Hollibaugh Plus

Hollibaugh is a tangle that is wonderful for adding a different sort of element to my tangles. While it has the repetitive element of the two parallel lines, it also has a lot of randomness in where those lines are placed. There are also many tangleations you can do with this tangle and if you look at the challenge pieces from 'The Diva' web site you will find lots of inspiration.

One aspect of Hollibaugh that I find intriguing is that you can use it to connect other tangle patterns to each other. In the tile here I used four different tangle patterns around the edges and then used Hollibaugh to find ways to join them.

Here is the tile before shading - (and the photo was taken late at night so the focus is a little off).

Tangling in the hospital

As many of you know, being in the hospital is not fun. Since I knew my surgery was coming up soon, I packed a bag of tangling supplies. I did these ATC tiles when I was at the sweet spot in my meds so I could do  them. You know - when the medicine has started to wear off and you aren't too loopy - but before the pain started up again.

I decided to each tile diffently while keeping to a basic string and a small group of tangles.

I cut them out a paper I found at Jerry's artorama . The backrooms were done with watercolor paints. Tangles were drawn with a fine tipped pen. Finally I added the shading and highlights with colored pencils.

I'm hoping to go home later today.

Trip to Tripoli

I don't know much about Tripoli - and I don't do this tangle pattern very often so I'm not very comfortable with it. That pretty much describes how I'm feeling this morning. In a couple of hours I will be at the hospital undergoing surgery. It's something I've been anticipating for a while but I'm still very nervous and somewhat scared about. (I do have great doctors and confidence in the facility.) I will be in the hospital for about 4 days so as you can expect, it's not a minor procedure. I would appreciate it if you would send some prayers and healing thoughts my way.

See you on the flip side!

class pictures

This is a collection of pictures from fall classes this year. You can see Basics classes, Beyond the Basics, Jewelry, Shrink art, Holidays and Zenspirations. I apologize that some are not in good focus. AND be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see a special one on one class photo.

Zenspirations

Holiday tangles

This is my granddaughter who tried her hand at an art piece with lots of triangle shapes that she glued down. She was so proud of what she accomplished!

Just a taste

Let's call this an experiment.  I've been wanting to tangle my suitcase that I carry class supplies in but I just haven't - until now. Really, the idea of adding just a taste of Zentangle was just the right idea.

I used a white pen so I have no idea how durable it will be. Check back in a few months and I'll post an update.

Gourdgeous

Gourdgeous is the newest tangle pattern featured in the Zentangle newsletter. It was inspired by the pattern on bead board and it evolved into the pattern that is similar to all the gourds that we see in autumn. This is a tangle that challenged me at first - so I just decided to keep doing it until I was happy. 

This is how I started out. I did it a couple of times and wasn't too thrilled. So I tried the version with the dimple at the bottom and was happier. One more time in the basic way to balance out the zendala. So far so good - now what. Well, I got this far on Monday and hit a mental block. I couldn't decide what do do next. Finally last night I settled on the patterns to complete this piece. There is a version of Sampson in the middle and Vigne around the border. Done!

Stone tangles

Stones are fun to tangle. It really gives you a very tactile experience. First you need to choose the right stone. As I walked along the beach I saw many to choose from. If the shape looked promising I picked it up. I turned it over, I felt it to see if it was smooth enough. If it felt right I put it in my pocket. Sometimes I would catch myself playing with the rock in my pocket later that day - feeling the shape in my hand.

Washing the stone would reveal other aspects to the stone. I would discover cracks, and/or see that the water would darken the color of the stone.

After it dried I would turn the stone in all directions, trying to see if there were any tangles that seemed to be wanting to be drawn on that particular stone. When I 'discovered' them it was almost a Eureka moment!

I did most of my tangles with the Sakura IDentipen and the white graphite pencil. On the really dark rocks I used my white gelly roll pens. 

I have accumulated quite a few rocks now. These rocks are a combination of rocks I found along the shoreline in Rhode Island and rocks that I have purchased. I discovered that my big box home improvement store sells bags of rocks for landscaping. The river rock bags had several lovely shapes! (If you live in a Northern climate you may need to wait for spring to see these in stock again.)

 I love drawing Zendalas so it seemed only natural to create a small rock mandala. I used a black placemat under the composition to keep my rocks organized. Fun - and soothing.