New Tangle "Fiore"

A new tangle was introduced by Tanglepatterns.com from Jana Rogers and she calls it Fiore. You can look at her step outs here on the tangle patterns web site.

The fun thing about new tangles is you can then play with them and give them your own twist.  These "twists" are called tanglations.  I had some fun playing with Fiore and here are the step outs for a tangleation that found it's way out of my pen!

I started Fiore with pointed ends to the four "legs" of the tangle:

 From here I have found two ways to go about getting to the final pattern.  The first one I think is the easiest and more in the Zentangle mindfulness of one stroke at a time. After the first stroke turn your paper to the right to position it for your next stroke, turning again for the third and fourth strokes. This involves a lot of turning, but there is a flow to it.

click to enlarge

The second is a two stroke at a time solution. Opposite sides drawn at same time. First line is from pointed end to larger end and the next is from larger end to pointed one.  

click to enlarge

Here is one thing you want to avoid.  Try to be aware to not draw two lines that are similar next to each other.  You want them to over lap. (number 4 should have come before number 3)

And, of course, a variation:

One more thing that I discovered about myself is I have a difficult time drawing same sized smaller boxes centered in a larger box.  I have an easier time drawing circles the same size in the center and did this in pencil, then in pen, drew a box around the circle.

I hope this helps those who want to know.  Have fun shading and getting your tangleation on!

Challenge #124 "We are Calgary"

There are several natural disasters that I am aware of at this time and I am sure there are many that I am not.  Everyone will, at one time or another, need to lean on someone else for support.  These hearts were drawn with thoughts of Calgary and India, where waters have flooded and Colorado where fires are out of control.  Help where you can.  Every little bit adds to the healing.

Holey, Printemps. Color is colored pencil.

Stress Free

A wonderful friend of mine gave me a "One Sketch A Day" book for my birthday in March.  I only recently started to "sketch" in it because I have a slight fear of journals. Now that I have started and had some bad days along with good days, sketching wise, I feel a little less intimidated about drawing in a book.  This may be the kick starter I was looking for!

I started this rainy morning in bed with Sandy Steen Bartholomew's Totally Tangled book.  I have had this book for several years, but it is one I go back to over and over because it is packed with ideas and I always seem to come away from it with something new.  She also uses color beautifully and I after drawing a couple tangles (I was catching up on days missed in my one-a-day) I decided to bring out my inexpensive colored pencils and see where it lead.  It lead to a stress free morning and thought I would share.

After I was finished coloring I still had three Tripoli left empty.  I opened The Art of Zentangle, a fairly newer purchase, to Margaret Bremner's section on Zentangle Mandalas.  Margaret is a very talented artist and her work is beautiful. I am very fond of the way she uses black Pearlz and the balance of black and white.  You see in the lower drawing I was playing with her ideas.

Challenge #123 Can you Zentangle without using existing patterns?

I think the answer is YES!

I laid down my frame and string and with inspiration from a scrap drawing my son had left behind I had a go at it.  Thank you Dylan!

I was relaxed, not thinking to much about where the line was  going and totally enjoyed myself.  Is that not Zentangle?

Challenge #122 Grid (un)-Locked

I am remembering back to Certification, close to the last day and a tangle was introduced based on a grid and I thought to my self "OMG, not another grid tangle"!

Well, I will tell you this exercise has totally changed my way of thinking.  As soon as it was mentioned on the Zentangle blog I started a grid on scratch paper and had a go.  The grid keeps getting larger as I think of things.  I wish I had started it in my journal.

When I finally sat down to do a tile I still had the grid on my mind.  An uninteresting string, but I do like the way it came out.

And another one.  So much fun!

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

Challenge #120 Tangleation Nation; Bales

How much fun to think of just one tangle and expand on it.  Well, I put tangles inside of tangles.  Is it still a tangleation?  No rules in Zentangle, but maybe not quite what the Diva had in mind.  I still had  fun with this and it has also helped me find some direction on a ZIA I have been thinking about doing. I will post on that later.

Even though the growing grass and unplanted garden are screaming at me to pay attention to them, I was able to block that out of my mind and eye long enough to complete two tiles. Different from each other, but both were fun and relaxing.

Bales, Yincut

Bales, Buttercup

A New Frontier

Yes, I have gone to see the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, with my husband.  I am not a trekkie, but sometimes we do things for others to make them happy.  I enjoyed the movie even if my mind was wondering to things I enjoy more.

