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.

Weekend Gathering = Beachy Business cards

My husband and I had a wonderful weekend visit with a colleague of his and her two adorable boys.  One day we spent on the island across the sound from us playing on the beach and being "cavemen" in a fort made from washed up beach items.  The fort gets larger as the summer wears on but it is already equipped with four "walls, " a roof, a swing, a tire and bones of some sort that had us all guessing!

I busied myself with gathering shells, stones and seaglass, which is my other Zen practice.  It just makes me happy to find those beautiful pieces of smooth glass washed so well by the ocean.

After washing and drying the shells well, I began to tangle on them to return them to the island for someone else to find.  But, I thought, why not give myself a plug and wrote my blog address there too!  I will coat them with acrylic and send them on their way.  Who knows what they will bring back to me.

Mi2

When this tangle was first shared by Mimi Lempart on tanglepatterns.com I was drawn to it.  It is flowing and interlaced and draws you under and over and then Rick introduced a simpler pattern that just thrilled me too.  I wanted to start doing "installations" and Mi2 seemed to be my muse but, I neglected to realize that choosing to incorporate black pearls would take a lifetime.  I put it aside.

With Mi2 being the Challenge this week, I unrolled my 20.5" x 30.5" piece of Lokta Natural paper and am determined to finish it before weeks end.  I will show you my start and will repost a final shot later in the week.  With company coming for the weekend and much to do, we will see what happens.

Deadlines are a good thing? Must learn to "biggify."

Well, here we have the finished product below.  I got a bit stuck on Springkle, it is a very addictive pattern once you start.  I also shaded more with a medium grey colored pencil for more definition.  I find on the Lokta paper it is harder to "smudge" your shade lines so the colored pencil was key.  This was a lot of fun once I had a fire under me.  Sometimes it takes a extra push to get your project done. 

  

Olympic Spirit, Zentangle Fashion

The 2012 Olympics will be played in London July 27- August 12 this year.  Rho Densmore challenged us to use the symbol of the olympics created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1984.  The five interlocking rings colored, blue, black, red, yellow, green, and white background are colors in which at least one appears every national flag at this time.

Thanks for the Challenge Rho!

Tangle Jar!

I was the lucky one to win Sandy Hunters Tangle Jar!

I received my tangle jar from Sandy the beginning of last week but things have been a bit busy for me and I found no time to post until now.  New respect for the Diva!

It is as pleasing to look at as it is to use.  So much inspiration is contained in this little round bellied baby, it is amazing.  Sandy has tangled on shrink plastic and made charms for the jar as well as decorated it with beautiful paper adornments.  You can read Tangle Jar deconstructed on Sandy's blog here to explain all the wonderful features she has incorporated into this little invention.

Auraknot


this is my challenge result for Auraknot.  This is a really fun tangle. Enjoy your week!

This weeks challenge was to take inspiration from your surroundings, whether it is right at home in your backyard or as encompassing as the state you live in.  I have so much closely surrounding me I was overwhelmed at first with this challenge, but things came together as they always seem to when tangling. I shot this silly video of my dog who derives endless pleasure in chasing the chipmunks that live in the yard.  Do not worry, he has not come close to catching one!

                                   Who could not love that happy, happy tail wag.


This morning I was greeting by many beautiful moths that congregated on the side of my house over night.  My favorite is the Luna Moth with it's green wings and purple accents.

It was not long after I took this picture that the local birds came in to devour the smaller moths.  So is the way of the world.  This is the view of my front yard, so to speak, and a beautiful end to another beautiful day.

                     So, I have a lot of inspiration very close by.  My tangle for the week. 

Fiore di Pietro

For Pete, Rho and her family

                     

(Rho, you have my permission to use this tangle.)

Cadent

This weeks challenge coming from the Diva was to use Cadent, alone or in a variety of ways.  I always thought of Dragonair as a Cadent spin off so I paired them. I also wanted to see how Cubine would look inside a Cadent and I think that might be my favorite discovery.  The overall tile I am not in love with but, I learned a lot and I can now join others in the club who post their work whether they love it or not.  Proud to be a member!

UNME Circles

I have had circles on my mind all week

Eccentric Circles

Rainy Days and Mondays

It has been raining for two days now and threatens to continue.  I am feeling trapped by the weather and by my emotions.  I think it might have shown up in my tangle.

Our Challenge this week was to use Carol Ohl's Bridgen.  I think my bridges turned into fences and cubine of course, closed in cubes.  I added some color to lighten it up.  When I was finished I saw the "pointer" which actually pointed to my out-of-doors.  So I am taking the advice of a friend and the hint from my tangle and donning my rain gear and going for a walk with my dog who HATES the rain.

Wish us luck!  Have a happy week.

We are experiencing a Nor'easter here in Maine that will probably last through Wednesday. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, a Nor'easter is a crazy powerful storm which usually occurs in the winter months bringing lots of snow and all the problems that go with it.  In the Summer there are mighty winds and lots of rain.

Sitting in my enclosed porch I am watching the tiny humming birds brave the rain and wind repeatedly to come to the feeder for food.  Mighty little souls.

This is an Ed Roth Stencil, tangled, in their honor.

Summer Tangling Medium

I have collected shells and rocks and I plan on tangling on them and then returning them to where I found them so someone else might pick them up and wonder.  These are my first tangled shell and rock.

