Showing posts with label Opus tiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opus tiles. Show all posts

Thursday, March 19, 2020

"Ye Are The Stars" process

I recently purchased a stencil called Alhambra (from Marieke on Etsy) and used it to create "Ye Are the Stars" on an eco-dyed Opus tile.

Here is the paper as it came out of the dye-bath. I intended to retain more of these colors, but that's not what developed.
I didn't want simply a pattern with designs, so I searched to see if there was a 'star moth' or 'star butterfly' I could incorporate. Lo and behold! There's a Pink Star Moth, native to the southeastern coast of North America! I found pictures and did one in colored pencil.
Fairly far into the drawing I decided there were just too many patterns going on; I liked them, but they weren't contributing to the look I wanted. Here are two details:
I didn't like the Ragz on the left or the five different corner sections on the right.
I had to change them. With high quality art paper (like the Tiepolo of Zentangle and Opus tiles), if I'm very careful I can peel off a top layer of the paper and begin almost fresh. I got out my scalpel, tweezers, and bone folder and got back to drawing.
(See further down for "How to peel paper".)

I re-tangled all those sections, opting for Tidings all over, and am much happier with the corners now. There is gold ink in each of the nine 8-pointed stars.


Here is the finished artwork.


HOW TO PEEL PAPER
First, I lightly cut around the edge of the section I want to remove - more like scoring than cutting. I absolutely don't cut all the way through! Then, I loosen a corner or two with the knife point...
... and use tweezers to peel off the top layer. It never goes neatly! I always have to pick off more edges and peel more. But eventually I get it all off, leaving a rather fuzzy section of paper.
Then I use the bone folder to really smooth it down. A thumbnail works well, too.

THE TITLE
"Ye are the stars" comes from this quotation from the Baha'i sacred writings:
"O friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed, neither be neglectful of your high destiny. Suffer not your labors to be wasted through the vain imaginations which certain hearts have devised. Ye are the stars of the heaven of understanding, the breeze that stirreth at the break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon which must depend the very life of all men, the letters inscribed upon His sacred scroll."

Thursday, January 9, 2020

"Winter Garden" process

This time I have a beginning, a middle, and an end photo to show you. Again I'm using the broken scarf hanger as a template for the floral mandala shape on a 10.5" Opus tile.

The beginning: a bit of Inktense for some washes of color.
The middle:
The end: there are "liquid pearls" scattered throughout, which gives the sparkly impression of falling snow. I also used a bit of metallic, glossy, and stardust inks, none of which shows in this photo!

Thursday, November 14, 2019

"Autumn Garden" process

Repurposing, sort of.
I had a scarf hanger but the hanger part broke off. I liked the shapes of it and decided to use it as a template. It fit on an Opus tile!
The scarf hanger on the back of an Opus tile, 10.5" square.
I used Inktense and Aquatone pencils to do washes in the various sections:

Then I began the tangling in ink.

Ink drawing completed, copper metallic ink in a few places, colored pencil added, a lot of fine tuning, and it's done.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

W2 and then some

W2 (for Warp and Weft) is a fairly simple pattern, and depends a little on the initial spacing. Step-outs are on tanglepatterns.com here.

In early November I had the great pleasure of attending OgunquiTangle, a small, semi-annual Zentangle retreat organized by Jenny Perruzzi. There I shared much of what will comprise this post. Here's the group of us in a pumpkin patch. :)
We used an Opus tile and did a sampler of variations of W2, starting with a large W2 overall and filling each section with smaller samples. Each section is about the size of a classic Zentangle tile, so easy to do freehand.

Below is my Opus tile. In the upper left you can see a basic W2 with thin borders added. These borders keep the smaller black squares separated from the larger black squares. The empty section is for people to try their own idea.
The easiest and most basic variation, of course, is to vary the size of the initial squares and, consequently, the bands (the warp and weft). We used both of these possibilities on our Opus tile.

AND THEN SOME...

Add thin black ribbons (upper right section).
1)  Start with small black squares and wide bands.
2)  Imagine where one band runs under another (upper left, green dots).
3)  Draw a black line, about 1/3 of the width of the ribbon (lower left, green lines).
4)  Do this on all the bands (red).
5)  Then draw a thin ribbon from one 'slit' to another, going over the initial band (red horizontal and black vertical).

Add rounded forms.
W2 is an angular tangle, so rounded forms add interest. I've used Black Pearlz and Beadlines (middle right section). In the image below you can also see Knightsbridge in one of the small perimeter sections.
1)  Start with small black squares and wide bands.
2)  Draw a circle in the squares, and a Black Pearl in the circle.
3)  Draw Beadlines along the middle of the bands.


Add center band.
A simple, thin pattern leaves the bands clearly visible.

Add diagonals.
W2 is very right-angled, so diagonals add interest. Here it is with the tangle Zonked (center section). You could do Zonked regularly like I did, or randomly. Begin with large squares and thin bands.

Fill the large squares with a square-grid-based tangle.
We used Stoic (lower left), but other possibilities are Cubine, Dex, Buttercup, Demi, etc..

