Enthusiastic Artist

Monday tiles - more Hi-C's & Plaited

2012-03-05T00:30:00.000-06:00

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.

Two new tangles attempted

2012-03-02T09:00:00.000-06:00

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!

Circular tangles as mandala centers (#4)

2012-02-29T16:16:00.002-06:00

Here we go again, using an apple-corer gadget as a template!

A few things went "wrong" with the first one, but I don't mind it. More contrast would be better.


At the center: Not-a-Knot (I love that tangle!) Other tangles: Fohbraid, Seljuk, Sanibelle (missed that challenge)

At the center: Hurakán
Other tangles: Black Pearlz, Ogen, Parabola (almost),
Tipple, and stripes with highlights.

Cirquital and Munchin

2012-02-28T00:30:00.000-06:00

A challenging challenge from the Diva this week. That's the point of the exercise, right? Cirquital and Munchin are both tangles with a very triangly look so it was a challenge to get some contrast into the tiles. I've been trying Cirquital recently as it would be an interesting mandala center. I have not been particularly pleased with my efforts, so this was a good opportunity for me to try it some more!

In my first attempt, I inadvertently put in some Tipple/Caviar parts (left edge). When I realized that I filled them all in black! Lots of black turned out to be a good way to get some contrast.

I think this was a left-handed string. Note the giant Munchin
in the upper right, filled with little Munchins!

I rather like my second attempt; it's really different!

This began with a blind string.

Monday tiles (#4)

2012-02-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

I tried a number of tangles that I haven't used in a while. I like Bouclé, but I always find Mooka a bit challenging! Moving Day is probably better in larger quantity.

Tangles: Bouclé, Caviar, Flux, Golven, Hopscotch,
Mooka, Moving Day, Nerfy, Sprix

Next, a blind string, which ran off the edges.

Tangles: Ambler, Black Pearlz, Boomerangs, Rain, Snookums, Tipple

I'm very pleased with this third one. It had some large black areas, which rarely happens with me. I made another tentative foray into using white on black. I wish there were thinner white pens!

Tangles: Baton, Crescent Moon, Emingle, Flez, Phuds, Seljuk

Mardi Gras

2012-02-24T13:58:00.000-06:00

What do I think of when I hear "Mardi Gras"? Beads for sure. Feathers. Costumes and colors. Over-the-top-ness. I didn't know that the Mardi Gras colors were green, purple and gold, but I like that combination so... easy to work with. With color involved I saw an opportunity to try some new Sakura pens I received recently: metallics and glazes. This was a fun change! Here are my efforts for the Diva's challenge this week.

Tangles: Featherfall, Knightsbridge, Pearlz, Tipple

Tangles: Auras, Pearlz, Emingle to some degree, tiny stripes,
harlequin diamonds, and a bit of stippling.

Mandala tiles

2012-02-23T09:18:00.000-06:00

I've been teaching an eight week series of Zentangle classes. Our final projects will be a tangled word or initials, and a tangled mandala.

Last night, as "practice" for the larger mandala, we did two mandalas on Zentangle tiles. Both mandalas begin with a simple pencil string of a large circle and an eight-pointed 'asterisk'.

I went through a few tiles planning what would look nice and was relatively easy. Here are some of my trial tiles, where I was working things out.

I ended up not using Fohbraid, Coaster, Seljuk,
or 'beach balls' in the outer circles.

These are the two mandala designs I finally decided on for the class. In the first one (on the left) people could choose whatever two tangles they wanted for the eight main sections.

Tangles on the left: Crossview, Flux, Perfs, Rain, Tipple
Tangles on the right: Black Pearlz, Not-a-Knot, Ogen, Tortuca, stripes with highlights

It's a school holiday week so one student was out of town, but here are the lovely pieces (one unfinished) done by the other two lovely folks in my class!

Circular tangles as mandala centers (#3)

2012-02-22T09:57:00.001-06:00

Recently I used the tangle Undiala in the center of an apple-corer mandala. I was going to do that again, but then Undiala took over the whole thing!

Tangles: Diamond Drops, Parabola, Seljuk, Xyp,
and Undiala as more of a string.
(Done on Ingres paper with a 05 pen.)

I'm quite pleased with how this next one turned out. I like how four of the 'ribbons' seem to loop over the edge. I used Crossview as a center again because I really like it!

At the center: Crossview (again)
Other tangles: Crescent Moon, Fohbraid
(Done on Ingres paper with a 05 pen.)

Stippling - a tutorial

2012-02-20T00:30:00.000-06:00

Stippling is a delicate drawing technique with lovely results. In this technique the drawing is composed entirely of tiny dots. Some very impressive shading can be accomplished this way.

Drawing by Jayel Aheram on Flickr. Image licensed on Creative Commons.

Christine Farmer does a lot of pen and ink work using stippling. You can see examples of her work here. She says, "Stippling as a technique requires precision, skill, and concentration, and I like the fact that progress is necessarily slow and steady." Sounds rather zen, doesn't it?
Noli Novak frequently does illustrations for the Wall Street Journal employing this technique.

Image from Noli Novak's website

Some superb artwork can be created using only stippling. BUT... it can also be used in small amounts. It's a terrific way to achieve an effect in pen and ink that is other than black, white, or lines. Some time ago I tried a very simple Zentangle tile using only stippling. For the string I overlapped two 8s. There is no pencil shading.

CZT Donna Hornsby's tangle Keenees uses tiny dots... basically stippling. When stippling in Keenees you can go darker into the corners, like this:

I thought it would be interesting to do some Zentangle tiles entirely in stippling. I found it has a sort of misty look. I think I could be a little bolder with areas that could be more black. Both these next tiles were done using a 01 pen, with the exception of Zedbra on the left which was done with a 08 just to see the difference. I used pencil for the shading.

Tangles: Florez, Keenees, Lotus Pods, Tripoli, Zedbra.

Tangles: Dutch Hourglass, Flukes, Flux, Miranda, Paradox

Next, I tried a normally-drawn tile, but did all the shading using stippling. I still much prefer the effect of pencil, but stippling can be a good option for shading should you find yourself with only a pen.

Tangles: Cubine, Golven, Hibred, Pearlz, Unyun and stippling

HOW TO?
Simply use your Sakura Micron (or similar) pen, hold it vertically (not slanted) and with a light touch tap the pen tip on the paper. Many, many, many, many, many times. :-)
More dots in one place gives darker areas. Fewer dots, lighter areas. You can use different sizes of pen for varying effects. If an area is to be quite dark you may want to begin with a larger pen to fill space faster, then switch to a tiny pen for finishing.

There is a little more about stippling from Canadian CZT Geneviève Crabe on tanglepatterns.com here.

Finally, here's a two minute video showing the development of a portrait done entirely in stippling. Prepare to be amazed!

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

Circular tangles as mandala centers (#2)

2012-02-15T09:00:00.000-06:00

Here are more Zentangle-inspired mandalas using an apple corer as a simple mandala template and some of the many circular tangles as centers.

At the center: Undiala
Other tangles: Black Pearlz, Paradox, Striping (sort of)

In the next one I repeated some of the center elements at the outer edge. This can provide more cohesion and unity.

At the center: Daggerly
Other tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, (Munchin), Pearlz, Tipple

Much as I love the tangle Fengle, I'm not sure it was a good choice here. Cubine doesn't look very Cubine-ish at all, and Cirqital is too straight. Oh well, it's all an experiment!

At the center: Cirqital (a bit too straight)
Other tangles: Cubine, Fengle
(Done in sepia on Ingres paper with a 05 pen.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

Four Diamonds

2012-02-13T13:38:00.000-06:00

The Zentangle challenge this week, via the CZT Diva, is from another CZT, Diana Hirsh. You can read about the four diamonds, the challenge, and see the logo here (scroll down). I decided to adapt the logo a bit and did my own take on it.

It made sense to position the tile on the diagonal, and the tangle Facets seemed the perfect one to use! Although I draw it differently than those instructions, the result is the same. I did it in varying sizes, the largest one last. Wish I'd thought of those broken line highlights (sparkles) earlier!

