Goodbye For Now

"Thank you for listening. Thank you for abiding me. And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I bid you goodbye and take my leave."      Frank Deford

It's been a while since I've posted here. After giving it much thought, I've decided to put my blog on hold, at least for the time being. I have other areas that I need to focus my attention on. 

I will continue to tangle and post my work on my Tangle Mania FB page. If you are not already following me there, you can find my page here. 

So for now, goodbye, and I hope to see you over on FB. Thanks for being a part of my blogging journey.

 

Zenduo #14

"Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand – relax."     Osho

I'm back with another Zenduo, this one #14. I feel like I should be much further along in my series by now, but there are so many other things to do that it's going slowly. That's okay, there's no pressure to zip through them (that wouldn't be zen!)

I decided to draw this one on a pre-strung tile from Zentangle.com. Here's what it looked like before I did anything.

The two tangles next on my list were Bowties from Lori Howe and Brella by Bunny Wright. Here's what I came up with. In the three sections that I used Brella, I tried to turn them in different directions. That didn't go so well, but I do like the contrast in this tile.
 

Although I try to incorporate more white space into my tiles than I used to, that space in the center just didn't feel right to me, so I decided to add color. I randomly chose red/orange and blended pastel pencils in the space. After doing that I felt like it looked like the flame on a candle, so that was the deciding factor in which direction the tile went.

Hope to be back soon with another Zenduo, or perhaps another project I'm working on. Happy tangling!

 

Zenduo # 13

"If you get stuck, draw with a different pen. Change your tools; it may free your thinking."     Paul Arden

It's been a while since I've worked on my Zenduo project, but I'm finally back with another one. If you didn't catch the beginning of my project, and have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read about it here.

This one is lucky #13. The two patterns used were Bloom from Helen Williams and Borbz from Rita N. These two did not suggest an easy way of combining them, and I wasn't all that happy with this, but it did look better with some shading, white pastel pencil highlights, and a little bit of gold metallic gelly roll pen. I used some new paper I recently bought... a pad of Strathmore Artagain paper in several different colors. I've used, and like, their black drawing paper, but had not seen these colors before. This one is a light brown and shows the white highlights nicely.

I really liked the metallic gold so thought I'd add a little more. I outlined the blooms to make them pop a bit.

The paper worked very well with the pens and pencils I used, and I'm looking forward to trying out some of the other colors in the pad.

Somnee

"A picture is worth ten thousand words."   
Fred R. Barnard

I'm back! I haven't been tangling much in the last few weeks as I've been preoccupied with another passion of mine. Photography. My husband and I decided to open an Etsy shop to sell prints of our photographs. It took quite a bit of work and time setting it all up, but we finally did it. If any of you would like to take a peek, you can see the shop, Seen Thru The Lens, here. And if you're interested in following us on FB, please "like" our page here. 

So, now that that's done I can get back to tangling, and I sure have missed it! I shouldn't let myself go so long without picking up my pens. I'm diving back into it with an entry for the Diva's challenge, using her own tangle Somnee. The name comes from a night of insomnia, and I can sure relate to that! I haven't had a good night's sleep in a very l-o-n-g time. 

Here's the zendala tile I used to draw on... one of the tiles I make using alcohol inks. 

The swirl gets a little lost in the tangling, but here is what I did. I drew Somnee in blue, and then added some Crescent Moon, Fassett, and a drop of Tipple in black pen. 

Then I added some shading used an indigo pastel pencil, along with some graphite.

Somnee is one of those tangles where it's hard to know when to stop. I could have just gone on and on with it (I love lines), but made myself stop so I could include some other patterns. 

Well now that I've gotten back into the swing of tangling, I hope to start sharing more often again. Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you back here soon.

 

Knightsbridge Drama

"Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that color never can."      
Jack Antonoff

I love the drama that Knightsbridge brings to any piece of Zentangle art work. Recently I completed some tiles using Knightsbridge as a monotangle (just one pattern), and I decided to do some more. This time I'm using pre-strung tiles from zentangle.com. 

Here is the first one. I like the string and most of the tile, but I'm not too happy with the way that bottom loop came out, the one where it looks like diamonds.

The next one is fairly simple, nothing fancy, but I do like the way it turned out.

The string on the next one was squares within squares.

I thought since I was working on pre-strung tiles, I might as well go ahead and tangle one of my own pre-strung tiles. The colored ones I make with alcohol inks and sell in my etsy shop. Here's the way the zendala tile looked before tangling.

And here it is after adding Knightsbridge to all the pathways.

Then I decided to try adding little white dots as embellishments. I'm not sure that I like it, but I'm sharing it with you anyway.

