AEDM #30 - Out with a Bang

Now that would be a cool name for a tangle - Out With A Bang - I'll have to think about that. However, the bang today is the end of Art Every Day Month and I'm trying SIX tangles today! There were just so many left that I hadn't tried yet!

Avreal and Warble are both from Rick and Maria at Zentangle.
Combs can be found in Suzanne McNeill's book Zen Mandalas.
Steem and Ripple can be found in Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book Totally Tangled.
Warangaie was designed by Sandra Strait.

AEDM #29 - Crossview & Featherfall

Crossview is a fairly new tangle from Daniele O'Brien, rather bold and with a 'looking through' feel.
Featherfall is another of Carole Ohl's lovely patterns, very organic and soft looking.

They seem to go very well together. The bold angularity of Cross Views is a good counterpoint to the softness of Featherfall, much like the combination of Jonqal and Opus. I'm not sure if there's a slide show up for that challenge (#41) yet, but you can always visit individual posts (here's mine). This seems to be a good idea, and there are lots of possible tangle combinations that would work.

Tangles: Beadlines, Caviar, Crossview, Featherfall,
Meer, Posh and some stripey thing
I made up on the fly.

AEDM #28 - Casella

Casella was designed by Conny Holsappel. You can see the sculpture that inspired it and read more here. I've made it a little more elongated than shown in the drawing instructions.

Tangles: Casella, Finery, Rosé, Tipple

AEDM #27 - Zippa

Zippa, from Neil Burley, is one of those tangles that requires more concentration. I like how the white section bumps and grinds its way through the pattern; I did thin stripes in some areas so the white would show more. The instructions for this tangle are given using graph paper (not my favorite) - but it's not too tricky if you start with the row of offset squares. I also tried a variation of Boomerangs.

Tangles: Boomerangs, Knightsbridge, Paradox, Tidings, Zippa

AEDM #26 - Cheesecloth & Angel Wings

Today, from the mundane to the sublime!

Cheesecloth is from Suzanne McNeill and can be found in the book Zen Mandalas. I think it should be quite easy to recognize. :-)

Angel Wings is designed by Angie Vangalis, CZT. It was inspired by one of the many patterns at the Oakhurst center where the third CZT training seminar was held. I tried it entirely filled in, as Angie presented it, and also leaving some of the areas blank. I couldn't find it on the web anywhere.

Tangles: Angel Wings, Cheesecloth, Jonqal (sort of), Striping

AEDM #25 - Floatfest

Floatfest is one of Carole Ohl's delighful tangles. Her Unyun and Coaster are two of my favorites. I've shied away from Floatfest. I think I knew I'd have trouble with it! On my first try I kept confusing what was 'bands' and what was empty spaces. I filled some areas with black or Caviar to mask booboos. Shading helped with that too!

Tangles: Beelight, Caviar, Crescent Moon, Emingle,
Flukes, Floatfest, and a mystery tangle

On my second go I had better luck... no... I was more practised. I liked the ridge of black semi-circles and wanted to carry that around the entire center arc so I did a pseudo-Crescent Moon. I like how there seem to be two overlapping coccoon shapes, one more vertical in the lower right, the other more horizontal sort of center. I'm feeling a little more friendly with this tangle and will try it again!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Chebucto, pseudo Crescent Moon, Floatfest

AEDM #24 - Hopscotch

Hopscotch is another tangle from Suzanne McNeill, a simple pattern with a lovely result. It can be found in the book Zentangle 3 and also on the web here.

Tangles: Amaze, Beadlines, Hollibaugh, Hopscotch,
Striping, Tipple, Zapateado

AEDM #23 - MAGMA - a new tangle

Today for Art Every Day Month I'm sharing a new tangle and two tiles where I've used it.

Magma is molten rock, a mixture of liquids, gases and solids. Lava is probably the best known example. I chose it as the name for this simple tangle pattern because I think it looks like thick, flowing stuff. (Yes, it also looks like wavy water.) This pattern results in an all-over gray effect and can be shaded where the undulating lines overlap, or at the edge of the tangled section, or wherever you want. Here are the drawing instructions for Magma.

