Five more Book pages

My Book only has perhaps a dozen pages left in it. I haven't been in a hurry to fill it, wanting it to add something new only when I felt inspired. These are the most recent additions.

I was rather taken with two tangles, Salt (the hexagons) from Franciose Lip and Amazing Spider (in the background) from Hennie Brouwer. 

Two of the recent project packs from Zentangle had flower-like results, which I enjoyed reproducing in my Book.

I was charmed by Cherryl Moote's tangle Morrisseau. Some of the elements here are collaged, some are drawn on the page.

I've occasionally worked with found text, so I did that on one page. I tore two pages from the same book and glued them into my larger book, then hunted and tangled.

I've been loving the stains left by my husband's hibiscus tea bags: pinks, purples, blues, grays, browns, ochres... Unfortunately, the paper in this book is not as friendly towards them as is the Tiepolo paper of the Zentangle tiles. This page ended up with only grays, and rather wrinkly. I also tried using some stencils with the teabags.

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For previous Book pages, check these posts:

1. How it began
2. Next steps
3. Inserting an eco-dyed paper
4. Back cover, an alphabet, gems and paisley
5. Hexagons
6. Celtic-style tangles, and W2
7. Frontispiece and photos of my grandmother
8. Space junk
9. A sunflower, and the flower of life
10. Knightsbridge and magic squares
11. More space junk
12. For now - A phrase I hated, now dear to my heart
13. Mongolian roofs
14. Cubine and Fassett
15. Nautilus
16. Notanical - combining Notan and botanical imagery
17. An 'oops' page
18. Inspired by Project Pack 7
19. Four more pages: twisted striping, and borders
20. Three more pages: leaves, tea, and spirals
21. A month of joy
22. A few more pages in my marvelous book: a dragon, neurographic drawing, and BrixBox/Cantire

Cubine and Fassett: peeking through

Cubine and Fassett are two tangles that appear to offer a hole, passage, or window.

• Cubine is an 'official' tangle, from Zentangle. Step-outs are here.
• Fassett is a tangle form Lynn Mead, CZT. Step-outs are here.

Each of these got a page in my Book.

I began this page with a large Chebucto across the page, then continued with Cubine elsewhere.

Originally I had thought to do some triangle-based tangles in some sections,
but I realized that it would detract from the effect of the tangle.

These 'holes' offer an opportunity to peek through at something on the other side. The windows need to be large enough to house another tangle (or whatever).

Here's a simple example of Cubine, looking at stars. I've given each square a two-sided 'front'; I think this gives the squares a little more substance.

Here's an example using a variety of shapes (suggested by my string) and sort-of-Hollibaugh through the holes.

And here's a tile I just finished with overlapping Cubine, and Morse running through and behind.

Not a journal or sketchbook

In a previous post I shared the beginnings of a book I had begun working in. I don't do journaling and I don't keep a sketchbook, but I had a lovely book waiting patiently on the shelf! Here's what's happened in it since that beginning.

At the beginning of the book I'd replaced a page with pale green vellum. On the next page I drew some tangled houses and they can be seen through the vellum.

I had done a string pull which left me with two pages to embellish. Here's the second. There's metal leaf in the partial circle at the left edge but it doesn't show very well.

The paint from the string pulling deposited a bit of paint on the edges of the next few pages. I cut the paint off by scalloping the edges with some fancy-cutting scissors and added some embellishment with metallic and sparkle pens.

I've been interested in tessellations lately and wanted to try something with trees. Unfortunately, my first effort looked more like a simple repeating pattern, but it was in the book so I just kept going. I'm not unhappy with the result, but it's not really a tessellation. I cut out a piece of hand-marbled paper for the tree on the right and added dots of metallic ink.

I had to try another tessellation on another page and decided to use a shape I've really enjoyed using in a few other projects. As you can see, this is on one of the scalloped edge pages.)

This book seems to be becoming a project unto itself. I've already begun a few other pages. More later.

Tangle-a-Day calendar - tools and more pages

No, don't worry, I'm not going to post every calendar page this year! But I do want to tell you a bit about what tools I'm using, and some plans, and show some recent pages. Like this one:

Hollyhock is from CZT Jason Lau. 
Chebucto and Skye are from yours truly.

What I've been using, mainly, for the tangling is three sizes of Tombow's Mono pens. They are really nice to draw with and I've used them for a few other things. This is an ideal type of project because these pens are not lightfast. I'll also use Sakura's microns and I have a Sharpie pen (fine tip) that I want to try.

I wanted to add color to some random pages to give me a surprise 'something new to deal with'. I did one page using Sakura's Koi Coloring Brush pens. I have really liked the colors and the way they blend so nicely, but was disappointed here. It must be the paper. The Koi brush pens are also not lightfast so I don't use them for anything that might end up hanging on a wall.

Sakura's Koi Coloring Brush pens usually blend beautifully, but not on this paper.

I also tried some Winsor and Newton Water Colour Markers. They tend not to blend as well as I'd like in any case, and this was no different.

I had better luck with both Inktense and Aquatone water-soluble pencils.

A rainbow of Aquatone pencils.

Cool tones in Inktense pencils.

We'll have to wait until those pages appear to see what will happen with them!