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Facets

Then I tried drawing the four diamonds in pencil and did a random string throughout. It seemed to work to leave the diamonds mainly empty, although I added some unusual shading.

Tangles: Flux and Tipple, plus some dots, lines and stripes.

Monday tiles (#3)

2012-02-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

I'm glad I did Coaster after Shattuck on this one; it struck me that the ribbons of Shattuck could flow through the black areas of Coaster. Turned out rather well!

Tangles: Coaster, N'zeppel (both regular and random), Phuds, Shattuck

Sometimes my string creates a few sections that make a long, thin part. Then I often like to use various zigzag tangles, changing the tangle in each section. This keeps the cohesion given by the string but offers variety in the patterns. The tile below is an example of this; around the outside is all zigzag tangles. A few other variations crept in too!

Tangles: Baton, Knase, Tipple, Tripoli, Zedbra

How to choose what tangles to use?
Be sure to read Linda Farmer's recent post on tanglepatterns.com and LOTS of comments and ideas following.

Circular tangles as mandala centers

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

Recently I commented that many of the circular tangles would make lovely centers in Zentangle-inspired mandalas. I decided to take my own suggestion. I got out my apple corer again to use as a small, simple mandala template. There are many circular tangles and I thought, best to start small. Here are the first ones.

At the center: Crossview
Other tangles: Black Pearlz, Caviar, Prestwood, Tortuca
plus rounding and stripes

At the center: Circfleur
Other tangles: Black Pearlz, Caviar, Circfleur again, Flux, Pearlz

At the center: Striped Snail
Other tangles: Black Pearlz, Caviar, Phuds
(Done on a parchment-y paper.)

CROON tangle instructions

2012-02-07T03:00:00.000-06:00

This idea popped into my head one morning: circles with a crescent moon shape on one side and the non-moon shape filled with something and a black background. Since there is already tangle called Crescent Moon (one of my favorites) I mashed the words together and came up with Croon. It's quite a simple tangle pattern with some careful blacking in.

I think the variation above has a 'seed pod' look about it.
Shading can be added on the inside edge of the non-crescent part.

Here's Croon at work. On both tiles I've added a few tiny white circles amongst the "croons". Makes it a bit more outer spacey. It would be fun to mix Croon and Suzanne McNeill's Moon Rocks (scroll down).

Tangles: Beadlines, Croon, Keenees, Knase,
Not-a-Knot, Paradox, Tipple, Tripoli, Zedbra

In the next tile I used both the original Croon and the variation shown in the drawing instructions.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Croon, Knase, Paradox, Screen, Yale

Monday tiles #2

2012-02-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

Here are some more Zentangle tiles that I find rather interesting.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon, Chebucto, Fohbraid,
Krli-qs, Tripoli maybe sort of, Yincut

I used Sue Clark's Tri-Shape string again - it's fun! - and added some black circles to balance it better.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Dutch Hourglass, Knase, Moving Day,
Munchin, Paradox, Tripoli

Tangles: Afterglo, Black Pearlz, and Pearlz, Gneiss,
a little bit of Jonqal, Oussia, Striping, Y-Not

Fibonacci

2012-02-02T07:30:00.000-06:00

LEONARDO PISANO FIBONACCI
(pronounced FIB-on-AT-chee)
Image from
http://www.gap-system.org/~history/PictDisplay/Fibonacci.html

Leonardo Pisano is better known by his nickname Fibonacci. Hewas born in Italy but educated in North Africa where his father held a diplomatic post. Fibonacci was taught mathematics in Bugia, an Algerianport city. He travelled widely with his father and recognised the enormousadvantages of the mathematical systems used in the countries they visited.

Fibonacciended his travels around the year 1200 and returned to Pisa. There, he wrote a number of texts which played an importantrole in reviving ancient mathematical skills and made significant contributionsof his own. Of his books, some no longer exist, but we still have copies of Liber abaci written in 1202. A mathematical problem in Liber abaci led to the introduction of the Fibonacci numbers and the Fibonacci sequence for which he is best remembered today:

"A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair which from the second month on becomes productive?"

Trying to figure out things like this muddles my brain and neurons go off like holiday fireworks. I generally have to draw pictures with arrows, so I'll take it from the experts that the resulting sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so on. In this sequence each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. It appears in many different areas of mathematics and science. It relates directly to the growth patterns of trees, shells, flowers and animals, the proportions of human bodies and what we perceive as visually appealing or beautiful, and so much more.

You may have noticed that the Zentangle kit contains 34 blank tiles. You can buy tiles alone in packs of 55.

Here is a beautiful video that gives an overall impression, and a bit of hard information, about the Fibonacci numbers and sacred geometry. (Go full screen. It's worth it.)

Totally lefty

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-06:00

Eek! This week's challenge is to do an ENTIRE tile with the non-dominant hand! Lines are a whole lot easier to do than filling in teeny-tiny black areas. I'm trying a few things with the Tri-Shape string so decided to use that for this challenge too.

Tangles: Dansk, Flez, Knase, Not-a-Knot, Pearlz, Phuds, Sanibelle

Monday tiles

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

More Monday morning mangled miles. I mean... tangled tiles.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Caviar, Finery, Flez, Tipple variation

Tangles: Blake, Fengle, Flux, Fohbraid, Phuds, Seljuk

Tangles: Beadlines, Blinkles, Coaster, Finery, Wud
and a 2-pencil string

Zentangle inspired poetry

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit of a limerick fan, so I'll share that first. The author is Janet Nordfors, a member of the Yahoo group "Zentangle Inspired Art".

There was an old woman who tangled.
With Microns and tiles she wrangled.
She blogged and she swapped,
'til one night she dropped.
With her fine strings, she'd been strangled.

Sandy Popa is one of the moderators of the "Zentangle Inspired Art" Yahoo group, and she presented this poem:

Fountainy cylinders of dripping ink,
What patterns will come
Not sure what to think.
A dribble, a swish, then a dot,
Zentangles develop
Without a thought.

And since what's a book without pictures, here's a recent tile shared with me by Jenn, one of my students. Pretty cool!

Moebius

2012-01-24T13:29:00.001-06:00

Diva Laura's zentangle challenge this week is to use the logo of the Moebius Syndrome Foundation as a string. Laura's number two son, Artoo, has this rare neurological disorder.

All those 'ribbons' seemed an ideal chance to try some tangles that fill a 'line' rather than a field. I realize now that I have one of the twists wrong. Both times. Oops.

Tangles: Coaster, Diamond Drop, Gingham,
Knase, Knightsbridge, Meer, Seljuk

Then I thought about leaving the Moebius logo white and filling the background. What better tangle to use than Artoo! with a (L)Aura! Now that it's finished, I wish I'd left the tiny circles off the Moebius logo and just used shading.

Tangles: Artoo, Paradox

YUAN tangle instructions

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

新年快乐
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

I've always like those old Chinese coins with the square hole in the center. The hole helped keep the coins together as they could be strung on a cord or ribbon. When our youngest daughter finished high school and all three daughters had plans, my husband and I went to China for two years to teach English. They don't use coins with holes in them anymore but I bought a small handful of old ones at a street market. The yuán is the unit of currency in China, thus the name of this tangle.

Photo courtesy of
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmiehomeschoolmom
Licensed under Creative Commons.

The Yuán dynasty was founded by Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan, who was the first to unite all China as we now know it. At its peak the dynasty's territory surpassed 12 million square kilometers (4,633,226 square miles for Americans) and ranged from Siberia in the north to the South China Sea, from the Pacific Ocean to the Middle East. Kublai Khan was a ruthless conqueror (weren't they all?) but he was also a great supporter of science, was interested in various religions, commissioned the design of a Mongolian script - until then strictly an oral language - and headed the first government in the world to institute paper currency.

