Spring String!

The snow plow people came by yesterday to pull out the driveway markers for their plows so I guess it's official. Spring is finally here! I looked at the ground near my front door and I saw my crocuses finally peeking out. So when I saw this string as the challenge from Adele Bruno, I couldn't think of anything else! I know that Zentangle is supposed to be non- representational, but I had to go this way this time.

This is the tile before I added the tangles. It's taken in a different light and before shading was added so I know the color looks very different. But I thought you might enjoy seeing the different stages.

Spirals

Spirals - That's the challenge from the Diva this week. I always include a basic, classic spiral in my string ideas in my classes so I wanted to come up with something a little different. So I put 'spiral' 'images' as a search term in my computer and came up with all sorts of new ideas. I based this tile off of one of those inspirations. It uses some basic Striping with Sparkles and Japan Diamond.

It's done on one of my hand colored tiles with a blue Micron pen and then shaded with colored pencils.

HOOT registration begins soon!

HOOT is coming! Hoot is a convention sponsored by the Heart of Ohio Tole Chapter in Columbus Ohio. It will take place August 11-16, 2014. The HOOT convention registration opens April 1st! If you want to get your first choice of classes you will want to download the class selection and get ready to send your choices in. The link to see all this is here.

These pictures are from the three classes that I will be teaching. The Zen Garden (above) is an intermediate level class. The Zentangle Xmas and Tangled Tote are open to all levels. Hope to see you there!

String 24 - and invite for Midwest CZTs

This tile uses string 24 from Tangle Patterns.com It's done in a traditional black pen, pencil shading manner. The tangles used are; 

Warangaie - Sandra Strait, Warble - a Zentangle® tangle, Warped Eggs - Livia Chua, Warts and Wobbles - Cindy Straight, and Worms - Carolyn

I will be busy getting my house ready for a get-together of Midwest CZTs this weekend. I am eagerly looking foward to putting faces to the names of all those people I see on the message boards! The invitations went out a while ago, but if we missed you - If you are a CZT in the Midwest (anywhere close to Illinois) - or if you are visiting in the area, we want you! Please contact me for details

Spring Excitement

This winter has been one for the record books. The calendar finally says it's spring. There is still some snow in patches around my house but they are predicting warmer temperatures tomorrow.  So I was inspired to create a zendala with springlike colors.

I did some watercolor washes with my Sakura Koi coloring markers first, then black with my Sakura Microperm pen, then tangles with my colored Microns. 

All Ages in Bartlett

 

Last weekend I visited the Bartlett Public Library. I was scheduled to do a program for the children's department. They filled all twenty slots and had a waiting list. As it often happens with a free program though, there were a few no shows. It turned out there were a few ladies who had seen the program in a local paper - but the paper didn't mention it was a children's program, so they showed up anyway. I taught the program as I always do - not talking down to the kids and teaching the same way.

 

As you can see from the tiles pictured above, they all did a wonderful job! There were kids as young as 10 up to high school ages. And as I mentioned, there were 3 adults who joined us. When their tiles were all grouped together I truly could not tell which were done by which age group. Isn't Zentangle wonderful!

St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day! 

Here in Chicago they actually dye the Chicago river green. Then the parade begins shortly after. I had hoped to see it in person after seeing it on TV many times . We drove to the city for dinner but by the time we passed by the river it was dark. We could tell the water had a greenish hue to it but that was it. More interesting was our dinner experience. We went to a wonderful restaurant called HB Home Bistro. It is in the bar area where many young adults live. Parking was terrible but once we found a spot and got seated at a table by the window, the fun began. Being in the city on St Patrick's Day weekend is quite entertaining if you enjoy people watching. There was a wide variety of green apparel; green kilts, suits and tutus! And of course the accessories! Green glasses, beads and hats. Fun!

This tile was done on one of my hand colored papers with a green Micron pen and shaded with colored pencils. The two tangles are 'Paradox' and 'Lucky' by Adele Bruno.

This picture came from WGN Dean Richards. The dye used is orange when it first goes in and then a motorboat is driven around to mix the color in. And yes, the dye is eco friendly.

