Shattuck

"Art is as natural as sunshine and as vital as nourishment."    Mary Ann Kohl

The Diva's challenge this week was to use the pattern Shattuck as a monotangle, meaning only using that one pattern on a tile. I love Shattuck! Here's the tile I did, combining my love of lines with my love of contrast.

Of course I had to do another tile. But this one is not a monotangle because I added two other patterns, Mooka and Tipple. I used one of my tiles that I colored with alcohol inks. I'm a little frustrated because I had a hard time getting the color to look right for this picture. I tried scanning the tile and then using my camera, but it just isn't quite right.

The background really has more color than what you see here, and the colors are softer. Oh well! I used pastel pencils to add some shading in greens, blues, and gray.

Now off to work on some tiles with Knightsbridge, the focus tangle on the Square One Facebook group. My tile is featured over there this week and I need to get going on some more, because Knightsbridge is another one of my favorite patterns. I'll be back soon to show you what I come up with.

 

Forgotten Patterns

"I don't trust words. I even question actions. But I never doubt patterns."   Unknown

A couple of years ago I published an e-book, Step Out in Style, which has 40 tangle patterns in it. Most of the patterns are my own, but I also included several from other talented CZTs. So many patterns I developed, yet when I'm tangling I rarely use them. Why? I don't know! I just don't think of them, as strange as that may sound. So I decided to devote this blog post to some of those patterns.

This first one was created on a piece of tan paper. The pattern I did in brown pen is called Robo. This is one of my favorites from my book, maybe because it's made up primarily of lines. I love using a combination of black and brown pens on tan paper, and then, of course, adding highlights with white pastel pencil. 

Patterns used: Robo, N'zeppel, Garlic, and Tipple

For the next one I used one of my hand-colored blue tiles. My pattern that I highlight here is Danza, the one going down the center of the tile. I used a blue Micron pen to tangle this, and found it interesting to see how much darker the pen looked when it was used to fill in the areas, compared to when it was used to just draw lines.

Patterns used: Danza, Sand Swirl, lines, and orbs

For the last one I used a traditional Zentangle tile. The pattern you see on the right and left sides is called Baldosa.

Patterns used: Baldosa, a tangleation of Florz, and Dandi

Now that I've shown you a few of my tangles, maybe you'd like to try them out. If you've read this far, and you don't already have my e-book, I'd like to offer you a $2 discount to get a copy for yourself. You can find the book here in my Etsy shop. Use the code 2OFFBLOG before you check out. This code will be good through March 31st. I hope you enjoy it!

Road Trip

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey."       
Babs Hoffman

 I recently returned from a trip to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. They live far away and I only get to see them a couple of times a year, so I didn't do a whole lot of tangling, but I did squeeze in a little while the kids were napping here and there. 

First, I want to share a picture of my grandson who turned four while we were there. He did his first ZIA star, filled with Printemps. He made lots of stars, and when I asked if he'd like to learn a different design for his other stars, he said no. He was happy making many Printemps filled stars.

Here is the proud tangler.

Now for my tangling...

 Patterns used: Flux and Bunzo

The next one was completed on a pre-strung Zendala tile. Rather than filling in all the spaces, which I normally would do, I chose to tangle around the string and leave it with a very light and airy feel.

 Patterns used: Baton, Heartstrings, Beadlines and orbs

Next I used one of my hand-colored tiles. I began with Phicops in the center... and should have made it into a monotangle, just Phicops, but I didn't, and now it's too busy for my liking. Oh well!

 Patterns used: Phicops, Molygon and Sand Swirl

The following tile was completed for the Square One Facebook group where the focus tangle of the week was Zonked. I like the way this turned out, but I have to admit that I did not find it relaxing to tangle this pattern. This is a white tile which was blackened in all around to give it some drama.

Patterns used: Zonked and Tipple

And that's all the tangling I did during the week. I was kept occupied by two little people who I miss so much already!