Tangles: Caviar, Festune, Flux, Lotus Pods, Miranda, Prestwood, Yuan

In 1271, at the age of 17, Marco Polo left Italy and travelled overland with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo - who were gem merchants - to the near and far east. Marco stayed in China for 17 years in the employ of Kublai Khan and was one of very few Europeans to witness first-hand that traditional period in China.

Tangles: Caviar, Chebucto, Crescent Moon, Gingham, Lacing, Snookums, Triangle, Yuan

Here's how to draw Yuan. I admit to using a circle template when drawing the instructions, but if you look at the examples you'll notice that the squares and circles can be quite off-center and still have the desired effect! It seems to end up rather larger than I expect it will; just a heads up. If you want to pronounce yuán correctly in Chinese, with the rising tone, say it as if you're asking a question: yuan?

A few of pointers:
- In step one, the spaces between the long rectangles should be about half as long as the rectangles themselves.
- In step two, the small black rectangles on either side of the long rectangle indicate a square. Just keep that in mind.
- In this case, two pictures are worth about forty-eight words.

Tangles: Blake, Lotus Pods, Prestwood, Shattuck, Yuan

Blake is newly named. I used and mentioned Bettie Lake's 'ribbons' in an earlier post (third tile). I contacted her recently to ask if this pattern had a name and, if not, might I suggest "Blake"? It didn't, and she agreed. :-)

So today, also introducing the tangle Blake! Here it is in brown on a bookmark I made recently.

Purple Haze

2012-01-21T09:37:00.000-06:00

The Diva's zentangle challenge this week is to use purple in some way. Scroll down on the Diva's post for this challenge to find out why she chose purple. I decided simply to do a zentangle tile using purple ink instead of black. I jazzed 'em up a bit with a little metallic or glitter ink too. Of course, I used purple pencil to shade.

Here, I added metallic purple with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen. The shading is done with a violet Prismacolor Verithin pencil.

Tangles: Bouclé, Crescent Moon, Earth Rising, Flez, Fohbraid, Lacing, Undine

I began another one with a wash using purple and magenta Derwent water-soluble pencils. I used the purple ink again, as well as a bit of fuchsia ('pink') ink. I felt there was too much of that so I covered some of it with the purple. I added glittery purple with a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen and used the same violet pencil for shading as well as a magenta pencil.

Tangles: Borb, Caviar, Diamond Drops, Featherfall, Flez, Flukes, Flux, Jalousie

DANSK tangle instructions

2012-01-19T03:00:00.000-06:00

While visiting a friend recently I chanced to use the bathroom. While seated I chanced to notice the soap dispenser. By chance, the soap dispenser had a simple and interesting pattern on it. Due to much forethought and good planning I had pen and paper in my purse! I made a return trip to the bathroom to draw the pattern. I looked on the bottom of the soap dispenser, hoping for inspiration for a name. It said simply "Dansk".

I also suggest adding the Auras around the 'drops' equally, until they bump into each other. Here's Dansk at work.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Dansk, Diamond Drops, Paradox, Tipple, Tripoli

Tangles: Amaze, Dansk, Tripoli and my Drupe/Fracas hybrid

No mistakes

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

There are no mistakes in Zentangle. There is no eraser in life. That's why there's no eraser in the kit or at classes. Very interesting things often happen on the paper or canvas when I do something that wasn't what I intended or expected, but I keep going anyway. Deal with it. It's a challenge, an opportunity. Learn. Experiment. Have fun. Be amazed.

I enjoyed this 13 minute video of jazz musician Stefon Harris and his improvisational quartet. For him the bandstand is a sacred space. For me that's the paper or canvas, for a dancer or actor perhaps the rehersal hall or the stage. Stefon talks about there being no mistakes on the bandstand saying, "Every 'mistake' is an opportunity in jazz." Sometimes one member will play something that may seem like a mistake to the audience, but Stefon says that the 'mistake' there is that the other members didn't respond to it; it's an opportunity that was missed.

Many actions are perceived as mistakes only because we don't react to them appropriately. Perhaps it seems like a mistake because we try to ignore it rather than recognizing, accepting and developing in another direction. Eliminate "Gosh darn!" from your vocabulary and replace it with, "Hm, how 'bout that!"

Enjoy the video; plus there's some really interesting music!

Recent Zentangle tiles

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

While the Diva was taking a holiday break from challenging I decided to post some recent tiles on Monday mornings. This may become a somewhat regular thing for me as I often have a few interesting things worth sharing.

In the first, I like how the two sections of Hibred plus the Munchin-y Striping make a strong swoosh on the left.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Earth Rising, Fengle, Hibred,
(Munchin), Striping, Zapateado, Zedbra

A while ago I posted about the occasional Zentangle tiles wanting to look like Something. This one was asking to be a tree, so I took it in that direction.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon, Finery, Fohbraid, Ionic, Opus,
Triral and a hybrid of Hopscotch and Spinners.

In the next one I did a blind string, probably holding the pencil rather loosely.

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Chebucto, Florz, Hibred,
Knase, Munchin, Prestwood, Tipple

Drucas? Frape?

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

The tangles Drupe and Fracas are quite similar, but the curvy parts go in opposite directions. It occurred to me the other day to try combining them, doing one section of Drupe and the next of Fracas. The result is quite charming, lively and bold.

Tangles: Drupe/Fracas, Knase, Shattuck and half a Black Pearl


Tangles: Dancet, Drupe/Fracas, Earth Rising, Jonqal, Meer, Pearlz

Here's a section of a larger piece, done in sepia ink on buff paper. It doesn't have any shading yet. This is actually the first time I tried combining Drupe and Fracas.

Circular tangles

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

I've been trying some circular tangles, specifically Danni O'Brien's Crossview and Joyce Block's Not-a-Knot. There is a similarity, and they both have a Celtic feel; perhaps that's why I think they go well together. I showed one in an earlier post (4th tile).

In the lower right of this tile I tried adding some curves to Not-a-Knot, which I rather like.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Blinkles, Crescent Moon, Not-a-Knot, Prestwood, Tipple

In the next tile I tried that again, adding curves to the outside edge as well as the inner parts. I also tried out Maria Thomas's idea of doing Tipple more regularly, moving from tiny 'bubbles' to gradually larger and larger ones. I really like the effect! Read about it on the Zentangle blog here.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Crossview, Fohbraid, Knase, Not-a-Knot, Tipple

Tangles: Beadlines, Caviar, Crossview, Drupe, Magma, Not-a-Knot,

Tipple, Undiala. I also used a two-pencil string.

There are quite a number of tangles that are large circles. Besides Crossview and Not-a-Knot there's Circfleur, Cirquital, Daggerly, Drupe, Dust Bunny, Fracas, Gneiss, Hurakán, Marasu, Pepper, Striped Snail, and many more. They'd make very interesting middles for zentangle-inspired mandalas, and could even spread out into the mandala. Ooooo, too many ideas!

Undine

2012-01-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

The DivaCZT is back with her challenges, and a new tangle Undine. I realized, when I didn't do this once, that with Undine it's important to have the Xs match up, at least sort of. As I drew the elongated hexagons it reminded me of something I often do with the tangle Xyp, so I tried that.

Tangles: Paradox, Posh, Tipple, Undine

Here are two more tiles and five more variations. There are lots of possibilities with this tangle Undine!

Tangles: Diamond Panes, Flez, Fohbraid, Pearlz, Phuds, Undine

Tangles: Borb, D'Uni, Fohbraid, Knightsbridge, Ogen, Undine

Fengle!

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Recently a new tangle named Fengle was introduced to the CZTs. I've been having fun with it this past while and you'll be seeing it in future posts I'm sure.

Tangles: Fengle, Jonqal, Paradox, Tidings

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Fengle, Knase, Striping, Tipple

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Crossview, Fengle, Knightsbridge,
Not-a-Knot, Posh, Sanibelle, Tripoli

Words, and missed concepts

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

I encountered Zentangle in late 2008. I still don't know what posessed me to attend a CZT training seminar - it seemed a lot of money at the time - but I knew I had to go. It was just the right thinig to do. In May 2010 I was in Whitinsville with 60-some other bug-eyed enthusiasts. It's one of the best things I've ever done.

