Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Flux- Ditto


Flux is a tangle I have loved ever since I learned about Zentangle.  It's a classic shape that reminds me of the comma strokes that I learned in decorative painting years ago.

The latest newsletter from Zentangle.com  gives the step outs for both Rick's and Maria's version of Flux. I put it into the center of this Zendala.  I surrounded it with my tangle, Ditto.  Ditto uses a similiar shape to Flux. The directions for Ditto can be found on my blog here and also in a YouTube video shown below that I made a while back.


Monday, March 30, 2015

Tangles Y & Z


Finishing up the alphabet challenge, this tile has tangles beginning with the letters Y and Z

Yagi - Lizzie Mayne
Y-ful - Shoshi
Zander - Official Zentangle
Zhostovo Border - Sue Jacobs (me)



Saturday, March 28, 2015

The Well


I had the pleasure of introducing Zentangle to a group at The Well Spirituality Center in LaGrange Park today. It was a chilly start to the day but the room was lovely and full of sun. Most of the group were brand new to Zentangle but every one did a fantastic job. Check out their first and second tiles and see how everyone tried out the same tangles in their own way!

Click on the pictures to enlarge them!

The second tile had everyone trying out new strings.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Spring spiral

The challenge this week is to use a spiral as the string. I used the spiral and a monotangle with my tangle pattern Vigne.
I went crazy with colors and also my glitter pens. Oh, and there is colored pencil shading in the background. So much fun! It doesn't photograph real well so I took a close up to try to show how fun the glitter is in person.

Monday, March 23, 2015

V - W - X

V - W - X are the letters that start the tangle names in this tile.
V - Vano - Hanneke Sieben
W - Warts - Genevieve Crabbe
X - Xenso - Sue Clarke

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Cherryl Moote workshop


Someone told me this weekend, that to become a better teacher, you should go back to being a beginning student. Yesterday and today, I had that opportunity. I took a two day class with Cherryl Moote. She taught us a variety of techniques for paper folding. We folded cards, we made boxes, we made cards with intricate cuts, and we even made our own decorative paper. Even though Cherryl gave us the same instructions, the creativity in the room produced many stunning and unique pieces. I tried to get a picture of them all. I'm sorry some of them aren't in good focus.

Thanks to the Chicago Calligraphy Collective for sponsoring this workshop! I look forward to joining them again.










These are my pieces - but you can probably guess that by the Zentangle pieces shown.


Friday, March 20, 2015

Rose'

This Zendala uses just one tangle - Rose' - as in the wine. It's a fun tangle that works well in a grid. Here the grid is one from Margaret Bremner. 
I used one of my hand colored tiles and then tangled with a colored pen. Shading was done with a couple of shades of colored pencil.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Seeing green

Spring is finally getting here.  It's been a looong winter. So this green zendala is helping me get in the spingtime mood.
It was done on one of my hand colored tiles ( available for sale under the store tab). I used a green Micron pen and added additional color with Inktense pencils.

Monday, March 16, 2015

S - T - U


Continuing my tangling by the alphabet (and trying to use  tangles I rarely use), here is STU.

S - Shard - Carole Ohl
Stickweave - Cindy Angel
Sliders - Lila Popcheff
Tellis - Chrissie Frampton
Ticking - JJ LaBarbera
Undiala - Cris Letourneau

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Windy Brushes gears project


 At the Windy Brushes meeting on Saturday we worked on a project to add gears to bags and pins. We are getting ready for the Society of Decorative Painters convention which will take place here in The Chicago area in May. Our bags and pins have the gears on them to coordinate with the steam punk theme. Some of the gals worked on bags that followed my example closely but other went off on thier own. - I LOVED seeing the creativity!
luggage tag
she's working on a bag AND a pin!
pin example with added embellishments
bag example with added embellishments
hard at work!

almost done
bag with added stenciled background
pin before cutting out
finished pin



Friday, March 13, 2015

Student work - McHenry and Bartlett



I wanted to share the wonderful pieces my students created in my Zenspirations class at McHenry County College last night. We did the hearts first and then their letters.  They were hesitant at first but then really got into it. The markers were flying around the table as they experimented with different color combinations. So much fun!


This is a piece that one of my students brought to show me at a class in Bartlett last week. Barb has created a sampler with all of the tangle patterns that she has learned. Isn't it fantastic!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

pokeroot & cubine



This challenge from 'the Diva' asks us to use two, and only two tangle patterns. Pokeroot is one of the tangles in my basics class. I teach it so often there that I don't use it much in my own tiles. Cubine is another tangle that I frequently overlook and I shouldn't. So this challenge was good for me.

I had two ideas come to me as I thought about this challenge so I finally decided I might as well just do them both!

Monday, March 9, 2015

P- Q - R


Playing with tangles that start with the letters P, Q, and R.

P - Partly cloudy - Suzanne McNeill
Q - Quiltz - Kim Barlow
R - Razzor - Melissa Hughes




Friday, March 6, 2015

Playing with new pencils

I got a set of Derwent Inktense pencils and I'm having fun trying them out. They get applied to a surface just like any other colored pencil. But when you touch the markings with water, it changes to a vivid ink and becomes permanent. 
I started with an apron I  had gotten as a freebie from somewhere.  I tangled with a Sakura IDentipen first. Then I added my colors.  Frequently I used two or three colors at a time to get deeper shadings.  Finally I added  water (carefully ) with a fine tipped brush.
I plan to keep going,  trying out more color combinations as I go. It's fun!

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Unbatz

Unbatz is a tangle pattern from Sandy Hunter CZT. It's a fun tangle that has lots of options for tangleations.  As I played with it I found several tangleations I wanted to use. I ended up deciding to use it in a zendala in the round.

I am appreciating all the comments so far! Since several have asked how I got this even, the trick is that I started this on the innermost circle. I did the curved lines that alternate up and down and then connected them. As I did each circle around the central one I started each one by enlarging the curved lines. The shorter, straight, connector lines kind of fell wherever they needed to be.

Monday, March 2, 2015

M-N-O tangles


Continuing the challenge to tangle using names in alphabetical order, here's my new one.

The tangles begin with the letters M, N, and O.

Maryhill - Betsy Wilson
MI2 - Mimi Lempart
N'velope - Alyssa Amster
Nebel - Sandy Bartholomew
Organza - Ruth Howell