Phototangles

"Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks."     Yo-Yo Ma

Besides Zentangle, one of my other creative passions is photography. What could be better than combining two of your passions to create something new? I recently ordered 5x7 prints of some of my photos that I thought would lend themselves nicely to being tangled. 

Here is the original photo of a feather that was floating in the water.

I used my Sakura Microperm pens to tangle this because of the glossy surface. The Microns that I normally use to tangle on paper don't work on these.
 

Patterns used: Diva Dance and Bask-it

One of my favorite things to photograph is flowers, using macro (close-up) photography. Here is one of my flowers. It's not 5x7 because I thought it would look better as a square.

 

For this one I decided to outline the petals in white, using a gel pen. The tangles were, again, completed with the Microperm pen.

Patterns used: Florz and Printemps

Another close-up of the center of a flower...
 

  
And the tangled version...

Patterns used: Shattuck, Indyrella, 'Nzeppel, Sand Swirl, Printemps, Diva Dance, and Munchin

It's wonderful how well Zentangle can be combined with so many other creative endeavors. If you enjoy photography, take a look at your pictures and see if you might have some that would look great with tangles. 

Just in case you'd like to try this with some of your own photos, I've been printing my photos through an online service called iprintfromhome.com. I find their prices to be very reasonable and their quality to be excellent. (My local CVS did not do an acceptable job with my prints.) If you decide to give them a try, you can get a $10 credit when you create a new account by entering "TWEET-Caren Mlot" in the "referred by" box.

All Strung Out

"The coolest things in life are things that you have not done before. That's the key to life: new things always."    Afrojack

Have you ever tangled on the pre-strung Zentangle tiles? I really haven't used them much... if at all... in my five years of tangling. I think it's a great concept, having a string already drawn on the tile so you don't need to draw one of your own. Strings are simple enough to draw, but somehow I always come up blank when sitting down to tangle, and that's why most of my work has been drawn without a string. I just start with one tangle and grow it from there. 

But recently I pulled out a pre-strung tile to try. Why all of a sudden after five years? Because I sell them in my Etsy shop and they are my best seller! So I decided to see why they are so popular.

Here's my first one. 

Patterns used: Aquafleur, Betweed, orbs and lines

I had so much fun with it that I decided to do another.

Patterns used: Bunzo and Diva Dance

And another.

Patterns used: 'Nzeppel, Dex, Cootie, and Pokeroot

And another!

 Patterns used: Florz and Fassett

Now I know why they're so popular. They provide guidelines. They give you a place to begin. And a place to continue. That's something that I have trouble doing on my own. Even if you do more than one tile with the same string it will look entirely different because of the patterns you choose. So now that I get it, I will definitely continue using them. What took me so long?

If you'd like to try them yourself, you can find them here in my Etsy shop. There are 24 different strings. You can buy all 24 or buy a pack of 12. See if you like them as much as I do.