Between learning about Zentangle and LEARNING ABOUT Zentangle I did a fair amount of drawing, tried to figure out things, copied patterns, searched the internet and so on. Patterns and repeated elements I totally grokked but somehow I just didn't grasp the idea of strings and shading.

I did a series of short words in the summer of 2009, completely missing the idea of pencil strings and shading, but bang on with the pattern thing. In a way, the outlines of the letters serve as strings, but without any mystery. Here are a few of them (still rather cool nonetheless!).

This is supposed to say 'now' but looks rather like 'wow'.
Oh well, I guess "Wow! Now!" is a good attitude!

Dreaming Girl

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

Following our move across town I discovered this small drawing I'd done in university (a lo-o-o-ong time ago). You can see why Zentangle was such an immediate *click* for me!

"Dreaming Girl"
The paper is non-archival and has yellowed over the years.

I used technical pens years ago, and always loved that medium. I rediscovered some of those pens too, following the move. That pattern on the bottom edge is something I used frequently back then and I've done it in some recent zentangle drawings, too. Although we don't use the term "uni" here, I've called the tangle D'Uni. That pattern on the shawl is interesting too!

Recent Zentangle tiles #3

2012-01-02T11:15:00.000-06:00

This is our last Monday without a Zentangle challenge so here are a few more of my recent creations: my Monday offerings while the lovely zentangle challenge Diva is taking a wee break.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Deco Leaf, Fohbraid, Msst, Shattuck

Tangles: Caviar, Chebucto, Coaster, Crossview, Knase, Striping, Unyu

My brother recently bought some tamarind pods at the grocery store. You crack them open and eat the fruit inside, sort of like soft raisins with one large seed in the middle of each. The pods are a medium brown. To those unfamiliar with the fruit (me, my daughters...) they look like dog poop. But the fruit is good! This zentangle had a similar lumpy, bumpy, curvy shape in it.

Tangles: Keeko, Munchin, Paradox, Zedbra

Tangles: Baton, Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon, Flux, Fohbraid,
Knightsbridge "Aura", Punzel and something in development

Strings of fire

2011-12-28T08:09:00.000-06:00

Etsuko Ichikawa uses molten glass to create black and gray lines on white paper. Stand-alone Zentangle strings! You can read and see more about her here.

Recent Zentangle tiles #2

2011-12-26T08:30:00.000-06:00

It's our second Monday of the Diva's family-time break from posing challenges and here, as promised, are some Zentangle tiles I've done recently.

Tangles: Fohbraid, Knase, Posh, Tri-dots, Tripoli, Unyun

Tangles: Bilt, Caviar, Chebucto, Diamond Panes,
Knightsbridge, Msst, Ragz, Tipple

Tangles: Knase, Paradox, Phuds, Rosé with Black Pearlz, Striping, Zedbra

Tangles: Auras, Black Pearlz, Fohbraid, Hibred,
Munchin, Not-a-knot, Pearlz, Unyun

My new favorite tangle(s)

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000-06:00

Have you seen Sandra Strait's Fohbraid?!? It resembles the chain stitch in crochet. It's a lot of fun and very versatile. Cindy Angiel's Sprix, in the first tile, and Joyce Block's Not-a-Knot, in the third tile, are close seconds to my current favorite tangle. Bouclé, also from Sandra Strait: also cool. And Nelumba by Patty Meijer too. All wonderful! What talented and creative people there are out there!

Tangles: Fohbraid, Munchin, Posh, Sprix

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Bouclé, Fohbraid, Nelumba, Striping, Tipple, Tripoli

This tangle looks so much like the chain stitch I wanted to see if I could make it look a little more like that. I found that if I curved the base of the initial triangles, and pulled the outside lines up farther so they fell into line with the curved lines, it accomplished my goal somewhat. I also added a few lines at the center of Cross View to make the strips overlap.

Tangles: Fohbraid, Hibred, Munchin, Not-a-Knot, Pearlz, Unyun

Inchies?

2011-12-21T09:30:00.000-06:00

My family loves board games. Sometimes, when we get a new game, there are cardboard pieces to press out of a sheet. I often find the leftover board with holes in it of more interest than the game pieces!

Years ago I did a painting using one of those boards, a square one with 100 circles in it. I glued the cardboard piece onto the work surface and painted away. I filled the little pressed-out areas with tiny "treasures" (coins, metal charms, tiny images, etc.). I had my framer use the same frame in two colors so that the top of the frame would look like part of the lid of the box.

"Treasure Box" © 2003 Margaret Bremner
24" square; acrylic paint, collage

Recently my husband bought the game Acquire. Here's one of the leftover press-out cardboards.

As it happens, the press-out spaces are an inch square, and the spaces between are 1/4 inch. Three squares plus two spaces equals 3.5 inches. Fits perfectly on a Zentangle tile. (Seriously, is anyone surprised?) So I traced the little squares onto a couple of tiles and got out a pen. Some of those tangles I tried during Art Every Day Month need a little more practice!

I hadn't heard the term "inchie" until several months ago. These aren't separate one inch pieces, but maybe they qualify?

Recent Zentangle tiles

2011-12-19T00:29:00.000-06:00

For the next few weeks there will be no new Zentangle challenge from the Diva on Mondays. She's taking a much-deserved family-time break until January 9. That will be a different sort of challenge for many of us!

I've decided that on those Mondays I'll post a few of my interesting, and relatively recent, Zentangle tiles. Herewith the first installment: two tiles with some spaces left empty and a monotangle.

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Dutch Hourglass, Lilypads,
Lotus Pods, Ogen, Prestwood, Yale, and something
Jane Monk does that I really like!
(I'm considering filling that white 'wing' on the left to make
an egg shape stand out more.)

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Crescent Moon,
Finery, Meer, Shattuck, Tripoli

The tangle here is based on something I saw from Bettie Lake, with
intertwined black and white ribbons and a few little circles/beads/bubbles.
I really like it, but I don't know if it has a name.
The string is Sue Clark's brilliant Tri-Shapes string (circle/square/triangle) idea.
Hard to tell when the tangle doesn't fill the entire space right to the edges!

Snowflakes, or not

2011-12-15T09:00:00.000-06:00

The Zentangle Inspired Art group on Yahoo occasionally issues challenges. A recent one to do snowflakes struck my fancy. The idea is to "draw a circle with arms/spokes coming out. Sort of an asterik with a circle in the center. Use the spokes as your string. Draw your tangles coming off of the string." My first two efforts were very disappointing. In fact, I tore one in half and didn't finish the other! Here are the three that I actually completed.

It has six points, but... umm... not a snowflake.

Tangles: Beadlines, Finery, Krli-qs, Meer

Six points again, but this one was more star-like right from the beginning. I decided it could be a Star of David and I'll wish all my Jewish friends a very happy Chanukah (December 20-28) next week. I like it. But... not a snowflake.

Tangles: Beadlines, Caviar, Hibred, Ixorus, Knase,
Knightsbridge aura, Perds, Seljuk, Tripoli

Third try (if I don't count the first two) lucky! Although the snowflake doesn't show up very well. Apparently this concept needs more tangling effort. Yay!

Tangle: Sampson

IONIC - a new tangle

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

Image from www.souvenirsfromgreece.com

Ionic (or Ionic Border, as it seems to work well that way) is a simple design I came up with quite a while ago. The elements bear a resemblance to the Ionic style capitals of Greek columns, thus the name. I used it in the second tile I posted yesderday for Sue Jacob's challenge Alphabet Soup.

Both sides of this linear pattern are open, which can make it a little tricky to link or blend to a pattern beside it. You get to exercise your creativity! It also can be embellished somewhat, or left simple.

Here are the drawing directions.

Here are three tiles using Ionic. It's interesting how, next to some other tangles, the base line sort of disappears and the tangle looks like a series of curlicues.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Curtain, Ionic Border,
Pinwheels and a variation, Shattuck

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon, Ennies, Ionic Border and
a mystery tangle I saw in one of the Diva's slide shows.

