More Zenith tangleations

Playing with the Zenith tangle pattern again. I used bolder lines and lots of 'comma' shapes. I love how the Zenith tangle pattern allows so many different options.

Tangle Unexpected

The Diva challenged us to tangle something different this week - I LOVE to think outside the box and I've tangled a wide variety of things in the past. I tangled in the sand at the beach. I've drawn tangles on the driveway with chalk. Canvas bags, canvas jackets, T shirts and more have received a tangled touch. I even tangled on the bucket that we used in the ALS icebucket challenge. If you go back through the pictures on this blog you will see them. I had a few on this computer I added below so you can see a few of them here.

This particular project was done on an old AOL promotional disc. I used black, acrylic paint to cover the shiny side of the disc. After it dried I used a ball stylus and scratched my tangles into the surface to exposing the shiny surface below the paint.

Here I tangled on my sandals with a white gelly roll pen.

This plastic luminary was tangled with a Sakura Microperm pen.

DuPage Art League classes

I have had some great classes at the DuPage Art League in Wheaton, IL. The pictures below are class mosaics. The first two are from the second class of a two week workshop. The last picture is from a one hour intro to Zentangle session. 

There will be another two week session in October on the 19th and 26th. Contact them to sign up.

I always find it amazing how I can teach the same tangles and the students come up with such exciting tangleations.

Stripes

This was a wonderful relaxing tile for the challenge this week. Stripes make a string that is straightforward and doesn't tax the brain too much. So I just had to find a quiet time to sit down to tangle. I decided to color in alternate stripes first and use a white pen on the black stripes.

Celtic knot for Byrne and Kelly

This is a Zendala I gave to two of my favorite singers, Neil Byrne and Ryan Kelly. Starting with one of my colored tiles I tangled around the outline of a celtic knot. I tangled with a dark green Micron and shaded with colored pencils. Highlights were done with a white graphite pencil. I used a celtic knot inspired by one from Jean Theurkauf. Check out her blog at http://artofthetangle.com/.

I had the pleasure of listening to a concert from Neil Byrne and Ryan Kelly in my own home town. The duo are also known as part of Celtic Thunder. I've seen Celtic Thunder in large theaters before but I've usually been up in the nosebleed seats. This time I sat in the front row, barely 5 feet from the stage. They sang in the upstairs room at McGonical's Pub in Barrington. It was a wonderful concert filled with songs I knew and several new compositions. 

Since it was such an intimate space we were able to actually personally meet the two of them before the show. That's when I gave them the Zendala tile pictured above. 

This is a snippet from their song 'the Ragman'. If you search for it on YouTube you can find longer versions.

CanT - Diamonds and Pearls

 CanT - The tangle from Chris Titus CZT is a fun tangle that starts with the Florz tangle and goes on and on. As I was playing with it I was more and more fascinated with the diamond shape I was seeing so I decided to play with it in this tile. I used a Renaissance tile to start. Pencil shading - white graphite - and a little colored pencil shading.

The pictures of the tile in progress are below. I apologize that the color is off in the photos. - I took them indoors and only went outside for the final photo.

starting the tangle with linework only

adding just pencil shading

adding the white graphite

 This was an experiment with a small scratch off tile. As I scratched, the colors below were revealed. I couldn't find a tool that scratched well without scratching all the way down to the white so I kept trying different tools. In the end I decided to just use the white scratches that went too deep and try to make them work as highlights. It was an interesting process but I wasn't happy - plus my hand hurt from trying different tools - so I think I'm done with these.

One more go at Zenith

Before the week ends I had another go at a monotangle with the new tangle Zenith. I'm really enjoying playing with tangleations. 

Zenith jewelry updated

Several of you asked me to show you the pictures of the shrink art jewelry finished.  Here are the ones I showed previously plus another. As you can see they can be either a necklace or earrings.