Here's another recently completed page:

Tuscadero is from CZT Lara Williams.
Umble is an 'official' tangle from Zentangle.
Y-Not was deconstructed by Molly Hollibaugh.

'My home' "old" illustrated manuscript

I continue to be inspired by the marks left on paper by the process of eco-dyeing. This page offered a sharp 'V' in the center, and it kept looking like hills, but I didn't know where to go from there. Then I pictured a house tucked into the side, and off we went.

Many years ago I did a calligraphy commission for a friend with a quotation that began "My home is the home of peace..." I thought it might be just the thing to pair with this image so I hunted it down (thank you internet!). I only used the first few lines due to space considerations, but here is the full quotation I found:

"My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight. My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined. This is the home of knowledge: the one who enters it must receive knowledge. This is the home of love: those who come in must learn the lessons of love; thus may they know how to love each other."  (Abdu'l-Baha)

I had a page with a slant at the top and decided to use it, do the writing on a slant, and hide part of the initial decorated capital.

Finally, the pair of pages. Each one is about 8"x5.5".

Bodhi tree "old" manuscript

One of my recent eco-dyed papers was a single leaf, and - although is isn't - it reminded me of the Bodhi tree leaves of India. In fact, the leaf itself looked much like a tree.

Tangles: Arukas, Coaster, Crescent Moon, Finery, Flux,
Hurly Burly, Marasu, Opus, Pearlz, Perfs, Printemps,
Shattuck, Unyun, Wud

I liked it, and thought it would pair well with a quotation, like an old book, similar to a recent piece "Discerning Eyes".

I wanted a quotation that referred to the bodhi tree, or enlightenment, or even both. I found one from the Buddhist scriptures, but it was awkwardly worded: "After six years' right sitting under the Bodhi tree of the wisdom throne, I could accomplish Perfect Enlightenment." I altered the wording slightly so it would flow better.

The Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path consists of right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. I was rather charmed by the idea that there may also be a right way to sit!

Here is the pair of pages:

More "old" manuscripts to come I'm sure!

A new, 'old' manuscript

I almost never, never use people as subject matter. However, I kept seeing a face in the upper corner of this eco-dyed paper and decided I'd best let it happen. Maybe it's a whisper of inspiration.

Tangles (or at least most of them!):
Auras, Beadlines, Betweed, Black Pearlz, Crescent Moon,
Featherfall, Finery, Huggins, Knightsbridge, Pearlz,
Perfs, Prestwood, Printemps, Tipple

The eyes took three attempts before I was happy with them. At one point I very carefully cut the paper with an x-acto knife and peeled off the top layer so I could start fresh in some places.

I liked it, but it didn't quite seem like stand-alone artwork. A lot of my work has an illustrative quality to it, as if there's a story behind it somewhere, but this one particularly felt that way.

There was another whisper of inspiration... it could BE an illustration, one of two pages, the other of which is text. I could use one of the eco-dyed papers that had no appealing leaf prints or patterns. They have an 'old page' look to them. Yes!

The hunt was on for the 'text' part of this project. It had to be short enough, pithy, and somehow spiritual. I found something in a book called "Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha". It mentions eyes, about seeing with your own eyes and not accepting everything you're told as all there is to know. Once I was finished I realized that it begins with the letter 'I'. Coincidence?

Here is the two-page spread of my new, 'old' manuscript. There's metal leaf on both the initial letter 'I' and one onion dome. There's gold ink elsewhere, and a small red gem at the top of one onion dome. Some of the white dots are pearl-effect 3D ink, but not the ones on the onion dome.

More found story pages

In this found story, or blackout poetry, or... (what?) I added more color than previously, including a bit of gold.

Tangles: Afterglo, Drupe/Fracas mash-up, Pearlz, Puffle

Thus far I seem to have been finding "stream of thought" series of words. I wanted to try to compose more sentence-like things. I'm having some success!

 My most recent effort incorporates a landscape, and the onion domes I adore. And sentences!

Found stories, or Pages, or...

I'm not sure what to call these. It's not an original idea, but it's the first time I've tried it.

The idea is to tear a page from a book you don't want anymore and find words and phrases on that page that string together somehow. They needn't relate to the story of the original text. In fact, I found it best if I avoided reading the text and, instead, just skimmed it for words that popped out at me.

Here's my first effort. Sometimes I use Blooming Butter to divide the space and then I really don't need a string; the tendrils provide that.

Tangles: blooming Butter, Florez, N'zeppel (with Auras),
Phuds, Tipple, and wavy lines

I have previously avoided this art project mainly because of the non-archival nature of the paper used in books. But old books tended to use better paper, and I hope - if I decide to mount these for hanging - that a UV-filter protective coating will help a lot.
Here's my second one. I like how the tangle Adente flows through the phrases, linking them even more.

Tangles: Adente, Crescent Moon, Paisley Boa, Pearlz, Tipple

I think the words 'roses', 'currants', and 'pinks' affected me on my third page and I added color to the one large flower. The tangle Keystone can have a 'picket fence' look, and a window seemed to fit in the upper corner.

Tangles: Arnia, Black Pearlz, Blooming Butter, Ennies,
Flux, Keystone, Knightsbridge, Opus, Tipple