It's been a long time since my last post here, more than two months! That's because I am working on my book like crazy. I have identified a real publisher that I am hoping  will accept my manuscript. Wish me luck. I am editing and rewriting like crazy. It is feeling much more put together than previously, and I am excited about it.

But back to Zentangling, my CZT group met 10 days ago, and Cheryl Wilson guided us through a fun project that you might want to try. Here's how.

First you fold a piece of paper and cut it the way you would make a snowflake for your Christmas tree:

By cutting off the excess paper in a curve, about 3 inches along the folded edge (shown here on the left side), I got a six inch snowflake. Next you open up the snowflake:

Then you trace it onto a piece of paper that is nice enought to Zentangle onto:

Finally you can Zentangle it. Notice the one I zentangled is rotated from the outline above. You can get more than one look, just by rotating the snowflake a bit and retracing it on a new piece of paper.

I used a lot of tangles, but I was trying to tune in to ones that would work well together. That's Paradox in the middle, and there are four large areas of Fassettoo, one of my all-time, easy as pie favorites. There are four ovals of Tagh, and the other four darker drama tangles are Fengle. Next to the Tagh areas are four sections of Vincut, a tangle I had never used before but quite like, especially with its sparkle enhancement. B'tweed and Mooka are along the outside. I do love B'Tweed. To me it has a magical quality, some Native American essence that I can't explain. Mooka is very hard for me. I never seem to capture the beautiful beer poster Mucha girl's curling tendrils of hair that it is meant in invoke. Mine look more like little nested fetuses clutching their tiny fists and hoping to be born. Hang in there guys, you're going to make it! 

I always find it interesting that what is hard for me is easy for you and then later gets not only easy for me, but I fall in love with it, and by then you have moved on and can't even remember its name.

 Everything Always Changing.

Here is the mosaic by all four of us CZT's who did Cheryl's project. I love mosaics because everybody does the exact same thing, step by step, and then everyone's looks totally different. Mine wasn't finished yet, lower right, but you can see how I started out.

The day after our CZT meeting I left for Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with Stu and friends Dave and Jozeffa. Jozeffa was Zentangling up a storm and she inspired me to join in. Here are a couple of tangles I did with Jozeffa.

This one is Aurakas, one of those tangle patterns that must have center stage at all time. Don't tangle patterns have personalities, like people? This one is wrapped up in herself, but deservedly so, she is beautiful and dynamic! 

She is surrounded by the Poke siblings, -leaf and -root. If you look up Pokeroot on the web, the photograph of the plant looks just like the tangle. That is amazing to me. I thought the tangle pattern was completely fanciful, complete fiction, never dreamed such a fun little fellow could be representational. 

This experience was very similar to finding out that the show Vikings was based on actual Viking history, and that they really did pull off the Sack of Paris in 845AD. I only looked it up because I thought it was completely preposterous and the writers should all be fired for making up such dumb stuff that could never have really happened. I had no idea I was watching history until this plot line arose, halfway into Season 4. Goes to show you.

True confession, this Zentangle I lifted right off the box of Tangle Deck 1. It has the old stand-bys Tipple, Shattuck and Printemps with Florz at the bottom (on the floor). It's the first time I ever used Flukes, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. Lynn Mead's Tangle Decks have become very precious to me. I use them all the time for the step-outs and just for browsing around looking for the next tangle pattern to try. Thank you Lynn.

 

Next, I tried a pre-strung Zendala. Here I was inspired by my dear friend Jody, who was turning out gorgeous pre-strung Zendala's while we watched the Oscars. Jody has a demanding job and has become an accomplished mindful, multi-tasker. Sound like a contradiction? I don't think so, I've seen it with my own eyes.

Watching Jody made me want to the pre-strung Zendala tile, too. Finally I a round tuit. I started with Paradox in the middle paired with B'Tweed this time. Love them together. Then Munchin in three of the pointy star-arms, Flukes in another three because I hoped they would look like roof tiles and they do! and finally the last three have Hurry. Hurry seems like a tangle you could build pyramids with if needed. Watch out King Tut.

To close, here's a mosaic of  Jozeffa's and my Zentangles from Mexico. You've seen my three above, the rest are gloriously hers. Go Jozeffa!! I can't remember if she inspired me to use Aurakas or vice versa. True collaboration. Love her use of Striping on the left and Flux on the right. 

That's all the Zen that fits. I hope I have made up at least in part for my long silence. I promise to be more frequent, book biz permitting. Best wishes to all of you who made it all the way down to this last paragraph. Here is your well-deserved Easter Egg.