Tangles from Marie Browning

Today's tile shows tangles that I found in the book Time to Tangle with Colors by Marie Browning. When I first got that book a whole new world of color for my zentangles opened up to me. I learned all about the wonderful world of Tombow markers and so much more. I practically copied some of her tiles step by step just so I could figure out how to get the same effects. I used several of the tangle patterns featured in the book to do today's tile.

I did this tile on one of my hand colored tiles with a sepia colored micron and shaded it with a prismacolor pencil.

This is part of my continuing challenge to myself to use tangles by different artists (that have created multiple tangles) and to use them together in a single tile.

Kuke Salad

'Kuke' is the new tangle pattern that is featured in this tile. Katy Abbot, CZT came up with the name and posted the step outs here. She was inspired by cucumbers. It's a fun little tangle that also reminds me a lot of the beads that can be made with the colored polymer clays.

I decided to go all the way with the cucumber theme. I chose a colored tile that had a fresh, green feel and added other tangles that reminded me of a fresh, cold salad on a hot summer day. We actually hit 91 degrees yesterday so it felt very appropriate. I used a green Micron pen and shaded with two green Prismacolor colored pencils.

My trees are blooming again in my front yard. I have absolutely no green thumb so I'm thankful that they survive on their own! I had to take some pictures to share with you.

Tangles from Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Today's tile was inspired by tangles that came from the books from Sandy Steen Bartholomew. Sandy has several books out. Totally Tangled, Yoga for the Brain, and Zentangle for Kids. Her books are fantastic! They are always the books I recommend when my students ask me which ones they should purchase. They cover the basics, they have great tangle patterns, and Sandy gives such wonderful insight into helping you see tangle patterns on your own. And her style of drawing is just such FUN!

The tangle patterns used here;

Btl Joos

Bauer

Mumsy

Gewgle

Emilie

Since yesterday was Mother's Day, I want to take today to thank all those who have taken on the duties of a mom to help me along my way. In the world of Zentangle, Sandy has been like a fairy godmother. She has helped me see the wonders of Zentangle through her own 'twinkly' glasses.

This is actually part of my continuing challenge to myself to use tangles by different artists (that have created multiple tangles) and to use them together in a single tile.

This tile also uses one of the stings from Linda Farmers string ideas on Tanglepatterns.com
This is string 46 from Pat Ferguson CZT.

Which Schway? Pink or blue?

I decided to do another tile using the Schway tangle. (See Monday's post for links.) This time I wanted to use one of my colored tiles and see what it would look like with color. No, I'm not announcing anything - for me or my children. I was inspired to try out the theme as I was reading about Princess Kate and the royal guessing game about her baby.

You've been seeing these colored tiles on my blog for a while now. I  hand color them in a variety of colors. Each one is unique. Well, I have an announcement. Right now, I'm selling them in my classes. If you are in the Chicago area you can stop by before or after any class to check them out. If you are attending the HOOT convention in Columbus this August, I will have a booth there. 

If you are not in my area you can either email me privately -  sj60010 at gmail dot com - or you can wait until I figure out how to get an Etsy store set up.

They will sell for $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. Shipping will be additional.

Walk this 'schway'

Rick and Maria added a new tangle pattern this past week and I couldn't wait to try it out. It's called 'Schway'. It was shown in  this newsletter. All the step outs are there too. I found it a fun tangle pattern to work with. There are lots of ideas that Rick and Maria show on the newsletter but I decided to keep the first time I played with it fairly simple. As I looked at the pattern I felt it was almost an optical illusion so I picked another tangle pattern that also gave me that optical illusion feel. 

The other pattern is one that I found a while back. It's called Wiltshire 1 by Liz T. and the steps can be found through the Flickr group here http://www.flickr.com/photos/16959884@N07/5635621863/in/pool-freehandpatterns/.

Blind string

Blind string challenge. This tile was begun with a blind string. I placed my pencil at the edge of the tile, closed my eyes and went for it. It was not what I wanted. It left too much white space. But that was the challenge so I just accepted it and thought about ways to "make it work!"

I enhanced the string with a blue colored pencil so you could see what I had to work with. And, after a day or so of looking at it, I got some ideas of what I wanted to do with it. I think that is the beauty of doing the Zentangle challenges. It keeps encouraging me to stretch my creativity. 

Vernon Hills - Cook Memorial library

I've been visiting libraries lately, and meeting some wonderful people. It's such a pleasure to introduce them to Zentangle and see the excitement grow in the room as they discover all the benefits to Zentangle.

click on picture to enlarge

Last night I was at the Vernon Hills library. They had 50 people sign up and even went to a waiting list. Wow, that's intimidating! I was lucky that my son had just gotten home from his first year at college the night before so he was able to help me out. He's a good kid. He had never seen me do a full presentation before and I think he enjoyed it too!

I'm always amazed how I can teach the exact same patterns and the results have such diversity. When I get home and crop my picture for the blog I always take a few minutes to appreciate what everyone has done. There are some wonderful tangleations here.

Thank you for inviting me! I hope to be back soon.

String ideas - string 50

Strings can be a fun or frustrating part of the Zentangle process. In my classes it's not unusual to get the 'deer in the headlights  look when I tell my students to create their own string. They are crucial to getting you started but they shouldn't totally control what you do with your piece. That's probably why there are so many challenges put out incorporating string ideas. 

