Mistakes? Methinks not.

We do make mistakes. But that doesn't mean we have to abandon the entire project. There's almost no mistake that you can't do something with, and maybe even make it better.
This concept is a 180 degree turn from my attitude 35 years ago in University. If I did something I hadn't intended I'd often scrap the thing and start over. An important message brought to me by Zentangle!

First, here are two"mistakes" that my students have made.
Once in a while, learning the tangle Florz, someone puts the little black squares in line with the square grid rather than doing little diamonds at the intersections.

It's a rather interesting variation. And as proof that it's really not a mistake, here's a floor I saw in a historic building.

When drawing Crescent Moon, occasionally someone will think the Aura lines go all the way down to the base line all the time rather than keeping the Aura happening, with space between each row of lines. It's an interesting, tunnel-like variation.

Seven ways to deal with something displeasing.

1. Shade.
Besides adding wonderful dimensionality to your art, shading is a great way to hide or disguise something that's a bit disappointing. Go to the dark side with your pencil.

2. Overlay with a tangle that is mostly black.
Of course you'll think immediately of Bronx Cheer, usually done in raspberry form, but demonstrated here as a border pattern.
Or try Punch from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book Totally Tangled. Simply draw some circles around parts you do like (or do a regular pattern of circles) and fill the rest of the area with black. I used a variation in the darkest section of the tile below, where I'd done something I just didn't like. Maybe try squares or triangles. If there's a LOT of black, refer ahead to idea #6.

Tangles: Keenees, O-Bob, Punch, Tipple, Tripoli,
stripes with highlights

3. Try the Tranzending technique.
You can watch Rick and Maria demonstrate it here. It will still leave a lot of what you already drew showing, but perhaps you can draw a heavy line over your "mistake" - and add some heavy shading. ;)

Tangles: pinched Assunta, Black Pearlz, Yincut
overlaid with Echoism

4. Do it again, and again...
Made a little booboo? Do it again a few more times and it will look as if you intended it as a cool "Oooh, look at that!" kind of thing.

5. Accept it. Be creative. Deal with it.
Accept what happened, see it as an opportunity to be creative, and make something of it.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

In the tile below, the tangle Chebucto went haywire at the left end. I'd put some lines on the wrong side of the black squares. But it's interesting how the tangle interlocks at one end and flies off in ribbons at the other. If I hadn't told you, you probably would have thought I intended it. :)

Tangles: Chebucto, Drupe and Fracas,
and one whose name I forget!

6. Cover it. Then maybe tangle on top of it.
Use black. In the tile below I didn't like the pink sections; they seemed to take away from the yellow/orange. I blacked over them, then used a white pen to draw spirals. Other details completed it.

Before and after covering, and tangling over.
Tangles: Doodah, Pearlz, Stella, Within, and the sparkle enhancement

Or try another opaque ink. Sakura's Metallic ink pens cover well. Here are before and after pictures where I felt the dark blue Diva Dance (top left) was the wrong color, so I used silver and blue metallic ink to cover it, and added more for balance. (Now I'm not sure which one I prefer!)

Before and after covering with silver and blue metallic ink.

7. Channel your disappointment and carefully chop it to bits.
If I've been working on something that has its good points, but I'm generally not happy with where it's going, I cut it up and make bookmarks or ATCs. I also save bits for future collage.
Here are four bookmarks made from very different beginnings.

And four ATCs.

No mistakes, right? Only opportunities to have fun and be creative.
Here's wishing you a year of creative 'mistake' making!

Bookmarks galore! (Part four)

Finally, the last batch of the 334 bookmarks I made as gifts for the zenAgain event in November 2016. This was a lot of fun, although I was mostly making bookmarks for two or three months!

A-a-a-nd th-th-that's all folks!

Bookmarks galore! (Part three)

Previously I showed the first third of the 334 bookmarks I made as gifts to the zenAgain attendees and zentangle staff. Here is the next batch.

