Prayer Flags

This is from a couple years ago and I thought it was a great thing to put up today because they are all about prayers.

Have you heard of Prayer Flags? They are a Buddhist, Tibetan, and East Indian traditions that is thousands of years old.  They are created and hung to make prayerful requests for mankind and earth.  There are traditional symbols and sayings that are put on them and have deep spiritual meanings. They are simple, but beautiful and very inspiring.

Traditionally prayer flags are done in the colors listed below, and when strung they are always in this order. If you do more than five, it must be in increments of the five and always strung in the same order, over and over, with each set. Blue is always first, at the top or the left. They are always made of cotton so they slowly disintegrate and need to be replaced with new ones, like the circle of life. New and old hang together and create a beautiful scene.  They are meant to be like a prayer sent out to the world. Their request is not for the individual, but for everyone. Each color represents an element.

Blue – space

White – air (also wind or clouds)

Red – fire

Green – water

Yellow- earth

There are fabulous pictures of thousands of flags strung in the mountains of Tibet and Nepal. Several photos from China show thousands of white flags, not the same as the above described flags.  (Put prayer flags into the images search and just look at all the flags)

I discovered the idea of prayer flags from my favorite magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors. There was an article about the flags and the Prayer Flag Project (theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com). This project invites anyone who wishes to make some prayer flags to post them and join their efforts to “spread positive hopes and prayers for peace, compassion, and creativity beyond the borders of our own little world.”

      

As an artist and fabric lover, this was intriguing. I decided to make a set of at least five and hang them outside to send peace wishes through the air to the world.

The flags in the article are not the traditional flags. They are unique to each artist and each one was wonderfully different, yet similar.

  

So, I got out some muslin, an in-between weight, and cut out five flags. I cut them 9  inches wide by 10 ½ inches high. I allowed for a ½ inch on each side and bottom to be folded twice to make a ¼ inch hem. For the top edge I allowed two inches to be folded with a ¼ folded under on the edge. This allowed a generous pocket for the string or fishing line to be fed through. I stitched the bottom first, then the two sides, then went on to the top.  A longer stitch (#3) was used so the stitches were looser and allowed the eventual fraying and disintegration that is traditional.

I did not stitch the top pocket on some of the flags until after I had added some type of fabric embellishment or trim. Others I sewed and then embellished afterward.  Plain white glue could be used, if you don’t sew. It isn’t about your skill, but about the intention to send prayers for peace, compassion or other requests.

I kept the colors semi muted to maintain a calm feel to the flags. My theme was Peace, and the calm feeling was essential, in my mind anyway.  I wrote simple sayings on some and just the word peace on others. I tried to use fabrics that had a feeling of peace about them and that made me feel good.

Be creative and add your own personal sayings and embellishments that promote your request/prayer.

This is a fairly simple project and can easily be done with kids. You could sew the flags and have them decorate them by gluing things on. Or glue the fabric into flags and let them decorate them. Remember that the flags hang in groups of five. So have the kids make 5, 10, 15, or 20. String them up outside and let the wind carry the kids’ requests around the world.

Have fun, be creative, and definitely make a mess.

Til next time.

Terri