Project Pack #6: Part 3

Here are more pages from the little journal included with Zentangle's Project Pack 6.
(For Part One, go here; for Part Two go here.)

DAY 8:
Maria shows embedded letters and the word 'love'. I chose to use 'for now', a phrase of some significance to me (see this blog post). I included a 'gem' and used clear Stardust ink on the letters, not part of the video lesson.

AND MOVING ON:
The pages used while following the video lessons are only about a third of the total booklet, so there's lots left to experiment on your own. Here are some of my pages.

Tangles: Huggins with Flux, Knightsbridge, Paisley Boa, Tipple

Tangles: Aquafleur with a bit of Tipple

Tangles: Fengle with Meer, Pearlz, Tamisolo, Tipple, Zonked

Tangles: Marasu with a hint of Aquafleur at the perimeter, Tipple, Auras

L and G wedding

We have three daughters and when they've married I've done letters for the couples as wedding gifts. First, in January 2011, there was C and R. Then, in May 2017, came V and S. Finally, in December 2017 was L and G. As like V&S, L&G each have a tiny 24 carat gold heart on their art.

Greg and Lydia, and Greg's sister Gemma
who came all the way from Australia to help celebrate.

I seem to be slowing down. L and G didn't get their letters until January 2019! Sheesh.

In my Book: back cover, alphabet, gems, and paisley

This is an 'ideas' book of sorts. I've been including past and current artistic interests as well as things I want to try in more detail at some future point.

I'd been ignoring the back cover. It's on the back, after all; who looks there? But it was becoming a bit grubby and I thought I'd better do something. The large zenAgain stamp was there from November 2016 when I received the book, so I tangled around it. There are three circles with metal leaf. The thin "white" stripe beside Knase is a strip of holographic paper. It sparkles rainbow colors at different angles, which goes with the string of rainbow Pearlz, which may be my favorite part of the whole thing!

In the past I've done calligraphy and some lettering, so I did a page honoring that art.

The final two are:
 • an ampersand, E and T, the Latin "et" meaning "and"
• the German SZ (ess-tset, pronounced like an 's')

On another page I'd done a random, gray wash because I like to have something like that to pique my imagination. It turned into paisley and gems. I'd encountered the tangle Ilac and have liked Paisley Boa since I discovered it, so they became the basis for this page.

Tangling letters and words

It's fun to use tangles to fill letters. I often do this as a gift for someone but I also have had monograms for sale at art shows (shown below). During my recent Huge Art Sale I gave some away - along with bookmarks - to people who came.

You can use letter templates or do something freehand.
Here are two varieties of templates. One is die-cut cardboard letters. The other is plastic sheets with the letters cut through. In either case I trace the letter in pencil.

I've used them in advanced Zentangle classes when we tangle a short word or initials. You can see the work of three students here. One is not quite finished.

I did intricate letters for my daughters' weddings.
You can see C and R here.
See V and S here.
L and G are still waiting!

I've done a few new-baby names for friends and relatives. You can see Clara and Sophie on my blog, and here are Asha (lettered freehand) and Hayden (using the letter templates above).

Casa South was commissioned as a gift to a Montessori school upon a student's graduation. They had done some tangling in her classes.

Judy West, on her blog Creative Doodling, shows an interesting way to fancy-up and fill in plain outlines. Read about it here. Many of the patterns she uses are Zentangle tangles.

Joanne Fink does some delightful freehand lettering with zentangle-like patterns. You can watch a video of her demonstrating patterned monograms here.

Give it a try and have some...

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!

Hotel strings

Once you start tangling you notice that patterns are just darn EVERYWHERE! But so, too, are string ideas. I've been noticing that some hotel chain logos have interesting string possibilities.

There's Holiday Inn and it's 'H'.

It gives quite an angular, regular string rather than anything mysterious, but add tangles and you'll hardly recognize it.

Tangles: Festune, Jetties, Keenees, Roxi, Strircles, Tipple

You can also add that shadow under the crossbar.

Tangles: Bunzo, Knightsbridge, Romanancy, and stripes.

Here's the 'R' in the Radisson Hotels' name:

In the first tile, the R is right-side up. In the second, you'll have to tilt your head to the left to see the R.

Tangles: Bilt, Fohbraid, Marasu, Phuds, Snaylz Traylz

Tangles: Coaster, C-scape, Fife, Flux, Starburst, Tipple

The Delta logo is a stylized 'D'. It reaches far to the left so I leave the long extension off to make it more square.

Tilt your head to the right and you can probably see the 'D' string on this tile.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Knase, Pearlz, Tipple, Yuma

In the last tile, you'll need to tilt your head left to see the D, although it's quite well disguised!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Copada, Fracas, Starburst, Tipple, Trio

What logos can you find that offer an interesting string?

MB duotangles

Another duotangle challenge! I quite like these, and this time we are to choose which tangles to use based on our initials. I thought I should use some of my own tangles too, so I used:

M - Morse

B - Boss

That was fun! I was taken with the idea and did another one, this one using:

M - Meer

B - Blake (scroll down)

Unfortunately it looked like a jumble of non-descript shapes, even when I make the background really gray. So I added a bit of color to define the Meer strips. It's a lot better. Both are on white tiles.

Tangled letters by students

Last Wednesday we had our last in a four-class series and did tangled letters. It was around -35 C. and almost everyone made it to the class! Most are not quite finished, but here's what was created in two hours.

