Weekly Challenge #130: Henna Drum

I love this tangle given to us by none other than the very talented Jane Mackugler.  You can find her step outs to this pattern HERE.

I have used this tangle many times before and it is always a pleasure to draw.  Today I went "string free" and just put pen to paper. It was a cool morning and I drew while bread was baking in the oven. There is nothing better then bread in the oven, dog at your feet and a pen in your hand with a blank piece of paper waiting to be transformed. Well, there are some other things but, today this will do just fine.

Henna Drum, Printemps, Copada

Challenge #121 Birds on a Wire

I am entering this challenge "under the wire".  Sorry, could not resist.  Here it is Saturday afternoon and the deadline for entrees is Saturday night. I heave spent this week attending functions, seeing friends, raising a glass or two and splitting my time between Boston and Maine.  I found time this morning to create a tile for this weeks challenge tangle brought to us by Mary Kissel, CZT - and you can see her step outs on her blog here.

At first sight this tangle was not pleasing to my eye, but I think I just did not like being restricted to using it as a repeating pattern on a line, just not right now.  Lately I have been experimenting with stacking and thought I would try birds in a stack instead.

The tile has a lot going on, stacking, organic garden, birds in various forms, but I had fun creating it and I hope you enjoy a bit of unconventionality! 

Bumper, Chainlea, Cat-kin, Birds on a Wire, Henna Drum, Vigne

The Wonderful World Wide Web! 

On a recent You Tube search for the use of TomBow Makers I came across a blog called The Rainbow Elephant.  I was inspired by her post on Repeat Pattern Stacks.  I started playing with stacking patterns, but fell in love with stone and rock stacks.  Anticipating the gardening season in Maine I soon combined Meredith Yuhas PhD. Organic Garden techniques with the stacked patterns.  I do love the results.

Try this stacking technique with any tangle.  The more off center the better!

Flux, Cat-Kin, Henna Drum, Zinger, Fescu, Vigne

Ensemble

Zentangle® sells and ensemble of 9 pre-strung tiles in sets of 2.  One has curvy lines and the other straight lines.  These are my first four tiles of the curvy set.  It is suggested that you work on one tile and hide the rest.  I could not bring myself to do that since I like a little control on what the finished ensemble would look like.  Maybe I will let go a bit and try it on the next one.

Tile #1 (upper left corner) Opus, Tripoli, Quabog

Tile #2 (middle left) Zander, Florz, Tripoli, Quabog

Tile #3 (lower left) 'Nzeppel, Beelight, Henna Drum, Purk

Tile #4 Quabog, Tripoli, Demi,Paradox

Black, White and Gray Valentine

Mooka, Henna Drum, Inapod, String 039 by Jo Fletcher,