Hamadox Fan (Ha)Mail

It's been a while since I shared anything, but I'm back, poised to dive back in again! As you might guess, life kept me busy and distracted last fall and through the holidays. Not distracted from Zentangle®—it's at the forefront of my mind each and every day—but distracted from gathering my thoughts and pen marks and putting them into Tanglefish posts.

Today I am happy to share my response to the latest Diva Challenge, #302: UMT Hamadox by Diana Schreur, CZT™. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I am using this week's challenge to showcase a card idea that I came up months and months ago, but had not yet taken the time to create. So, my first approach to the hamadox challenge was to use it on a card. Before tangling, I embossed the card with a simple fan shape. (I used a ball-end stylus from Fiskars® and a brass stencil from Dreamweaver Stencils, along with a lightbox, to create the base card.) I had bought the stencil a while ago with the plan of using it to create tangled "Fan Mail" with my Zentangle Clubs. This stencil is perfect for that! I'm so glad this challenge inspired me to act on my idea; I see more tangled "Fan Mail" cards in my future!

pink accents added with a Memento dye ink pad in
Rose Bud, a Sculpey™rotating alphabet text stamp,
and a technique I refer to as "zeninkedge" at the
perimeter of the card; the gold accents done with a gold
Sakura Gelly Roll® pen 

Hamadox actually reminds me of the blades of a an electric fan. How appropriate for this project.

Here's what the high school Zentangle Club created in our quick meeting on Monday. Some of them also created a traditional tile with hamadox, so their cards are not as far along. They do beautiful work, and I hope I get to see these cards after they are completed, before the students give them away!

Zentangle Club "Fan Mail" Cards

After I tangled hamadox in the middle of the embossed fan, I realized I might not have followed the steps precisely, so I checked the step-outs again and realized that the first petals of the hamail section, on the outside of the paradox square, were far longer than they needed to be. (If you are wondering why I am referring to different tangles, see below.) Ultimately, I was happy with how it turned out, but I adjusted this when I drew hamadox on a regular tile. It's such a fun and beautiful tangle!

hamadox with auras, a hint of crescent moon,
 and a tier of pearl...set on a patina background

For those who don't know, "UMT" stands for "Use My Tangle" and it is a monthly feature on the Diva Challenge schedule—the first Monday of each month is a UMT week. It's a great way to build up your tangle library and insert a new tangle into your repertoire if you are not familiar with the chosen tangle, or to get reacquainted with it if it's one you already know. It is always a joy to see what tanglers around the world do to incorporate the same tangle into their art; there is always grand variety!

Hamadox is actually a "tango"—a lovely dance between two existing tangles that work exquisitely together. In this case, those two tangles are hamail and paradox (also known as Rick's paradox). Hamail was presented to the world by Swiss CZT Tina Hunziker; you can read about it's origins here.
Paradox is a Zentangle® tangle that looks incredibly complex, yet is extremely simple once you understand how to construct it. It's one of my favorites! A few years ago, Canadian CZT Margaret Bremner shared with the world a fantastic resource for exploring paradox, which I encourage you to check out by clicking this link.

Hamadox also reminds me of another luscious tangle, showgirl, by Vicki Bassett, CZT, and also of biscus,Vicki's more angular tangle of similar construction.

Thank you, Diana Schreur, if you are reading this! For those of you who are, like me, interested in the locations/nationalities of all the tanglers who influence our work, Diana lives in the Netherlands. Her blog is called "Didisch Website" and you can see more of her tangles here. Her blog is full of fabulous tangled art! Check it out!

That is all for now. I hope to get another post up soon, as I have so much more to share with you!

Comments are always cherished.
Happy tangling!
Amy