Tangles: Gewgle, Magma, Munchin, Prestwood, Tripoli

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Corn Rows, Eye-wa, Magma, Unyun

Gratitude and much more

Recently I was pointed to this TED talk and I just had to share! Here are ten minutes of stunning visual beauty, delightful faces, and philosophy we would all do well to embrace whole-heartedly.



You can see more of Louie Schwartzberg's amazing time-lapse photography projects on his website.

Red Thread (AEDM #22)

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet
regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch
or tangle, but it will never break." -Chinese proverb

I was a little concerned about this challenge. As I worked on a tile it seemed as if the red "thread" was in danger of disappearing among all the black tangles. Not to worry. That delicate connection that links us to each other is stronger than that! Here are my two efforts. I tried shading around the thread to look as if it's off the paper a little. In the first, the thread looks more like a ribbon.

Tangles: Assunta, Beadlines, Clockwises, Crescent Moon,
Hopscotch, Organza, Spinners

Tangles: Assunta, Crescent Moon, Jetties,
Lacing, Lotus Pods, 'Nzeppel, Tipple

For Art Every Day Month today, I'm incorporating some of the new tangles I've been trying recently, Clockwises and Hopscotch. I'm also trying a few that I haven't used much, Jetties, Lacing and Organza.

 Cris Letourneau, this week's guest challenger, wrote about her friend Sonya who founded the charity Red Thread Promise. Cris says, "If you are inspired to help even more, I will be collecting actual tiles to be auctioned off to help raise money for the Red Thread Promise.  All tiles collected will be made into a poster that will be available for purchase.  Proceeds will also be used to help fund their mission. If you want to participate, you can find out how at my blog, Tangled Up in Art."

As my two tiles were lying on the desk I realized that the red threads could seem to flow from one to the other. Wouldn't it be fun if they could do that on the poster?!?

AEDM #21 - Fife

Molly Hollibaugh recently shared a new tangle called Fife. You can find the drawing instructions here, and see more examples here.Like Abbe Road that I did yesterday, Fife also begins with a grid of dots.

Tangles: Festune, Fife, Fracas, Ogen, Striping, Zapateado

I really enjoy this tangle, and there are many possibilities for variations. In the tile below I tried Fife as demonstrated (upper left), Fife with a variation in the overlapping (lower right), an attempt at something that didn't work as I'd hoped (bottom) and also the classic Flower of Life pattern (top). Give it a try yourself.

Tangles: Fife, Finery (sort of), Flower of Life, Keenees, Tipple

AEDM #20 - Abbe Road

You know those bricks? On driveways and park pathways? Here they are in a tangle called Abbe Road from "maggiekat". She shows the instructions for this tangle on graph paper (which I don't like) - but it can easily be done by starting with a field of dots. I tried two versions, and one of the ribbons from Posh wanted to flow through behind, and turned into Krli-qs!

Tangles: Abbe Road, Hibred, Knitting, Krli-qs, Posh,
Sh'rock (which I still think of as Bubblex!)

AEDM #19 - St. John's Cross

This is a tangle I came up with quite some time ago, but hardly ever use. St. John's Cross resembles the Zentangle tangle Florz, but with double lines, and triangles in the corners. It's in two sections of this tile.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Florz, Flying Geese, Sampson,
Sh'rock, St. John's Cross, Tipple

Here are some versions of St. John's Cross, also know as a Maltese cross or a Pattée cross:

And the winners are...

Oh my what  wonderful Zentangle tiles I've been receiving in the mail these past few weeks! I have the beginning of a lovely collection which I think I'll keep in some of those Pocketz Pages the Diva's been giving away, and that you can get from CropStop.

October 17 marked the first anniversary of my life as a blogger and I wanted to do something special, so I had a DRAW (pun intended) and an art give-away. Yesterday I put all the names in a bowl and started DRAWing.

The winners are listed in the order drawn. Half of you will be getting something you mentioned. For the rest, I put your names back in the bowl and did a random DRAW for the remaining pieces. Hope you like them! Here's who will be getting art in the mail sometime soon!

Astrid de Groeij - untitled
Debbie Stefanuk - Tumble
Janice Hines - Paradoxical
Anne Marks - A Box of Sunlight
Anita Roby-Lavery - Montgolfier
Renée Zarate - High Winds
Maria Thomas - Oasis
CC Sadler - Behind the Eight Ball
Karen Gray - Nessie
Cindy Fleming - Dragon
Lois Stokes - Interconnection
Andrea Chodera - Passing Through


I wish I could send something to everyone who sent a tile. Many of them came with equally lovely envelopes, notes, or cards. Some had really cool stamps too!

