For our sand mandala vessels, we made them out of clay, in any shape we wanted, starting with two pinch pots, expanding them into half circles then joining them at the middle.
After scoring and seaming them together, we used paddles to shape them into spheres. From there, we shaped them into any shape we wanted. For mine, I chose to do a chalice considering it is a big part of my life at this point and the core symbol of the mandala was the chalice in the seed.
The crescent shape was really difficult to form the clay into. I had to start over once because the first one was too round and getting thin. For the second one, I shaped it more with my hands and when that was done, I cut the hole in the top for the lid. I strategically made the flame as the handle for the lid and then attached the base to the body of the vessel. This was flimsy and came out lopsided a bit due to the top-heaviness of the body piece.
On the vessel, we made designs/symbols that represented the symbols on our mandala. After firing them a second time with the glaze on, I tried to stick some of my sand on the outside on top of the peace sign and the brain inside of the woman, but it didn't stay. I might try and glue it with hot glue/tacky glue.