My "new frontier" is watercolor.  Watercolor with Tombow markers to be more exact.  I took a class with Marie Browning and have been fascinated ever since.  I tried out the markers on this Lotus flower that will be a gift for a friend and I was thrilled with how it came out.  I was a bit leary to tangle over it, but with help from some amazing Zentangle teachers/friends I found my way to finish this flower.  I did not want to distract from the colors to much, but in my world everything should be tangled.  I do like the outcome.

Challenge #119 "Ebony and Ivory"

Black and white.  Basics, right?  This challenge was such and eyeopener for me.  I had never thought to make a tile in which black space and white space were evenly distributed.  This challenge came from the Zentangle blog and the lovely Diva.  Thank you for combining forces. Along the way I have seen many new possibilities which I will need to play with in the coming days or weeks.

I completed a tile that I had started a while back, but had lost focus in.  It was sitting on my desk in front of me when this challenge came along.  I knew where I had to take it. Here is my Ebony and Ivory.  So much fun.

Schway,Verve, Tri Cube, Yincut, Black Micron, White Sakura Gelly Roll

I neglected to shade the original piece, so I have shaded and reposted.  I am not sure if it has made that much of a difference, but now I feel it is completed. :)

Challenge #118 Kuke

The challenge from the Diva this week is to use Katy Abbot's tangle "Kuke".  You can see her post here and instructions for her "cool" tangle.

My first tile was a literal interpretation of her discovery (cucumber on the floor) so it is Kuke on Florz. Haha! I used a tile I had colored with background techniques from Marie Brownings  Time To Tangle with Colors book this past weekend. This is a salty-splash background using TomBow markers and the colors were just right for a Kuke.

Kuke and Florz

Since the "Y" in the string reminded me of a Tripoli Tangleation I used a black tile and Pentel Slicci pens in silver and blue to finish a second tile.  The Slicci pens are very smooth and a pleasure to work with.  

Tripoli with Kuke, Fescu

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

Challenge #117 "Schway"

Schway is such a big bold tangle I left it on it's own and filled with Verve.

A little something for my son on his 24th birthday.  Happy Birthday Dylan!

Unryu fine paper 25"x18", brown and black micron, Copada, Vega, Shattuck, Flux, Tagh, Ragz, Fescu, Meer, Verve, Hibred, Diva Dance, quilt leaves, 'Nzeppel

Challenge #116 "Blind Sighted"

Mondays challenge was to close your eyes and make a string.  My string is what I call my one loop wonder.  This right hand of mine has a memory of this loop that will be hard to erase.  I should now try one with my left hand, but I have had too many challenges already this week.  I will save that thought for another time.

this is very faint, I hope you can see it.

Pane and Pinch

Challenge #115  Earth Day

So many Organic tangles, I don't have room to fit them all in.  Be kind to one another and to our Mother Earth.

Oakie, bumper, cruffle, zinger, frondous, verdigogh, mooka, fescu, cat-kin, ahh, co2, raindotty, chainlea.

Challenge #114 "Stars

It has been some time since I have posted and much has happened.  The worst and foremost being the bomb explosion at the Boston Marathon, Monday April 15th.  I live in the city and can see the finish line from my condo so I usually don't put myself in the middle of the crowds, as I prefer to walk a city street unchallenged.  Boston has been transformed overnight and my heart now understands just a little bit better how New York felt after 9/11.

With this challenge of Stars my mind goes to those that lost their lives and limbs in this twisted event and also to our "star" whom my family lost almost 2 years ago now, our son and brother, Austin, who lost his life to Leukemia in May 2011 at the age of 24.  I know what it is like to loose someone you love very quickly and thinking prior to this, that nothing like this would never happen to us. Sometimes it does.

Feathers, CO2 (my stars)

In the aftermath of the bombing on Tuesday our youngest son, Dylan joined my husband, dog and I on a walk along the Esplanade to smell the blooming Magnolia trees and get away from the helicopters and sirens that now rule the city.  On our walk along the Charles River, with it's pleasant views and the comfort of being close to one another,  I had looked down twice as a feather was at the tip of my shoe.  Looking back, one was black the other white. Good and Evil?  We are birds of the same feather.  I see these feathers as messages from my departed son.  Be good to one another!