And, (I think) for the first time ever, this post has no visual interest. Just words. A bit dull if you ask me. I like pictures. :-)

AEDM #18 - Stoic

Stoic is one of the 'official' Zentangle patterns. You can read the story about it here. I tried three variations of it today.

Tangles: Caviar, Chartz, Keenees, Screen, Stoic, Tipple

Winnipeg weekend: AEDM #17

I spent last weekend in Winnipeg at a regional Baha'i conference and, of course, noticed patterns! For Art Every Day Month I tried deconstructing and drawing these patterns.

Upholstery on a hotel chair. It looks
like a combination of Amaze and Emingle.

Part of the pattern in a hotel carpet.

Above: Brickwork on a street.
At right: A column outside the Children's Theatre.

Here are my rough sketches of these patterns:

Then I tangled! I tried variations of the patterns above, partly to see what worked best and partly because some of them lent themselves to alternate possibilities. Here are three tiles I did.

The four patterns in simple forms. I prefer the
"bricks" very simple, like this, or as they are on the third tile.

I tried some variations of the "carpet leaf spiral" but
I prefer the simpler, bolder way it is on the previous tile.

I like the "column" pattern best as it is on the
left, but the right side is interesting too.

Do these patterns already exist as tangles? Do they need names?

Tri-Shapes: AEDM #16 - Boomerangs & Trentwith

A double challenge for me today! First is my own Art Every Day Month effort: to try at least one tangle that's pretty unfamiliar to me. Second is the Diva's weekly challenge number 48, Tri-Shapes. Guest challenger Sue Clark, CZT, suggests using a simple circle, square and triangle, overlapped, for the string on a tile. I found this to be a terrific idea and will probably incorporate it into one of my advanced Zentangle classes.

First, here's my tile for AEDM using unfamiliar tangles. Boomerangs from Teresa Clerc lends itself to a number of variations, several of which are popping into my head whispering, "Try me too!" Terri Greenberg shows her tangle Trentwith with a white background, but I decided to use black to define the edge of the circle. A variation of Daniele O'Brien's Zenplosion on the other side of the circle seemed a nice complement to Trentwith.

Tangles: Emingle, Boomerangs, Trentwith, Zenplosion

Just for good measure, and because I quite enjoyed this Tri-Shape challenge, here are two more tiles I did today. I seem to like to keep the three shapes evident, and used shading to define some of the edges.

Tangles: Chartz, Diamond Panes, Hibred, Jonqal, Keenees, Meer, Tipple

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Munchin, Prestwood, Tripoli

A-a-and... if you don't know about it already, be sure to enter the Diva's fabulous Tri-prize give-away!!! She's offering THREE wonderful prize packages, and all you have to do is say how Zentangle has enhanced your life. Pretty simple, no? Check it out and leave a comment here.

AEDM #15 - OoF

This is an official tangle, deconstructed by Rick Roberts. You can read the story and see the drawing directions in the Zentangle newsletter here. Rick suggests that stopping part way through is also a lovely pattern, and I tried that on the right side. It is lovely! In my tile below, the part that is fully OoF got quite well-tangled and is not the simple version!

Tangles: Flux, Knase, Knightsbridge, Munchin, OoF

AEDM #14 - Phuds & Knitting

Today during Art Every Day Month I'm trying two tangles. One is Phuds from Cindy Angiel (It seems a very inelegant name for a lovely, flowing tangle!) Cindy constructs hers by doing all one side, then all the other side. I've alternated side to side. Whatever works for you! Knitting is from Suzanne McNeill and can be found in her book Zentangle 2. Suzanne leaves her background white, while I've filled mine with black.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Caviar, Florez, Knase, Knitting, Phuds

AEDM #13 - Parabola

Parabola comes to us from Jo Newsham in New Zealand. I was having so much fun with it that I did the entire tile using this tangle, and a bit of Caviar! I also used a little white pen on black. (Still trying that once in a while, and still not happy with what I do.)

