Flux/Nzeppel

Sometimes the simplest combinations of tangles can be the most effective. Here there are only two tangles used; Flux and Nzeppel. A tan Renaissance tile is the base and all the tangles were done with a brown Micron. I drew a simple string that reminded me of scrollwork and added Flux along it. In the opening there was a perfect space for Nzeppel. Shading with a brown colored pencil and highlights with a white chalk pencil complete it.

Tagh tangleations

Tagh is a wonderful, basic tangle pattern. It starts out very simply, with simple scalloped lines. You can leave it at that or add all sorts of tangleations. This weekend I started to play with it. I had no idea where I would go with it so I started with a curved line in the middle of my tile. I first began with the Zenith tangle pattern. The reason I started with Zenith is because it has the same scalloped line that Tagh uses. After adding an aura around Zenith, off I went with Tagh. I liked the lacy effect I got.

I added a curvy border around the edges and tried different tangleations that used bold black lines. I wan't done though, My mind was coming up with several more tangleations. Tagh was reduced to its simplest form in the inner areas so I could keep on trying tangleations.

Fall foilage

It's time for leaf peeping again. Time to hop in the car and head off to the wooded areas where the leaves are turning glorious colors. In my case, that may be simply a trip to a local forest preserve where the colors are equally beautiful.

I did the zendala above on one of my hand colored tiles that was a mottled yellow orange to start. The string is, of course, fall leaves. Tangles were done with a brown micron and shading used colored pencils.

These leaves were done by a group at the Schaumburg Public Library. This class was designed for fans of coloring, and the library provided markers and colored pencils. I taught them a few Zentangle tangles to add to their leaves to create a zentangle inspired artwork. I love all the variations and the variety of colors they used! Click on the image to get it full screen!

Antique Oshun

Trying out two tangles here that I haven't used before.  I've admired them but somehow never put them in tiles before now. Antique comes from Kathy Barringer and Oshun comes from Sandy Steen Bartholomew.

While it's fun to be random, sometimes I want things to be more orderly, symmetrical, and less chaotic. So I found peace for the time I was doing this by simply repeating, repeating, repeating.

Dreamcatcher

This zendala uses a tangle called Dreamcatcher. It's a simple tangle from Daniel Lamothe that can be found here. Once you have the basic pattern done you have many ways to add any sort of tangles within. I used Bumper and Aviary to fill my Dreamcatcher. Fun and relaxing.

Anne Marks traveling tangles

Traveling tangles again. This one is a collaboration with Anne Marks. She does such beautiful jewels that I was excited (and somewhat nervous too) to work on this one.

Anne did the jewels and the tangles in the upper right corner. Her start is shown below. As I looked at it I felt it was such a happy piece it was a celebration! I was thinking about Mardi Gras - or a similar party. I decided to add streamers using a variety of tangles flowing from Anne's start. Thank you so much Anne!

Traveling tangles is a fun project that began on Facebook. One person begins a tile and then mails it to another tangler who then completes the tile. It's really interesting to see what happens to the tiles you begin and challenging to get a partially completed tile and to work with it.