'Wolf Trail' - new tangle pattern

‘Wolf Trail’ is a tangle that can be used in a variety of ways. It can be done simply or can be expanded to form an intricate pattern. I saw a glimmer of this tangle in a wallpaper pattern I saw on Pinterest and had to deconstruct it and share it with you.  When I showed it to my family my college age son said that he saw wolf’s teeth, and my husband saw a winding road. So ‘Wolf Trail’ was the name chosen.

There are several drawings here – click on any of them to enlarge the picture. 

1-     draw a line of evenly spaced dots

2-     draw C shapes that go from dot to dot – skip a dot between each shape and alternate the C shapes – one up, one down.

3-     Draw an aura over each C shape – start and end at the dots in between.

4-     Draw more auras over each C shape. Begin and end these auras so that they connect with the C shapes that go in the alternating direction.

5-     Add a V onto each C shape. You can call this an ice cream cone – or a wolf’s tooth. Do this for both the up and down facing Cs.

6-     Add large Vs that aura the little Vs. These V’s will form a line that goes through the dot between the little Cs.

7-     Aura these Vs again. These Vs will begin and end at the edges of the little Vs.

Tangleations

Fill in sections a la Knightsbridge, add small lines within the sections, add additional aura lines, use a thicker pen to emphasize certain lines.

Add tipple, play with shading, add bumps and/or tiny triangles, add thick and thin lines

This is a simplified version of ‘Wolf Trail’. Here, the Cs that face up and down, do not skip a dot in between them.

The simplified version of ‘Wolf Trail’ gives the opportunity to ‘hide’ one line behind the other. Instead of drawing through the shapes, ‘Draw behind’ and emphasize with shading. You can choose whether to have the zigzag or the curvy line in the front too.

The simplified version with the zigzag in front reminds me of Golven by Mariet Lustenhower - Her tangle is drawn with a different process that you may want to try out. Look at TanglePatterns.com for her tangle or go to her website here.

And if you want to get more intricate, add more lines by skipping more dots in the first step. I broke the curvy and zigzag out separately so that you could see this more clearly. It doesn't matter which order you do the curvy line or the zigzag line. Once you have the wolf tooth shape in you could go either way.

Keep adding dots between the Cs and it will become one of those patterns that really plays with your eyes. - Almost an optical illusion.

Finally – I thought you might want to see one of my practice sheets as I was working this out for the first time. I used some lined paper and turned it on its side. It made the practicing much easier.

If I have overlooked any tangle patterns that are similar please let me know so I can give them credit too.

Have a wonderful Holiday!

Here's hoping you all have a Blessed Christmas and very Happy Holidays!

string 69

Over at 'Tickled to Tangle', the latest challenge is to use string #69 from Tanglepatterns.com. We were asked to use only the newest tangle pattern Arukas. Even though I recently did this tangle for another challenge, I am thoroughly enjoying this tangle so I was happy to do it again.  This string seemed like it had too many small spaces to use this tangle multiple times though, so I found a way to play with the string and just put one tangle in. 

I used one of my hand-colored tiles to start. It had all sorts of blotchy colors but I found that just added more interest for me. I tangled with a white gelly roll pen. Highlights were done with a white charcoal pencil and shading with a blue colored pencil.

KISS - Akoya

KISS - keep it simple silly!

I really enjoying doing tangle patterns that look difficult but when you break them down they are deceptively simple. So when the Diva challenged us to 'keep it simple' , I decided I wanted to do one of the hard looking - but simple, tangles.

Sandy Hunter had a recent blog post with this tangle that she has named Akoya. This tangle is mostly made up of small orbs. It reminds me of Tipple but her way of doing this gives a lovely twisty effect. She has the step outs on her blog - just click HERE.

I was inspired by the season to see this as a wreath and add a gneiss star inside (with more orbs!). Now I'm off to do some wrapping of presents!

string 73

This challenge is to use string 73 from Tanglepatterns.com with the tangles Verdigogh and Pauline's pigtails. 