Weekly Challenge #112 "Tuxedo"

In this weeks challenge I added to the tuxedo tangle challenge, which you can find here on the very talented LeeAnn's Zentagling-fun site, by using a second new tangle and a cool shading technique introduced by the wonderful Emily Classon on her blog.  Well, challenges are to introduce you to new things all of which you do not necessarily master on your first try.  Here is a good example, my first try at all three:

schway, tuxedo, folded tile technique

Not yet the master, but happily on my way!  Enjoy your week.  My husband and I are off to NYC for four days starting Saturday morning!  Hope we have good weather and some relaxing fun.

Happy Spring Egg Gourd


I tangled an egg gourd instead of an egg today, Easter, to bring to a friends house this evening as a gift.  I thought it would be something fun, although she would probably rather a bottle of wine, but there will be plenty of that.

This reminds me of a story not so long ago when we lived a close knit neighborhood in the suburbs and my husband and I used to host a winter open house to keep us all from going stir crazy.  One of our older, very eccentric neighbors showed up with a butternut squash under his arm.  He had grown it himself and stored it for winter.  I thought it was a humble and wonderful gift and we enjoyed his harvest with a smile on our faces.

I hope this too brings a smile.

You can order egg gourds here.

More Mooka!

I just could not stop.  One more mooka.

                                    

Organic Garden 101

This weekend I learned how to draw on tonal paper and *grow* an organic garden
from tangles and imagination.  Thank you Meredith Yuhas for teaching us a such a fun technique!

Here is my garden:

                 

Weekly Challenge #111: "More-Mooka-Madness Monotangle-Mania" 


That's a mouthful!  It just goes along with the weekend I just came off of.  I spent my weekend in Northampton MA at Tangle U!  Hopefully the first of many.  The group was a manageable a size and I was able to connect with most of the attendees which adds to the fun and friends on facebook!  There were many wonderful courses from color to mandala strings to meditation.  All fabulous and extremely informative.

Mooka is such a fast tangle it was easy to complete two.  I found that meditatively breathing before each tile slowed me down, relaxed my hand and helped me find my strokes more smoothly.  I thank Meredith L. Yuhas, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Zentangle Teacher, for the wonderful reminder to meditate and the exercises she guided us through this weekend.

Challenge #110 Outside the Box

First of all, thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes.  You are all very kind.

Secondly, I was the proud recipient of Maria's beautiful heart tile from her E Unum Pluribus  post.  This was a very special birthday surprise that I will treasure.  Thank you again, Maria and Rick.

This weeks challenge from the Diva is working with something that you might not be comfortable with or have not dared to try.  I love Zentangle because I am kind of a black and white type person.  Most of my wardrobe is black or white with a little grey, maybe some dark blue thrown in.  So Zentangle was a perfect comfortable fit for me.  Using color was way to far outside my comfort zone and when I have tried it (talking lots of color) it did not suit me. There are many clever ideas from participants on the diva's blog and I was at a loss as to what I would do.

As I sat at my desk my eye fell on the beautiful tin of Zendalas, only one of which I have finished.  I realized I had given more Zendalas away to others who wanted to try them than I have completed myself.  It is something about repeating a pattern and wanting them to all come out similarly that made me nervous.

This challenge actually took two sessions to finish.  The first day I gave up because my hands were jittery and I was feeling really anxious.  Go figure, this is suppose to be relaxing right? Today I sat down and thought I couldn't feel much worse then yesterday and just finished it.

I am sure the next one won't be so tough.

Ensemble

Ensemble: A unit or group of complementary parts that contribute to a single effect

This group of nine tiles was pre-strung as one complete set so that the string ran through all nine tiles to "connect" them.  One can either complete the ensemble as one piece of work or individually complete tiles and bring them together.  I chose the later to complete my ensemble as this will be a swapping item at the next local CZT meet up.  The plan is to have all 55 attendees, or those who want to participate, to complete and entire ensemble and then we will swap out all but the middle tile and end up with our original tile and eight tiles from different CZT's.  I think this is an awesome idea and I have found great pleasure in tangling mine.

Here is the final ensemble.  I will post later my "swapped" version.

Challenge #109 Tangle To Be Named At A Latter Date

I celebrated my birthday this week.  The best thing about that is it means spring is close at hand.  So much to do, seedlings to start, garden to plan, yard clean up, some warm sun rays to soak up!

