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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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!

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

Banbury basics 3/8

Great class today. Take a look at our class mosaics!

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!

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.

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