On this last tile I did a blind string, which gave me a very thin strip at one side. I considered ignoring it, then thought "Nope, deal with it." Kinda cool.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Chebucto, Crescent Moon, Jonqal/Striping,
Knightsbridge, Magma, Seljuk, Tipple

Alphabet Soup

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Sue Jacobs, CZT at Sue's Tangle Trips, has proposed a challenge she's calling Alphabet Soup. I welcomed the opportunity to continue the exploration of new or less familiar tangles that I began during Art Every Day Month. I got quite into it and did the entire alphabet on four tiles in one swell foop!

First, A to N.
Tangles in the first tile: Allium, Bitten, Chard, Dancet, Ennies, Featherfall, Golven and Hurakán.
Tangles in the second tile: Ionic, Jalousie, Kuginuki, Lilypads, Moving Day and Networking.

Then O to Z.
Tangles in the third tile: OoF, Parch, Quiltz, Raddox, Sanibelle and Tagh.
Tangles in the fourth tile: Umble, Vega, Wired, Y-not and Zuan Shi. (I skipped X! I like Xyp but it's the only one I know.)

Tomorrow I'll post drawing instructions for Ionic.

I must be crazy!

2011-12-09T11:27:00.001-06:00

Earlier this week I wrote about doing some Zentangle "ensembles" - sets of nine tiles that flow together. The other day I noticed, on my desk, the label from one of the ensemble sets and thought, "There's a tiny, interesting thing to tangle." I got out a 005 pen and went to play. It was fun, but I don't think I'll do it again. A normal zentangle tile is quite small enough! Here's the result.

The paper size here is 3.5" square - a Zentangle 'tile',
so the drawing is about 2.5" square.

Icosahedron?

2011-12-07T12:26:00.000-06:00

You may recognize that word from the Zentangle kit. The kit comes with an icosahedron die and a legend for when you just can't think which tangle to do next.

An icosahedron is a 3-D shape with 20 sides. At the right is a diagram of the most simple version, with flat faces. They can also be truncated (which flattens the points into pentagons) or stellated (which pulls the faces out into points and makes it star-like). The measurements are related to sacred geometry and the Platonic solids. Fascinating! I love these 3D geometric shapes.

I also love second hand stores. At one I bought a book - Cut and Assemble 3-D Star Shapes - made of heavy cardstock. It contains the parts required to cut out and construct three different shapes.

The blue background of the
book cover doesn't help much.

Lovely and fascinating, but no doubt more lovely and more fascinating if tangled first! I started drawing in the book (parental *gasp*).

The book calls all three shapes icosahedra, but the particular one I'm starting with has 12 yellow faces (and 30 blue faces). Looks like a dodecahedron (12 sides) to me.

I scribbled in the book (parental *gasp* #2) : pencil strings over the stars. I'm using black ink on the yellow parts, but the blue is fairly dark so I'm using white there. Here's part of a page I've tangled so far.

I'll post a photo when this piece is tangled, constructed and hanging from the ceiling.

Ensembles

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

Zentangle makes a couple of "Ensemble" sets. These are nine, pre-strung tiles that fit together to make a larger piece of zentangle artwork. One set is mainly straight-ish lines, the other more curvy. Here they are:

The fun in this is to take any tile, do your ink tangles and pencil shading, and put it away. Then take out another tile from the set. Do the same with this one, and on and on, without looking at what you've done before. When you're finished the nine tiles and put them together, you'll find that the string flowing through everything holds it all together beautifully, even though you haven't looked and planned, and the tangle patterns don't match from tile to tile.

The group that recently completed the seventh CZT training decided to to an Ensemble swap, and invited the rest of the CZTs to join in if they wanted. I wanted! I'll send in one of each ensemble, and receive one of each in return, but... the ensembles I receive will be drawn by nine different people! And it will still all fit together beautifully!

Here are the two ensembles I'll be sending off soon. First, the one with straight lines. This one I did in the past week or so and used some of the tangles I've been trying out during November's Art Every Day Month.

Tangles: Amaze, Bales, Caviar, Chebucto, Diamond Panes, Florez, Flux, Flying Geese, Fracas, Gneiss,
Hibred, Hollibaugh, Ixorus, Jonqal, Lotus Pods, Marasu, Marbles, OoF, Opus, Parabola, Paradox,
Parch, Posh, Prestwood, Rain, Rosé, Seljuk, Striping, Tidings, Tipple, Tripoli, Zedbra

Here is the one with curvy lines. Some of the tiles I did about a year ago as a sample for classes. I wanted an unfinished one so students could see both parts of the process. When I look at them closely I can tell what was done earlier and what was done recently. I'm improving!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Cadent, Casella attempt, Caviar, Crescent Moon, Cubine, Daggerly, Finery, Florz,
Hibred, Hopscotch, Knightsbridge, Lacing, Msst, Munchin, N'zeppel, Paradox, Pina, Posh, Rain,
Rosé, Scoodle, Shattuck, Spinners, Striping, Tink, Tipple, Up and Across, Xyp, Yincut

If you're interested in trying these wonderful sets, you can purchase them from Zentangle here, or support a local CZT and see if they have any available. :-)
And if you're wondering about the CZT thing, read this.

First anniversary "draw" tiles

2011-12-02T14:50:00.000-06:00

I thought you might be interested in seeing the lovely Zentangle tiles people sent for the draw I had to celebrate my first anniversary of blogging. With these, plus a few others, I now have about three dozen tiles by a variety of people that I can show off and say, "Yes, you too could create a tiny masterpiece!"

I should say that this is most of what I received. Two or three people sent an extra tile (thanks!), two had color, and one was larger than a tile. All, however, were lovely! Thanks again everyone!

ATTENTION JANICE HINES!!!
I don't have a mailing address for you. E-mail me and I'll send your ZIA on its way.

Biggify

2011-12-01T11:19:00.000-06:00

Go large!

Not paper size or pen size, but tangle size.
The Diva's weekly challenge #50 is to make our tangles really large, but to work on the size of paper we normally do. For me, for these challenges, that's a Zentangle tile. Nine square centimeters. Only. Wth BIG patterns.

Actually, I often like starting with big tangles, although it feels awkward. Oddly, it sometimes seems to give more room for more tangles because you can put a tangle inside another one. For this challenge, though, I decided to try to keep it simple. The idea, after all, is to do things BIG. If I put one tangle inside another some things would end up small. Nonetheless, I couldn't resist adding some smaller detail to the Crescent's Moons in my first tile.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge,
one giant Munchin, Tipple, Zedbra

On the tiles I was doing for Art Every Day Month, I used the classic dots/border/string format. So on my second try for this challenge I did a blind, left-handed string - just for a change!

Tangles: Diamond Panes, Gneiss,
Hollibaugh believe it or not, Posh, Seljuk

AEDM #30 - Out with a Bang

2011-11-30T13:23:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-29T13:57:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-28T14:43:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-27T13:27:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-26T14:30:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-25T12:43:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-24T13:43:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-23T11:11:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-22T10:16:00.001-06:00

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)

2011-11-22T09:37:00.000-06:00

"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

2011-11-21T09:44:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-20T13:09:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-19T14:00:00.000-06:00

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...

2011-11-18T21:20:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-18T13:52:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:34:00.000-06:00

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, on a piece of scrap paper:

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

2011-11-16T10:45:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-15T13:30:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-14T15:26:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-11T14:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-10T09:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-09T13:23:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-07T14:11:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-06T13:35:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-11-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

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: New tangle!

2011-11-04T13:21:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-03T13:30:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-02T14:34:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-01T13:34:00.002-06:00

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.

Punzel

2011-10-28T11:26:00.000-06:00

The tangle Chainging slipped under my radar until the recent posting "Strength, Courage, Hope" on the Zentangle blog. In that post, Maria showed a variation on Chainging which has developed into the new tangle Punzel. You can find step-outs for both tangles here. And that new tangle developed into this week's Zentangle challenge from our lovely Diva. I'm happy to have discoverd both these tangles. Here are my attempts for this week.