Knightsbridge is such a simple but fun tangle. If you haven't used it in a while, try some to add a little drama to your day!

Paradox

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."    
Soren Kiergegaard
 
The Diva's challenge this week is to do a monotangle (only one pattern) with the tangle pattern Paradox. One of my favorite tangles. First I took a tile that I had colored with Dylusion paints a long time ago. I drew random triangles to form my string and filled them with Paradox. I LOVE lines!

Then I randomly filled in some of the spaces to add contrast. This tile was all about randomness.

Next, I decided to do something more symmetrical.

Again, I filled a few spaces with black, and added some graphite shading.

Paradox... I love the mesmerizing effect it has. At least for me.

 

Just Cruzing Along

"There are no rules to creativity."      Laura Jaworski

Adele Bruno, CZT, hosts a weekly Zentangle challenge called "It's a String Thing." I've contributed a tile a couple of times, but mostly I just lurk around in the background admiring everyone else's work. As I was lurking about this week, I noticed that her challenge features Cruze, one of my tangle patterns, as one of the three patterns for this week. How could I NOT participate?

This is the string for the tile:

I tangled using two of the three patterns suggested, Cruze and Lukiline. I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the third tangle, Lucky, so I decided to leave it out. I liked my tile better after I turned it upside-down from the way I show it above.

Once I did that tile, it got me in the mood to do something else with Cruze. So pulled out a tile I had colored green and yellow, to keep in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. Using Cruze, Beelight off the grid, and Flowtus, here is what I drew.

On both tiles I used pastel pencils for coloring/shading, and on the second tile I added some white highlighting with my white pastel pencil.  

Happy St. Paddy's Day everyone!

Zenduos 11 and 12

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable."      Robert Henri

Just a quick post to share my next two Zenduo tiles. Number 11 uses the patterns BB and Beelight. I included some Beelight in a grid, like the original pattern, and then added some more Beelight not in the grid. To me it looks like the Beelight is escaping from under a pile of books.

First before shading:

And then after shading:

Zenduo number 12 uses the patterns Beeline and Betweed.
I made jumbo Beeline so I could incorporate the Betweed inside it.

And that's it for today. Until next time...happy Tangling!

 

Colored Tile Tangling and Sale

"Sometimes all you need is a little splash of colour."    Unknown

It was one year ago that I introduced my new line of colored tiles in my Etsy shop. These tiles were handmade using alcohol inks, and then many, but not all, were digitally enhanced to create all kinds of interesting effects. To celebrate the anniversary, I've decided to offer a discount on the purchase of any colored tiles for a limited time. You can get a coupon code at the end of my blog, but first I have lots of photos to share.

Here is some tangling I did on one of my pre-strung colored Zendala tiles. These tiles are not digitally enhanced... they come out looking like this just by using the inks with plastic wrap. First the tile before tangling.

 

These tiles are great for tangling inside the pathways formed by the inks, outside the pathways, or both! Here I added Florz inside the paths.

 

Then I decided to add some Diva Dance in a few of the open areas.

Finally, I did some pencil shading.

Next I took one of my square colored tiles, without pathways. Here is the before.

I chose the pattern Toodles, which I had not used previously. Not bad for my first time. I added some Printemps around the outside of Toodles, and then shaded using pastel pencils. One reason I love my pastel pencils so much is that no matter what color I'm trying to match, I always seem to have the perfect pencil. I couldn't believe how the pencil was almost an exact match to the ink color in the tile.
 

Next I went back to another Zendala, this time without the pathways... or I guess I could say this has pathways of another kind.

On this one I used the patterns Maryhill, Opally, Flux, and Tipple. 
 

Then I used a pastel pencil (an exact match again) to add red shading, as well as a graphite pencil for some additional shading. This was a really fun tile to create with a few of my favorite patterns.
 

I decided to add one more tile, another square one.

Here I used the patterns Knightsbridge, Sunbeam (from my e-book Step Out in Style), Tipple, N'zeppel, and Flukes. No pastel pencil shading here, just graphite.

These tiles give you an idea of the variety of tiles that are in my shop, but here are some other pictures to show you even more.

Square colored tiles:

Colored Zendala tiles:
 

Colored geometric tiles: 

Colored pre-strung (pathway) tiles:
 

Gray square pre-strung (pathway) tiles:

Gray Zendala pre-strung (pathway) tiles:  

I hope you'll check these out in my Etsy shop and help me celebrate my anniversary. If you use the code ANN10 when you check out, you will get 10% off your order, good through March 11th. 

Here's to happy times tangling with color!