 The final third is coming soon!

Bookmarks galore! (Part two)

Here is the first third of the 334 bookmarks I made as gifts for the zenAgain event. Even this may be overload! I took photos as they were completed, in groups of 32 because that's what fit on the surface I used for the photography.

The rest are coming later!
The first post about these bookmarks, where I show some of the varieties, can be found here.

Bookmarks galore! (Part one)

Some years ago Rick and Maria put on a Zentangle event called a 'Master Class'. I wasn't able to go. But I decided that if they ever planned something similar I really had to try to attend. ZenAgain happened this November!

Shortly after the event was announced a crazy scheme occurred to me. I wanted to take something, something personal, a little gift, to each of the attendees and the Zentangle staff.

Bookmarks! I often make bookmarks out of bits of nice leftover paper or artwork that I've decided isn't going anywhere happy. Each one would be a unique piece, an original artwork. I had perhaps a dozen already, and wondered how many I'd need in total. I asked. My jaw dropped. I picked it up and said to myself, "I have time. I can do that!"

Oh, yes. Probably around 300. I got to work.

Among the final collection is a number of monotangle bookmarks including Crusade, Ginili, Knightsbridge, Lamar, Umble, Skye, Schway, and Zenith.

This was a perfect opportunity to slice up some almost finished - or even finished - artwork that was sitting in a drawer wondering how to make itself useful. I had quite a few pieces like that. One was a mandala on 16" mat board. I peeled off most of the backing to make them thin enough. Here it is, reassembled after becoming bookmarks. In most cases I added details to what was already there; everything outside the large ring of small triangles was added after being cut into bookmark strips. There were a few blank beige ones left that I haven't included here.

There are some that are rather unusual. One has funky chess pieces. Several have house parts: windows, roofs, and doors. Several have holographic strips. One has a rainbow ribbon. Some have washi tape. One is iris flowers and one has zentangle tiles in the background. Two have some handwriting. A few are parts of a landscape. Others (not shown) have decorative holes or unevenly trimmed edges.

I took photos in groups as they got laminated and finished. The final tally is 334 bookmarks. In future posts I'll show you all of them.

Tripoli

I love the tangle Tripoli. I think it's because this tangle is almost more of a way to set up a triangle grid rather than a strict pattern per se. Within the grid you can fill the triangles with all manner of different things for totally different looks.

Here is some of my play with Tripoli.

For the first tile I used Zentangle's basic 'triangle' string. (It's sideways now.)

I had a tile with an 'R' string so I used that next. (It's upside down now.)

Then I pulled out a bookmark-in-waiting with some old art on it. Nice colors, and the original art had a bit of a square grid so that was a little challenge.

As always, thanks Laura the Diva CZT!

Bookmarks

I've been making more bookmarks. It's a great way to use the strips left over when I cut a square from a pad of art paper. It's also a good way to get a little more life out of pens that aren't doing so well on the softer paper of tiles. They're all one-of-a-kind and I laminate them for safe-keeping.

I expect to have enough to be able to contribute one to each gift bag at We Love 2 Tangle on March 21 in Calgary AB (Canada), so if you're planning to come I'll have a little gift for you! And we can say "Hi" in person. :D

More Schway

It turns out I was rather captivated by this tangle. I originally wasn't sure whether I'd really like it or not. I felt I wanted there to be more to it and wondered about putting dark tangles in the dark arrows. I pulled out two bookmark starts and Schway'd them.

Tangles, besides Schway: Black Pearlz, Bunzo, Camelia, Drobbles,
Knightsbridge, stripes with highlights, etc..

I do a lot of wonky houses and buildings and it struck me how the squat-er arrow shapes resembled simple house shapes. I tried that idea on a regular size tile.

Tangles, besides Schway: Black Pearlz, Bunzo, Drobbles,
Flux, Knightsbridge, Paizel, etc..

YUAN tangle instructions

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.