Thursday, March 29, 2012

Recent zendala tiles

I've been having a lot of fun with Zentangle's new round tiles. They are great! Here are some recent creations with the pre-strung mandala designs.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Sanibelle (one by one), Tipple, Tripoli, Wud
and spirals and Rounding and stripes with highlights.

I tried a very simple one, only two tangles. The original mandala design is pretty much lost, but it's still interesting! I deliberately did not flow Paradox in the same direction from section to section. I wanted to see what irregular would look like.

Tangles: Paradox, Tipple

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Fortune Teller

Another week, another challenge! Yay!
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Tripoli

I tried another using the tangle Blake (with a few additions) and a few Black Pearlz. A set of light and dark ribbons wobble their ways across the four lines of the string. You'd probably never guess I started with the same 'asterisk' string!

 I thought I should try to do one that was a little more "normal" (!) and came up with this next one. I prefer the first two. :D
Tangles: Auras, Fohbraid, Keenees, Pinwheel, Rain, Spinners, Tipple, Tortuca

Saturday, March 24, 2012

More Mardi Gras

I enjoyed doing ZIA tiles for the Mardi Gras challenge recently, partly because I really like the color combination and partly because I had a fistful of new Sakura pens to try. I decided to do a Mardi Gras mandala in the same colors, with the same feathers and beads and a little more. It began with an acrylic wash in green and purple. When I was almost finished, I decided not to do ink patterns in the light ring of circles, but rather to use colored pencil. I did the same in the center. Here's what resulted.

Tangles: Ambler, Caviar, Featherfall, Pearlz, Tri-dots, Tuscadero,
and not exactly Knightsbridge. And within Tuscadero:
Emingle,
Knightsbridge,
Tortuca, stripes, dots and whatnot.

The whole piece is 24 cms. (9.5") square. Here's a detail of one corner. Thanks for the inspiration Laura!


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Keeping track of tangles

(Now I have the song "Takin' care of BIIIZZness..." going through my head.)

If you're really into Zentangle you'll have started a collection of tangles. There's no way I can remember all the patterns I've seen and liked and want to use sometime. I lost track months ago. There are so many! I have a few things that keep me (relatively) organized so today I thought I'd tell you what I do, and at the end, what some others do.


IN THE BEGINNING, when I had encountered Zentangle but hadn't taken a class from someone trained in it, I started keeping patterns in a small  notebook (6" square, spiral bound, bright pink foam cover!). I labeled the top corners to try to categorize them. I still refer to it occasionally but it's no longer adequate, and also contains errors, so it doesn't really count.

An aside: Mambo is a lovely pattern I discovered a couple of years ago. It slightly resembles the new tangle Fengle from Zentangle - although not as versatile - and the tangle Jash (inspired by Justine Ashbee's work). Mambo is from Helen Breil on a website called shadesofclay.com and it's a pattern to stamp into damp clay.
You'll see me using Mambo in one of next Monday's tiles.


Here's what I do now:

FIRST, MY OFFICIAL 'ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONAL'

This is the sheets of tangles and step-by-steps provided by Rick and Maria at the CZT training I attended. Back in May 2010 there were 102 official tangles. Now I think it's up to 116.
SECOND, A LIST OF TANGLES

After I became a CZT I started keeping a list of tangles I particularly liked. If I read the name, I visualized the pattern. I soon realized that sometimes I wanted a Dark, or Light, or Medium tangle, so I divided my list into those categories. Then I noticed that some were not dark or light, but Bold, like Hollibaugh and Jonqal. I noticed that some tangles were an all-over Gray, like Emingle and Amaze. Many work for Lines, Edges and Borders like Ennies and Xyp. Many begin with a Square Grid, some are based on Triangles, some have a very organic Flora look. I now have 13 categories, having just added Good for Children. It runs to three pages! Of course, some patterns fit into more than one category and may be listed a few times.

Maybe I should have said "lists" of tangles. I have the three pages by my desk for reference. I also have it at the back of my visual reference binder (see 'Third, Pictures' next). I also have a lovely little travel case of Zentangle supplies and printed this list in a much smaller font size, one sheet, two sides, to keep in that kit. Finally (yes, there's more!) I keep a list on my computer that's strictly alphabetical, but it's in columns and includes all my categories. I'm a bit OCD and very good at organizing things!