Use a fragment you like.
Those tangles are composed of repeatable fragments, so in another section everyone chose a fragment they liked and filled the large squares with that (top middle). I used what I now call the Lisbon fragment, first dividing each large square into quarters.

A cut-through look (lower center).
Above you'll see Meer going one direction and simple polka dots going the other. Below is an example with Meer going both directions.
1)  Start with small black squares and wide bands.
2)  Draw a diagonal square in the center of each band, and Aura it.
3)  Fill the bands with Meer, showing the pattern 'underneath' through the square cut-through.

Use a border tangle with non-straight sides (lower right).
My example above shows Prestwood, but you could also use Noom, Ing, MySwing, Paisley Boa, Cruze, and many others.
1)  Start with small squares and wide bands.
2)  Draw the W2 pattern all in pencil.
3)  Lightly fill the squares in pencil, just to help stay organized.
4)  In heavier pencil, note where the bands go over and under. Even erase the lines you don't want.
5)  Draw your chosen tangle in the bands.
6)  Fill the no-longer-squares with black.
An Aura may help separate the pattern bands. Here is an example using Noom, with an Aura.
What to do with those little bits leftover at the edges? You could fill some with Knightsbridge (square on, or diagonal), or continued parts of the tangle from the connecting band, or use whatever you feel would be appropriate.

A HELPFUL TOOL: Jenny Peruzzi has designed a stencil with the 16 initial, larger squares placed appropriately. If you'd like to purchase one check out her Etsy shop here.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

"Turkish Tiles" process

Sometimes you just have to take a chance.

I had great expectations for this Opus tile, but I just didn't like it once it was finished.
But darn it all! I'd put a lot of time and work into it! No way I was going to just throw it out, and I already have too many ATCs to trade. Surely I could do something with it.

I'd had the idea of Turkish and Iranian mosques, with their columns and stripes and geometric patterns, but the parts hadn't come together as I had hoped. I realized that I needed a different vision for it, and decided that maybe it needed to become less cluttered by mixing it up a bit more.

I trimmed a quarter inch off all sides, leaving me with a 10" square, easily divided into 25 two inch squares. Here are all the "twinchies":

I painted a 12" canvas white and then decided how I would arrange the little squares. There were a few with doorways and I decided to place those along the bottom. The sides of the canvas were then painted mottled turquoise and blues, which turned out really nicely.
"Turkish Tiles" (c) 2016 Margaret Bremner
12" square; pen-and-ink, colored pencil, acrylic paint
I didn't like the tiny difference of level between the canvas and the paper, and I thought it should be glossy because of the "tiles" idea. I used a self-levelling epoxy varnish and it now looks as if there's a sheet of glass on top! I painted gloss varnish on the sides to tie them in with the glossy surface.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Opus 'quilt'

This is my most recent Opus tile, 10.5 inches square and the same lovely Tiepolo paper as the original zentangle tiles. This had some gray wash from a previous project and I wasn't sure what to do with it, but the wash went nicely in two directions so I began by tracing squares all over. The square template is a left over board from game pieces.

For some reason I seemed to be doing a different tangle is each little section and it became a bit of a tangle sampler. However, there is some repetition! I added a few dashed lines to simulate stitchery.
Tangles: oh, so many!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

New 'Opus' tiles

An opus is a great work, a major effort, a work on a grand scale. To accomodate the growing interest in ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Artwork) and many people's desire to try doing Zentangle on a larger scale, the nice folks at Zentangle have produced a tile on a grand scale: 10.5 inches square!

I have a few and have been enjoying using them. I began with something relatively simple, and comfortable for me, a mandala in black and white. This is one of my first uses of Zinger.
Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon, Fasset, Fengle,
Florz, Krli-Qs, Tipple, Zewm, Zinger
Then, I just had to try color and at the time was quite enamoured with Aquafleur. One thing I love about the Tiepolo paper is that I can wet it, and add washes as much as I want, and it still dries almost completely FLAT! What a delight. This piece had acrylic washes before I tangled it.
Tangles: Aquafleur, Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Krli-Qs, Nipa, Tipple, Wud
I've just finished a taichi (yin yang) symbol. It's based on a single nautilus shell line drawing from Ben Kwok's Facebook group 'Ornation Creation'. I copied the template facing each other, and made some little adjustments to fit them into a circle.
Tangles: oh, so many!
Of course, I have lots of ideas for more!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MANY MOONS - a new tangle!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Diva Dance, Many Moons, Tipple,
Voga and a Black Pearl(z)
I first showed this pattern in the 'Moons zendala' post as an unnamed tangle. It makes a nice border, or could be done in a series of strips with thin white stripes between.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Florz, Knase, Many Moons,
Spinners and a Paradox variation.

 Here are the drawing instructions for Many Moons.
 OR, use black and stripes in the background and stripes in some moons!


BTW: It's getting harder and harder to keep track of tangles and names. If this pattern has been presented elsewhere, or if the name has been used earlier, please let me know!