Twitterpated

On the second tile I did for the "blue challenge" (remember the Strange tile?) I used a bit of collage. What a great way to hide something I don't like and take the work in a slightly new direction.

I thought you might like to see a piece of zentangle inspired art I finished a while ago that also uses collage. It was done on a six inch square of beige mat board. The collaged bits here are beige paper-punch spirals that I used to tone down the very bold black-and-white pattern (Jitterbug) at the top, bottom, and sides. This piece also has some very small, round black and dark copper brads.

It will be going in an exhibition I'm having in June and July. I call it Twitterpated. Have a great weekend!

TWITTERPATED - 15 cm (6") square, (c) 2010 Margaret Bremner
(Tangles: checkered Aura, Beadlines, Daggerly, Hibred, Jitterbug, Rick's Paradox, Striping, Up and Across)

Tangled up in blu-u-ue

Yes, I'm married to a Bob Dylan fan.

The diva's zentangle challenge this week is to use some color, specifically blue. In my first attempt I used my trusty Sakura micron pen - blue of course. I tried Coil (by Sue Jacobs) and have been enjoying Finery lately. I looked up the name of Marasu, having done it a few times but not knowing what it was called. This tile initially had a bit of Payne's Gray acrylic wash. I finished with some shading in blue pencil.

Blue challenge 1: Betweed, Coil, Finery, Marasu, Pearlz, Tipple, Xyp, checkered Aura, dots

On the second tile I used a heavier paper. I did a string in blue watercolor pencil and brushed all over with water. It was kind of pale, so I added more pencil lines. They were too prominent so I brushed more water on and let it (almost) dry. I drew some lines on the damp paper with an aging black Brush pen. They were rather dark; I'd have to deal with that later. I tangled away.

It wasn't developing particularly well and I made several rescue attempts. I tried one pattern and then another behind Gneiss. Neither worked and I filled it all with black. But then the star-point halves were too dark so I used a metallic blue pen to lighten them. The Finery at the bottom was too much so I got out my envelope of Saved Bits of Failed Art, found some blue snippets and stuck one on between the blue and black Finery. It looked better, but it wasn't enough. I glued on more blue-and-black bits. That was a definite improvement, but the initial wash had left some not-particularly-nice-looking color out to the edge of the paper. I did blue and black shading outside the border to disguise it.

I'm not sure yet what I think of it, but it certainly holds the title of the Strangest Zentangle Tile I've ever created!

Blue challenge 2: Betweed, Finery, Flux variation, Gneiss, Perfs, Pearlz and something I might call Ashbee.

Two pencil strings, wide apart

In an earlier post I mentioned placing an eraser between two pencils in order to have a more widespread double string. One of the first I did this way is the last tile shown here. Below are three recent tiles using this string-making method.

Gneiss, Hibred, Hollibaugh, Tipple, Pearlz sort of

Crescent Moon, Ixorus, Rain, Pearlz sort of

Beadlines, Hibred, Paradox, Striping, Pearlz sort of
(I really like those white circles in a black band!)

 CONTEST UPDATE

Thanks to everyone who's sent contributions to my metaphor file. I wonder if someone who loves metaphors is a metaphorphile?

I've been reading a lot of wonderful thoughts - some metaphors, some not - so many that my brain goes fuzzy and I can't be sure anymore! I enlisted the assistance of my eldest daughter who works as an editor, and my husband who is a writer, poet, editor and translator. My daughter sent me this definition of a metaphor from Abrams Glossary of Literary Terms: 

"A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking. When we speak of "the ladder of success," we imply that being successful is much like climbing a ladder to a higher and better position. Another example comes from an old television ad from the 1980s urging teenagers not to try drugs. The camera would focus on a close-up of a pair of eggs and a voice would state, "This is your brain." In the next sequence, the eggs would be cracked and thrown onto a hot skillet, where the eggs would bubble, burn, and seethe. The voice would state, "This is your brain on drugs." The point of the comparison is fairly clear."

