Saturday, July 7, 2012

Play with Paper - zendala dare

Erin at the Bright Owl blog has another interesting mandala template for her dare this week, but it's not the mandala that's the dare. She asks us to find some interesting paper to tangle on using her template. I love paper as much as Erin does and have lots in drawers in my studio. I chose three to use.

First up, a mottled pink and gold origami paper. I used red ink and a bit of brown and white, and red pencil for shading.
Tangles: Florez, Paradox, Phuds

Next I used a piece of scrapbooking paper with a small grid pattern in purple and green. I used that grid pattern as a basis for the tangles.
Tangles: Bales, Beelight, Screen

Finally, my favorite, on handmade marbled paper that I bought on holiday last year. I love marbled paper and it's often so beautiful all by itself that I don't want to add anything to it.
Tangles: Munchin, Tipple, Tripoli

Several months ago I tried using other types of paper. You can see those efforts here.

15 comments:

  1. oh.my.word! these are all beautiful and stunning! when i saw the first one i thought it was going to be my favorite, but each one is better than the last! wow!

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  2. All of them are beautiful! Especially like the last one. It looks like mottled marble - pretty enough to frame. I'd love to have it hanging on my wall. Beautiful work. Now I'm going to go and look at your other works on different kinds of paper.

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  3. I think we were on the same track of choosing different paper. I love the marbled paper. Excellent all.

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  4. Okay - Margaret these are amazing. This might be a silly question, but how did you get the template on the special paper? Carbon paper? It's probably obvious but I can't figure it out. As usual you mandalas are some of the best I've seen. Thanks for sharing.
    Janet

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    1. Hi Janet, no, I don't use carbon paper (although that might be an option). I print the template and then put it behind the paper I want to draw on and hold it tightly against a window and trace it. You might want to use a couple of tiny bits of tape to hold the two papers together while you trace.

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    2. Thanks Margaret, that makes sense. I have a small light table I could use too. I don't know why I didn't think of it. Menopause brain stinks.

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  5. These are all soooo gorgeous! I am most fond of the last one.

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  6. Your tiles are all three absolutely gorgeous!!!

    Annemarie Huijts

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  7. These are all wonderful! I especially love the second one, with the grid pattern. How clever of you to use that as the basis for the tangles.

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  8. Each paper brought more to the challenge. I am excited to see that even though the paper can be busy it doesn't detract from the beautiful zentangle! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. If you decide to try tangling on patterned paper, know that the tangles don't always stand out nicely on their own. You need to think a bit about making the ink drawing prominent (dark?) enough to stand out against the background, especially if it's BESIDE the background. This may affect your choice of tangles. That said, have fun!

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  10. Margaret, all of these are super! I'm not brave enough to try tangling on patterned paper...maybe one day!

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  11. These are all lovely, and normally because of the colors, the third one would be my favorite. However, the first one literally jumps off the page, it's so bold and beautiful. It's the way you chose to color it. I also checked out the other tiles you did previously shown on your link. You have enormous talent, so it doesn't surprise me you already thought of this.

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  12. Wow, these are really beautiful - 'specially the marbled one. I've been using carbon paper to transfer the template, not always successfully, so thanks for the suggestion to trace on a window (though it probably won't work with watercolor paper that I usually use). I love the paper you've used for all of these.

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