"Some of the most creative ideas emerge from a swirl of chaos" Unknown
So many ideas of what I want to tangle. New things I want to try. Challenges I want to face. Unfortunately...there aren't enough hours in the day to do it all. At least not if I want to get any sleep. And if I don't get any sleep I won't be any good at what I do. So the only solution is to pick and choose.
CZT Adele Bruno puts out a weekly challenge called "It's a String Thing." Because of that picking and choosing that I was just talking about, I have actually only participated in the challenge one time. If you missed it you can see the tile I entered here. Although I did not participate in the challenge from a couple of weeks ago, I did peruse all the tiles sent to Adele, as I usually do each week. There was something about the swirly string, #54, that really called out to me.
Actually, it wasn't the string that called out to me, but what I saw
that everyone had done with the string. So I decided to give it a whirl. Here's what I ended up with.
Some Knightsbridge, Cubine, Moving Day (by CZT Margaret Bremner), and the latest official tangle called Ing (my first time using it). Taking a grid and making it curvy can add such movement to a piece. I hope you like this one as much as I do!
"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke
I finally got around to completing my second...and third.... templates shared by Ben Kwok on the Facebook page Ornation Creation. If you missed my first one, the owl, you can see it here. I'm just picking the templates I am most drawn to (no pun intended), in no specific order.
The second template I tangled was this hummingbird.
And the third one was this peacock. I left it unshaded because I wanted to add color.
Here it is again after adding color with Tombow markers. Instead of coloring the "coil" frame, I just shaded it with pencil. I love how 3 dimensional it looks.
I can't make up my mind if I like the color or if I should have just shaded with pencil instead. But there's no going back, so colored it is, like it or not.
Three templates completed. Only 59 more to go. But I'll never do them all, and that's okay.
"Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat." Scottish proverb
The Diva's challenge this week is to use the tangle MacDee (step-outs found here), by Anneke Van Dam. Anneke says that the pattern reminds her of a classic Scottish checkered fabric, so she gave it a Scottish sounding name. I completed this challenge in honor of my daughter, who has been living in Scotland for the last 6 months. As a matter of fact, I will be going there next week to visit her, where I'm sure I will see LOTS of checkered Scottish fabrics!
Since the colors of the Scottish flag are blue and white (I admit that I had to look that up), I chose one of my blue hand-colored tiles to work on. I tangled using a blue Micron pen and a white Uni-ball Signo UM 153 gel pen. A blue Prismacolor pencil was used to add just a touch of shading, along with some very subtle white charcoal pencil highlighting.
When I first saw the pattern I immediately thought background. I decided to keep it simple and used Arc Flower as the center of focus in order to have a contrast between the very geometric MacDee and the curviness of the flower. This is definitely not one of my favorite tiles, but something a little different.
"Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional."
Liz Vassey
The newest member of the Zentangle family recently came out of his shell to be introduced to the world. If you have not yet met Bijou, you can read about this adorable little snail here and watch some videos. Along with Bijou, Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas have introduced a new mini Bijou sized tile. Made of the same paper as the 3 1/2 inch Zentangle tiles, these cute little tiles are just that....little! They are 2 inches square. That's only a little over 1/4 the size of the regular tiles. Small...and quick to tangle. Have only a few minutes? Pull out a Bijou tile and you'll complete it in no time at all.
The Diva's challenge this week is to "Be like Bijou" and tangle something little. Since I don't have any Bijou tiles yet, I cut my own out of watercolor paper. On my first tile I decided to try out the new tangle pattern, Maryhill, by CZT Betsy Wilson. I love the look of this pattern once it's shaded.
Next I used Tripoli with several different finishing touches.
Since both of those were monotangles (using only one pattern), I decided to do the next one with more than one pattern. I tried out Holdy (by Ksenija Vojisavljevic) for the first time, along with Flux.
And for my last one, I used my tangle Collana in the center (from my e-book Step Out in Style ), Florz, and Ramy (Sandy Steen Bartholomew).
I took a picture of one of my Bijou tiles next to a regular sized tile, just to show you how little these tiles really are. The bigger tile is one I completed while waiting at the airport on a recent trip.
And speaking of the airport, here's the tile I completed in the airport at the other end of my trip.
I will confess that I had more fun tangling on these Bijou sized tiles than I thought I would. They're tiny, they're cute, and they're kind of irresistible.
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have." Maya Angelou
How many of you remember Spirograph from when you were a kid? For those of you who may not, it's a geometric drawing toy. I just looked it up and found out it was first sold in 1965. Now I may be dating myself, but I'm sure it wasn't long after that when I played with it. I'm pretty sure the toy is still manufactured, but it's probably not as good as the original. My sister still has the one that we had in our house all those years ago.
So why am I talking about Spirograph you ask? Because not too long ago I found a miniature version of it on Etsy. Here is the link so you can see what I mean. I had the idea to somehow combine this spiral art tool with my Zentangles. I pulled it out this week for a test run. First I practiced many times on scrap paper to make sure I could do it without messing up. Once I got a good flow going, I took out my journal and used the tool to draw the center of this zendala, which is about 4 1/2 inches square (even though it's not a square...I think you get the idea).
I used a gray Tombow marker to shade it, instead of my usual graphite pencil. It was really easy to do and came out looking pretty good!
Next I wanted to use my new tool to draw an outer border, rather than a center. So again I practiced first. Then I drew this on an 8 inch square piece of 90 lb. watercolor paper.
This one I shaded with graphite for a reason that you will understand in a minute. I was very happy with it, but the outer ring was just screaming out for some knightsbridge, so I added random rows, not trying at all to make it symmetrical. I think the result is very interesting. Usually I prefer symmetry, and that's why I love zendalas so much, but I love the asymmetrical aspect of this one.
Never satisfied to just leave things alone, I knew I wanted to add some color to the outer ring. And that, my friends, is why I didn't use my Tombow marker to shade this one, because I wanted to erase the shading on the ring before adding the color (color and pencil shading don't always mix so well). I added the color with my Tombow markers, but not before making sure I had a good picture of what I had completed...just in case. I'm happy to say that I don't think I ruined it, although a couple of small parts came out darker than I wanted.
I will be playing some more with my new toy to see if I can find other unique ways to co-mingle it with my Zentangles.
I'd be really interested to hear which version you like most - no
knightsbridge, knightsbridge just black and white, or knightsbridge with
color. I'm also wondering if I've inspired anyone to pull out their old Spirograph or maybe buy a little mini version like mine?
