Friday, August 31, 2012

Challenge 84 - blind string

I really like blind strings. They give such oddball shapes to work in. I had a sheaf of new tangles that I wanted to try and this seemed a good opportunity to do that. I started with Drobbles by Cindy Angiel. Once that was on the paper it seemed to call for more small circle patterns so I abandoned my plan and went with circles.
Tangles: Beadlines, Croon, Cruffle, Drobbles, Keenees,
Moon Rocks, Printemps, Tipple

Back to the new tangles I wanted to try. My second blind string tile includes Stephanie Skelton's Deelish , Carla du Preez's Pop-cloud and Maria Copetas' Shingle.
Tangles: Deelish, Fleuri, Krli-Qs, Pop-cloud, Shing, Shingle

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

It takes a village...












"It Takes a Village" © 2010, Margaret Bremner

Patty Meijer, a relatively new CZT and one of the moderators of the Zentangle Inspired Art group on Yahoo!, recently posted this to the group:
"Today in a teacher professional development (seminar), one of my heroes - Sara - posed this to us. She referenced the quote: It takes a village to raise a child. She asked us to reflect on the quote and to think about who is a part of our village and who are we grateful to have in our lives."
I am so glad that you are all part of my village! Mostly we are cyber friends but it often feels as if we are closer than that. Who is part of your village? Who are you grateful for having (or having had) in your life?

(And thanks, Patty, fellow villager!)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

More triquetra strings

Last week I showed some Zentangle tiles using a simple Celtic knot triquetra as a string in this post. At the end I said I'd try some more intricate knots, so here goes!

The triquetra is often done with an added circle, so I tried one of those.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Beadlines, Fleurette,
Knightsbridge Aura, Ragz (with Rounding)

I also did one without doing 'bands', just the triquetra to divide the space.
Tangles: Flux, Providence, Purslane (a Flux variation),
Tipple, Tripoli (3 versions)

Here is the basic triquetra with an added loop in the middle.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Camelia, Cruffle, Pearlz, Tortuca

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Celtic triquetra as a string

Tangles: Betweed, Black Pearlz, elements of Tripoli,
and Auras resembling Auraknot or Hibred

TRIQUETRA comes from the Latin for "three-cornered" and originally referred to a variety of three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it refers exclusively to a more intricate shape that is often found in Celtic artwork. It is formed from three vesicae piscis, interlaced. It's not unusual to see it with an added circle.

While Christians often use it as a symbol of the trinity, the triquetra has been used - long before Christianity - as a symbol of things that are threefold: infancy/adulthood/old age, mother/father/child, earth/sea/sky, the virgin/mother/crone of the Celtic goddess, etc.. It has been found on old Germanic coins and on northern European runestones. Here is a slightly different triquetra design on one of the Funbo runestones.

I've been learning a bit about how to draw Celtic knots recently. The triquetra is the simplest knot and makes a simple, interesting string to begin a Zentangle. I was quite pleased with the results. The biggest challenge for me was to place an equilateral triangle in a square! At the top of this post is the first one I did. I was intending to use Sue Clark's tri-shape string, thus the square in the background, but the circle didn't make it! I found the triquetra a bit small in that one, and in my next effort I filled the entire tile with it.
Tangles: Chebucto, Keenees, Mi2, Tipple
The trefoil is a related image; simply round the three outer points of the triquetra. You can see a tile I did with a trefoil, and a two-pencil string, at the end of this post. I will attempt other, more intricate knots. Stay tuned!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Tiles from points east

My husband and I recently returned from a two-week trip to central Canada: Toronto (where relatives live) and Ottawa and Montreal (where we used to live). Of course I took lots of Zentangle supplies, and even taught a class of 19 in Ottawa. You can see some of their tiles here, and here are some I did while on vacation.
Tangles: Borb, Drupe, Fleurette, Flez, Florez, Tripoli
Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Cadox, Camelia,
Knightsbridge, Sunflower, Verve, Wud, Zedbra
This one also has a bit of sparkle on the 'pendant'.
Tangles: Camelia, Cruffle, Paradox, Tripoli
and something I've been working on that I'll probably call Wildwood

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Points east

Encouraged by friends who were raving about it, my husband and I found a fabulous deal (75% off!) and decided to travel east by ViaRail. It was wonderful!!! Two days and two nights of delicious food, being rocked to sleep, lovely and varied scenery and board games with friends. We went from Saskatoon to Toronto and will definitely do the train thing again. Here's the pattern on my comforter on the train.