Tangles: Assunta, Punzel, Tripoli

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Punzel, Tipple

This weekend I'm off to buy some special Ozzie blend coffee at Leven's in Saskatoon. They're generously sponsoring a fundraiser called I'm Supporting Ozzie to help the Harms family (that's our Diva+3) to attend the 2012 Moebius Syndrome Conference in Philadelphia.
Here's Ozzie with his coffee:

First tiles

2011-10-26T13:58:00.001-06:00

Today I want to share a few people's first ever Zentangle tiles.

Veronica was in one of my classes this summer.
She wasn't quite finished when I took the group
mosaic photo, so I took one of her tile alone. Lovely
shading around the loop and the other side of Tidings.
Tangles: Gingham, Meer, 'Nzeppel, Strircles, Tidings

Fiona lives in another city and ordered a kit. Fiona e-mailed
soon after saying, "I'm in love!" She created this tile
entirely from the DVD and directions in the kit.
Tangles: Flux, Keeko, Msst, Pokeroot, Shattuck and...
Bales and Florz combined! How cool is that?

There are a few things I find interesting about Gertrude's tile.
There's the 3D effect with Knightsbridge and Static. Mostly I love
what she did with Hollibaugh: divided the section into three
subsections. Perhaps she got creative with a too-thick band
of Hollibaugh? In any case, wonderful!

And, while we're on the subject of 'firsts', I just received the first entry for the draw I'm having for my blog's first anniversary! Check out my anniversary post if you want to join in.

Zentangle workshops in Alberta

2011-10-23T21:00:00.000-06:00

RED DEER

In early August I gave a Zentangle workshop in Red Deer AB, a seven hour drive away. The delightful group were members of the Red Deer Lettering Arts Guild, so they were well accustomed to using their fine motor skills!

The host was already a Zentangle fan and had created a golf hat. Some others were familiar with Zentangle and one had already tangled a Muskoka chair!

Two had to leave early so there were only three for the second half. Here are tiles 3 and 4 that they created.


Tangles for tile 3 (top row): Daggerly, Hibred, Hurry, Munchin, Purslane, Yincut Tangles for tile 4 (bottom row): Caviar, Cubine, Gneiss, Paradox, Printemps, Rain They asked about Lacing at the end and some added it.

HIGH RIVER

In mid-October I drove back to the same area and gave a workshop just outside High River, a slightly longer drive away. It was a larger group, many of whom are weavers and/or spinners. Here they are hard at fun on tile number three just after a wonderful pot-luck lunch.

Here's a photo of everyone's the first tile:

Tangles: Hollibaugh, Knightsbridge, Munchin, Tipple

These trips were a great opportunity to get out into the country for a while and I got to see the Rocky Mountains again since I-don't-know-when. I'd forgotten how they often look like a mirage on the horizon.

Prairie

2011-10-20T00:43:00.000-06:00

Where I live the sky is enormous. I love it! I've had occasion to drive to the neighboring province twice recently. More on that soon. At one point the sky was quite stuffed with big, puffy clouds (more than in the photo) and I thought of my tangle Dust Bunny. It inspired me to do a prairie landscape Zentangle tile. Above is a photo of the real thing...

... and here it is, tangled!

Tangles: Caviar, Dust Bunny, Hibred, Sanibelle and stippling

Tangled on the inside

2011-10-19T09:31:00.000-06:00

It can be interesting and fun to use a basic tangle as your string and fill it with other tangles. I tried this with Paradox a year ago. (Seriously?! I can't believe it's been that long!) This week's Zentangle challenge is to do just that.

I'm such a detail junkie that I generally start any tangle quite small, but I really like it when the tangle starts larger and I can stuff more stuff into it! I'm rather pleased with both my efforts.

Here is Tripoli filled with Crescent Moon and Tipple:

Here's a variation on Assunta filled with Yincut and Black Pearls (and droplets) and some dots:

As with any of these challenges, I want to do more! Thanks again Laura!

If you missed my 1st anniversary post, check out the DRAW and maybe send me a tile.

I've been here for a year!

2011-10-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

"Montgolfier" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board; ink & colored pencil
(Montgolfier is French for 'hot air balloon'; having been
developed by the Montgolfier brothers.)
Tangles: Caviar, Chartz, Crescent Moon, Flux,
'Nzeppel, Opus, Paradox, Purslane, Tipple

October 17 is the first anniversary of my blogdom!

Bloggitude? Bloggeration? Blogiciousness? ... well, not boredom. I follow. I have followers. I post and comment and reply. I scan, upload, label, proofread and italicize. It's a whole world I barely knew existed 13 months ago. I launched this adventure following a day-long Zentangle workshop planned by myself and Laura Harms, known to many of us as the Diva. In the past year this blog has had more than 117,000 visits!!!


"High Winds" © 2010 Margaret Bremner 5" x 7" on archival mat board; ink and acrylic wash Tangles: Flux, Krli-q, Msst, Skaylz

It's been quite a delight! I so enjoy and appreciate everyone's comments and compliments. It's inspiring and fun to see what other people are up to via their blogs. It's gratifying to have been inspiring and helpful in return. What a wonderful, supportive bunch you are!

"Behind the Eight Ball" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board; ink and colored pencil
(There's an '8' on the ball, if you look closely.)
Tangles: Bales, Barnacle, Caviar, Coaster, Crescent Moon, D'Uni,
Florz, Gingham, Keeko, Lotus Pods, 'Nzeppel, Paradox, Rain, Shattuck, Unyun

I like the Hobbit custom of giving presents on your own birthday. But I also like getting things. :-) So, I'm going to have a DRAW (pun intended) and give away some of my art. Nothing will be framed - too tricky to mail glass. I will give away 12 pieces, one for each month in blogland, everything you see on today's post.

"Tumble" © 2009 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board; ink and acrylic wash
Tangles: Cadent, Flux, Msst, Munchin, Paradox, Tri-dots

"Dragon" © 2009 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board; ink and acrylic washes
Tangles: Cadent, Chartz, Flux, Hibred, Sez, Shattuck (of sorts), Tipple

What's the catch you ask? Here's what I want in return: I would love to have a collection of zentangle tiles by other people - real, actual, original art, zentangle tiles. If you want to participate, here's what you can do:

Send me one Zentangle tile. A classic zentangle: black ink only on a 9 cm (3.5 inch) square, white or off-white paper tile with pencil shading. No letters or words or objects. Just tangles.
On the back write your name, mailing address and e-mail address. If you have a preference for any of the artwork, write that on the back too. If I DRAW your name I'll do my best to send you what you like, first DRAWn, first gifted.
Only one entry per person.
The deadline for receipt of your tile is November 18, 2011.

"Oasis" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" x 8" on archival mat board; ink, acrylic, colored pencil
Tangles: Cadent, D'Uni, Flukes, Flux, Hibred, Munchin (of sorts),
Pearlz, Wud variation, scales, circles, etc.

"Interconnection" © 2009 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board; ink and acrylic wash
Tangles: Caviar, Chartz, Florz, Flux, Hollibaugh,
Msst, Munchin, Opus, Paradox, Shattuck, Tipple

"Passing Through" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" square on cream archival mat board; ink and colored pencil
Tangles: Flux, Ladybugs on a Vine, Pepper (of sorts), Rain, Snookums, Striping

On November 19, I'll put everyone's names (but not your tiles) in my salad bowl,

close my eyes and start DRAWing.

