String Theory - Random Objects Diva Challenge #347

This week's Diva Challenge was to find some objects around the house and trace them onto a 3.5" tile to make a string. Here is my set of objects:

This includes my cute little purple garden shears, a round lid from gummy bears at the Mexico City St Regis (absolute lap of luxury!), a gummy bear himself, a nail file and a 3Z tile.

Here's what I did with it. I should have taken a picture of the string, but wasn't that smart at the time. Too soon old, too late smart. What the heck does that mean? I don't really know.

You can see the fat blade of my garden shears at the lower left and the 3Z tile right above it. The drama black shape in the middle with a weird Crescent Moon is the gummy bear outline and the jar lid is the partial circle at the upper left with Frumkey in it. I do love Frumkey. I used opus with an aura, and on the right is Finery. It looks better when there is more than column. But I still like it. Otherwise, you will find Zinger, Bales, and Flux (Maria's version). The Diva used a wonderful tangle that I tried to figure out that looks like bales of grasses. Don't know what it is, does anyone know the name? If so, please leave a comment.  Have a great week.

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.

Tangle for the Season

This week's Diva Challenge #344 (www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com) was to use AfterGlo, the star-like pattern that you can see above. I have been working my way through Project Pack 01, which I highly recommend as lots of fun and a good learning tool. You can find it here. It includes nine different videos that guide you through making wonderful Zentangles that will inspire your own creativity and designs. 

Project Pack 01 emphasizes using the new Sakura white Gelly Roll pens on black tiles. The pens have been re-designed so they are now fabulous. The ink flows beautifully without any skipping. The pack comes with all the supplies you need to follow along with the videos, including 3 different widths of Gelly Roll pens. You don't have to buy the pack to participate, you can just pick up the supplies yourself and follow along. But the pack is nice, because you know you have all the pieces in place. 

The Diva Challenge tangle pattern AfterGlo looked Christmassy to me, so I remembered Merriberries, which was designed my Zentangle mentor Cheryl Wilson, CZT. I added in a few Merriberries, Those are the holly-like shapes with the white berries in the center. Finally peppermint seemed like it could hold its own in a Christmas theme so in went tangle pattern Pepper. 

At that point I felt that things did not look integrated, so I drew randomly sized, small orbs all over the remaining black spaces to tie it all together. I have always loved how a million tiny circles make a beautiful texture that brings all the other elements together. 

Thanks for reading my blog! I welcome your comments.

Project Packs

Today I felt like being guided along in my art work. Some type of project or lesson that tells me what to do next. This is something I turn to on days when opening up to "whatever happens" is hard. Which it just is, sometimes. It's a paradox because I enjoy art work tremendously. I believe in it as a wonder of continuous, lifetime discovery, and I love sharing it with people. Nonetheless. There is a part of me that wants to just get away and not explore the unknown. Let's cook or do some cleaning. Don't arouse any demons that might be lurking in the whatever happens.

This makes me wonder if my childhood had been more fortunate, perhaps that feeling wouldn't be there. Oh well, I got the life I got and I am not complaining. Bad childhood, great life! I will always be grateful to the therapists that helped me sort it out. I've always felt like I paid my dues before I was 10 years old. From then on, things just improved. Slowly, little by little, I came out of the snow storm.

So by now you are gathering that today was a "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" day. I had gotten the new Zentangle Project Pack 01 in the mail. I didn't order it, and I don't know how it got to me. But there it was, full of the new purportedly fabulously improved Sakura Gelly Roll pens and black tiles of every shape and size. So I tried it out. The projects are a series of videos with step by step instructions you can tangle along with.. ZT Daughters Molly Hollibaugh and Martha Huggins are the excellent guides. You don't need the kit to tangle along, and you don't have to do them with black tiles, they would be very successful with white tiles.  The instructions are in Rick and Maria's Zentangle Newsletter, here. 

My friend Patty says we should call that tangle pattern up above HollyBales. It's a variation on Bales with diamonds instead of rice shapes. What I love about Bales is how the places where many lines meet, soon begin to glow. Of course, we know a good thing, so we shade those places and make them even more glowing.

I really like HollyBales. We did Bales at the recent Intro to Zentangle class in Reno this week. I love how beautiful the work is from that day. Here's our mosaic, below. Class participants were many good friends and a new friend, too: Christy Tews, Patty Charles, Lynn Newhall, Debby Enos, Gayle Robinson, Kathy Schwerin, and Ron Sutton. Seven tiles, seven different takes on Bales and the other patterns. 