THIRD, PICTURES

I had collected around a hundred tangles and was starting to lose track. I could no longer call to mind what something looked like just by reading the name. I realized that - OF COURSE! duh - I needed a visual reference.  I decided that a binder with ATC-sized plastic sheets would work. I put one tangle on each ATC card. Sometimes I use Zentangle's ATC cards (that lovely Tiepolo paper) but it's also a great way to use little leftover pieces of drawing paper.

I thought I would just keep all the B's together and all the K's together, etc. but they're so easy to move around they are actually alphabetical. I add a little red star in the right corner if it's an official Zentangle tangle, and a blue star on my own tangles. Occasionally I put variations or notes on the backs of the cards. The yellow sticky-note keeps track of how many tangles I have - just out of curiosity. It's currently 318.

 
FOURTH, INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR WONDERFUL TANGLES

I also keep a binder with print-outs from the Internet when others post instructions for their tangles. I don't keep everything I encounter; there's just too much and not everything appeals to me. I keep tangles I especially like and tangles that may be of interest to students.

I take this binder to advanced classes so people can look through and perhaps find a pattern they'd like to try on their mandala or illuminated letter. The print-outs are in plastic protective sleeves, back to back, and I keep all the same letters together.

(NB - I really appreciate it, when you post a tangle, if your name and the tangle's name are included on the image! And don't use colored background; it uses a lot of ink!)

SOME OTHER IDEAS

People have devised various methods for keeping tangle patterns organized and accessible. As new ideas come to light I'll add to the list here.

While writing this post, my hand went haywire, I dropped the mouse, and the post got published briefly, incomplete. A few people saw it during those few minutes. One of them was Terrie Purkey who wrote me:
"I've tried several ways to manage the wealth of tangles I have accumulated and most recently have settled on this. I've made a 4x6" card with each tangle, it's name and who created it (using the template from TanglePatterns.com). Then I've hole punched it and keep them on a series of keyrings ... I needed more categories than just alphabetical, but rather than searching light and dark I tend to search grid or organic so those are my main categories but also I've separated out borders and floral. The rings are portable and easy to flip through when looking for something new to try. I also keep a master list on the computer that's strictly alphabetical but with light/dark & organic/grid categories (love Excel!).
CZT Diane Ryan has made a little sample of each tangle on a metal-ringed tag and strings them on an reference bracelet. Check out the first video on the Zentangle blog here. You'll also see some new tangles demonstrated. (Ooooo!)

Another CZT, Sue Jacobs, uses colored post-it notes in a sketchbook. She shared this idea in the summer of 2012 in her blog post Organizing my tangle patterns.

I don't like graph paper for zentangle, but it does make for neat squares! CZT Linda Farmer of tanglepatterns.com fame uses two sizes of Moleskine notebooks with graph paper. You can read about how how she organizes things here.

Another CZT, Suzanne Wilka, who does the Tinkered Art blog, uses 2" square paper on metal rings. You can read her recently updated blog post about organizing tangles here. She also mentioned that "...while I liked the idea of categories for tangles I found that
the more I tried to label them the more it felt like I was creating artificial limits to using them."

Susan Breen Silvy, another CZT, uses 8.5"x11" paper oriented horizontally. On the left are six blocks for the design progression of the tangle and a 3.5" block at the bottom to show the finished tangle. On eht right are six larger blocks to record tangelations. When folded in half the page fits into a small sheet protector and then into a small three-ring binder. The steps for doing the tangle are on the front, variations of that tangle are on the back. The small size makes it easy to take the binder along.

CZT Geneviève Crabe has a Tangle Organizer book available for purchase. There are four different lay-outs and you can choose your favourite according to your needs. You can see them here.

 MaryAnn Scheblein-Dawson, one of the very first CZTs, wrote in April 2012: "A Rolodex is also a good way of organizing your Tangles, although it does not help with the "portability" issue, since it's still in a box. But they are pre-punched. They come in 2 sizes so you could use whichever fits your needs best. And you can purchase clear protective covers for each card so they don't get "icky". You can take them out of the Rolodex and put them back in easily. Perhaps the larger format is better for the step outs."

