ValenTangle 2020, extras

In my ValenTangle 2020 post I only showed one tile each day. There were a few others...

ValenTangle 2020

For the fifth year Dutch CZT Marguerite Samama presents ValenTangle, a two-week "challenge" incorporating hearts from February 1-14.  She writes,

"For me, ValenTangle has truly become a mid-winter blessing. I believe it is important to actively nurture joy, playfulness and connection. To me it is vital to experience and express gratitude. ValenTangle has little to do with romantic love. I see it as an act of self care."

This is the first year I'm participating and I didn't get every day done, but here's what I managed.

February 1 - Use Marguerite's own new tangle V&A. It makes a lovely border.

February 2 - Use the tangle Trinity from Stephanie Kiefhaber (essentially a triquetra) and incorporate hearts. I used a tan tile that had three orbs in Twink paints.

Tangles: DooDah, Pepperish, Skye, Trinity 

February 3 - Use a heart variation of the tangle Minstrel from Hannah Geddes, a variation of Demi from Geneviève Crabe.

February 4 - Work with triangles in a hexagon.

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Gneiss, Opus, Tipple

 February 5 - Incorporate hearts into the tangle Starsky from Sue Schneider.

Tangles: Pearlz, Starsky, Zonked

February 6 - A mosaic using a geometric string provided by Marguerite.

February 8 - Choose a tangle that's new to you, and incorporate hearts. I chose Moonwaves by Jenna Black. I'd done it one time previously, but it's still new to me. I'm calling this one "love volcano"!

Tangles: Krli-Qs, Moonwaves, Striping (sort of)

February 12 - Use the tangle Kahla from Anna Gabrovec, and incorporate hearts. I found the spacing of this tangle tricky, but I really like its Celtic look.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Kahla, Skye

February 13 - Revisit the string from day 2, but on a larger tile, and with curved/angled lines from the central orb.

A very HAPPY HEARTS DAY to you all!

Two letters for a wedding

Our youngest daughter got married recently in North Carolina. It was held at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden outside Charlotte and everything was lovely! They will live in New York City for a few years; she has her degree to finish and career to start.

Veronica and Shahruz

The newlyweds with parents and siblings and siblings-in-law.

When her oldest sister got married several years ago I created artwork with the couple's initials. You can see that pair of letters here. I decided I wanted to do something similar, this time 'V' and 'S'.

I began two square pieces. I had matching frames that would fit, so that worked nicely.

As I worked on them it felt increasingly not right. Finally, I decided to abandon those and begin again. I saved parts to make bookmarks!

This time I used the eco-dyed paper which has been inspiring me lately. It was a good decision. The work went quickly - I had two weeks left! - and I was quite pleased with them as they progressed.

Each one has a tiny 24-carat gold heart, a bit of the special gilding I had left from the zenAgain event last November. They are float-mounted on mat board with a window-cut mat around that, and a simple, reddish-brown wood frame.

Here's to a long and happy life together!

Somnee?

Things have calmed down slightly and I'm so happy to participate in the weekly challenge again! This week we are trying a tangle designed by the Diva herself. She's thinking of calling it Somnee; I think that's a good name since it was developed during a bout of insomnia. :)

I tried it a few different ways...

First, here's my second try, with a few different backgrounds.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge, Tipple, Somnee?

I've been wanting to try a Renaissance (tan) tile using brown and black, and this seemed like a good opportunity. This new tangle brought to mind Bridgen and Tink (very similar tangles), and also Pendrills. I included them in this tan tile. I used a lot of tools here too: black ink, white ink, brown ink, gray ink, white pencil, brown pencil, gray pencil, and zenstone.

Tangles: Bridgen/Tink hybrid, Pendrills, Somnee?

Then on a black tile, with white pencil and zenstone. There's also some Glaze ink but it doesn't show well here.

Tangles: just Somnee

Finally, here's my first attempt, when I didn't have the step-outs handy. A heart seemed to be appearing in the background, so I let it develop.

Tangles: Beadlines, Pearlz, Tipple, and Somnee?

Valentangle

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Tangles: Aquafleur, Bunzo, Lacing (with eyelet-y borders), Tipple

Wheee! Color!

I've been having fun with some watercolor-y additions to my zentangle art. I use colored pencil for extra shading.