It's been a busy week with all the holiday events. I had to carve out a little time to get this challenge done. Of course I was thinking about the holidays when I was doing this so I visualized two glass ornaments where you could see through to the tree branches behind. Not sure if I achieved this but it was fun.

The verdigogh that I did 'behind' the ornaments were simply done with pencil instead of the pen

Easy and quick ornaments and gift tags - tutorial

The holidays are coming up quickly now so there isn't much time to start a new project. I've got one that you CAN start now - and they will be done in no time.

These are ornaments made out of poster board. You can find poster board in almost every big box craft store. Feel the sheets and pick the ones that have a heavy weight to them. Sometimes the stores sell poster board that is flimsy so you don't want that. There are different color choices at different chains - Lots of options! One hint - look for a red that is a true red and not a red/orange. 

Get a giga paper punch. You can get round or oval punches. You will also want a small punch for the small holes for the hangers. See the pictures below. If you are at a big box store that takes coupons, be sure to use one! -  if you don't have a store nearby I've posted a link to Amazon over in the right hand column. 

I use white gelly roll pens for my tangles - Both the white and the gold pens work. If I am in the mood I will sometimes add some shading with a colored pencil that coordinates with the color of the poster board. But if you are in a time crunch - just do the tangles.

You can do wonderful ZIAs with a string (Zentangle Inspired Artwork). My suggestion however, is to use these as an opportunity to do a monotangle - that is, just do one tangle on each ornament. Draw two parallel lines set far apart and do the tangle within. (Hint - do the lines at an angle so you don't have to worry about being level.) Make your tangle BIG - Keep it simple, and you will be churning these out like Santa's elves!

You can do both sides but if you leave the back blank you have a perfect gift tag.

These are all monotangles - ditto, tipple, ixorus, cadent, paradox, hibred, cadent, hollibaugh.

These are my giga punches. Round, oval, and the small punch. I punch out a lot of ornaments for my classes so I added a little craft foam to the bottom so my hand wouldn't hurt as I was punching. If you are just doing a few, this isn't needed. 

Happy tangling!

Arukas

Arukas is the newest tangle from Zentangle.com. I'm really enjoying playing with this tangle and have started to incorporate this into several projects. I've also started to try out different ways to use the basic pattern. Above I started it on a curved line instead of a circle. When I tried it in the area below the curved line I ended up with a Hollibaugh effect. Fun!

In this Zendala I put two small arukas patterns in circles and then one big arukas tangle. 

Using a white gelly roll pen I tangled on blue poster board paper I had cut out with an oval paper punch. It can be an ornament or a gift tag. A blue colored pencil added the shading.

Paper doll zendala

The challenge this week is to be inspired by dolls. At first I didn't know what I was going to do. I even considered skipping it. But I would be so embarrassed to miss a challenge so I knew I had to come up with something. I started to think about all the possibilities. I could tangle a paper doll shape, I could tangle a cloth doll. But I wasn't thrilled with those ideas. I thought about doing a paper doll chain - you know, where the paper is folded and then cut so it looks like they are holding hands. That's when I started doing a search on the web for paper doll chain templates. And that's when I found it! A paper doll chain done in the round. OK - NOW I was cooking! I could adapt the template to fit a zendala. 

The triangle at the lower left is the template I found on the web. It was a little too large for the zendala, and I wanted to play with the shapes, so I sketched a little, got out my scissors and cut out the template in the center. I then taped it to a piece of paper I had folded 4 times and cut out the big shape.

Here it is, unfolded and laid on top of my zendala. It's still a little too big but that's okay, I can work with it.

I smoothed it out and traced it onto my zendala. Then I got out my pen and started the tangling. That was fun! A little shading and wow, I was really happy with the end result. At first glance you really can't tell that there are doll shapes there, but that's half the fun. See the finished piece at the top.

I also tried doing less folds so I only had 4 repeats. I didn't like this quite as much, but since I already have the string on the tile I may just do it anyway when I have a chance.