A CZT from the 8th seminar, Sandy Hunter, has tried out many organizational methods and finally came up with something that works for her using plastic coin collector pages. Read about it here.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

BOSS - a new tangle

I was looking on the Internet at something about Saskatchewan (it's easy, try it: sa-SKAT-cha-wawn) and this image came up:

WHOOOAAAA! (I know! I heard you all!) What a great black-and-white pattern! Not difficult to deconstruct but rather fiddly to draw, not flowy. The name is the first letters of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. Here are two tiles using Boss.
Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearlz, Boss, Flux, Knightsbridge, Phuds
Tangles: Boss, Dansk, Fleurette, Knase, Lotus Pods

Here's how to draw it.
Be sure to put white stripes on the edges of the 'seeds'. It looks better if you vary the width (and maybe number) of the black and white stripes. I didn't do that enough in the first tile. Once you're done drawing all the 'seeds' you need to fill the background black. If you look closely at the photo, you'll see that some of the "white" areas are gray. You might want to think about that when shading. Have fun!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Fengle. I'm in love!

I love Zentangle's new tangle Fengle. Check this newsletter for drawing instructions and the story about the name. I'll be using this tangle more, for sure.

Fengle is very flowy and rather versatile. It seems to like a lot of space to spread so I thought I'd do tiles with just Fengle. It co-operated fairly well in the first tile, but in the second it decided to wander off and have other adventures.
Tangles: Black Pearlz and Fengle. Touches of Jonqal, Mambo and Tortuca.
Tangles: Fengle, Marasu, Striped Snail, Tipple.
I tried to think of a non-leaf-y thing to use, but every way I turned it,
it insisted on Leaf. So there ya go.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Monday tiles - Providence

One of the freshly-minted CZTs, Rho Densmore, came up with this lovely tangle. She's called it Providence in part for the city where the CZT training seminar was held. Do read the story and find out what inspired it in her blog post with the drawing instructions. I love the look of the corners curled up and over. I've been trying it, and think it will appear as a lovely mandala center soon!
Tangles: Fleurette, Munchin, Paradox, Posh, Providence
plus stripes and three Black Pearlz.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Providence

Thursday, March 15, 2012

New! Round tiles with mandala strings!

Zentangle (R) has recently come out with round tiles, pre-strung with mandala designs. They are great fun! Here are two I've done so far: the tile before tangling and what I did with it.

Tangles on the right: Black Pearlz, Flux, Munchin, Pais, Parabola, Paradox, Pearlz, Prestwood, Striping
Tangles on the right: Assunta, Black Pearlz, Flux, Parabola, Paradox
They're a shade over 4.5 inches in diameter and come in a lovely round metal box. There are two each of nine different mandala designs plus three blank papers so you can design your own too. What FUN!

They'll be available to the general public from Zentangle sometime in May. In the meantime, if you just can't wait, many CZTs have them for sale. See if there is a CZT near you here. I've just ordered some and have also added a Shop to the blog!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Students' mandalas

Last Wednesday was the final class in our 8-week Zentangle series and the project was to create a mandala. Two weeks before we had done two mandalas on Zentangle tiles.

I provided six inch squares of paper with 4.5 inch circles in pencil. The circles included a few other random concentric circles and were divided in 12 sections. Students had a choice whether to use black and white or color. When completed, if desired, they could add some tiny gems for sparkle Everyone did! Here are the wonderful mandalas they made! (The paper, really, is white, and my apologies for the gray edges of the photos.)

Tracy's mandala.
Tangles: Cubine, Flux, Inapod, Not-a-Knot, Ogen, Paradox,
and stripes with highlights.
Laurel's mandala.
Tangles: Bales, Black Pearlz, Daggerly, Munchin, Tipple, and more.
Taylor's mandala.
Tangles: Cadent, Earth Rising, Keeko, Knightsbridge

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Paradox and spirals

I love spirals and I love Paradox, but somehow this challenge was a bit daunting, until I got started. The DivaCZT's challenge this week comes from Marizaan van Beek, a CZT in South Africa. She wants us to use a spiral string with the tangle Paradox. I usually find that the more tiles I do of a particular challenge, the better they get, so I'm going to show you my second and third efforts. I found myself leaving areas white to keep the spiral in sight, although those issues can be cleared up quite nicely with shading. When I got to the middle I just drew the spiral!
Tangles: Paradox and Rounding
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge, Paradox, and stripes.
Also a left-handed border and spiral string.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Monday tiles - Fleurette

I've been enjoying CZT Geneviève Crabe's tangle Fleurette lately. It's lovely how it fits into a variety of shapes. I rather like it with a tiny dot in the center. On this tile, I added the Fleurette on the far right at the end; it just seemed to need something more there.
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Fleurette, Hibred, Knase,
Perfs, Prestwood, Tipple, Zedbra

