Back to Basics

I was fortunate enough to attend Rick, Maria, Molly and Martha's presentation at Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires of Massachusetts this past weekend. It was open to all, so there was a nice mixture of CZT's who just can't get enough and people very new to the practice. It was refreshing to be instructed on the basic tangles that teach you so much about the Zentangle method and also be reminded that you only need a handful of tangles to reap the benefits.

Many of us have moved from the simplicity of the 3.5 inch square tile, pencil, and pen to boat loads of supplies that overtake our desks and need totes upon totes to lug them around. It is very refreshing to get back to the basics and feel the freedom from pencils, pens, and markers.

If you have not yet found the facebook page called Square One: Purely Zentangle, check it out! It is a community that only works with the basics of 3.5" square tile, pencil and black pen. There are tangles suggested weekly to get your juices following and it is a place to share your daily black and white tiles. With almost 1000 members, there is a lot to be learned from others work. The photo section is an amazing resource to learn how individuals have used tangles in so many different ways.

Here are some tiles from the retreat:

Tripoli

Munchin

Marasu, Poke Leaf, 'Nzeppel

Remember where it all began!

Random Acts of Zentangle

Random acts of Zentangle are usually tiles that have been lovingly tangled and left on a bench, at a restaurant, on a train or airplane, for someone to find and be surprised. Since where I spend my summers is full of shells I have tangled on shells and returned them to the beach for some one to hopefully find. We had a horrific storm last night and when I went to the beach the tides had been extremely high. I only found one shell that was cleverly hidden by a friend that was in a structure unreachable by the waves. Someday maybe where you least expect it you may find one of my swept away shells. Would that not be cool? Here are a few:

P.S. I had the pleasure of meeting three young ladies who have found my shells! One who actually had participated in a Zentangle class in school in MA! After the huge storm and very high tides, this morning brought a super low tide and the shells had been moved around but, obviously still findable! Lovely.

Weekly Challenge #180: MacDee

The tangle for this week is by Anneke Van Dam and looks like classic Scottish, checkered fabric. You can she her step outs HERE.

As my father is Scottish on his dad's side, his last name being Buchanan, we have a Tartan as all Scottish Clans do. I thought I might try to incorporate some colors in this tangle but, as I am a color phobic and it looked a bit difficult to pull off I decided against it!
                           


            What I did come up with is adding a MacDee background to an existing Bijou tile:

                                                                 

And then a second one I tried intertwining the leaves and Mooka in the fabric:

I think there is a bit too much white space for me so I may go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and try this one again.

Bijou!

New tiles have been introduced from headquarters and they are an adorable 2"x 2" tile. You can read the Zentangle Newsletter for a better introduction HERE.

While waiting for my Bijou tiles to arrive I thought I would cut some from watercolor paper to try it out. They are delightful! I did not realize until my Bijou tiles arrived that I had cut them to 1.5" x 1.5" square, so I have a variety to show you. I also want to show you a calling card that Joyce Crucitti gave me at Tangle U that was only 1" x 1" square! Here are all the sizes:

On the left are the Bijou tiles, upper right a regular 3.5" square tile, just below that two 1.5" and Joyce's 1" tile mounted on a backing. Who know's how small one could go.

Here is my tile for the Bijou challenge today.

This is a Bijou tile displaying Mooka!

Weekly Challenge #178: "Duotangle by the Letter!"

Initials!

Using our initials we are to create a tile. I am involved in a swap going on now which I can't really talk about until the news is released but, it involves using only certain letters of the alphabet for tangles. I found this very liberating because it narrowed the field in which you could work. Too many choices for me sometimes makes my brain hurt. I have a terrible time gong into large department stores to shop for clothes for this same reason. Give me two or three pairs of pants to choose from and I am happy. If you haven't noticed there are so many "named" tangles these days it is sometimes stressful to pick a couple to work with.

So I found this very relaxing. I did two tiles, one for my first and last name DC,

Dyon, Changing

And since I sign my tiles with my middle initial I did a tile that was DMC,

Demi, Maryhill, Chemystery

I really like how Maryhill came out looking like an M (no my middle name is not Mary!). I didn't see it until after I signed it as you can see my initials are in the top left corner!

Less for me is more relaxing.

