I have long been fascinated by labyrinths and decided that it was about time to have one of my own. Creating one in the garden is not practical at the moment so the idea had been put to one side.
I came across a reference to a Cornish practice of carving a labyrinth on a piece of slate and tracing it repeatedly to trigger a mediative trance state - perfect!
Obtaining a suitable piece of Welsh slate was fairly easy - mine is round and about 12" in diameter. Getting the labyrinth on the stone was rather more challenging!
Instructions on drawing your own are easily found online and there are plenty of templates around but how to transfer the drawing to the stone? I was not brave enough to try and draw directly on the stone as it was hard to draw smooth curves on a rough surface.
After a couple of false starts I found that having got my drawing on paper, rubbing the underside with blue tailor's chalk ( I always knew I'd find a use for that one day!) allowed me to simply draw over the template with a pencil, leaving a blue line on the slate.
Then it was simply a matter of following the blue line on the slate with a suitable sharp object - in my case the vintage sewing box came to the rescue again with a steel circular knitting needle.
It isn't quite finished. I'd like to deepen the carving a little so it doesn't wear off but I haven't yet got around to getting the Dremel out.
