Blind String

For those of you new To Zentangle all our drawings start with a light pencil "string."  It is sort of a guide line for your eye, your mind, your creativity and fades into the background as you draw over and around it.

This weeks challenge to those who wanted to partake, was to draw a string with your eyes closed.  This to me was genius because my strings always come out the same but, with my eyes closed it actually came out a bit different.  Maybe here lies my answer to strings!

This is my string and what happened with it.  I had some fun with this and I will try another.

Thank you Diva!

One more, turned upside down.

Study in Black & Brown

I have been spending much of my time drawing on shells using monotangles taken from Sandy Hunter's beautiful tangle jar.  I have discovered tangles I have never used and tangles I was not even aware of existing.  The Tangle jar has been such a fun item to use I would highly recommend that you purchase one if you can from her.

Since I have not put pen to paper in a long time I thought I would do just that and use the black and 

brown pens that I have been using on the shells.  There is also some red ink used on the shells but I will save that for another tangle.  This is my tile for the week.     

Thank you for stopping by, enjoy your week. 

Snail Mail

Many of us have become accustomed to blasting off an email when we want to communicate with one another.  The art of actually mailing a letter has become lost to so many of us.  I have a friend who is with a group called The World Needs More Love Letters and it got me thinking about our tangle practice.

As many of you know I have been spreading my very small space with tangled shells to get the word out about Zentangle and to also give the finder a "surprise."  Lately I have found that a tangled note lets you practice your breathing, your tangles and your writing.  A letter means so much more to the recipient then a quick email.  It is deliberate and it takes thought and patience.  In the end you have enjoyed some beautiful down time and when done you can send off a beautiful piece of art to someone who might just need a smile today.

Below are a couple of my recents notes. One sent to the fabulous friend who writes love letters to unknown people who may just need some help getting through a difficult situation.  Tangle and Write on!

The challenge this week (Monday August 13th, I'm a bit late) from the Diva was to use Mooka and Assunta, both of which I don't use that often.  I could not seem to "marry" the two together on my first two tiles and tried a different approach on my last one.  I looked at other entries and I have learned a lot from what others have done.  I will have to try and use these two a little more in the future.

Check out the Diva link to really see what can be done with these beautiful tangles.

I collected loads of shells, rocks and sea glass and even an intact glass bottle last week and I have been busy making "calling cards" to leave back at the beach.

While I was tangling on the shells it occurred to me that I might find a bigger audience if I left them on Main Street, at the local diner, on the library steps.  I plan to go on a bike ride with my bag packed and spread the love.

Challenge UMT (use my tangle) Brayd

Brayd comes to us from the very talented Michele Beauchamp.

I am the youngest of four girls.  The sister closest in age to me was three years older.  While young we spent a lot of time together.  When she hit teenager hood and I still a tomboy, that ended.  But back in the day when we were hanging out, one day after getting into some mischief in the basement of our house I ascended the stairs first and was out the door into the kitchen where there hung a chalkboard.  My sister, who happened to be in braids that day came up to discover a drawing I had just completed of her braids sticking straight up from her head. Maybe I caught her at the right time, but she found this so funny she wet her pants which sent me into fits of laughter that made me cry.

Ahh, those days when things were much simpler and a belly laugh was easy to find.  This story is what I think about whenever I draw Brayds.

When a string is not a string but a stencil.

I admire Ed Roth and his talents and here is another of his stencils taken from his book Stencils 101.

I am one of those people whose strings seem to come out looking the same every time.  I use stencils to remove that responsibility enjoy the creativity of tangling an actual object.  This one has been on my mind for a while.  The result is not really what I expected and the thought of revisiting this stencil again in the future to see if I get a different result has crossed my mind.

 Linda  Farmer has included a "string" section to her tangle pattern web site so that you can use a different string then your own or even share yours with others.