Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Gems ATC swap

You may have seen some beautiful, colorful gems making the rounds on various Facebook zentangle sites. They're gorgeous, fun, and somewhat addicting!

So many of the zentangle patterns are a delightful way to present and surround these vibrantly colored jewels. Lisa Fedele, another CZT, has organized an artist trading card swap of gems plus zentangle.

Here are my six cards for swapping, plus an extra - in thanks - for the intrepid organizer.

I'm quite pleased with the turquoise in the middle card, and less happy with my attempt to add a fossilized fly to the amber in the top one!

The color is achieved with water-soluable pencils, color pencils, and white ink. In some of the small pearl areas I used "Liquid Pearls" - a fun addition. I also glazed all the black backgrounds so they shine a bit.

Interested in trying this yourself? Kae Yoshino seems to have originated this craze. You can read her tutorial about creating these gems here. Eni Oken, another talented artist also has a gem tutorial here. Have fun! And don't say I didn't warn you! ;)

20 comments:

  1. All beautiful! Before I even read what you wrote, I looked at that turquoise one and thought, that can't be drawn...it must be real! Amazing!

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  2. Oh Margaret! It should come as no surprise that you have taken the gem craze up a notch. That turquoise looks SO real - it is stunning!
    Thanks for sharing these treasures before they make their way to their new homes =)

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    1. Thanks Carol. Looking forward to receiving my six in return!

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  3. Wow! I've been staring at a lot of gems these past few weeks... These are spectacular!

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  4. Inspiring as always! I love the upper amber gem! I agree with Caren that the turquoise gem is Amazing! Would you explain your use of "Liquid Pearls" just a bit more. Thank you for sharing and inspiring us!

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    1. Liquid pearls in as a product I bought, almost by accident once, online! It's a small bottle with a very thin nozzle and a thick substance inside that has a pearly sheen and low relief when dry.

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  5. Yep, they're gorgeous - that turquoise is particularly awesome.What brand of water soluble pencils do you use please? I only have the remnants of one of the kids old sets - time to upgrade I think.

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    1. I have both Aquatone and Inktense pencils. I don't use any of the colors that are not lightfast, so I choose between the two types of pencil.

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  6. These are the best Zengems I've seen...but no surprises there. All your work is phenomenal, Margaret.

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    1. Thanks Ann. There are still things I feel I haven't quite grasped about how to do these. But I'll keep working on them!

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  7. These are just beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing these and the tutorials as well. I'm going to have to give it a try! And that turquoise stone is fantastic!

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  8. These are fabulous Margaret. They are fun to do and yes very addictive.

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  9. Exquisite jewels Margaret, you have a treasure chest of glamourous ATCs!!

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  10. WOW....These are amazing Margareth!
    The gems are perfect, but also the borders (jewels) around them are so creative and beautiful. The black background make the jewels shine even more. You are a great inspiration, Thanks for sharing these.

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  11. Wow! Beautiful! Love the Amber stone, that is the type of shape I have not yet achieved, Love it! The Turquoise, ah, make into earrings? :) I'm in Winnipeg, very tempted to try someday to make it out to you and take a class/es with you, wish I was even closer. Maybe I missed it, but do you have your technique for doing gems on your site? Hope so! Especially the two I mentioned. Thank you Margaret!

    Lesia...

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    1. Hi Lesia. I haven't posted any gem instructions. There seem already to be a few good how-to pages posted by others. Do you know there is a CZT in Winnipeg? Her name is Carol Graham and I believe she offers classes.

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  12. These are just stunning! Looks like you could just pick them up and wear them! Thank you so much for sharing them!

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