Time for 9 and 10

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."     Albert Einstein

Another two Zenduos finished! 

The first one, my #9, combined the two patterns Baldosa and two variations of Bales. Baldosa is one of my own tangles which was introduced in my e-book Step Out in Style, which I published in 2014. If you haven't seen it yet, it contains 40 new tangle patterns not published anywhere else, and you can take a peek here.

I created this one on a tile that I colored using Dylusions paints. I scanned the tile to show it before tangling, but... I didn't save it immediately, and while I went ahead and did the tangling my laptop decided on its own to restart, and in so doing, the scan was lost. Frustrating! But here is the final tile, which includes some tangling and accents with a white gelly roll pen.

For the next one, #10, I used one of the colored tiles that I make using alcohol ink (also available in my Etsy shop). This time I was sure to save it right after scanning it!

Then I tangled using the next two patterns in my collection, Basketweave from Suzanne McNeill, and Baton from Carole Ohl (one of my favorite patterns). I added a little shading with pastel pencils.

Hmmm...looking ahead to what the patterns will be for my next Zenduo... it will be an interesting combination. Hope to see you back here once I've completed that one.

Zenduos # 7 and 8

"If you're not being challenged, you're not getting any better."     Bart Brooks

As promised, I'm back with another segment of my Zenduo adventure. For #7 I grabbed a colored tile that has been sitting in my pile for a LONG time. It was colored using Dylusions paints, some pink and some purple. The next two tangles in my collection were Atorm (by Mate Mavromat... sp?) and Auraknot from Zentangle.com. They are two very different tangles, so I chose to focus on Auraknot and make a border for it with Atorm. I like the off-center Auraknot and was very happy with my tile.

Here it is with some shading on Auraknot. I used my purple pastel pencil to help pull out some more of the purple in the background.

I also completed Zenduo #8. Talk about two very different tangles... here's a grid, B'Twined (by Pegi Schargel), and a very organic pattern, B'Dylan (by Mary Beth Schoonover). It was tough figuring out how to put these two together, but I managed to come up with something...

One thing I am loving about my Zenduo adventure (besides it forcing me to use a lot of my seldom used tangles), is that it makes me come up with creative combinations. Many of the pairings I will be doing are not tangles that I would normally put together. The challenge is good for me!

In case you are new to my blog and have no idea what my Zenduo adventure is all about, you can get informed here. 

Black and White and Red All Over

"To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul."        Andri Cauldwell

 
In my last blog post I mentioned a project I was working on which had slowed down the progress I am making on my Zenduo adventure. Well, it's finally finished and I'm back to share the process photos along with the final project.

We recently moved to a new house and I wanted to tangle something to hang on one of the walls. I bought a frame that is meant to hold 10 individual photos. My plan was to design a string that would run through all 10 spaces and then tangle 10 4x6 pieces that would form a cohesive whole. I liked the idea of the 10 separate parts so if I messed up one it wouldn't mean I needed to start the whole thing over. Amazingly enough I did not need to redo any of them!  

I decided to tangle on white Stonehenge paper. The decorating scheme in my house is black and white and gray, with red accents. The style is modern, which is probably evident from the colors. Goes great with Zentangle! So in the same way, my tangling would be black on white, gray (graphite) shading, and red accents. 

I cut out 10 pieces of the Stonehenge and laid them out the way the frame was designed. I had to tape them together so I could draw the string. Here are a few pictures of the string.

I tangled Gewurtz in the "pathway", and then some Sand Swirl and Munchin. I chose tangles that I not only liked, but felt very comfortable with so there was less chance of messing up.

Then I added Fassett, N'zeppel, and Tipple. I probably should mention that I did all my tangling with my new Micron PN pens, which I love. They have a sturdier plastic nib with the same great ink.

I continued with Beelight not in a grid, Printemps, and some more Fassett.

I completed the tangling with Diva Dance, Huggins, and some more Munchin and Tipple. I was waiting to add the red accents until after all the tangling, but I had to use it on the Diva Dance as I went along.

 
Then I went back and added some more red accents using a red Identipen since I found that to be a truer red than the Micron red pen.

And then the rest of the red that I wanted. The only section that I left without red accents was the N'zeppel.

Next was the task of shading, which took quite a bit of time. And finally...

That wasn't a great photo, so a couple of close-up shots so you can see it a little better, especially the shading.

Unfortunately you can't see the red at all in the Sand Swirl in that picture. I also took a photo at an angle so you can see that the frame is actually 3-D.

And after all that, I figured I should show you what it looks like on my wall. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and think it fits in very well with the rest of my decor. I was so relieved after all that work!

Now back to my other project...Zenduos.