I call this one "Ararat Village" because to me it looks like where Noah's family might have settled after the flood, what with the rainbow colors and all. :)

Tangles: Crezn't, Florz, Flux, Knightsbridge,
N'zeppel, Opus, Sindoo, Tagh, Zedbra
"Ararat Village" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

In "Block Party" I barely used ink on the buildings. I wanted to keep them soft with just wash and pencil. I used hearts instead of half-circles in Ixorus, and also used white ink and gray inks.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Dex, Ixorus, Opus, Tipple
"Block Party" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

I think I may have overworked this one; there's something that's still not satisfying about it.

Tangles: Afterglo, Black Pearlz, Knase, N'zeppel,
Paisley Boa, and a brick pattern
"Arabian Nights" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

At first I thought this might be three rooftops, but it just wasn't saying "roofs" to me. Then I realized it looked vaguely like church windows. Well, that's different! This is another 'leaky pen border' tile.

Tangles: Dex, Diva Dance, Flukes, N'zeppel,
Pearlz, Snail, Tagh, Wud, Zewm, and a brick pattern
"Old Church" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

Hearts showed up again in this tile that began as pen-testing and brush-cleaning paper.

Tangles: Bunzo, Diva Dance, Pearlz, Printemps, Puffle, Tipple, Zedbra
"It Takes All Kinds" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

A Soft Place...

I had a tile sitting on my desk that I used occasionally for cleaning brushes and testing pens. There seemed to be a heart shape developing at the bottom and I decided to tangle the tile. I used the edges of washes for some of the string lines, and pencil-outlined the heart shape. I call it "A Soft Place to Rest My Heart".

Now I need a new cleaning tile but maybe it, too, will develop into something interesting!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Flux, Opus, Paisley Boa, Puffle, Tipple
"A Soft Place to Rest My Heart" (c) 2013 Margaret Bremner

Valentine ATCs

I'm involved in zentangle swap of valentine-themed artist trading cards. It's interesting to work on that small a surface! I used Zentangle's ATCs, some white and some black. I began all of them the same way, with Puffle through the middle doing hearts on one side and puffle lines on the other. Despite its darkness (maybe not very Valentine-y) I really like the black on black card and I'm so glad it shows up well in my scan!

Tangles used:
1. Künstler, Puffle, Bunzo
2. Diva Dance, Puffle, Crescent Moon, Tipple
3. Dansk, Puffle, Spinning
4. Florez, Puffle, Screen
5. Lotus Pods, Puffle, Rosé

All of these cards include special ink of some kind, and numbers 1, 4 and 5 have tiny gems added.

(P.S. - btw, ATC = Artist Trading Card)

Valentine's Day cards

I recently had a small class to make Zentangle-inspired Valentine's Day cards. Two of the participants knew virtually nothing about Zentangle so before the official start time we did a super-quickie introduction.

For the first two hours everyone made two tiles (with me demo'ing) using black and red or pink ink, with heart themes and some valentine-related tangles: Hugs 'n' Kisses, Rosé, Ionic, and Puffle. For the next two hours they chose papers, folded, cut, positioned, glued and constructed their cards. Here are the cards people took home, one tile yet to be mounted.

Here are my two demo pages.

Tangles: Gingham, Hugs 'n' Kisses, Ionic, Knightsbridge,
Tipple, Umble and extra hearts!

Tangles: Gingham, Not-a-Knot variation, Lacing, Puffle, Rosé, Tipple
and stripes with highlights

Support tanglepatterns.com! Get art!

Linda Farmer maintains the popular, helpful and much-visited site www.tanglepatterns.com. There you can find not only tangle patterns, but also string ideas, articles, and more. It takes time, energy and funds to keep the website operating.

It's the second anniversary of the Enthusiastic Artist blog and in celebration I've devised my own plan to support Linda and her efforts. Some time ago I created this ZIA (zentangle inspired art) in brown and sepia on hemp paper. The heart showed up out of nowhere so I just had to call it "I (heart) Zentangle".

WHOOP! WHOOP!  

You can have a copy of this ZIA and support tanglepatterns.com at the same time!

Tangles: Barnacle, Beadlines, Caviar, Chartz, Crescent Moon, Cubine, Flux, Hibred,
Knightsbridge, N'zeppel, Paradox, Pearlz, Pina, Purk, Rain with Aura, Snookums, Tipple, Tri-dots,
Xyp, stripes with highlights, and Rick's Flux variation that some call Purslane.

