold the top down on each slice of material and stitch in identify to create a 3″ sleeve, making the flag surface 5″ × eight″.

iii. Paint, sew together, applique, or collage the flags.

4. Add words, journaling, or symbols as desired.

5. Thread the flags onto a string or string and hang them outdoors so the breeze will catch them and spread your intentions.

Brand a flag every twenty-four hour period, once a month, or just when the spirit moves you.

Top row, left to right: First two flags by Martha Wolfe, tertiary by Illeen Dalke Miller; Bottom row, left to right: Outset flag by Martha Wolfe, second and third by Jane LaFazio

Jane LaFazio, a total-fourth dimension creative person since 1998, truly believes she is living the life she was meant to live. In that fourth dimension, she has cultivated a wide range of skills as a painter, mixed-media and quilt artist, art teacher, and blogger. She teaches workshops online and at art retreats internationally. Visit her website at janelafazio.com.