There are still two weeks left! in the Contest.

Brian Dettmer, book surgeon

I've been interested in the idea of altered books for some time and have thought about trying it myself... until I saw this work! (Maybe I'll still give it a shot sometime.)

Webster Two Point Oh, 2008, Altered Book, 11-1/2" x 19" x 11" by Brian Dettmer

"A lot of my work is intuitive when I'm developing it 

and then chance plays a major role before I begin carving 

so I never know where something will end up."

Originally from Chicago, Brian Dettmer currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. He has been working with old books as his art material for about ten years.

Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed. He manipulates the pages and spines, folds, bends, rolls, and stacks multiple books to create his book sculptures.

See 15 of his astonishing pieces here. See more art, and read a short interview here. His website is here.

I'm blown away.

Kingdom, 2008, Altered Books, 9-5/8" x 10-3/4" x 9-3/4" by Brian Dettmer

Kingdom, 2008, Altered Books, 9-5/8" x 10-3/4" x 9-3/4" by Brian Dettmer

ST. JOHN'S CROSS (a Florz tangelation)

I was all set to call this tangle ST. JOHN'S CROSS or DOUBLE FLORZ and to ask you which name you prefer. It was partly inspired by the Florz tangle but with double lines. When it's on a 45 degree angle the St. John's Cross aspect shows up.

Then along comes the word tangleation which Rick and Maria define this way:
"tan-gle-a-tion  (tan-gəl-ā-shən)  noun 
1. A noticeable variation of an existing tangle."
Read more about tangleations in the Zentangle newsletter here.

So, in fact, this is perhaps really a tangleation, not a whole new tangle. So much for my cool names for it, but it IS a cool tangleation!

UPDATE on May 16, 2011:
Based on encouragement from readers of this blog, I've decided to call this St. John's Cross and to consider it a new tangle.

The Big One Zero Zero

100!

I now have 100 blog followers, and one of them isn't even myself!

Unbelieveable. I thought about starting a blog for quite some time before I took the plunge. I had read in an art marketing newsletter that to be taken seriously as a blogger one should post at least two or three time a week. I thought, "I don't have that much to say!" - or at least, not that much that's interesting to say.

With the all-day Zentangle workshop coming up in the middle of last October, it seemed a good time to kick off a new venture. That was my first real post.

A big thank you to everyone who's become a Follower. I'm so happy that you find enough of interest here that you want to know when there's something new. I am really enjoying myself, and I seem to have plenty to share after all!

CONTEST UPDATE

Remember to send your ideas to the metaphor contest! There are thirty-some metaphors so far and there's still plenty of time. Here's a thought about metaphors from Rick and Maria on the Zentangle website: "We believe that life is an art form and that  

Zentangle is an elegant metaphor for deliberate artistry in life."

Monotangles

(Last week I didn't participate in the challenge. My husband's oldest brother died - not at all unexpected, but still a surprise somehow - and we had the funeral, and family visiting from elsewhere. I had mostly prepared this post a little while ago and, given this week's zentangle challenge, now seems an appropriate time to post it!)


A fun way to give yourself a bit of a challenge with a Zentangle tile is to use only a single tangle pattern. I find this forces me to be more aware of scale which I tend not to think of enough. You can do some very small tangles and some much larger ones.





Here's a tile using only Coaster (thanks Carole Ohl!). Well, except for a tiny spiral at the top. You can see how the size of the tangle makes a difference.

This one uses only stripes in 

various directions and widths.

Here I used only the tangle Drupe (thanks Rick and Maria). Instead of varying the size, I tried a different fill in each section.

And finally, here's quite a simple one using only a drawing technique called stippling - all tiny dots done with the tip of the pen.

You can see one of Shelly Beauch's tiles using only Umble here.


I had been going to suggest that you choose a favorite tangle, or one you've never done before, and do a tile entirely with that pattern.  But Laura beat me to it! This is the zentangle weekly challenge number 11, and the technique now has a cool name: Monotangle. Have at it!