The original is 9"x12" and the reproductions are 8.5"x11", so the copy is very slightly smaller than the original. The colors are matched as closely as possible. Note that the paper is actually less gray and more beige than the photo above.

I'm asking $25 for the reproduction, plus $2 postage. Postage will vary, of course, but that's sort of average. I also need to cover envelopes, cardboard, reproductions and time. So, I promise that at least $20 from each piece will go to support the tanglepatterns site. I'll see how it goes and if I can send more I will. If you like this piece and love tanglepatterns.com but your current financial situation is crummy, e-mail me and we'll work something out.

HOW CAN YOU GET ONE?
There was a monster growing in my brain for several months. It's name is PayPal. One day, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to tame it no matter how long it took. I had all day if necessary. I think we have lift-off !!!!!!!!! So-o-o...
If you'd like one or more copies of "I (heart) ZENTANGLE" YOU CAN PAY ME USING PAYPAL.
Again I say: Whoop! Whoop!
I really hope it works! This will be the test run. Here goes:

Please e-mail me if there are any problems. My address is in the Contact tab at the top.
If you don't want to use PayPal you can do this:
1. Contact me by e-mail and let me know you want one (or more).
2. I'll tell you my mailing address and you can send a cheque.

Linda has compiled a terrific tangle reference PDF of all the tangles shown on the site. If you make a minimum donation of $12 to tanglepatterns you receive this Pattern Reference chart, for free! I will pass on your name and e-mail address to her so she can send you this reference, unless you ask me not to.

THANKS LINDA! Keep up the great work!

NOTE: THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED

Happy Valentine's Day!

All you need is LOVE

Zentangle weekly challenge 39 involves the possibility of a prize! Laura Harms, a.k.a. The Diva, is offering some pocket pages that are just the right size for storing Zentangle tiles. I bought some a while ago from Crop Stop and they're great if you want to keep your tiles in a binder so they can be easily viewed. Type "zentangle" into their search box and you'll see some other supplies too.

I'm rather enamoured with writing in other scripts, like Sanskrit, Arabic and Chinese. For a few months I've had the idea of using a Chinese character as part of the string. The character for 'heart' (xin) is quite simple and this seemed a good opportunity to try it out. Love could also be lots of hearts, so I did another piece for the challenge. I tried to work a spiral into the mix, but maybe it's a bit too much, and there are probably too many different tangles too.

Tangles: Assunta, Black Pearls, Caviar, Florez, Flukes,
Prestwood, Puf, Striping, Tripoli, Zedbra

Tangles: Bateek, Black Pearls, Caviar, Echoism, Finery, Flukes,
Flux, Keenees, Knightsbridge, Lotus Pods, Parabola, Paradox,
Prestwood, Spinners, Striping, Tidings, Tortuca, Triral, Tripoli

Last February I participated in a Valentine themed ATC swap. You can see my contributions here. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. It has so many things that I love: hearts, chocolate, roses, the color red. I used black and red inks on white paper and liked the effect, so I used it again for this challenge. The ATCs all looked so good together that I had the idea to do a series of nine 'heart' tiles that I could frame as a group. I'm in no hurry. I won't use the first nine that I do. Here's one of the good ones thus far.

Tangles: Caviar, Coaster, Lotus Pods, Munchin,
Paradox, Perfs and dots

“Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in the heart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts of the sorrowful. In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power than the power of love.”  Abdu'l-Baha

HVD2U!

Zentangle-inspired Artist Trading Cards for a Valentine themed swap.

Hearts Challenge

This week's challenge from the Diva (Laura Harms, CZT) is to create a tile with hearts using two previous challenges.

Laura has two little boys. The older is two years old. The younger was a preemie last fall and is now four months out in this world. He's had a lot of troubles and challenges in his short time here, the most recent being a bout of pneumonia. He's in hospital and Laura is staying with him. This week's challenge came with a request for healing energy and thoughts for her tiny trooper.

Here's my contribution.

I used a blind string and Ixorus with heart shapes. The string made an "O" in the middle.
O for Artoo :-)
It looked sort of empty so I added four more hearts for mum, dad, big brother, and baby. Get well soon little guy, and stay that way!