Challenge #177 "Truffle"

The challenge come to us this week from Carolin Broady the youngest CZT so far! She has come up with a tangle called Truffle which you can see HERE. I commend her on designing a tangle, it is much more difficult then it may seem, at least for some of us (me). I struggled with this one all week to come up with some thing I liked and then just decided to draw. Well, I have not had the drawing bug for a while, I guess I am on the wane right now in the drawing sector so what I ended up with is a weird sort of an underwater, way underwater, creature. A challenge is a challenge, so here it is.

I used a yellow micron on the tan tile this week as an experiment.Not sure I love it but, it was worth the try. Truffle, Verve, Black Pearlz and Zinger

Weekly Challenge #176: "B.Y.O.B"

I really like to use stains on tiles. Maria has been doing it for some time using tea or wine for shading. Amy Broady CZT challenges us this week to "Bring Your Own Beverage" to stain a tile or tangle with the beverage of choice, or simply sit in a beverage house and create a tile. I used many different staining mediums but settled on this tile that was stained with coffee and turmeric.

Mooka in black micron, Verve in blue micron

Tomorrow would have been my son's 28th birthday and of course, he has been heavy on my mind. His ashes were set free off the coast of Maine "so he could travel the world." I always feel that he is around us in Maine especially but, we are also surrounded by water in Boston too. I didn't see this while tangling but upon reflection I see the three of us, myself, my husband and my son, Dylan in the Mookas, surrounded by the swirling ocean (Verve) that is Austin and then by the shining world. Somethings just come out on their own without a conscious thought.

Weekly Challenge #175: Crux

It took me a while to get to this challenge and I don't like to see any of the other entries before I complete my tiles so that I will not be influenced in my drawing but, Henrike Bratz has done a lovely job of illustrating this tangle and the many variations possible that it is hard to know if I was influenced or not.  I figured this would be a mono - tangle since the space is not that big, so I experimented with all of those tools that I complained about last week.

This tile was started with a Zenstone "wash" followed by drawing the pattern with a black glaze Gelly Roll pen. Once the first layer was dry I went over the lines of the flower to make it a bit more raised. Then I used both black and white Prismacolor pencils to lighten and darken certain areas.

This tile was simply brown and black micron and black Prismacolor pencil.

Weekly Challenge #174: Superimposing Strings

As I sit at my "art table" and look around me I see two pencil cases with 36 - 90 pencils each, three good sized pencil boxes filled with microns and other inky pens, a large box of water colors and a desk set of Tombow markers not to mention all the different types of paper I have on hand.  I have been thinking for a while that I need to get back to the basics.

There is something that frees up the mind when you only consider a 3.5 X 3.5 square of fabulous paper, a pencil, and a black micron. This is what this challenge reminded me, go back to the basics. It seemed so easy and I finished without much thought. It came to fruition in about twenty minutes. With all the tools I have available to me comes chaos, skepticism, and frustration. I think it is time to clear the table and make things peaceful again.

I chose two strings at random from the tangle pattern web site without looking first, #7 and #24. Together they looked like this:

Even though there were so many strings I could not possibly use them all, I chose what felt pleasing to me and  ended up with this tile which I like very much.

Quabog, Onamoto, Diva Dance, Windfarm, Garlic

It is the simple things that make one happy. I need to remember that!

Weekly Challenge #173: Redux, Remix, Revisit Your Comfort Tangle

The challenge this week is brought to us by fellow CZT Sharla Hicks and she challenges us to revisit our comfort tangles and do something different. I am not feeling all that creative today so I kept it simple.  I used a pink micron pen, which is not usually part of my color scheme and also Tombow markers for shading. I do like the depth it gave the Printemps.  If interested you can find Sharla's tutorials on using different methods for shading HERE.

Printemps in Pick micron pen shaded with Tombow marker 761

Mooka in black micron pen shaded with Tombow marker N75

On Renaissance Tile

Auraknot and Mooka Intertwined

I am posting these step outs with the understanding that you already know how to draw both tangles. If you do not know these tangles, follow the links AURAKNOT and MOOKA to see how they are done.

These four tiles were drawn free hand so they are not exact from step to step. I numbered the Mooka so you could keep track if they look a bit different from the one before.

1.To start, I draw one full round of Auraknot followed then by two Mooka.

2. Again, draw a round of Auraknot followed by two (or as many as you would like) Mooka

3. Now I switch and draw the Mooka first and then another round of Auraknot

4. You can stop at any time with this. I have added two more Mooka and then several more rounds of Auraknot. I feel the added Auraknot lines add to the "inter-twininess"

Have fun with this. I is also fun to add some Mooka curling out!

