Duotangle Tango

Happy New Year! I really thought I'd be posting a lot more over the holidays...but that didn't quite happen. I stayed busy with family and since I was still dealing with a long-lasting cold/sinus infection, my energy level was lacking. It was a low-key Christmas for us...we finally got our tree decorated on Christmas Eve! And it was beautiful. I bought some new lights this year--little balls that had a softer glow than the lights we've used for years. Even my husband noticed the difference and appreciated it. On Christmas day we headed over to my in-laws for brunch and family time...once we got home, I spent a few hours cleaning up the late-night wrapping mess, then made some supper, which we ate in the living room while we watched an episode of Dr. Who. We didn't even open our the presents under our tree until after supper! But it was sooooo relaxing to do it on our schedule. I'm glad we didn't wake up and tear into things right away that morning.

I missed the first Diva Challenge of 2013. I simply didn't get a tile done. I was busy trying to get back into the swing of things since Winter Break had ended and we were all getting back to our regular schedule. It was a wonderful challenge, though. The Diva shared with us a new tangle that her husband had come up with (Phicops--love it!), and she even quoted me on her blog entry that week!!!! Wow. That had me floating for days--knowing that what I had written had meant so much to her. I am so grateful for all of her challenges--even when I don't get to them!

But I did get to this week's challenge (#102): A Duotangle Challenge to use Auraknot and Bunzo. And ONLY Auraknot and Bunzo. I like both of these tangles, though I have to admit I probably would not have chosen to create a composition using only these two. The cool thing is, I was afraid that everyone's challange entries would all end up looking somewhat the same. Silly me! I haven't visited more than a handful of the links yet, but each one is so different. Of course! This is Zentangle, after all; everything is freehand and open to endless variation. So here is my version. My Auraknot is flawed as I lost my way as I was creating it, but I decided not to worry about that and just keep going.

I scanned it before shading, as I often do...I didn't think it needed shading until I saw it on my computer screen, and it seemed to be lacking something. So I shaded it, and am posting both so you can compare them. I also rotated the shaded one 90 degrees clockwise. It was tricky to shade because of all the thin areas in the Auraknot...there are certainly times when I am tempted to take an eraser to my Zentangle work in order to remove unintentional graphite. The shading in the Auraknot looks a bit unbalanced to me, yet I don't feel the need to keep working on it. What do you think?

C-Gal (my daughter, for those who don't know) is working on a Bunzo/Auraknot ZIA right now, but it's not ready for me to post yet.

Onward! I can't wait to see what the next challenge is. Happy tangling!

Diva Dance

Today Laura Harms of the enchanting I am the Diva CZT blog posted her 100th Challenge! This one is guest hosted by none other than Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, founders of Zentangle...they came up with a new tangle with three variations in honor of the Diva and her challenges that have connected and inspired tanglers all over the world.

You can see the step-outs for drawing Diva Dance here in Laura's blog. Give it a whirl! It is fun and it develops quickly. As I was completing my tile, I couldn't help but think of Diva Dance as a visual representation of Laura's journey and message--that bumps in the road happen, and there will be dark times...but you just keep going, you work around what life throws at you. You have to! Just keep "aura-ing"--keep growing and giving, adjusting whenever you need to, and having fun when the opportunity arises. But always, always adapting to challenges and difficulties.

I love that this tangle looks like a topographical map. After all, we are all finding our way, and yes, sometimes we have to make up our own maps. Sometimes we also make up tangles...in addition to Diva Dance, my tile features two variations of my newest tangle, Paushalöv. Step-outs (and an explanation of the name) to follow later this week!

Happy Tangling, everyone! And Happy Holidays! What a busy week this will be...if you have time, I'd love for you to leave me a comment. I don't get many, so I cherish each and every one!

Loop Love



Featured in the loops: Festune, Paushalöv, Riveting,
and Gneiss. Around the loops is a series od Auras with
rounding, similar to Auraknot. Auraflow???

 Still to come: shading!

I have been out of the loop for several weeks--I've had what I think was a cold plus a sinus infection. Eeew. Throughout this, I've been pretty good at starting challenges on time, but not so good at getting them completed and posted. I hope to make up for that in this post--I have several tiles featuring loops...plus step outs to one of my original tangles that I mentioned here in my blog a looooong time ago (in this post). Riveting. It is a precursor to Ving (click on Ving for the blog post that features the stepouts to Ving I posted a while back), but is actually more complex. 

This is my looped string prior to tangling...

