The Twelve Days of Zentangle

For the past 12 days, I have been tangling every day along with the Zentangle Blog's The Twelve Days of Zentangle. I was a few days behind, but that didn't really matter. It has been very enjoyable, and I have learned a lot. The above tile is my favorite of all the twelve projects. In this blog post, I am going to talk about each day's project just a little. 

The Twelve Days of Zentangle are organized around the history of Zentangle, since it was first invented by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas back in 2003. Over the years since then, many new materials and approaches have been introduced by Rick and Maria. They organized the individual projects for each of the Twelve Days around this history. 

I purchased their Project Pack #2, which has all the materials to complete the entire twelve days. You don't have to do that, but I recommend it. It was nice to know that I had just the right pen, just the right tiles, etc. The pack includes the new Micron PN, a fabulous tool for Zentangling, now replacing the micron 01 in my mind. And the new GellyRoll pens where the white gel ink flows with heavenly ease. What an improvement!

Day One

If you took an Introduction to Zentangle class, the first thing you did was create the famous "Tile Number One," designed to introduce you to basic Zentangle concepts. You started with Crescent Moon and learned about aura-ing. Then you did Hollibaugh and learned about Drawing Behind. Printemps taught you how wonderful a simple repeating figure could be, and finally Bales was your first grid pattern. I would call Day One of the Twelve Days of Zentangle Tile Number One on Steroids. The crazy Crescent Moon is at the lower left. Hollibaugh was illustrated by Mr. Hollibaugh himself, but with curvy aura-ed Hollibaugh boards instead of the normal straight ones we all know and love. Printemps got little perfs inside and Bales went a bit wonky with some nice dark spots. Maria put the crazy sprout in the middle and it was off to the races. It was fun to revisit Tile Number One.

Day Two

On day two Molly Hollibaugh led us in making a construction that celebrated the introduction of the black tile. It's fun tangling on multiple tiles and cutting them out and gluing them together into forms. The top diamond shape is a black tile with the center cut out and four corners inserted into the white tile beneath, tab-a into-slot-b-style. A friend admired this very genuinely. I had set an intention to pay attention to, and if possible to act upon generous impulses during the holidays. Since I felt the impulse to give it to her, i did. This was a departure for me, as I have every Zentangle I have ever done in a book. Time to let some go and get on with it. What better goal in life than to disperse beautiful things throughtout the world.

Day Three

Day Three celebrated the introduction of the Zendala tile, and a new tangle pattern named Rumpus. I really like how this came out. 

Day Four

Rick celebrated the Apprentice tile, a slightly larger tile than the standard one. He also illustrated Diva Dance in a new way, with unexpected long tendrils of Diva Dance Rock 'N Roll weaving themselves under Diva Dance Walz. Diva Dance was named in honor of the Diva of the Diva Challenge, which I love entering each week on www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com. That aside, I found this whole Zentangle a little creepy, like it was going to come alive and cause a lot of problems any minute. 

 Day Five

This day of Zentangle celebrated the black Zendala. Once again we used scissors and glue. The white Zendala tile has two butterfly shaped cut outs so you can see the black Zendala beneath, and the Knightsbridge tangle pattern done in white fills that space. Pepper spirals look like candy fun and kissing Mooka's reach and twine. I don't think my version quite captured the magic, but I had a good time doing it. 

Day Six

Day Six celebrated the introduction of the Renaissance Tile, so named because of its beautiful color, frequently found in Renaissance work. Rick and Maria also introduced a new tangle pattern here, called Toodles. I found myself putting a square around my previously unbounded chop and really liking it. I'm happy that Zentanglers change their chops frequently without anyone considering it a sign of being fickle. Art changes, life changes, chops change. Vive La Change.

Day Seven

On day seven we celebrated the renaissance Zendala. This was a fun Zentangle to make. We started with a pre-strung tile, something I had not done before. We did some circular figures in the center. Then we filled all the individual areas with a kind of Paradox fragment, using both black and brown microns.

Day Eight

On day eight, we celebrated the introduction of the Bijou tile, the smaller tile that is named for Bijou the snail. This little character was a stowaway in Rick and Maria's luggage after a trip to Paris. When they found the snail in their luggage, they were charmed by him and named him Bijou. Bijou has lots to say and thus many aphorisms are attributed to him. The funniest part of this story is that many animal rights people complained to Rick and Maria. 

I enjoyed making a crown with a Bijou tile, then cutting off the bottom corner. This crown is mounted on our bottle of Johnny Walker Red, which seemed appropriate. 

Day Nine

I loved this one. Celebrating the renaissance and black Bijou tiles, we cut and glued to make a combo renaissance/black tile. Then we combined 4 of them into this mosaic. 

Day Ten

Hands down, this is my favorite. It reminds me of my black watch plaid pleated skirt that i loved so much in high school. Combine it with a pair of white bobbie sox, brown penny loafers (with the penny) and a blue oxford button down shirt under a navy blue cashmere cardigan, the kind with a ribbon down the front for the buttons. I was in preppy heaven. At long last I had clothes that let me fit in. But that's another story...

If you look, you can see that the large pattern over the entire tile is Rick's Paradox. But then it is treated as a reticula with the stripes fragment filling in each section. I love how the white pencil shading makes it glow.

Day Eleven

Celebrating the introduction of white and black 3Z (triangular) tiles, we glued some togehter to make stars. The gold Gelly Roll pen is really pretty but doesn't show up well here.

Day Twelve

We cut slits into 3 renaissance 3Z tiles to make a tree. Using the plate string idea, (see my Delft blue plates post from a few months ago) we drew arcs as our string and decorated the tree with tangles. The tangles were all fragments from the Zentangle Primer, each identified by it's letter/number id code. These few pages of the Primer kind of expanded the Zentangle Universe exponentially, at least for me. I highly recommend this book.

Here's to the Zentangle Universe. To all its kind and generous inhabitants and to our kind and generous leaders Rick and Maria and family. I am so happy to have found this special, gentle, creative and positive world. Gives me hope. Happy New Year to you all.