It was agreed that shading outside the letters looks better than inside. (You can see this in the 'gd'. The 'g' is going to be changed!)
I have a binder of tangle instructions that I take to classes like this so people can find other tangles they'd like to try. This group found quite a few: Betweed, Bateek, Boss, Riverstones, Lotus Pods, Lilypads, Seljuk and Tripoli.

Students' letters

Last week, in my 8-week series of Zentangle classes, the students created zentangle-illuminated letters or short words. I provided hemp paper and some letter templates to trace around. The hemp is paper light beige with small flecks that don't interfere with drawing with a 01 Micron pen. Then a string was added throughout. Here are the lovely results! Soon I'll share the wonderful mandalas created in our final class.

Zentangle inspired letters

I participated in a one-day exhibition and sale recently. I wanted to have some small, inexpensive items available for sale in addition to the usual larger, framed art.  I have a selection of bookmarks and I decided to use some leftover bits of mat board and art paper to do small illuminated letters. I sold a few, so I'll make more to have on hand for other sales. My first 30 Days of Creativity activity: more letters!

Here are some of them. They're all done in black ink, despite my scanner's trickery.

C & R: the letters and the people

My eldest daughter's wedding was January 8 this year. I did their initials in Zentangle-inspired art and you can read about that project here and see the finished art here.

The wedding was lovely and fun and elegant and hilarious, with peacock feathers and dinosaurs as themes. They went to the Geology building at the university to have photos taken amongst the pterodactyl and the tyrannosaurus rex skeletons. The vegetarian dinner was delicious and they had a gingerbread castle instead of a cake (constructed by Chloë and Robin's sister, with some help). Robin's mum baked 12 of his favorite crumb cakes for dessert. One of the guests remarked that it was the most fun wedding he'd ever attended!

Had to share: here's a photo of my daughter and her new husband, and the letters I did for them.

Chloë and Robin, two of my favorite people.

They're back in Halifax and my husband, Bruce, and I are planning a little holiday at the end of April. We'll visit Chloë and Robin in Halifax for ten days, then on to Bermuda to visit Bruce's sister and her husband for a week. Atlantic here we come! Lookin' forward to that!

C & R project: The finished art

Wedding gift for Chloë and Robin, 2010 January 8.

Ta-da! Here are the finished letters, complete with four tiny gems each. They're done on (buff, I think) Stonehenge paper, which is lovely to work on. I used black, sepia, and rust colored inks, mainly Sakura Micron pens but a Pitt pen for the sepia. To shade, I used Prismacolor's Verithin pencils in three colors, plus a white 'chalk' pencil. The brown sections are a little more orangey than shown here.

Some of the tangles spread beyond the border I had set, which I was hoping would happen, although I didn't expect to go right off the page!

I plan to attach them to darker toned, fabric-covered matboard with some small hematite beads in each corner (thanks to Maria for that idea!) which will keep the glass away from the artwork.

I'm rather pleased with myself!

C & R project moves forward!

You may recall the beginning of this project, more than a  month ago, when I figured out the size and designed the letters.

It seems that going public about my procrastination was just the kick in the pants I needed to 'feel the fear and do it anyway'. After the Procrastination post I got to work.  I went to my desk, got out a pen and one of the letters, and made some marks. That's all it took. I was off!




Here they are with about half of the inking complete:

After I finish with the ink, I'll do the shading, and whatever else seems fitting.
Update soon. So's the wedding!

In case you're curious, here are Chloë (our eldest daughter) and Robin. This is their engagement announcement,  which Chloë designed to be like a movie poster.

She just arrived from Halifax for a visit. And a wedding!

Marvellous micro pencil-tip sculptures

I haven't (yet) used a magnifying glass when creating artwork, although the thought has occured to me on several occasions. Perhaps it's only a matter of time with my love of detail and my middle-aged eyesight. I'm sure if I was doing this kind of thing I'd be into the magnifying glass.




Dalton Ghetti carves tiny sculptures in the tips of lead pencils. Yes. Really, he does. Regular-sized, ordinary pencils.


I had his stubby pencil alphabet as my computer wallpaper for a while. I changed it  because I kept misplacing files amongst the shiny colors.







One of my other favorites is the saw, which uses the lead for the metal part and the wood for the handle part.


See more examples of his very fine motor skills here and here.

C & R special zentangle project: Stage 1

My eldest daughter will be getting married in January. I plan to give them one of my paintings or drawings - their choice. I mentioned this to an acquaintance and she immediately said, "That's nice! But you should give them something especially for them too!"

"Hmmm," I thought, "yes I should." I thought some more.

I've always liked illuminated manuscripts, and perhaps I was further inspired by the beautiful calligraphy and illuminated letters created by Maria Thomas, and the special project of the Zentangle seminar in August 2010. No, sadly I wasn't there :-(

I decided to create old-looking-but-on-closer-inspection-kinda-wild-and-contemporary zentangle-inspired initials, "C" and "R". I considered doing the two letters on one piece of paper but there are more hanging options if done separately.

Stage One was to figure out the size and design the letters. I don't want them too big; they'll fit into 12"x16" frames, which I bought. I also bought a sheet of beige (that's the "old-looking" part) Stonehenge paper. It's lovely to draw on, good for both pen and pencil. I plan to use black and brown inks and probably white highlights.

Here's the very begining of the project, on scrap paper. Updates to follow.