This tangle caught my fancy when I first saw it posted on the Zentangle blog and my many sketches were fun and easy to do, but then out came my tile and things just did not flow.  I am not going to fret about it.  So much has gone well with my zentangle experience I am going to except it as a learning experience and move on.  I post my tile no matter what the outcome, so here you are.  There are no mistakes in Zentangle so the finished product is what it is.  I was fortunate to have the time to practice.

:)

Get Out'a Town

Early Thursday morning I dognapped my husbands dog and drove north just as the first snow flakes were falling from the sky.  This is not always a wise thing to do because usually, what Boston gets Maine will get too and visa versa.  This time I was fortunate and today we have only a dusting of snow, power, sunshine and mild temps (44ºF).

With a quiet house and a very tired and sore dog, he gets his run of the woods and is gone for hours at a time, I whiled away the morning tangling. My mind wonders occasionally to my husband who has to navigate his way through the slippery conditions to work and back, but I must say it has been a beautiful morning for me and his dog.

Auraknot, Bunzo, Mooka, BTL Joos, Marasu

Challenge #108 UMT Whyz

I seem to have lost my way for a bit.  I had painstakingly planned out my finished product before I had even begun.  Then, to make matters worse I compared my piece to others work. That is just not a good place to find yourself.

It was when I started to tangle an ensemble recently that I realized how far away from the Zentangle philosophy I had strayed.  Away from the breathing, calm, relaxing enjoyment of following a string or not, filling that string with tangles, admiring your finished product, and learning that the outcome dosen't really matter it is the process that counts.

I suppose it is with all things that we have an idea how it should be.  I have been reminded once again it is not where you are going, but the journey that you are on that matters.  Feels better.

The challenge this week was a "Use My Tangle" which was brought to us by Jane MacKugler, CZT and you can find instructions for the tangle "Whys" on her blog here

This is my tile:

Thanks for stopping by.

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

Relaxing time anywhere.

I had to bring the car if for a check up yesterday.  Of course I brought my Zentangle supplies with me.  What was suppose to be and hour an a half turned into almost three.  If it had have been quicker someone might have interrupted my relaxation time.  What is a bad thing, or a good thing.

Quilted feather, Tripoli, Marasu

Hurry, Pressed Wood, Jetties

Thank you for stopping by!

Peace and Quiet

I know many of you will not agree but I love being in an absolutely quiet house.  No TV or radio on, no barking dogs and no phones ringing.  Today was such a day.   Ahhhhh the best!

Demi, Grass border, Yincut.  Unofficial tangles are quilted feather and coffee beans.

Challenge #107 Quandry

Love the name and the tangle!
I have been playing with it for over a week now but my tile does not capture Quandray at it's best.  Visit the Diva's site for step out for this marvelous tangle.   I do love the look of the quilt feathering surrounding it and will be looking into other quilting patterns for future ideas.

Black, White and Gray Valentine

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

Challenge #106 The Year of the Snake

Chinese New Year Celebration started on February 10th and it is the year of the snake.

Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year's Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity." Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.

Tangles used are Ambler, Crescent Moon, and Sanibelle.

Challenge #105 Dansk

Inspired by Michelle Beauchamp's many beautiful ZIAs I tried my hand with her technique on this challenge which is to use the tangle Dansk by Margaret Bemner.

I will obviously need some practice and lighten up my hand a bit.  It is always fun to experiment a bit.  Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.  Either way this was fun.

Tangles used are Buttercup, Tripoli and Dansk.

Creative Common

My husband, son and I spent a beautiful three days in Maine this weekend.  We sat in front of the fire, played some games and watched some very cheesy Star Trek.  Well they did, I drew close by.

My son produces music under the name Creative Common which he refers to as an art collective.   He produces music, a friend produces video to accompany the music and others such as my self contribute with art.  Some of the things I have drawn have landed on the video screen.  I have not produced anything CC related in quite a while so I picked up my Micron pen and practiced my Tripoli tangle in his semi altered logo.  I have scanned it here and plan to play with it a bit more as time goes on as I need to learn more about Adobe Elements.

There is a penciled line outlining the letters which I may go back over with a Micron or just blend them to give a shadowed effect and I think it may need a bit of embellishment in the "center" of the Tripoli.

Anyway, I have added again to the CC collective and enjoyed some quite time while at it.

Thanks for stopping by.