Only the first of the tiles in this post is intended for this week's Diva Challenge: the Looped Border String Challenge, brought to us by a guest host: the oh-so-talented Margaret Bremner, CZT, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. (Can you believe this is Challenge #99!!!) Margaret is the artist/author of a wonderful Zentangle blog entitled Enthusiastic Artist as well as a soon-to-be-released book entitled The Art of Zentangle: 50 inspiring drawngs, doodles & ideas for the meditative artist. (Click on the link to pre-order it from Amazon!) The Looped Border String Challenge is based on a blog entry that Magaret posted earlier this year: click here to connect.



Steps to Riveting by Amy Broady, CZT

I filled the largest loop with Riveting, a tangle I came up with in 2010. Riveting is a grid-based tangle that utilizes the overlapping (or should I call it “underlapping”) quality of Hollibaugh. This is the tangle that I contributed to the large group tangle that we completed at CZT training (#4, October 2010).

I named it “Riveting” in reference to the rivet-like dots as well as the converging lines that are riveted to a converging spot in each division of the grid. Of course, I also like to think of my tangle as “riveting” in that it is so fascinating.

So, here are visual step-outs to Riveting...



I have a document in which I elaborated on the step-outs with text...but it will take me a while to get them posted. I've discovered that it is no easy task to publish a document (pdf or Word) within my Tanglefish blog, so I have to do a work-around which involves printing the document and scanning it, which is more than I can handle tonight. :-) Plus, I think the visuals really say it all...the text is just explanation of that which is illustrated.



Keenees, Kardz, DL Neumba, Rick's Paradox, and a
variation of Cadent.

Next, showcasing another loop, is my response to last week's Diva Challenge #98: The Keenees Challenge. Keenees is a fun tangle brought to us by Donna Hornsby, CZT, of Forth Worth, Texas. On either side of the Keenees, which is in the central loop, is DL Nelumba and Kardz, also by Donna Hornsby. Donna is an artist, graphic designer, technical writer, and a person of many talents; she runs a business (and writes a blog) enitled Pegasus Papers.

And finally, also sporting its share of loops in the form of the tangle known as Echoism, is my response to the Diva's 97th Challenge, "No Strings Attached" in which we started tangling without the benefit of a string to guide us. I started with Ibex, a tangle that challenges me. Once I had "ibexed" enough--and I was pretty pleased with it!--I drew an aura, and started tangling around it with Echoism. And regretted it almost instantly. I did NOT like what my rendition of Echoism did to my composition!!!



Ibex, Echoism, Keeko, Shattuck

So then I had to find the motivation to keep going. I called upon Keeko to move me forward, and then Shattuck, and then the magic of the pencil and tortillon. Shading the Echoism section was the most difficult...I had to find a way to make peace with that whole area that just looked wrong to me. I chose to add tiny black "beads" to the intersections...and to have some fun with shading. I stuck with it and saw it through. Finally.
Whew!
Having found a way to "finish" the Echoism section in a manner that satisfied me, I used the same idea in the Zentangle Ganesha I completed for Dilip (explained below; see Gift of Ganesha).

Remember, it's all about the process! The end product is just tangible evidence of the journey, of the time spent creating and contemplating penstrokes. (And pencil blends!)

That, my friends, is the whirlwind summary of (some of) what I've been up to. Also, if you have not yet seen my last post, Gift of Ganesha, I invite you to check it out. You will see my contribution to an international Zentangle collaboration that initiated with a CZT in India. Also in that post is Paisley Boa, a tangle I am pleased to share with my Tanglefish readers.

Let me know what you think of anything that I've posted, be it words or images. It's always nice to know that my blog posts are viewed & read by the people who find there way here! But please be kind about the layout. Please?! It's unfortunate and it drives me crazy. I have fits over things that I arrange and things that I can't arrange...and none of what I do looks the same when it is published, anyway!

Gift of Ganesha

Earlier this year, a Certified Zentangle Teacher named Dilip Patel embarked on a Zentangle quest and in return has both given and received an abundance of gifts--gifts in the form of Zentangle Ganeshas.

Dilip lives in Bengaluru, India. He is, in fact, the only CZT currently listed for India at the official Zentangle website.  He authors a fascinating and inspiring blog entitled "Things Often Speak to Me". I encourage you to visit it and spend some time exploring Dilip's thoughtful blog entries and learn more about his commitment to publish 100 Zentangle Ganeshas by December 31, 2012.

For those who are unfamiliar with this Hindu deity--Ganesha--I offer this from  http://hinduism.about.com/ :
"Ganesha has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. ...Ganesha is one of the five prime Hindu Deities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga being the other four)....

