Just Playing Around

"A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament."   Oscar Wilde

I just returned home from a 10 day trip. First to visit my sister in Massachusetts, and then on to Maine for three awesome, inspiring, jam-packed days of tangling and socializing with more than 100 other CZTs at Tangle University. More on the latter in the near future. Right now I thought I'd share some of the tangling I did while visiting my sister, who also does some tangling of her own. 

I recently published my e-book, Step Out in Style, in which I included tangles from 10 guest CZT contributors. I really haven't had much time to play with their tangles, so that's what I set out to do. Here's the first tile I did, which focuses on Sochi, the tangle submitted by Cris Letourneau, author of the book Made in the Shade, as well as a new book due out very shortly. I really like the swirly feel of this tangle, and the swirls actually became the string.

Next I decided to use a zendala tile. I incorporated patsy monk's tangle (yes, her name is legally spelled with only lowercase letters), Kornel, in the center, and Karen Crittenden's tangle, Bones, radiating out on the four sides. Although I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, and even though it is a little off center, I was very happy with the look of it when it was finished. 

After that, I attempted three new tangles in one tile. Forming the diagonal on this tile is Just Great, by Mary Ann Scheblein-Dawson. I added two variations of Donna Hornsby's tangle Kardz. It's the one with blackened rectangles in one version, and lines with sparkles in the other version. Then I added Alyss Amster's tangle, Grate (with the lines radiating out from the center) and finished it off with one of my old favorites, Baton. I like the contrast between the light and airy center and the darkness surrounding it, but I'm not sure if I tried to squeeze too much into the space. 

For my fourth tile I pulled out a tan colored Renaissance tile. I included Shrumps, with a slight variation from the original, by Kathryn Jacoby. It's the pattern on the upper part of the tile, with the black "centers". On the lower half I drew Grace, by Deb Prewitt. I liked the way the brown and black pens went together with the white highlights in both of the tangles. I finished off the four corners of the tile with some Betweed and Huggins.

At this point I had two more tangles to play with. I started with Sharon McKenney's Mimi-Meemer in the center of this tile. Here it reminds me of a layer cake about to topple over! Then I added Radhost, by Yvonne Westover. I chose to use single strands of the pattern, criss-crossing behind the "cake". Florz made a nice open background for the tile, after which I added a few pops of red.

And there you have it, my examples of 10 new tangles from the contributors to my book. It was a lot of fun playing with them, and although some look a little different than in the original step-outs, that's what makes Zentangle so great. You can take a pattern and make it your own and have a completely unique piece of art!