Pre-strung fun

Tangles: Bunzo, Ennies, Moon Pies, Pearlz

It's a hashtag, too! #prestrungfun. Have a look on Instagram and Zentangle's Mosaic app.

"Pre-strung" means that there are pale, gray lines provided on the paper so you have a string to start with. Zentangle(R) offers many tiles like this.

This project ("challenge"), the brainchild of three CZTs, is based on one of Zentangle's pre-strung zendala tiles, pictured below. I admit, this is not one of my favorite pre-strung strings, but I had two white ones so I thought I'd do two. Why not?

Sometimes an idea grabs my collar and whisks me away on a wild ride of creativity. Usually when I don't expect it. This was one of those times. I found myself working on one tile while ideas for another one flew at me.

Come along for the wild ride with me...

The first two I did were on white tiles. One is at the top of this post. Here's the other.
I tried using the tangle Kahla as another string, wondering what would happen if I tried to overlay two strings.

Tangles: Kahla (the overlaid string), Moon Pies,
Pearlz, Pepperish, Romanancy, Striping, Tipple, Wud

I wanted to do more! I hunted, and discovered I had some tan and black tiles with this pre-strung string. The first began with smears of copper ink from a leaky pen; the second was going to be the 'mosaic' border and something else in the middle, but you know how things go!

Tangles: Ennies, Pepperish, Printemps, Snail

Tangles: Hmmm... well, it was going to be Seljuk
but it ended up being gradations of gray Moonlight pens.

It worked well with Kahla, so on this tan tile I wanted to try using Within as an overlaid string.

Tangles: Within (the overlaid string)
Apacore, Paizel, Pearlz, Pepperish, Seljuk

Colorful ribbons wanted to play on a white tile.

Tangles: Aquafleur and Tipple

And finally, on a tan tile, sort of paisleys. And more. A lot more.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Ennies, Purk,
Soul Star, Thumbprintz, Tipple, Within 

I understand there will be another Pre-Strung Fun event. Hope you can join in!

Need string ideas?

Are you ever at a loss for a string to begin your tangled tile? And you've exhausted tanglepatterns strings ideas? Then check out these previous blog posts for some inspiration!

First is a simple idea I call a flying birds string, and an example using variations of Tipple. It has a lot of possibilities.

Flying birds string

Try using a tangle as a string. Choose a tangle, draw it large and in pencil. Here is Crescent Moon as a string, filled with a variety of other tangles.

A tangle as a string

I often like to close my eyes and draw a blind string. It always offers something different to work with! This post shows using blind drawing based on a tangle, like the tile below using the tangle Apacore.

A blind string

This post is about using (blind) contour drawing to create strings. In the tile below I had done a very simple contour drawing of our coffee machine, then tangled it, and turned it sideways.

A rope string is another idea I had some time ago.

A rope string

Choose a fragment, draw it quite large, and use the fragment as a string. Here's an example using Flukes.

Fragment as string

Something I did a lot of at one point (hmm, I'll have to revisit this) is two-pencil strings. Wow, that post's from almost ten years ago! I followed with a few more posts about two-pencil strings. Go to these posts for more fun and wide apart.

Two-pencil string

And last, but not least, something a little different, hotel strings! You'll have to go to the blog post to understand how this final tile relates to that idea!

A hotel string

Blind contour drawing = great strings!

I often draw a string blind (with my eyes closed, or averted), or with my non-dominant hand. It always affords some interesting placement, wiggly lines, mismatched corners, and other oddities.

For something a little different, I decided to try contour drawing a few nearby things in hopes of some new shapes.

What's contour drawing, you ask? 

It's a technique in which the artist draws a subject slowly, concentrating on the contours of the subject. The focus is on the essential form and not the minor details. Expect a contour drawing to look wonky; perhaps that's why I like them! In a blind contour drawing your eyes are only on the subject - not the paper - slowly and carefully following the outline with your pencil on the paper.

