Mandala class at Zinnia's in South Pasadena

Kari Atol's Mandala

The camera does NOT do it justice

Mandala by Kari Atol

Zinnia's in South Pasadena is my favorite Art Store in all the San Gabriel area. The owner, Tamara, and her worker bee - Joe - are great. Joe's friend Paul Murray also teaches many classes at Zinnia's.

Tamara gets all the "big name" artist/teachers including Michael deMeng and the generous Kelly Kilmer who started me on my way with making journals, Golden Paint and collage.

Chandelier hanging in Zinnia's over the cash register.

Today I took a wonderful class from a self effacing teacher named Kari Atol. She was teaching a class how to paint a Mandala . She had learned this technique at Teesha Moore's Art Fest from the infamous Anahata.

Large work space for classes.

Kari Atol (same spelling as my daughter Kari) supplied everything and this was great for me since I was up in the Glendale/Pasadena on a business trip. There was no additional supply fee. Everything was included! Kari's husband made the 16x16 wood surface that we first applied papers in a collage fashion using modge podge to both adhere the paper and seal the surface. We then set it out to dry.

Next I was introduced to this wonderful art transfer paper called Saral. Kari had provided us with a Mandala pattern that I believe she created, but not sure. We needed to transfer her "map" as she called the pattern, to the dry surface of our collage via the Saral and a pen.

Kari working on her own piece she started with us.

Close up of Kari's Mandala "in progress"

Surprisingly the next step was to apply the gold foil to those areas where we wanted a gold leaf effect. We all thought that the foiling would have been the last thing we did to our art.

Student Christine working on her Mandala

Student Tamara (not the owner)
working on her Mandala

Sally (me) and Kari Atol

Closeup of my work in progress

Then the scariest part for me began - the painting with acrylic paints over the collage areas, adding new color to the design that had been traced onto our collage. We also needed to decide how opaque or transparent the paint should be.

Lastly, we could embellish to our hearts content with glitter or buttons/rhinestones or what ever we wanted. She suggested that perhaps one of the final steps should be the addition of Stickles.

I have simplified this entire process. If interested, Kari says she would love to come to the San Diego area and stay with me and teach a class at my home. I'm hoping she would contact Diane, the owner of Stamping Details in Poway and perhaps teach a class there. I'll be talking to all my local art friends and see if we can make this happen in the San Diego area! Stay posted.

This was such a fun class and really easy once you understood the process.


Kari Atol Girls




In the mean time, her are some of her drawings that she has for sale. She does not teach how to draw theses girls. She told me she has been doing art forever, but just started drawing this girls a short time ago. They are displayed at Zinnia's.

I also want to give you a feel for the store Zinnia's. Her are pictures of the interior and also of wonderful worker bee and teacher Joe. The place has everything a mixed media artist could desire!

Joe, holding example of paper doll class he was teaching

Lastly I would like to encourage people to take a road trip to South Pasadena. Your fist stop should be Zinnia's.

Inside of Zinnia's

Even the floor is painted

Next, visit the stores in the immediately two block area on Mission Blvd. I couldn't resist stepping out in the street to capture some of the store fronts. Plus, the train stops one block away from the area. Do you see it? Grab some friends and spend the day in South Pasadena and then all the antique stores up and down Fair Oaks in Pasadena. Plus, there is always Old Town Pasadena up and down Colorado Blvd. Some many great stores and wonderful special places to eat!