This next piece was done on a scrap of buff mat board. I used both brown and sepia inks, and colored pencils for the shading. It's about five inches square, so not really a tile.
Tangles: Bouclé, Fleurette, Flez, Flux, Parabola, Pearlz,
Phuds, Posh, Shattuck, Tidings, Tripoli

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Students' letters

Last week, in my 8-week series of Zentangle classes, the students created zentangle-illuminated letters or short words. I provided hemp paper and some letter templates to trace around. The hemp is paper light beige with small flecks that don't interfere with drawing with a 01 Micron pen. Then a string was added throughout. Here are the lovely results! Soon I'll share the wonderful mandalas created in our final class.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Color Words


One of my other interests is languages and linguistics, and I find it interesting how speakers of different languages divide colors in different ways.

Could you describe the room you're in using only two color words? Very primitive languages have only two and they are for black and white, or more accurately, for dark and bright. If a language has only three color words, the third is for red. This is likely because red is associated with blood, and therefore with life and death. It's a very primal color.

It seems that color terms are added to a language in a fixed order as the language evolves. After dark, light, and red, green and/or yellow (first one, then the other) are added, followed by blue. All languages with six distinct colors contain terms for the same six colors: black, white, red, green, yellow and blue. As languages develop, they add a term for brown, followed by orange, pink, and purple and/or gray, in no particular order. Finally, a term for light blue appears. (We English speakers lag behind!)

I tend to assume that everyone else thinks the same way I do, but not all languages have words for colors that are equivalent to English words. Languages sometimes give hues different names based on how light or dark they are. 

For example, English splits red and pink, and orange and brown. To English speakers, these pairs of colors - which are really no more different from one another than light green and dark green - belong to different categories. Apparently Irish does separate light green and dark green. A Russian-speaker makes the same red-pink and orange-brown distinctions we do, and will further distinguish between dark blue and light blue.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Golven

I've used Mariët's tangle Golven before, but had sort of forgotten about it lately, so it was nice of the DivaCZT to offer that as the Zentangle challenge this week. Simply "use Golven". This tangle makes a lovely border, and I had thought I might try that, but I had a tile half-finished and Golven seemed to fit one of the sections. The little black bumps along the edges of the triangles is rather special. I also tried a new tangle for me, Carole Ohl's Footlites. Here's the tile.

Tangles: Beadlines, Chebucto, Footlites, Golven, Knase

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Monday tiles - more Hi-C's & Plaited

Last week I tried two new tangles. I've been doing more with Hi-C's and Plaited  - so this Monday's tiles feature those.

In this first tile I did Hi-C's and tried different things with it. In the first tile I did it in a square (as in the drawing instructions) in the upper left and a triangle in the lower right; also in two other triangles below the square. I discovered that it works nicely in a triangle shape too!
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Hi-C's, Knase (sort of), Paradox, Zedbra

The next was done with a 2-pencil string. You can see more about that method here (and more if you check the Labels list on the left of the blog). Here I left the ribbon areas blank and filled the background. I filled all the areas of Hi-C's with thin black spikes.

Tangles: Baton, Hi-C's, Tipple, Undine.
This began with a 2-pencil string.

Finally, Plaited. It took a few tries but I think I've got the hang of it! That in spite of the booboo in the lower right. Shading is also great for partially hiding things.  :-)

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Fleurette, Plaited, Tipple.
This began with a blind string.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Two new tangles attempted

Recently I tried two new tangles: Hi-C's from Anita Roby-Lavery and Plaited from Sue Jacobs.

Hi-C's is lovely, but it looked a little empty when I finished the tile, so I went a bit crazy and filled in areas with other bits and pieces. I simply divided the tile into four squares. Two opposite corners feature this tangle in single form. In another I again divided the square into four and did what Anita shows in her instructions. In the fourth square I used Bales as it seemed to go with the shapes in Hi-C's. This tangle certainly lends itself to variations and embellishment!

Tangles: Bales, Black Pearlz, Plaited, simple stripes, and Rounding.

I found Plaited more challenging. On my first try I really botched it. Oops.


Then I realized that I hadn't exactly followed the directions! I looked at the instructions again and noticed that I need to draw the alternating curved lines before I do the straight lines that join them. Essentially steps one and two are both shown in step one. I had better luck on the second go 'round. It still needs some practise but I think I'm getting the idea. That's good because it's a lovely pattern!