Putting my Paper to Good Use

"I go wherever my creativity takes me."     Lil Wayne

A couple of months ago I pulled out a piece of scrapbooking paper to tangle on. I have a box full of these papers which I rarely use. This is what I created with a white gelly roll pen.

Patterns used: Flux and Henna Drum

I was leaving shortly after that for my cruise and decided to take a bunch of squares of various papers to work on... they are very thin and lightweight and take up virtually no space in my suitcase. Here are the before and afters of the ones I tangled on vacation. The before pictures don't match exactly because those photos were taken of a different section from the larger piece of paper.

 Pattern used: Baton

 Patterns used: Knightsbridge, elements of Crescent Moon, Static, Up n Down, Tipple, Fassett, Printemps, and Cubine tangleation

 Patterns used: Inapod and Uncorked tangleation

If you're like me and have a stack of papers just waiting for... something... someday... you might want to pull them out and see what you can tangle up! 

Off the Beaten Pathway

"The imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere."      
 Terence McKenna

I'm back to share some more of the tangling I did on my recent cruise. If you missed my first blog from the cruise, about patterns and my tangling, check it out here. In addition to the official Zentangle pre-strung tiles I shared last time, I brought along some of my own colored pre-strung tiles to work on. Here are the before and after photos of the first one.

 Patterns used: Diva Dance and a tangleation of Beelight

For the tangling I used Micron pens in purple and pink, along with a white gelly roll pen.

The next one I chose was in a totally different color family.

Patterns used: Elements of Florz and Printemps

This one combined brown and black pens, as well as the white gelly roll. A brown pastel pencil was used to fill in the Printemps swirls.

Then I picked one of my gray tiles and did lots of line work to fill in the pathways. My lines are not as smooth as they could be, but luckily when you hold the tile out and look at it, it looks okay (just don't look too closely!)

If you haven't tried my pre-strung colored and gray tiles yet, you can check them out in my etsy shop. They're a lot of fun to use to fill in the pathways or the backgrounds. I only introduced these tiles in July, and so many of you have purchased them and told me how much you love them. Thanks to all of you who have given them a whirl!

There's still more tangling from my cruise to share, so I'll be back soon!

Cruise Tangling

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."    Andre Gide

I just returned home from a three week vacation. We cruised northern Europe and then stayed a few days in Bruges, Belgium at the end. I've been on cruise ships before, and I've traveled around Europe before, and both the ships and the cities I've visited have always been chock full of patterns to inspire any tangler. Well, this cruise ship and these European destinations were no different. First I will share photos of some of the patterns I encountered.

 I can't remember what this is, but it reminds me of a Knightsbridge tangleation:

  Some carpet doing the Diva Dance:

  Tile flooring:

Colorful design inspiration on a store window:

 This was the wall in one of the restaurants. I have a feeling this is already a named pattern, but I can't think of what it is. And if it's not, it should be!

 The pattern on a sofa in our hotel in Bruges:

A lampshade:

Tile design on the ground in a plaza in Bruges:

 

 

Munchin-like carpet:

Tippled glass lamp shade:

Hollibaugh etched glass in the pool area on the ship:

 Tipple all lined up. Can't remember where this was taken:

Carpet on the ship:

More Hollibaugh on the ship's carpet:

More Diva Dance on a metal sculpture of a cello:

How would you like some of this carpet in your home?

More carpet designs. This reminds me of a combination of N'zeppel and Printemps:

 Some zendala inspiration from a lace curtain:

From the number of photos I took (more than 2200), you wouldn't think there would be time for much else. However, I also did a bit of tangling while traveling, mostly on the days we were at sea without stopping at a port. I'll share just a little of what I did here, and will roll out some of my other pieces in additional blog posts over the next week or two. I had brought along a few pre-strung official Zentangle tiles, and I'll start with those. 

 Patterns used: Cubine, Dex, Florz, and Paradox

 Patterns used: Knightsbridge, Sand Swirl, Navaho, Brit, Munchin, Baton, and Betweed.

 

 Patterns used: Hollibaugh, Hibred, Ginili, and some lines

I'm not in love with any of these tiles, but they're okay and they did provide some good relaxation. And, after all, isn't that what Zentangle is really all about? I enjoy using the pre-strung tiles so that no thinking is involved. No debating about how to draw the string, which, although it seems like it should be such an easy thing, often gets me hung up. If you haven't tried the pre-strung tiles yet, or are in need of some more, you can find them in my Etsy shop here. 

I'll be back with another post soon to share some more of my cruise tangling. Hope you'll be back too!

 

Tangled Tessellations

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.

I have a book called Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns, from Dover publications. This design struck me as a perfect one to tangle, with large enough spaces to work in. Some of the other designs are intricate on their own and wouldn't be suitable for tangling.

First I transferred the pattern onto a piece of white Stonehenge paper so I would have pencil outlines instead of printed lines. I chose the patterns Maryhill (love that tangle by Betsy Wilson) and 'Nzeppel.

Then I shaded it, which took as long as the tangling did, even though it may not look like it! I love the way a pencil blends so nicely on that paper.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I'll have to look at my book again to find another page to do. The designs make great strings for tangling.

Shading with Markers

"Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find?"    
 Ridley Scott

I recently (actually it's probably been a while now) purchased Eni Oken's e-book on shading with gray markers. Finally I got a chance to give the technique a whirl. I used Copic markers - N0, N2, and N4 - and worked on official Zentangle tiles. 

I wanted to see how different the shading with markers looked from shading with graphite, so first I took out a tile I completed a while ago with graphite. I erased a small section of my pencil shading and did it over with the markers. Below you can see where I used the markers on the big top section of Phicops, while the rest of the tile has pencil. The marker shading looks smoother and has a more silvery tone to it. 

I liked the way it looked, so I tangled another tile to shade entirely with markers.

Then another tile where I tried out the tangle Citrus, by Adele Bruno, for the first time. Here I show it before shading and then after shading with the Copics.

Another one using the new to me tangle Belle, by Sarah Harrison. I think the Huggins may have gotten a little overwhelmed by the shading.

Lastly, I did a monotangle of another new to me tangle, Op Art 1, by Ina Sonnenmoser.

It was fun working with the Copic markers for shading. I still need to delve a little more into Eni's e-book. I have the gray pens she suggests using to add the finishing touches, but have to admit that I totally forgot about using them on these tiles. Oh well, next time!