"Plates" challenge

The guest challenger this week on the DivaCZT's blog is Jeannette Clawson and apparently she is a longtime mandala fan, just like me! Her challenge is to do tiles with a quarter circle, in strips, and maybe put four of them together to make a "plate" design. You can read the challenge and see some of Jeannette's work here.

I wanted to do quite a few because I want to show you some other things you can do with these tiles. I decided to use Bijou tiles - being smaller, I could do more in the same amount of time! Then I discovered that I had hardly any white Bijou tiles, so... you get brown. :)

I drew ten little tiles, pictured below, making two 'plates' and two extras. I used different tangles in all of them (and left out many!).

Of course, if you can make one circle you could make more. Here are nine of my Bijou tiles and you can see how more circles could happen.

With 16 tiles you can make a larger mandala: a 4-tile one in the middle and a border of 3-tile corners. Essentially it's four circles with the central four tiles each turned 180 degrees. (I didn't actually draw more Bijou tiles. I cannibalized some older tan tiles that I had no particular affection for!)

Last year I posted a project where I used this idea with 36 full-size tiles in color. See it at this link.

If you have a lot of tiles, by positioning them differently you can even make a scrolling design!

Stacked Bijou challenge

This week the Diva's guest challenger, CZT Jane Reiter, proposes something quite out of the ordinary! She calls it a "stacked bijou challenge" and you can get the details here on the DivaCZT's blog.

I didn't like the idea of the increasing low relief of using layers of mat board so I layered paper, in some cases nesting one paper into the next one.

I used seven layers of papers, and I might even add another. Still thinking about that, but I wanted to post what I'd done before Saturday!

These are the layers, beginning with the Bijou (twinchie) in the center:

1. Bijou tile, white
Blue and pink wash; blue and white ink; blue and pink colored pencils

2. Standard tile, Renaissance (tan)
Blue wash; blue, turquoise, brown, sepia inks; brown, blue, white colored pencils

3.  Zendala tile, white, almost finished but disliked
I cut four rounded edges and added a lot of pink/orange color, then stuck the four pieces to the edges of the Renaissance tile.

4. Hand-marbelled paper
(on dark brown paper)
No, I didn't do the marbelling; I bought a few sheets from another artist a few years ago.
I used a brown pen to draw Auras in the shapes of the marbelling.

5. Canson drawing paper
(in a stunning gorgeous blue!)
It had a few black lines on it and I worked them into the design.
I also used a little metalic blue ink, gray ink, and white pencil.

6. Patterned scrapbooking paper

Off-white with an ochre colored design. I added a wobbly brown line all around.

7. Stonehenge drawing paper, 'Kraft' brown

Brown and sepia inks; brown, pink, white colored pencils; a touch of white ink.

The blue wash on the Renaissance tile was my least favorite while I was working on it, but now I think it's my preferred section. Just for interest's sake, here's a detail of one corner.

"Turkish Tiles" process

Sometimes you just have to take a chance.

I had great expectations for this Opus tile, but I just didn't like it once it was finished.
But darn it all! I'd put a lot of time and work into it! No way I was going to just throw it out, and I already have too many ATCs to trade. Surely I could do something with it.

I'd had the idea of Turkish and Iranian mosques, with their columns and stripes and geometric patterns, but the parts hadn't come together as I had hoped. I realized that I needed a different vision for it, and decided that maybe it needed to become less cluttered by mixing it up a bit more.

I trimmed a quarter inch off all sides, leaving me with a 10" square, easily divided into 25 two inch squares. Here are all the "twinchies":

I painted a 12" canvas white and then decided how I would arrange the little squares. There were a few with doorways and I decided to place those along the bottom. The sides of the canvas were then painted mottled turquoise and blues, which turned out really nicely.

"Turkish Tiles" (c) 2016 Margaret Bremner
12" square; pen-and-ink, colored pencil, acrylic paint

I didn't like the tiny difference of level between the canvas and the paper, and I thought it should be glossy because of the "tiles" idea. I used a self-levelling epoxy varnish and it now looks as if there's a sheet of glass on top! I painted gloss varnish on the sides to tie them in with the glossy surface.

Twinchie winners

The raffle's over and nine people will be receiving one of the twinchies I posted here. Being twinchies they're small, of course, so I'm also sending along an ATC (artist trading card) to each person.

The winners are:
Donna Blair, of New Jersey USA
Rita, of BC Canada
Melinda Davis, of Tennessee USA
Barb Ruff, of North Carolina USA
Rosie Hill, of Oregon USA
Laura Emler, of Ohio USA
Chris Leach, of California USA

Heather Pearson, of Ontario Canada

Jakki Garlans, of Connecticut USA

The mail went out a day or two ago, so I hope you'll receive it soon. Thanks for entering!