Weekly Challenge #72: "Tanglation Nation - Crescent Moon"

Stencil as String

I came across a book this weekend, Stencil 101 by Ed Roth and decided to try my hand at Zentagling a stencil to see if the results would lead to not loosing the stencil subject.  I like the outcome but, now I wish I had started with a finer paper then just Staple's printer paper.  Live and learn and Zentangle.

I think I really enjoyed my time this weekend spent with other very inspiring CZT's as I have been tangleing their shared tangles since I came home.  This one uses a Logo on the Estuary sign in Hull Ma and Suzanne Binnie's Red Unyin.

The next one is a playful redo entitled Not Rickz Paradox by Cheryl Cianci's. I used a V as a string to continue with my Alphabet string series.

The weekly challenge this week is to use pea-nuckle created by Molly Hollibaugh.  I created two tiles, mastered neither of them but I did venture onto some new ground.  My first tile is white on black.  The white gelly roll was a pleasure to use but it was a very different experience from the micron pen.

I used pea-nuckle along with a new tangle by Dianne Klabechek called "S"tuary, that just flowed out of her pen at the NUTZ meetup this weekend, and fescu.


I then experimented with a regular tile using my newly announced tangle UNME and pea-nuckle.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet up with the NH CZT group that actually met in Hull MA.  We had a lovely six hours with a beautiful lunch and the estuary as a back drop.  The day was full of information. We discussed polymer clay techniques (Bette Abu) and stamping techniques (Melissa Hoopes).  At show and tell Sadelle Wiltshire shared a technique for tangling on aluminum foil.

On the dull side of the foil glob on tacky glue and let dry overnight or until hardened.  When ready mount the glue side down with more glue (I used a glue stick) onto a card stock.  Then use a blunt tip, old pen, bone folder or ideally an embossing stylus, they come in many sizes, to tangle on the aluminum.

This is my first and it wont be my last.  I hope you can appreciate this as a copy. The large globby things are glue on the oposite side, they have actually become a negative on the copier but in real life they are raised.

Sepia

Our challenge this week was to use a color, that color, sepia.  I think I was supposed to use it with black but I do love the montone of one color.  I am amazed at how many different shades of sepia there are.  Mine is more brown, while I see others have a redder hue.  I have begun to become a bit of a pen addict and would really love to find the redder one for my collection.

Here is my Sepia tangle for the week.

Mono-Tangle Mother's Day Spiral

I missed last weeks challenge and I was feeling pressure to complete this weeks challenge using the tangle "groovy" by Eden Hunt. It is a wavy, fun tangle but, I think my mind was wondering and my groove got off on the wrong direction.  I will need more practice on this one in a time and space when thoughts are not crowding my mind.  I was focused on completion rather then practice.

This is the first time I have used 2-N-5 by Anita Roby-Lavery which I really enjoyed and I do like these to tangles together.

  Reposted with heavier shading. A bit of an improvement. Thank you Joni!

Since my eldest son passed away a year ago May 8th I have been wearing his necklace that I gave him as a young boy as a bracelet to honor him and keep him close.  He wore it almost everyday and I take it off only to polish it. It looks like a simple pattern but I was blocked as to see the tangle in it.  One morning recently it just appeared to me and I put it on paper.

I am calling this pattern UNME because when I asked Austin if he would like to give his necklace to someone special he just replied "this is just you and me." So here is to you and me Austin!

Rainy Day

              It's a bit rainy, kind of cold and very quiet.  Perfect day for a Zendala!

Weekly Challenge #66: Laura's Auras

This weeks challenge from the Diva was to use Auras around your tangle.  I think my auras got a bit "out of control" so I went back and added color so you could see my original ribbon tangles.

The thing I liked about this challenge was what Rick once said. Once I started the auras "I knew what I was going to be doing for the next several minutes."  Thanks as always Diva for the challenge!

Phobia

I must confess I have journalphobia.  I find myself panicing when I put pen to a journal page thinking "what will I do if I make a mistake, or don't like what I have done?"  I am working on this phobia by starting with a class taught at the Cambridge Center For Adult Education called Vivid Journaling.

I want to share with you what I did the other day as an example of me at my best.  I started to write the word color and the third letter came out as an R, go figure!  I have no idea what happened, lack of focus, getting older, I just don't know.  Well I went with it and I will have a good laugh when I see this page again.  If you need a laugh today, be my guest.

This just may be part of journaling and learning to let things roll of your back or even discovering something you weren't expecting.  I do feel a bit better at the end of this page then I felt at the beginning.
Learning new things is fun!

Practice

This is my practice for the moment.  I love the simplicity.  Enjoy your practice!

Learning Curve

I decided this was a beautiful weekend to set aside and become comfortable with Michele Beauchamps beautiful zentangle spiral design. After several pencil sketches my hand loosened up and this is my tangle for the weekend.  Michele does a beautiful job with her free flowing strokes to make you think everything is dancing in the wind or being washed up by the sea.  Thank you for the wonderful instructions Michele!

This weeks Challenge  #65 was to use  JJ LaBarbera's tangle, called HUGGY BEAR.  You can find JJ 's instructions here and this was her take on a tangle called huggins.  My huggy bear had some morphing of it's own going on.  I think they look like martian pods if there were such a thing.