A page of contour drawings of things around my desk.
I'd say 'blind' but I cheat, and glance occasionally.

To use this technique to draw a Zentangle string, I recommend doing a very simple drawing. You don't want a lot of teeny, tiny spaces to deal with.

On the corner of my desk are two photo cubes with recent, favorite Zentangle tiles in them. I did a blind contour drawing of them and tangled with variations of Emingle for a Square One prompt.

Tangles: Doodah, Emingle, Pearlz, Zewm, Zonked

If I glance to the right from my art desk I see my husband's coffee machine. Here's the machine, the blind contour drawing I made, and the resulting tile.

Turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the string photo.
Tangles: Arukas, Emingle, Moonwaves, Zonked and a Black Pearl(z)

Here are two sets of pliers and the resulting tile.

Tangles: Cubine, Lamar, Romanancy, Zonked

And finally, here are three small bottles.

After I did the contour drawing I turned it sideways and thought it looked like 'something' pushing across the page. Maybe Bunzo? Mooka? Hollis? Then I turned it upside down and it looked like three trees. Well, you know me and trees!

Tangles: Amazing Spider, Black Pearlz, Icantoo, Prestwood, Pia, Sanibel, Zander

More Project Pack #09!

Zentangle's Project Packs are always so chock-a-block full of great ideas I can't help but keep exploring them once the project is finished.

APPETIZER - WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
I like the brown bags the Project Pack supplies come in and hate to simply recycle them, so I cut them into tile sizes and include the grommets and string. Here, I glued the string to the paper, and have a tile with an actual string!

Tangles: Gneiss, Hollibaugh, Knightspeak, Marasu, Springkle, Zonked

THE FULL MEAL
I was quite enchanted with the idea of using Auras to create the look of malachite, or more generally agate. Here's a slice of natural agate. Sometimes there is a nest of crystals at the center. How delightful! Don't you love geodes?

I had cut some eco-dyed paper into bookmarks and used this 'auras' method. Do you see the partial leaf in the second one?

I was enjoying myself so much I did a page of agate in my wonderful 'Book'.

And on a black zendala tile using Sakura's Moonlight pens. It was a little tricky to "shade".

And then again on a sheet of eco-dyed paper.

"Seismic Shift"
(c)2020 Margaret Bremner

Such fun! I'll be using this technique more, I'm sure.

Blind strings & tangles as strings

BLIND STRING: I often like to do what I call a 'blind string' - a string drawn with my eyes closed. It gives me some interesting and unexpected sections to work with. A challenge! Usually, once I open my eyes I'll add a few more pencil lines to complete sections.

TANGLE AS STRING: We tend to think of a tangle or fragment in only that context, but that design can also be used larger, as a string. You can see my post about using fragments as strings here.

All of the tiles in this post begin with a blind string based on a tangle.

I started with a string of Apacore, then added other tangles. And more apple seeds.

Tangles: Double Double, Fife, and Pearlz with an Apacore string.

Cirqital is easy to identify, even with the addition of all the other tangles.

Tangles: Pearlz, Seljuk, and Zonked in a Cirqital string

This time it's Icantoo (which may be hard to identify in this finished tile!), to which I added smaller Icantoos.

Tangles: Icantoo, Pearlz, Tipple

Here are two where I remembered to take a picture of the string before I tangled it. (Yay me!) First, MySwing as the string, and second using Mooka.

Tangles: Bunzo, CrescentMoon, Gewgle, and Pearlz on a MySwing string

Choose a tangle, close your eyes, and be bold!

Fragments as strings

Are you ever stuck for a string? Even if not, try choosing a fragment and pencilling it onto your tile to use as the string.

Below I've used four fragments of Flukes. You can see the actual tangle in the upper left corner and elsewhere. Doing the fragment so much larger than usual offers many opportunities to add other tangles to the design.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Cubine, Flukes, Pearlz,
Slowpoke, Tipple, Zonked 

In color, here are two fragments of Jalousie. The full tangle can be seen behind each "lollipop".

