Still spinning

I did the spiral using a brush pen, then cleaned up the lines a bit.
I'm glad I realized that the spiral would be best left alone and didn't add
any tangles to it, just the area around it.

Spirals have taken over my brain. I'm still doing zentangle tiles for the Diva's 26th weekly challenge. You can see my first efforts here. I realized that there are a few things I want to accomplish with this spirals pursuit.

Here's a monotangle tile. I used only one tangle, Shattuck.

First, doing a series of anything is a good thing. You can do one piece on a subject and think you've covered it. Doing a series opens up a lot of possibilities, insights and learning. Series are pretty standard art school practice, one I didn't learn much about until after art school, but that's another story.

Having done quite a few spiral tiles so far I've tried one, two, four and five spirals together. (Hm, what happened to three?!)

I've investigated bold vs. delicate tangles and how they work together. Of course, side by side they make a better division than two bold or two delicate patterns, although shading can always help clarify divisions.


I've tried strings with my non-dominant hand, with my eyes shut, and with two connected pencils. I've done tiles with a single tangle pattern, tiles with lots of black and tiles with lots of white.

There have been bold results and delicate results. It's been quite interesting!

I tried a couple of square spirals and the pencil strings were very interesting, but they don't quite have the spiral effect I'm looking for.

Second, I certainly know that not everything I produce is really good, let alone excellent. I'm curious to know: what percentage of the work I produce do I consider to be rather terrific? What fraction of my output am I really, truly pleased with and proud of and should really be offered for sale?

I rediscovered an embossing template I'd bought a while ago for... something.
I used those spirals for the string, and Tidings and Tipple for the tangles.

Third, I've had an idea to present nine tiles on a theme as a single framed work, sort of like an ensemble except that the tiles don't flow into one another. I'd like to end up with nine spiral tiles that I'm really pleased with and frame them together. Then maybe I'll try that idea with other themes.

This one began with a blind string.
Tangles: Coaster, Parabola, Unyun, Wud