Send your tile to:

318 Avenue V, North

Saskatoon SK S7L 3E8

Canada

"Paradoxical" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
8" square on archival paper; ink and pencil
Tangles: Betweed, Coaster, Flux, Hibred, Munchin, Paradox,
Wud variation, stripes and circles

untitled © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival paper, ink and colored pencil
Tangles: Beadlines, Caviar, Coaster, Drupe,
Finery, Florz, Parabola, Rain

"Nessie" © 2009 Margaret Bremner
5" x 12" on archival mat board (doesn't look it, but it is white); ink and acrylic wash
Tangles: Chartz, Beelight variation, Flux, Hibred, Munchin, Paradox, Shattuck, Skaylz, Tipple

"A Box of Sunlight" © 2010 Margaret Bremner
6" square on archival mat board, ink and colored pencil
Tangles: Bales, Beadlines, Caviar, Coaster, Lotus Pods,
Perfs, Puf, Shattuck, Tipple, Unyun, Wud variation

Sunflower

2011-10-13T18:17:00.000-06:00

For this weeek's Zentangle challenge (43) it was suggested that we use the logo of South Africa's bone marrow registry, the Sunflower Fund, as a template. They have a special day on October 12. I thought I would get time to try another tile using yellow, but this week's just been too hectic!

Tangles: Finery and Lotus Pods

More 2-pencil strings

2011-10-11T11:22:00.000-06:00

Recently I got out my stuck-together-pencils again and did a few Zentangle tiles with two-pencil strings. You can read other posts on this topic by clicking the "two-pencil string" label in the 'Labels' box down on the left. I find these often end up being more intricate than usual, probably because there are many more sections to work with.


Tangles: Black Pearls, Caviar, Chebucto, Cubine, Finery, Flux, Hibred, Hurry, Msst, Perfs, stripes and dots

Tangles: Caviar, Chartz, Circfleur, Daggerly, Gneiss,
Keenees, Krli-q, Lotus Pods, Sanibelle, Striping

Tangles: Caviar, D'Uni, Hibred, Jonqal, Knase, Prestwood,
Rain, Shattuck, Striping, Xyp, plus auras.

Know any artists age 18-25?

2011-10-07T15:51:00.001-06:00

The Arts and Healing Network is offering awards to young artists!

These awards are designed to encourage young artists who promote the healing of society in some way through their art work.

Nominees must meet the following requirements

Be between 18 to 25 years of age
Have an active internet presence (web site, blog, and/or flickr stream, etc.)
Be doing work that combines creative arts with healing/transformation/social change. The award ranges from $2,500 to $10,000. Winners will also be featured on the web site of the Arts and Healing Network at www.artheals.org .

To nominate a young artist, simply fill out the form online at the following address:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011_AHNAwardNominations

To learn more about the AHN Award, please visit:
http://www.artheals.org/projects/ahn_award.html

ONLINE NOMINATIONS MUST BE MADE BY OCTOBER 25, 2011.
If you have any questions, please contact ahn@artheals.org

Just for a change

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

When I come across an interesting piece of paper I tend to keep it. For something in the future. Sometime. Tidying up the studio the other day I came across a lovely small piece of paper with gold and silver flecks. I cut it down to a 9 cm. square and tangled it.

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Casella, Chebucto,
Flux, Miranda, Paradox, Phuds, Tripo

There are other interesting papers in my drawers, some with designs printed on them. (I have one - and only one - major scrapbook project I began a few years ago and must get back to. Sometime in the future.) I located some of that paper and had a go.

Tangles: Bales, Cadex, Coaster, Kuginuki, Paradox,
Prestwood, Spinners, Tripoli, Zapateado

Tangles: Finery, Knase, Knightsbridge,
Krli-q, Phuds, Striping, Zapateado

Then I pulled out a pale sheet of hand-marbled paper. I love marbled paper. I didn't draw a pencil string, rather let the lines of the marbling show me where to begin or end a tangle. Some bits spread beyond the border.

Tangles: Braze, Caviar, Crescent Moon, Flux, Gewgle,
Hollibaugh, Jonqal, Lotus Pods, Miranda, Paradox, Phuds, Tipple

For the next one I used sepia ink on what is sometimes called 'straw paper'. It's a paper with bits of dried grassy stuff in it and is rather pretty. However, it's also rather flimsy and the grassy stuff was occasionally bumpy.

Tangles: Bateek, Black Pearls, Crescent Moon,
Jonqal, Paradox, Prestwood, Tipple

Zentangle tiles that ended up being Something

2011-10-03T00:34:00.000-06:00

One of the lovely things about Zentangle is that it isn't supposed to BE anything. Even more, it's SUPPOSED to NOT be a something. You don't try to draw a geranium or a cocker spaniel that ends up looking nothing like the picture in your head. Zentangle is simply a lot of beautiful patterns playing harmoniously together. Zentangle-inspired art (ZIA) is another story; it can be Something if you want. Once in a while I've been working on a zentangle tile that leans heavily in the direction of Being Something, and I often let it take me there. Here are a few of them, which really, correctly, are ZIAs.

A LANDSCAPE:

Tangles: Coaster, Dust Bunny, Flux, Mooka, Riverstones, Sanibelle

TWO WOMEN:

Tangles: Aura, Crescent Moon, Flux, Krli-qs, Munchin, Striping

ANOTHER LANDSCAPE, this one less obvious:

I call this tile 'Fuji' because it reminds me of Fujiyama in Japan.
Tangles: Caviar, Florez, Keeko, Lilypads, Screen,
Shattuck, Tidings, Tipple and dots

A FLYING FISH

This was ZIA right from the get-go because I began in color.
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Hibred, Msst, Paradox, Printemps,
Shattuck, Striping, Tidings, Tipple

DuoTangle: Jonqal & Opus

2011-09-29T00:34:00.000-06:00

It's often a good idea to place limits on yourself. It encourages creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that. This week's zentangle challenge is to use only two tangles, and only Jonqal and Opus, two very different tangles. I thought it was going to be weird. Wrong again! Their very diffent-ness makes them work well together. Harmony in diversity and all that.

I just had a very busy three days (one at an art show) and was hardly home at all. I was quite happy to get back in the studio and just draw for a while. I was so pleased with my first effort for this challenge that I really went to town with it. I've done five tiles so far and may do more. Here are three of them.

I didn't put anything else in the stripes or spaces. I thought that would be

using other tangles so I tried Opus in Jonqal's stripes, and Jonqal stripes

in Opus' spaces. Later, looking at examples of Opus I realized that

it would be okay. I remembered that varying the scale can

have interesting effects. I tried it on a full tile.

I looked up Opus on Zentangle (to see about what's in the spaces)

and noticed that the ends are droplet shaped, not the tiny circles

I've been doing. I tried that next. I even did doubles. That shape

has a lovely elegance to it and think I'll do it from now on.

Thanks again Laura! You're always full of good ideas!

PARCH tangle instructions

2011-09-27T11:54:00.000-06:00

Earlier I posted instructions for DIAMOND PANES, a tangle pattern based on a design I found in a Bargello pattern book I got from the library. This is another pattern from the same book. It's a series of two points and one arch. The Bargello name for this one is "Points and Arches' which is how I arrived at PARCH for a name.

I found it helpful to imagine a line across the paper as I was drawing. That helped ensure that the tops or bottoms of the points and arches line up (more or less) and don't get too out of whack as the pattern develops. The stripes can be filled in different ways for variations. Here are two tiles with Parch.

Tangles: Dust Bunny, Finery, Paradox, Parch, Prestwood

Tangles: Florz, Gewgle, Hibred, Parch (x2), Spinners...
and something Jane Monk does that I really like!

Art at Agar's weekend

2011-09-25T22:42:00.000-06:00

I spent Saturday at an art show at Agar's Corner about 30 minutes from my home in Saskatoon. I talked to a lot of people, sold some artwork, sold some Zen Mandalas books, and have several more people interested in Zentangle classes! My new display panels and slipcovers served well. Here are a couple of photos.

A painter, a mobile maker, another painter, and a Shaker box maker.

Me, writing price labels, with a lot of Zentangle-inspired art.
I was near a door and in the 30+ degree heat
the occasional breeze was appreciated.

There wasn't a lot of down time (good!) but still, I had a tile and a pen handy. More than once I overheard, "Oh look, she's doing it now!" :-) Here are the two tiles I completed that afternoon.

Tangles: Assunta, Beelight, Black Pearls, Caviar, Florz,
Flux, Lotus Pods, Miranda, Rain, Striping, Strircles, Yale

I love the little egg that made an appearance in this one!

