"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.
"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul." W. Somerset Maugham
Hooray! The day has finally arrived when I can officially introduce my new tiles to you. You may have noticed over the last couple of months that I have been sharing a lot of my work on colored tiles. I've been developing this new line of tiles for a long time, and I'd hoped to have these ready a while ago, but life kind of got in the way! The tiles are now in my Etsy shop, but let me tell you a little about them. Warning: This will be a long post with lots of pictures.
I love playing with alcohol inks. I'm not very good at creating anything realistic with them, but boy do they make great backgrounds for tangling. I start with alcohol inks on yupo paper, play with them, manipulate them, and let them do their own thing. Beautiful designs emerge for tangling. I scan them and print them on Bristol vellum paper and cut them into 4 inch tiles, as well as Zendala tiles. But then I decided to take it one step further. I began editing the backgrounds in Photoshop and wow! Amazing special effects were created - waves, spirals, pond ripples, geometrics, zig-zags, etc. The possibilities are endless, and addictive too! So, after many, many hours of playing, I have created hundreds of new tiles to add to my Etsy shop.
So let me share a few more with you now.
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Zendala before...
Zendala after...
Then I designed some with geometric shapes, but since these were so different than the others I decided to make them a separate group and listing in my shop.
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But that's not all! I decided to also make these designs into digital papers for crafters to use in so many different ways: scrapbooking, invitations, origami, and on and on. Here are some samples of the papers...
And just when you thought I was finished... No! I also made these into lined papers for writing and journaling. Some examples here...
NOW I'm finished. That's all I've done....square tiles, zendala tiles, geometric tiles, digital papers, and lined digital papers. If you'd like to check them out in my Etsy shop, go here. (Where you will also find my pre-strung pathway tiles!) You'll be able to see many more of the tile designs in my shop photos, although not nearly all of the designs I have.
If you have tangling friends and family, or other crafty friends and family, or writing friends and family, I would be most grateful if you'd pass my shop information on to them.
And of course, if you decide to try any of these for yourself, I would LOVE to see what you do with them!
