52 Beautiful and Imaginative Mandalas – printed on one side of non-perforated page

Inky Mandalas is artist Helen Elliston’s third coloring book and is her first one devoted to mandalas. The 52 different designs are unusual, beautiful and intricate. Where most mandalas are abstracts, Ms. Elliston has created mandalas that are based on actual items and subjects. Some of the subjects/themes include: owls, pirate ships, butterflies, cats, birds, and rabbits as well as beautiful abstract and geometric designs. I really enjoy this artist’s work. Many of the designs are quite intricate and have small details.

All of the design stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. I like that this book is in a smaller format than her other books. It saves wasted paper (top and bottom of design) and gives me a finished project that is easier to frame if I wish to do so.

All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink.

While I could wish for thicker, perforated paper, it appears that this is the quality that comes from CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company.) What I really like about the CreateSpace is it is a way that independent artists can get their work self-published. That way, I get a huge choice of design styles albeit with not the best paper. The trade-off works well for me. I especially appreciate Ms. Elliston’s work. I found her first book Inky Ocean by mere chance and really enjoyed it. I now look for her work and have enjoyed each of the books as she has released them.