Tangles: Bales, Caviar, Ogen, Parabola,
Paradox, Prestwood, Rain, Wud

Pinwheels for Peace

2011-09-21T11:11:00.000-06:00

A glorious, sunny, autumn day and a big bowl full of garden tomatoes!
Zentangle weekly challenge number 40!
Pinwheels for Peace on International Peace Day, September 21 - imagine whirled peace!
A new favorite tangle: Gewgle from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book Yoga for Your Brain!
Lovely weather predicted for Saturday's art show, Art at Agar's!
Does it get any better?

Tangles: Beadlines, Beeline, Black Pearls,
Crescent Moon, Gewgle, Ixorus, Ogen, Tipple

Tangles: Chebucto, Combs booboo... no, no... I mean "variation",
Cubine, Finery, Gewgle, Shattuck

All you need is LOVE

2011-09-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

Zentangle weekly challenge 39 involves the possibility of a prize! Laura Harms, a.k.a. The Diva, is offering some pocket pages that are just the right size for storing Zentangle tiles. I bought some a while ago from Crop Stop and they're great if you want to keep your tiles in a binder so they can be easily viewed. Type "zentangle" into their search box and you'll see some other supplies too.

I'm rather enamoured with writing in other scripts, like Sanskrit, Arabic and Chinese. For a few months I've had the idea of using a Chinese character as part of the string. The character for 'heart' (xin) is quite simple and this seemed a good opportunity to try it out. Love could also be lots of hearts, so I did another piece for the challenge. I tried to work a spiral into the mix, but maybe it's a bit too much, and there are probably too many different tangles too.

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Caviar, Florez, Flukes,
Prestwood, Puf, Striping, Tripoli, Zedbra

Tangles: Bateek, Black Pearls, Caviar, Echoism, Finery, Flukes,
Flux, Keenees, Knightsbridge, Lotus Pods, Parabola, Paradox,
Prestwood, Spinners, Striping, Tidings, Tortuca, Triral, Tripoli

Last February I participated in a Valentine themed ATC swap. You can see my contributions here. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. It has so many things that I love: hearts, chocolate, roses, the color red. I used black and red inks on white paper and liked the effect, so I used it again for this challenge. The ATCs all looked so good together that I had the idea to do a series of nine 'heart' tiles that I could frame as a group. I'm in no hurry. I won't use the first nine that I do. Here's one of the good ones thus far.

Tangles: Caviar, Coaster, Lotus Pods, Munchin,
Paradox, Perfs and dots

“Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in theheart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts ofthe sorrowful. In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power thanthe power of love.” Abdu'l-Baha

KRLI-Q tangle instructions

2011-09-14T14:01:00.004-06:00

(It's pronounced "curlicue". Just sayin'.)

This is something I occasionally add as a little extra flourish. I think it's rather elegant and pretty. As I was drawing the instructions it occurred to me to try it in multiple in a section of a Zentangle.

I tried filling a tile section with several of them and I think it worked quite well:

Tangles: Beadlines, Combs variation, Crescent Moon,
Hollibaugh, Krli-q, 'Nzeppel, Ogen, Unyun

Here's what I've done with Krli-qs before now.

This is a very early tile!
Tangles: Chartz (sort of), Flux, Krli-q, Msst, Munchin


"Hundred Petalled Lotus" © 2009 Margaret Bremner Tangles: Chartz, Flux, Krli-q, Munchin, Paradox, Shattuck, Sporz, Tipple

Yard sale tiles

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, while sitting at a yard sale I came up with some new tangles. I posted two of them, Dancet and Yale. This weekend I tangled. Here are three tiles I did while following the shade in the driveway.

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Chartz, Chebucto (with a couple of booboos),
Knightsbridge, Lotus Pods, Striping, Tipple

Tangles: Combs, Crescent Moon, Keenees,
Lotus Pods, Ogen, Spinners, Tipple, Yale

At one point the shadow from a bamboo screen was falling on the little table I was working on. It struck me as an interesting thing to use for a string so I penciled around the shadows. I needed to use tangles that work as lines or borders rather than filling 'fields'. I really like this one, perhaps because it's rather different from my usual string/tile.

Tangles: Black Pearls, Caviar, Chebucto, Coaster,
Knase, Prestwood, Vega, Xyp

With Zentangle, you never need to waste time!

CHEBUCTO tangle instructions

2011-09-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Halifax from the air (Wikipedia)
The Atlantic Ocean is at the top.

In 1749 King George II of England sent ships and settlers across the Atlantic to Chebucto Bay in Nova Scotia, Canada. The name comes from the Mi'kmaq (first nation) Chebooktook or Jipugtug meaning 'big harbour''.

Today it's known as Halifax Harbour.

Chebucto Coffee Halifax, NS, Canada

While visiting our daughter in Halifax
last May we visited a lovely coffee shop on Chebucto Road a few blocks from her home. Of course, it was called Chebucto Coffee.

In that coffee shop there was a pattern on the wall, a pattern that I really liked and quickly sketched, but I couldn't get things to line up properly. I worked on it a bit, then moved on to other things. Recently I took another shot at it and a lightbulb went on!

Here's how to draw Chebucto, in its simplest form.

Here are some tiles with Chebucto. It's nice with a final line (or two) from point to point on either side of the pattern. Doesn't it go nicely beside Diamond Panes?! The second tile shows several of the variations possible.

Tangles: Bateek, Chebucto, Demi, Diamond Panes, Prestwood, Xyp

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearls, Chebucto

YALE tangle instructions

2011-09-06T13:40:00.000-06:00

YArd saLE. Yale. Here's another tangle I designed while sitting in the sun last weekend. I think the pattern looks more interesting on an angle, but it's easier to draw if you do it straight. In step four you can add one or more arcs beside the spirals, whatever gives you the space you want between the spirals.

Here is a tile with Yale. I filled the small central circles thinking it might work well beside Lotus Pods.

Tangles: Dancet, Keenees, Lotus Pods, Paradox, Yale, Zedbra

The next has an earlier version of Yale. One of my 'dream tangleations' of Assunta had two spirals out from a small circle so I was working with that idea initially. The Yale tangle is simpler but the effect is still there.

Tangles: Dancet, Lotus Pods, Unyun, Wud, Yale

DANCET tangle instructions

2011-09-05T14:59:00.001-06:00

This past weekend I had a yard sale. There are a lot of different names for that; we also say garage sale, although neither yards nor garages are sold. Apparently some in California call it a Meet Swap, which I and a friend initially understood to be a Meat Swap and pictured people arriving with lamb chops and sausages and chicken legs saying, "I'll give you four of these for six of those." :P What do you call it?

I awoke Sunday morning, having dreamed of two interesting tangleations of Assunta. (Obsessed? Who? Me?!?) I decided to draw them while sitting in the glorious late summer sun at the sale. Well, as often happens, something that makes perfect sense in a dream makes no sense whatsoever in the light of day. I tried this and tried that and tried other things, but no luck. The lovely dream tangleations weren't going to happen. And they were so pretty!

BUT... I DID come up with a few other very nice new tangles!!!

Cadent is a lovely tangle with a scroll-like look. It lends itself to lots of variations, some of which you can see here. I sometimes like to use two lines rather than one. Although it looks nothing like Cadent when finished, this new tangle reminds me of Cadent the way it begins and it looks somewhat dance-y. I mixed up the letters of Cadent and came up with Dancet. Here's how to draw it.

Here are two tiles. One shows four variations of Dancet and the second uses Dancet with other tangles. More yard sale tangles coming soon!

Tangles: Coaster, Dancet, Finery, Ninja Stars, Prestwood

Coloring contest!

2011-08-31T18:38:00.000-06:00

I always did like coloring! Letraset is having a coloring contest and you could win a set of ProMarkers. Find the mandala template here: http://letrasetblog.com/craft/colouring-challenge-3/
Color it, post it, put your link on their site and cross your fingers! Here's mine.