AEDM #12 - Clockwises

Today I tried the tangle "Clockwises" by Helena. It resembles a jigsaw puzzle. Fun! I must admit that I never like it when tangle instructions are posted using graph paper. When I then try to do it freehand - without graph paper - I usually find that I must start and proceed differently from the instructions. That's what I discovered with this tangle. I took a few shots at it before arriving at a workable freehand method. I like the pattern, just not the directions!

Tangles: Beadlines, Bilt, Caviar, Striping, Zapateado and stippling

AEDM #11 - Moon Rocks and Marbles

Wouldn't that be a wonderful title for a children's book? "Moon Rocks and Marbles" :-)

Today for Art Every Day Month I'm trying two tangles from Suzanne McNeill's books. Here are drawing instructions for Moon Rocks. I don't think Marbles is on the Internet anywhere. I tried each of them with a black background and with a white background.

Tangles: Lotus Pods, Marbles, Moon Rocks, Tipple

There is still a week left if you want to enter the DRAW (pun intended) in celebration of my blog's first anniversary!

As you read this I'm on a bus to Winnipeg for the weekend. I got busy recently and prepared a few tiles with new tangles (new for me, at least) and scheduled them to appear over the weekend. "But that's not Art EVERY Day!" I hear you shouting! Never fear, I've taken my supplies along and will be tangling every day this weekend. :D

AEDM #10 - Flying Geese

Here's a lovely and bold pattern found in Suzanne McNeill's book Zentangle 2. In my first tile I did Flying Geese as shown in the book.

Tangles: Assunta, Coaster, Flying Geese, Knase, Parch

I wondered what it would look like with the dark triangles offset rather than lined up, but I don't find the effect much different. After that I tried it with stripes to give a feather look. I also used Rosé and Sampson again.

Tangles: Flying Geese, Gingham, Rosé, Sampson

AEDM #9 - Rosé & Sampson

Today I'm trying a lovely pattern from Linda Farmer CZT, called Rosé. It can be found on the Tangle Patterns web site here. Sampson, if I remember correctly, was designed by Nancy Sampson and was shown to the group at the third CZT seminar in May 2010. I think I did Rosé too big at first, and prefer the smaller version in the upper corner.

Tangles: Paradox, Rosé, Sampson

Linda Farmer maintains the Tangle Patterns web site, a wonderful resource for patterns and other information, and she does this for free. It's clear evidence of the growing popularity of Zentangle that her site is so very popular.  Here are some numbers to drop your jaw:

• In the first 5 days of November 2011 there were 930,000 hits and 85,000 page views. 
• In the month of October 2011 there were almost 7 million hits and over 1 million page views.

That's a heckuva lot for one person to keep up! She recently needed to hire a software engineer and upgrade her server substantially to keep the site running. Linda recently issued an appeal for financial support. If you love this site too, can you commit fifty cents or a dollar for every time you access tanglepatterns.com and send Linda a little something every few months?

AEDM #8 - Y-not

This tangle pattern was inspired by a bowl in a Japanese restaurant and deconstructed by Molly Hollibaugh. Read the whole story here.

I discovered that filling the triangles with black shows the interlaced Y's better than leaving the triangles white. It struck me that Y-not and Tripoli have a similar layout, so I incorporated Tripoli as well. Then I was on a triangle roll and used all tangles that have triangles!

Tangles: Demi, Tripoli, Triral, Y-not, Zapateado

And don't forget, if you want to enter the DRAW (pun intended) in celebration of my blog's first anniversary, you still have 10 days!

AEDM #7 - Facets & Corn Rows

On today's tile for Art Every Day Month I'm trying two tangles. Facets, by Nancy Pinke CZT, is one I'm familiar with but haven't used in a while. There are different ways of arriving at the same result. I start with a grid. Corn Rows is by Suzanne McNeill and is in her Zentangle Basics book. Linda Farmer has a grid variation of Corn Rows here. On this tile I also used a two-pencil string, always fun!

Tangles: Black Pearls, Chebucto, Corn Rows, Facets, Msst. Xyp, Yincut

AEDM #6 - Posh

Posh is another of Suzanne McNeill's tangles and can be found in the book Zentangle 2.
It can be a lovely effect to use the same tangle in more than one section. It can look as if that tangle is the background and the other patterns are in front of it. To me this tile calls to mind a mysterious forest: an old tree trunk and some hanging vines with dappled sunlight.

