Remembrance.
As we walk on this path, I am reminded to spend time with others I’m walking here with. The time will go so fast and we will, literally, be scattered to all the corners of the earth. But we will remember each other, and this special time here.
This beautiful, rosemary stem is drawn using the tangle Verdigogh. Rosemary is for rememberance. I wanted to add something to it, but I couldn’t decide what. Then I realized the Renaissance frame would be perfect. So this frame was drawn on July 3, 2018 and I set the tile from the CZT 30 Seminar in the center of it. I wanted to honor, treasure and remember my time there.
We missed celebrating Father’s Day on the actual day because we were in Providence at the CZT30 Seminar. So we celebrated yesterday. One of the things we did was to go to the Musical Instrument Museum . It is one of our favorite places to go because you learn about geography, history, music, and art all rolled into one.
While my husband was walking around looking at the instruments, I spent a lot of time taking pictures of things that resembled tangles. I deliberately tried to find ones that were simple, although I also took lots of pictures of more complex art.
Interwoven.
Everything in their lives was interwoven. No single thing could exist without the other. Each element fed the whole.
Crazy Huggins is a wonderful example of single elements combining to make a complete design. In this version, I used a fair amount of shading to add additional dimension to each decorated section. I also used a heavier line weight around the outside to define each section and a finer width pen for the decorative elements. All of these things together create a more graphic finished tile.
Yes, another Zenbutton! Last Valentine’s day I really wanted to participate in the Valentangle challenge. I ended up admiring everyone else’s work, but didn’t get anything of my own done. So, now that I’m on a Zenbutton kick, I did the challenge from February 5th! I did use four circles rather than 3. And I went with “hearts and flowers”, in as much as Toodles looks a bit like a heart, and I used actual heart shapes on the innermost ring. I thought the spirals looked a bit like roses, specially with the addition of the tiny black triangles, which reminded me of leaves.
Jumble.
Others always wondered at how so much cargo could come out of such a tiny ship. They just didn’t understand. She’d captured so many universes in her travels. And now she could store infinite amounts in each one. All she had to do is make sure they traveled together!
It has always fascinated me how shading opens up, raises, or pushes back sections of tangles on a tile. Here, this crazy combination took on all kinds of dimension just from shading various edges. Don’t skip shading your tiles. It’s as interesting and meditative as the drawing!
Christmas market.
She loved this time of year. Even the cold weather didn’t bother her. There were so many things to choose from: exotic fabrics and trims, fancy jewelry and decorations, beautiful baskets and ceramics. Even the colorful awnings and tents brought her joy!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Bales Criss & Cross Dyon Huggins Mooka Quipple Sez Shard Striping Tidings
There be dragons!
This tile is directly inspired by Eni Oken’s Tangled Dragons blogpost . I’ve been wanting to give it a go for quite a while, but just haven’t had time until yesterday. It was a little tricky figuring out how to do the overlapping loops, but I think it worked out well, over all! I think I want to try one with some color next time. Maybe I will try some distress inks with it!
Grace.
Mooka is a tangle that illustrates gracefulness in a very simple way. Here’s it’s as if they are dancing in coordinated groups with each other. There is even a main couple surrounded by auxiliary dancers and even some further back on the stage. The goal here was to show a few different ways that Mooka could be use to define and fill space on a Zentangle.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Sugilite is a rare purple cyclosilicate mineral. It was named after the Japanese petrologist, Ken-ichi Sugi, who first identified it in 1944 in Iwagi Islet, Japan. It is found primarily in Japan, Quebec, Canada and at the Wessels mine in South Africa although other deposits have been found since 1977.
It is often has inclusions of Richterite (blue) and rusty looking Bustamite. It‘s color ranges from royal purple through fuchsia. It can have some translucence.
Larimar.
Larimar is often goes by several names… the Stone of Atlantis, Stefilia‘s Stone, and Dolphin Stone. This rare, blue variety of pectolite is found only in the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean.
The color varies from white, light-blue, green-blue all the way through deep blue, reflecting all the different colors of the ocean.
Like other blue stones, this one is associated with the throat chakra. It facilitates the healing of the mental, and emotional healing of the individual and gives peace and comfort. This healing allows the person to speek calmly and completely about serious matters.
Fire.
Black opals are the most valuable opals in the world. The most beautiful examples of these come from the Lightning Ridge mining area in Australia.
Opals are classified according to the pattern of the fire within the stone. This example is a cross between pinfire and palette.
While some lists show that Tourmaline or Pink Zircon is the gemstone for those who were born in October, opal is actually the traditional stone. Now days, Tourmaline is said to be an alternative. I think that came about because they come in so many different colors. I don‘t know who came up with Pink Zircon, but it was hugely popular when I was a kid as THE stone for October birthdays. Personally, I never considered it valid.
Many.
There are a lot of tangles on this tile. That‘s because I used a string that had many “sections”. But I think it still works because I repeated a couple of the designs and also used a central, bold tangle. Those framed and anchored the whole thing.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Afterglow Coil coral Seeds Floating disks Gingham Hurry Mooka Papyrus Sand Swirl
Making brown pop.
I‘ve tried tangling on various colored papers over the years, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn‘t. I cut a bunch of tiles from a pad of Saint-Armand Canal paper. They are various earthy, neutral colors. But the problem with the paper is that it is both very rough and very absorbant, so it‘s difficult to work with for Zentangles. But, every so often, I get brave and try it again.
Canal paper
I have a pad of this paper that I purchased while visiting Santa Fe a couple of years ago. I liked the neutral tones and thought it would be fun to draw on. It turns out that the texture is a bit rough for tangling, although I made it work. I‘m not sure I like it for shading, or pencil drawing, though. I had a lot of trouble with that part.