As a Christian, the idea of Ganesha is interesting to me, but is not a part of my faith and spiritual belief system. As an artist, I am attracted to elephant imagery and am fascinated by the Ganesha images I found as I searched the internet for resources and information. I was slow to attempt a Zentangle Ganesha, but today I finally put my reluctance aside and prioritized this little piece of art. I am humbled by the beauty and cleverness of the Zentangle Ganeshas that are posted in Dilip's blog...my own effort seems awkward to me. I think it's the eyes. I was trying to make them exotic and expressive of wisdom and kindness; I fear they turned out droopy and sad. But I offer it to Dilip in support of his goal, with gratitude for his idea and willingness to share his journey and blog about his quest, and in sympathy for the recent passing of his mother-in-law.
I regret the poor image quality--I do not have access to my scanner at the moment, and will try to update it with a clearer scan in the near future.

I'm not even sure it is complete--the empty background bothers me...and yet I do not have a current solution.

In addition, I would like to offer a new tangle in this post--though again, I do not have access to a good image. So as soon as I have some time at the family desktop, I will post step-outs to Paisley Boa--a version of which can be seen here in Ganesha's trunk. (Note: done! See below!)

So my version of Ganesha presents you with a gift--a tangle I came up with in the spring of 2011. I was just waiting for the right time to share it.

I can post some of my tiles that feature Paisley Boa in future Tanglefish entries...I think this entry is long enough for now. :-)

If YOU use Paisley boa in your art, I'd love for you to send me a photo or scan! The quickest way for me to get it would be for you to send it to abroady (at) comcast (dot) net, and put "Paisley Boa" in the subject line. Or you could put a link in the comment section below.

If you have any questions, just post them in the comments below (or send them to the email address I listed above).

Happy Tangling!

Zest for Zinger

Happy Thanksgiving! I am enjoying this special day in my hometown with family. Feels so good to be "home" enjoying the holiday in the house I grew up in! More on my Thanksgiving Day in my next post. Yes, my day had its Zentangle moments. (Big grin!) But first: the Diva's Weekly Challenge #96.....

There's a new/old tangle that is enjoying some wonderful and well-deserved publicity this week...from "Zentangle Central" in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, it's Maria's ZINGER! Maria Thomas has been using this little gem...well, it's more like a bloom...for a long time. But even after years of appearances, it had not yet been established as an "official tangle." All that has changed now...you can read about it here in the latest Zentangle newsletter.

Zinger, embellished with Gneiss, Onomato, Wud, Zewm,
Copada, and Meer. I apologize for the poor image quality;
I am away from my scanner right now,
so my iPhone camera had to suffice.

Though the tangle has just been officially announced, I was there at the CZT Training Seminar in October 2010 when  Sue Clark offered the name "Zinger" in response to this fun little design. It's not so much a traditional, space-filling tangle, but is an abstracted botanical-ish arrangement of marks that adds a whimsical touch, like a renegade vine with a funky flower that has escaped from the garden to take root in Zentangle designs. The "bloom" is sort of a cross between an exotic, multi-tiered mushroom cap, a spiral stack of soft-serve ice cream, and a cornucopia. Kind of reminds me of a beehive, too. On a stem.

And so here are my official submissions for the Diva's Zinger Challenge. The first is a traditional Zentangle tile, while the second is a ZIA design I created on shrink plastic for a mini-ornament. I mailed it yesterday to Jo-Ellen Mathews, a CZT in Indiatlantic, FL. Jo-Ellen is putting together a little tree decorated with Zentangle-themed tiny ornaments for the Jingle Mingle Holiday Tree Auction and Raffle, a fundraiser for Cure OM (Ocular Melanoma), an initiative of the Melanoma Research Foundation.

My initial idea was to tangle on clear shrink plastic, and gild the back with gold leaf once it was shrunk. Unfortunately, I had some trouble shrinking the clear shrink plastic--it kept curling up (typical) and bonding to itself (not so typical, and not desirable when a flat ornament is the goal!), so the finished product was not what it needed to be. (You can see the designs in their origianl state, pre-heating, below.) I eventually gave up on the clear shrink plastic, and moved on to Shrinky Dinks brand "Frosted Ruff n'Ready," which seemed to ask for colored pencil.  I actually love the "wrong" side of the colored shrink plastic once it has been shrunk--the color pencil is so intense, and has the appearance of velvet.

The "wrong" side

The "right" side, which should be smooth and clear, ended up with some imperfections once I shrunk it--I'm not sure why. It looks almost like fingernail marks, though I don't remember sinking my nails into the surface while it was still soft! There was no time to do it over yet again, so I decided to embrace it, imperfections and all. :-)

I just wish I'd added color to the Zingers...I probably just would have used white, but it would have made them "pop!"