Pi Day

March 14th is known as Pi day. Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on 3/14 in the U.S., since 3, 1, and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form. It's become a tradition to celebrate it with pies. My son went out to the grocery store to pick out a good one. I'm looking forward to it.

 I decided to do a zendala inspired by Pie. A nice golden crust with all sorts of yummy tangles inside! I started with one of my hand colored zendala tiles , used a brown Micron pen and shaded with brown colored pencil.

My youngest son is a bit of a geek. He is studying chemical engineering at The Ohio State University. When he starts talking about what he is learning I almost think he is speaking a foreign language. So he was all for celebrating Pi Day with a pie!

I also wanted to share some zendalas that were created in my last zendala class at Banbury Fair in Bartlett. We had a lot of fun exploring the variety of ways to create a zendala.

Duotangle prayer for spring

I can't believe it actually snowed AGAIN this morning! And they say the temperatures may fall into record cold tonight. I am sooo over winter. So when I saw this challenge to combine Crescent Moon and Diva Dance into a Duotangle, I started seeing the Crescent Moon tangle as warm sunshine with green things (Diva Dance) starting to poke out from the ground. Yeah, yeah, wishful thinking, but I can dream. 

I even did two tiles with this theme. On the first I used a green colored tile. I liked my diva dance in the middle but the crescent moon felt too stiff and structured. I just went for it in the second tile and I think I like it better. 

I used colored Micron pens and shaded with colored pencils. I filled in the crescent moon with an orange Tombow marker. That really sped things up.

string 30 - Real Life Strings

Sindy P has come out with a new book that she calls 'Real Life Strings'.  She has taken photographs from around the world and discovered 'strings' within them. The string in the tile above came from a paved driveway in Florida. The picture below shows the photo that was manipulated to emphasize the string and the tile shows the string as I drew it.

Over at tickledtotangle you will find other tanglers that have also tried out this string. We also used tangles that started with the letter P. Above you will see Pendrills, Pepper, Pea-nuckle, and Peaks Border.

Whenever I do the tangle Pea-nuckle, I remember my grandfathers. One of their favorite card games was Pinochle. After the family dinner they would go to the back room of the house, smoke their cigars, and play Pinochle. They are no longer with me but I am so glad that aspects of zentangle can help me remember them.

snowflake zendala challenge

I really enjoy the zendala templates that Erin Olson puts up on her blog 'the Bright Owl'. On this template she also suggested we think of it as a snowflake. I wasn't seeing a snowflake at first but I remembered that we are allowed to add and subtract lines from the template as we wish so I found my snowflake. 

This is the original template I started with.

I started with one of my hand colored tiles and traced the lines I wanted with my light box. Actually I did the tracing directly with my white gelly roll pen. I then added more aura lines with the white pen and shaded ares I wanted to emphasize with colored pencil.

I decided to keep this zendala simple, and not add tangles this time. It feels much more serene this way.

I can't believe they are predicting more snow tonight. UGH! I am so ready for spring! As much as enjoyed the beauty of this template and the challenge of doing the snowflake, I sure hope the next challenge will have a spring theme!

Cartoon Charlie

Charlie is a tangle from Erin Koetz Olson. It was inspired by Charlie Brown from the Peanuts comic strip. When the Diva issued the challenge to use it this week I decided I would go all out and use other tangles that also reminded me of cartoon drawings. And then I needed to add comic book colors too of course! The tangles I used are;

Partly cloudy

Popcloud

Wartz

Alien Ant Farm

Barnacles

Charlie

Banbury classes

Zendala class March 9th! - I don't know how, but somehow this class didn't make it onto my blog. But we've already got some signups, so it will definitely be held! Call Banbury Fair at  630 837-1727 or 630 837-1677 to sign up.

This picture shows what you missed yesterday at Banbury! I gave out all my secrets for tangling on fabric. Didn't they do a great job! These ladies have taken several classes with me before so they are already very proficient. I love how each of them adapted their projects to their own style!