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!

 

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.

 

Celtic Knot

"When you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."   
 Theodore Roosevelt

Fellow CZT Cherryl Moote recently wrote a blog post on drawing Celtic knots. She included some videos of how to draw different versions. The videos were very helpful and they inspired me to try making one. 

This is one of my colored zendala tiles that I began with.

Following her video, which you can find here, I drew this knot. I have to admit that I drew it in pencil first so I could tweak it as I went.
 

Then I added some lines in the knot itself, and tangled Opally along with parts of Beelight and Laria. I added a little bit of blue stardust gelly roll pen (whose sparkle totally gets lost in the picture), and shaded with pastel pencils and graphite.
 

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. Thanks Cherryl!

Introducing my New Tiles!

"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. 

Before...

And after...
 

 Before...

And after...
 

 Before... 

And after...

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.

Before... 

After...
 

Before...

After... 
 

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!

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!

Never Ending Circles

"Creativity never goes out of style."    Unknown


I recently purchased Corel Draw, a graphic design program. The learning curve is pretty steep for me, not being very technologically savvy. So I've been playing with it and drawing strings for tangling, as well as designing Zendala templates. Here is one of my designs that was pretty easy to do... just circles and ovals... from which I then deleted some portions of the lines.

That was the end of the computer assistance. Next I filled it with tangles but did not blacken in any of the little parts I normally would when using these patterns. It looks kind of blah at this point.

Patterns Used: Beelight, Fassett, N'zeppel, Tipple, Baton, Frosty, Sand Swirl, Arukas, Crescent Moon, Knot Rickz, Antidots, Podzles, Maryhill

Then I added the blackened parts. I didn't do that originally because I had decided I was going to try adding color later and didn't want the black spots to interfere with my coloring. It's starting to look better here.

Now with the shading it looks much better!

Next I printed a copy to color. But I decided to start with the drawing that has the parts blackened in, rather than pre-blackened. I used chalk pencils to add the color, which, as usual, blended really nicely. Unfortunately, whenever I scan my work it's hard to capture the colors just the way they look in reality. Some sections here look a little washed out.

I like the color, but the black and white shaded one is my favorite. Black and white is what drew me to Zentangle in the first place, and generally wins out over color in my mind... but not always!