Tangles: Boucle, Cirqital, Fohbraid, Jalousie, Ragz

Similar to fragment K5 from the Zentangle Primer book, this didn't work out as nicely as I'd hoped. It might be more interesting if I'd interlaced the two ovals.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Betweed, Crescent Moon, Zonked

And here's a fragment of the tangle Well, with a lot of Mooka! Well itself can be seen on the left side.

Tangles: Boucle, Mooka, Tipple, Well

On a tan tile, fragment J1.

Tangles: Paisley Boa, Perfs, Tipple

I think this next one is too busy-looking. Not my favorite. It's fragment X2 (in the Primer book) which is rather intricate to begin with, but I think I tried to do too much with it.

Tangles: Beadlines, Dex, Gneiss, Knightsbridge, Snail, Tidings

Finally, a fragment of Crusade, a tangle I really struggled with initially. You can see it at the lower right and upper left. This tile, and the first shown (Flukes) are my two favorites. (F-Y2).

Tangles: Apacore, Crescent Moon, Crusade, Pearlz, Tipple

I'd love to see what you do using a fragment as your string!

"Rope" string idea

Tangles: Amaze, Finery, Zander plus 'sparkle'

I've been using this string idea lately and thought others might be interested in trying it. Here's the how-to:

You can make only a few spaces to fill, or keep your lines close together and make several thinner spaces, in which case you may like to use 'border' tangles.

You can keep it quite simple.

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Tipple

Or go to town with tangles!

Tangles: Betweed, Crusade, Paradox, Printemps, Shattuck, Unyun

Below, I filled the corners and the adjacent 'rope' parts with Paradox, leaving just two initial diagonal sections for something else.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Ing (curvy), Paradox, Pearlz

And, of course - since there is no pre-determined up or down in zentangle - you can decide to lay it on its side!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Gottago (with pearlz), Ing,
'Nzeppel, Prestwood variation, Shing

MORE FUN STRING IDEAS:
Check out my "flying birds" string idea here.
Check out my two-pencil string idea here and here, and a Diva challenge here.

'Flying birds' string - so many possibilities!

String of four 'flying birds' with variations of Tipple.

You must have drawn those little flying birds, the ones that are just a line with a dip in the middle.

Of course, you can make simple modifications:

You could draw a very deep dip or a shallow dip:

I've been having fun using this simple line a few times in different directions to create a string. I seem to prefer three 'birds' but of course you could do only two, or four, or even more.

Three birds string with Bunzo, Knase, Paradox, and Tripoli.

Here are six possible strings you might get using this flying bird idea.

Top right: only two 'birds'
Middle left: four 'birds' placed near the edges of the tile
Middle right: three 'birds' placed near the center of the tile
Lower right: three 'birds', the points of two vertical birds meeting near the center.

The above lines are all parallel to the paper edge, but it could be done diagonally too. Here's a tile with three 'birds' drawn diagonally, and beside it, red lines to show where the string lines are.

Three birds, diagonally, with Aquafleur, Crescent Moon, Knase, Sird, Well, and Zedbra

Here's another with red lines showing the strings. These bird strings all dip to touch the border.

Three birds string with Coaster, Paradox, Prestwood variation, Tripoli, and Unyun.

Three birds string with Going Down, Paradox, Umble

In the tile below, one bird's wing is the Beadlines while the other wing swoops off the right edge.

Three birds string with Beadlines, Black Pearlz,
Peanuckle, Tipple, and stripes

These flying birds offer a huge variety of strings to work with. I hope you have fun with it! If you use this method, please e-mail me a photo and I'll feature some readers' tiles in a future blog post. I'd love to see what you do!

A 'three flying birds' string, with two points meeting, can result in a heart shape! :)
Tangles: Beadlines, Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Jalousie, Munchin, Pearlz, Shattuck