Tangles: Betweed, 'Nzeppel, Posh, Tipple

AEDM #5 - Chap & Sh'rock (Bubblex)

Today I'm trying two tangles. The first, Chap by Tammi Rapp is one I haven't really done before, except to make a sample for my book. I actually began with the small circles (or squares), drew a grid connecting them, then added the leaf shapes.

The other, Bubblex, was presented by someone at the CZT training in May 2010. It could be left with a white background but I wanted something dark over there.

Tangles: Bubblex, Chap (and variations), Hibred, Knightsbridge

Afterword: 
Linda Farmer, who maintains the wonderful Tangle Patterns website, has informed me that there is basically the same pattern with a different name! It's going to happen from time to time. The other name is Sh'Rock and was designed by Diane LaChance, a CZT in New Hampshire. Thanks Linda!

(If you're the CZT3 someone who came up with Bubblex, let me know and I'll update this post!)

AEDM #4 - MOVING DAY: a new tangle!

Last November we moved; it was an excellent idea. We'll probably be moving again in the next few months. I don't recall at what point I had time to sit and tangle for a while, but I did, and came up with this tangle. I haven't used it much since... a year ago. I rediscovered it recently and decided to do it for today's tangle for Art Every Day Month. See the tile I did using Moving Day following the drawing instructions.
 
Don't overthink the stripes. You don't need the same number of stripes in each square. The interesting thing happens when they mismatch at the corners.

Here's today's tile. I also tried Moving Day with stippling instead of black. Be forewarned: it takes longer, and I think I prefer it with black anyway. Gewgle is in Sandy Bartholomew's book Yoga for Your Brain.

Tangles: Gewgle, Keenees, Moving Day, Opus (with Aura)

Art Every Day Month - #3: Jalousie

Jalousie is a recent tangle from Stephanie Kukla, a.k.a. Phine. That's the tangle I'm trying today. See how to draw Jalousie on her blog, Zendoodle Wege. Here's my effort, along with two variations. I think this tile looks rather volcanic!

Tangles: Flux, Jalousie (and variations), Jonqal, Tripoli

Tiles are arriving for my blog's first anniversary art give-away! There's still time to send one if you want to participate.

Art Every Day Month - #2: Twilight Zone

I'd say that with this post I'm killing two birds with one stone, but I'm not really into avian murder. Today I've attempted making a spooky tile for the Diva's "All Hallow's Eve" challenge, AND I'm trying a tangle I haven't done before.

The tangle that's new to me is Suzanne McNeill's Twilight Zone (from her book Zentangle 2). It looks much more OOOoooOOOooo when she does it, not so spooky here. I think my lines are too straight. Lava Juice looks much less drippy than I'd hoped and Rain isn't quite as jack'o'lantern-toothy looking as I wanted. Maybe I'm just not naturally spook inclined.

Tangles: Cubine, Lava Juice, Rain, Twilight Zone and
something I want to call Stars because those little white dots
in the black look like a starry sky to me!

A-a-and...
WOWEE!
The DivaCZT is celebrating the fact that there have been 200,000 visits to her web site with a GIVE-AWAY! THREE fabulous prize packages to be had! Check it out here!

"Art Every Day" Month - #1: Nipa

 
November is Art Every Day Month brought to us by Creative Every Day. Not to be confused with 30 Days of Creativity which happens in June. Fortunately they're six months apart!





I recently came up with a system that works for me to keep track of all the tangles I've discovered and like and want to use again. It's getting out of hand and I have over 250 patterns, most of which I usually forget about and resort to my tried and true favorites. This month I will try to be arty by doing a Zentangle tile using AT LEAST one fairly new and little used tangle pattern.

Here's my first installment, focusing on Zentangle's "Nipa". I tried it with both the wavy background and a zigzag background. I also got back to Coaster, and Hurakán, which I haven't used in a while.

Tangles: Black Pearls, Coaster, Florz, Hurakán, Knightsbridge, Nipa

And don't forget! There are two weeks left to get a tile to me if you want to enter the DRAW for artwork celebrating my first year as a blogger.