I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts that I have been participating in a contemplative prayer training program through the Episcopal House of Prayer. In the June retreat we walked a standard round labyrinth and learned about labyrinth design. That led me down a rabbit hole of designing labyrinths in all sorts of shapes. To date, I have designed maybe three dozen.
When I showed a few sketches to my friends at church, one mentioned a coloring book or worksheet to use in Sunday school. A coloring book sounded too complicated, so I proposed a zine instead. When I got home, I sorted through my designs and grouped them in various ways until I had a set of six that went together. The resulting zine is the Garden of Labyrinths: Meadow edition. I have most of the labyrinths designed for forest and pond editions, and a handful for a desert edition.
My initial goal was to complete and post a full draft of the first labyrinth by the retreat last week. At the retreat, I received feedback on the design. Today I posted a revised version, with formatting I hope to heep consistent for all editions. I will post them all on Itch.io as I complete them. My next goal is to complete the pond one by end of year.
I created the zines to be used and shared, so if you use them, please let me know what worked for you and what didn’t. For the zines, the labyrinths need to be simple, since each one must fit within a 1/8 letter-size sheet of paper. I’ve also sketched a handful of more complex images that I still need to digitize. (I draw them all in a sketchbook first.) Eventually, when I have enogh complex images, and enough time to do the lines for them, I’ll consider turning them into a coloring book. If that would be of interest, please tell me.
The image below is of a labyrinth made of Speks magnets. Read more about it on deviantArt. It’s much more colorful than my zine labyrinths, which are all black lines on white paper.