On Tanglepatterns.com there is a section called string ideas. Its a wonderful resource with 50 strings drawn out for you. I've been watching this site as new ones are added and even have one of mine featured. (with more to come I hope)  The site had a special surprise for its 50th string idea. It's one drawn by Maria Thomas, the wonderfully gifted co-creator of Zentangle! It is so elegant in its lines that I had to try doing tangles with it. I'm not sure it is everything I want it to be - but remember, there are no mistakes in Zentangle, so I can always revisit this string later and see ho I'm inspired next time.

Tangles from Elena

Today's tile features tangles from Elena Hadzijaneva. Elena is a talented artist from Macedonia. I first spotted her tangle patterns as she posted them on Flickr. She posts there under the name Belatrix29. She also has several tangle patterns posted on Tangle patterns.com.

The tangle patterns used in this tile are;

Piza

Tesali

Retro

Inka

Bran

Hypnotic

By the way, you may think that 'Bran' looks familiar. It's in the upper left corner. It has a number of similarities to my tangle 'Plaited'. Elana's steps are finished differently but as I saw the similarities as I was doing it, I just had to see what the the finished product would look like if I put my finishing steps into her starting steps.

This is part of my continuing challenge to myself to use tangles by different artists (that have created multiple tangles) and to use them together in a single tile.

Schaumburg and S Barrington

I've been busy this week! On Wednesday I was at the Schaumburg Public Library. We had a full signup of 30 with a waiting list. Oh - and a tech guy to help me get my projection system set up. Now that is luxury to me! They all did a great job and really enjoyed looking at our mosaic of tiles at the end. I'll be there again next month for a beyond the basics class. Signup is close to filled already but call the library to see if you can still get in.

Thursday took me to the S Barrington Park District. It was a smaller class but that means I get to really get into the nitty gritty of tangle patterns. Fun, FUN! Thanks ladies!

Earth Day

Earth Day was this past Monday. Zendalas are the perfect way for me to honor it. Erin at the Bright Owl had a wonderful zendala template last Satuday so I was happy to use that. I loved that the template inspired me to do a warm sunny image - And I had the perfect Tombow markers to use too!  The Tombow markers used are # 985, #905 and #856. The tangles were done with a sepia colored Micron pigma pen.

The sun compliments the sphere zendala that I did last week. This was was done on one of my hand colored tiles. If you are coming to any of my classes or speaking engagements, I will be selling my hand colored tiles there. Lots of choices and color schemes!

Tangles from Jane Monk, CZT

Today's tile shows tangles that come from the blog of Jane Monk CZT. Jane is a CZT from Tasmania, Australia. Yikes - that's a long way away from where I am! She is also very well known for her quilting skills. If you are a quilter you will want to visit her blog and really look around. Her blog can be found at http://janemonkstudio.blogspot.com/p/about-jane.html  I've been following her for a while and have collected her tangle patterns in my notebook. I found her work through her blog and on Flickr. I didn't see a link on her blog for her patterns although some can be found on tangle patterns.com at http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/jane-monk 

The ones I've tried here are;

Calipo

Tadpegs

Kitty

Raindotty

Loave it

This is part of my continuing challenge to myself to use tangles by different artists (that have created multiple tangles) and to use them together in a single tile.  - If you wonder why you haven't seen more of these lately - well, life has kept me busy lately. 

peace on earth

After all the craziness in the news this past week I needed to do something to calm my nerves. Of course, tangling is the perfect way to help with the stress. I know my little tangle will not do much to help with all the problems in the world, but as I was doing this I kept thinking of the song, 'Let there be peace on earth'.

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth

The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our father

Brothers all are we.

Let me walk with my brother

In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

With every step I take

Let this be my solemn vow.

To take each moment 

And live each moment 

With peace eternally.

Let there be peace on earth,

And let it begin with me.

This piece was done on a zendala blank tile that I had hand colored first with blue and green artists watercolor paints. I used the templates for spheres that Margaret Bremner suggested in an earlier blog post -   http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.ca/2013/03/sphere-look-zendalas.html  

I just used one tangle - LaBel - because I wanted to emphasize the lines with a delicate tangle. The pen is a dark green Micron and the small amount of shading is a blue Prismacolor pencil.

Hey there, You with the stars in your eyes!

The Diva challenged us this week to be inspired by stars. I thought about doing a zendala with a star shape but I've been doing a lot of zendalas lately so I wanted to go in a different direction. I started looking through a stack of tiles I had hand colored a while ago and when I saw this one I knew what I wanted to do. 

I did lots of small stars with a light gray colored pencil and then outlined them with a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. I also put a dot in each center. I then used the tangle pattern Munchin. Munchin is a tangle that I haven't used too much, but I had fun with it here. If you are interested in learning the steps to Munchin, they are in the Zentangle newsletter from March 31, 2009. http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs023/1101168872594/archive/1102532072865.html#LETTER.BLOCK18

Tangles from Lara Williams

Today's tile shows tangles that come from the blog of Lara Williams CZT. Lara is a CZT from the Indianapolis, IN area. Her blog can be found at http://laralina-tangleware.blogspot.com/  On her home page look in the column on the right for the section that says 'my tangles'. All the step-outs for her tangles are there.

The ones I've tried here are;

Tuscadero

Sparkool

Koryl

Kloonz

This is part of my continuing challenge to myself to use tangles by different artists (that have created multiple tangles) and to use them together in a single tile.  - If you wonder why you haven't seen more of these lately - well, life has kept me busy lately.