We spent a few days in Toronto and Guelph visiting relatives, then on to Ottawa, again by train (cheaper than the bus). We lived in the Ottawa area for many years and stayed with friends. My brain actually worked well for once and I'd been planning - with someone in Ottawa - an Introduction to Zentangle class on the Tuesday evening. There were 19 students, one of whom had come from Sudbury, about a four hour drive! Her young granddaughter lives in Ottawa and came to the class too. Our hosts both came and my husband tried Zentangle for the first time.

Here's a not terrific photo of the first tiles everyone did. I overheard one student say to another, "Hunh. Who knew I could draw?!"

Then to Montreal, where we lived for five years many years ago. It was lovely to hear and use French again. For a few days we attended the annual North American meeting of the Association for Baha'i Studies, which moves around the continent. One of the women in one of the sessions I attended had this handbag. It reminds me of the tangle Dansk. I want one, too!

A few of my Zentangle students from Ottawa were also at the Montreal conference. One tangled the back of her name tag card and another carried around the muslin bag of supplies I'd given everyone. Addicting? Nah!

We had a great two-week vacation and would have taken the train home but couldn't get a good fare until the end of August. We just couldn't wait that long. But we brought home two dozen Montreal bagels. Yum!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Flash kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscopes are terrific!  Translucent, colorful, sparkly mandalas!


Like I need another way to waste time in front of the computer.
This digital kaleidoscope by Dinesh Vora is a wonderful thing to stare at for a while. (You'll have to go to the link to see it.)
Also, if you move the mouse over the image you can affect its movement.

(The kaleidoscope: another great thing invented by a Scot: Sir David Brewster, 1817)

Monday, August 6, 2012

Friday, August 3, 2012

Rangolis

Photo from www.anandway.com
Rangoli is a folk art of India.  They are decorative circular designs made on the floors of living rooms, in courtyards and outside doors during Hindu festivals. They are intended as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities and are thought to bring good luck. I understand that in some parts of India it's the job of the lady of the house to create a rangoli outside the front door or gate each day.

They can be quite simple, like the one above, or more involved like the one below. Often, they are drawn with moistened chalk, however, other materials can be used such as colored rice, colored dry flour, sand or even flower petals and leaves.
Photo from www.anandway.com
Colored chalk can be used too.
Photo from www.anandway.com
Here is a rangoli created using flowers.
Photo from Wikipedia
This reminds me of a video I posted a while ago about How to Grow a Mandala. I expect the drawing of the chalk rangolis/mandalas progresses in much the same way.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Mo'auraknot

I've been having fun trying things with the new tangle Auraknot.

In this one I began with a pentacle using the Cadent variation shown by Patty Meijer recently. I put Black Pearlz in the circles. Then I did Auraknot on both sides of the original bands, and kept doing that until I had a ball shape. (I wasn't thinking of a ball when I began.) It seemed to need more detail/interest so I added some different tangles in some of the strips.
Tangles: Auraknot, Black Pearlz, Cadent, Knightsbridge Auras, Zewm

Again I started with a 5-pointed star, but wanted to interweave it with a square 'border'. I also wanted to try the idea of making some of the bands black, as if they were empty. Sorta worked.
Tangles: Auraknot, (Parabola), Tripoli

Exinside was another tangle I wanted to try. I began this tile with Exinside - you don't need graph paper; fly solo! - and it looked as if I could add Auraknot very nicely. So I did.
Tangles: Auraknot, Black Pearlz, Exinside, Knightsbridge Aura, Parabola (almost)