Challenge #172 Duo Tangle Auraknot and Mooka

I love tangling these two together. The outcome is always interesting. Next time I would not choose to fill in the white Mooka with Gelly Roll as it is a little sloppy but was worth the experiment.

Challenge #171 Courage

Courage. I immediately think of my boys when the word courage comes up.  My eldest son faced death at the very young age of 24. He met it and dealt with it on his own terms and finally submitted to it gracefully with strength and courage.  His younger brother was courageous as he donated stem cells for transplant, magical brownies and being by his side to the very end.  He continues to be courageous in his ability to continue on with  his own life after a loss that was so very hard to bare.  Courage is something I think about almost daily because of my boys and I have learned from what they have shown me.

This is a simple tile, drawn with two tangles. One, designed by myself after my son, Austin, passed away called unme and one I came across only recently that so fits my youngest son, as he was born on the 5th of May, or as many people know it as "Cinco de Mayo" the tangle Ole'.

Challenge #169 Circles as Strings

This week we were asked to use a circle or circles as our string and then tangle. This seemed like an easy one to accomplish but my end result surprised me. A little science and nature on the same tile. Where did that come from?

Tan Zendala Tile, black and brown micron, white gel pen, white prismacolor pencil

Black Pearlz, Printemps, Bronx cheer, Poke Leaf

Challenge #167 Duo Tangle

The challenge this week from the Diva is to use the tangles Well and Punzel. This tile has a lot going on especially in Punzel, not usually my style.

 Punzel, and Well in two different styles

Speaking of a lot going on I was happy to be introduced to Marizaan van Beek from South Africa who had recently traveled to Canada to visit a fellow CZT and teach a class or two. Both of them then made their way to Portland Maine to attend Tangle U which I was also attending. What follows is what I picked up from the pictures of the class that were posted on Facebook. There is so much to learn from fellow CZT's. This is plain and simply the most fun I have had in a while.

There are many tangles in here and was colored with Tombow markers.

I was completely fascinated and continued on to complete two more using Inktense Pencils.

This is so much fun and has pleased my inner child who has really just wanted to color.

Challenge #166 Diva Style

A new tangle, yet to be named is our challenge this week. One thing lead to another and I ended up with three tiles. Similar but different.

Tangle University

I enjoyed four wonderful days in Portland Maine with fellow Certified Zentangle Teachers that came from South Africa, Netherlands, Latvia, Taiwan, Australia and all over the US and Canada who shared their ideas, taught classes, stayed up late into the night tangling together and of course we ate a lot!

First night started out with a fancy dinner at Hugo's Restaurant. So many tastings of wonderful food.

 Fluke Tartar

 Crabmeat Salad in compressed Apple and Tofu foam and Sea Moss

 Scallops wrapped in Nori with Pickled Daikon Radish

 Tempura Ramps

 Skate roasted yummy vegetables with a citrus oil and a smoked tomato sauce

 Meat of some kind (I am sorry I can't remember because I don't eat meat but it was enjoyed by a friend)

 Smoked Monkfish

 Lamb

 French toast with Carmel topping sitting atop hops

 Grapefruit sorbet, granola and egg yolk

Homemade Marshmallows, Lemon curd, and Torrone

All was very good and the waiter took our picture after every course was served. He also went to the kitchen and looked up Zentangle and was very interested. I wished we had had a tile to leave behind :(

From Pizza to seafood, we ate it all and had a wonderful time together. It always goes so fast but, we are already looking forward to Tangle U Santa Fe in 2015!

Fellow CZT Chris Titus then spent the next five days at our home in Round Pond Maine where we "mostly" played with our new supplies. What a lot of fun to have a fellow tangler in the house for many days. It was funny that most of our time we spent at the same table and did not speak a word for hours so engrossed in our projects we were. She is a wonderful cook and took care of the meals, was an awesome house guest and a really great friend. What follows are some pictures of our finished works. The colored piece alone took each of us a couple of days to complete and so much fun. The idea came from Marizaan van Beek who traveled from Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa to Canada for a visit, but took some time to teach a class before her journey to Tangle U. CZT's are a very generous group.

 Tangled and Colored with Tombow markers by Chris

Tangled and colored with Tombow markers by Me 

Zendala Lesson - Same string and instructions - different results.

 Above Chris's below Deb's

We had a mixture of some rainy days, some beautiful days, some windy days and several visits from eagles both young and old.  Quite a pleasurable week!