I love that about Zentangle; the patterns are pre-structured, but each person's creativity transforms the simple steps into something unique. And this refers back to the discussion above. Even when people have step by step instructions, the way they follow them is all their own. So it's still whatever happens. It's always whatever happens. Here's to the WHATEVER HAPPENS!!

Diva Challenge 340 - Wibble

This week's Diva Challenge (www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com) was to use tangle pattern Wibble, a tangle pattern designed by Shawna Martin. I did not fall in love with drawing this one, instead I found it hard to wrap my brain around it and didn't feel great about how it looked. I ended up using it as a border and coloring it in with one of my favorite combinations of colors, green and violet, the IRIS colors. I used Copic markers for the first time on a Zentangle tile and discovered that they bleed a bit on the fine Fabiano paper. To make up for the wobbly Wibble, I used two favorite easy peasy patterns in the middle, Sand Swirl and Sanibelle. 

Our Local CZT Group

Local CZT Group

I was very fortunate to attend the 28th Certified Zentangle Training (CZT) in Providence, RI, in June. I was extremely happy for the entire four days, sitting in a large room with 108 other fanatics enthusiasts, drawing beautiful Zentangles guided by Rick and Maria and their daughters Molly and Martha. After 10 months exploring Zentangles on my own and with the kind and inspired guidance of my teacher (CZT16 Cheryl Wilson from Grass Valley), I was very excited to find a large, world-wide, supportive and positive Zentangle community.

On Day One, as I entered the very first class of our seminar, I took an empty seat between two friendly looking women. I introduced myself as Mary Helen from Auburn, CA. The woman on my right turned out to live in Placerville, just an hour's drive from me. And the woman on my left lives in Rocklin, a mere 20 minutes away. As far as I was concerned, this was something between an amazing coincidence and a sign from the Angels of Zentangle.

About two months later, remembering how much I enjoyed the larger Zentangle community, I looked these same women up on the CZT Index and contacted them. We ended up forming a group of five local CZTs. (Local in California means within an hour’s drive.) The group includes myself, Cheryl, Lynne, Chris and Alison. All are artists and/or craftswomen par excellence. It's a thrill to be in a group with them. We meet monthly, rotating through one another's homes, with the hostess providing a project for us all to do.

Yesterday four of us met way out in the country at the studio of one of the women. She had attended Rick and Maria's recent Zentangle: Beyond the Basics seminar at the new 1440 Multiveristy, near Santa Cruz. She wanted to share a project that Maria had guided them through. Maria had used a Zendala (round) tile, but otherwise the project was very similar. My result is above.

In advance, our hostess had prepared for each of us two Zentangle tiles, glued together. The Renaissance tile (beige) had cut outs so that you could see the black tile under it. We drew kissing Mooka in the middle between the cut outs, and tangled in white Sakura Gelly Roll pens on the black to make the black and white grid of Knightsbridge. We added some auras, and the embellishment of small circles around the border. We filled in around the Mooka with a brown 01 Micron pen. Only three tangles, but such a lovely result. Here is the mosaic of all our tiles. I feel so privileged and happy to be part of this dynamic and creative group! What an inspiration!

Tint - Diva Challenge 335

This week's challenge on http://IamTheDivaCZT.blogspot.com was to use the tangle pattern Tint, which you see as the big blossom in the lower left corner. This tangle pattern was designed by CZT Henrike Bratz. and while poking around her website learning to draw Tint, I discovered another tangle pattern that she created, Crux, the grid pattern in the upper left.

I'm still in love with the patterns used in the Delft project, so i used Hennadrum in the middle and Andante on the right.  And of course, the wonderful blue pens. Shading with Stabilo's CarbOthello pastel pencils. Where did they get that name? Who put carbs together with Othello? Oh well, they are wonderful pencils for shading. The tourtillion spreads them around nicely.

Tomorrow is our local Democratic Party Annual Fundraiser. I have never been that active in local politics, but this year felt strongly I needed to contribute as I feel very concerned for the great experiment in Democracy that is the United States. So I volunteered to be the coordinator and we have 100 people coming. Many wonderful people contributing lots of talent and energy. I am up to my eyeballs in catering, budgets, paper cups, a silent auction, ticket sales, reasonably well known and quite interesting guest speakers. It's all very exciting!