1st attempt on clear shrink plastic,
prior to shrinking. It started as a 3.5" circle.
I was bummed that it didn't shrink well.

3rd attempt, on Frosted Ruff n'Ready
Shrinky Dink material, prior to shrinking

2nd attempt on clear shrink plastic,
prior to shrinking. I wasn't as happy
with this design. I wish I hadn't
colored in the stems. Those dark
stems make it look kind of
like a peppermint, though.

I had so much fun working on the ornament, despite my shrinking woes. I'm sure I complicated things by using an embossing heat tool instead of the oven. I don't like to use my kitchen oven for art processes, so I have some craft-designated toaster ovens that I use for polymer clay and shrink plastic. They are currently in my classroom, however, and I was making the ornament at home. So I was determined to use the embossing heat tool, which I have used many times for shrink plastic. Usually I have pretty good results. Plus, it's so cool to watch it shrink out in the open (rather than behind the glass door of the toaster oven).

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Thanksgiving!

Socc Rocks!

The tangle Socc was offered to the Zentangle world by CZT Erin Olson almost a year ago. You can find instructions and read her blog entry about it about it here, including the meaning of its name, which has nothing to do with foot apparel! Erin offers a weekly Zendala Dare on her blog, The Bright Owl; I encourage you to check it out!

I bring this up because Erin's tangle Socc is the focus of the Diva's Weekly Challenge (#94). I'm really grateful that Socc was selected for this month's UMT challenge (the first Monday of every month has a "Use My Tangle" theme, with tangles submitted by readers selected by a random number generator). This tangle proved to be inviting and fun...and it nudged me back into the Diva Challenge world, which also makes me sit down at the ol' S&K to write a blog entry. :-)

It's not that I haven't been engaging in Zentangle...quite the opposite! You can read about one of my recent Zentangle adventures here on the Zentangle for Kidz blog. I had a truly wonderful time teaching a delightful group of students and parents who came for six after-school sessions of tangling together.

Featuring Socc and Mooka with a little Tipple thrown in.

But back to Socc! Here's what I came up with today, a beautiful autumn day here in east Tennessee. 


Unfortunately, this beautiful day found me sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and aching. I stayed home all day (in bed 'til noon!), but the day was too pretty not to sit outside for a few minutes in my favorite tangling spot: my own front yard, which was transformed earlier this fall by Steve Rhule and his son Nick and their BeeGreener crew.

I'm so excited about the outdoor space they created for me, er, for our family. I think I love it more than any of us because I now have an amazing, custom-made sculptural bench that I can sit on to tangle as I enjoy the gurgling of the fountain. I sit on it sideways, with my back against what looks like the armrest, bend my knees, and put my feet up. The fountain is such a neat feature; I'm actually going to try something new: uploading a little video, just so I can share it with you. If you see a blank space at the bottom of the post, give it a little time; I have found that it takes the video a few minutes to upload.

My view from the bench as I tangled today. The light was beautiful!

One of our front trees...brilliant crimson today!
This is another view from my bench!







Copada Amor

Copada. I love this tangle! It is offered to us by Margaret Bremner, CZT—one of my Zentangle heroes! Her Enthusiastic Artist blog (click on the title to connect to the home page) is a treasure trove of design and inspiration...she is one of the first of a growing number of "Canadian Wonders of the Zentangle World"  (CWZW), along with Laura Harms, the Diva who provides the weekly challenges that you see me respond to in many of my blog posts. So this week their powers are combined in the UMT (Use My Tangle!) monthly challenge (Click here to connect to Weekly Challenge #85: UMT v. VIII: Copada).

Copada. Margaret chose this cool tangle name from a collected list of random, computer-generated nonsensical words--you know, "those strange 'words' that proved I wasn't a robot, before the 'words' became seriously peculiar," as she put it.

So here's my first-in-a-long-while entry to the Diva's Weekly Challenge....

So I should probably address why I haven't posted anything since mid-July. For those of you who are not teachers who started back to work in early August.

I am one of those teachers. After having a lovely summer off, I officially started the new school year back in early August, though my preparations began even before that. And the start of the new year is always intense...both as a teacher and a mom. My C-gal started high school this year (really?! yes. really.) My son "Poseidon" (pictured in this post) is in his middle year of middle school. So back-to-school means lots of exhausting changes to our family schedule. But it's all good! The year is off to a great start, and frankly, it is indeed nice to be back in the classroom teaching again. I am fortunate to have one of the best jobs in education today: I teach art to students ranging from Kindergarten to 5th grade. It has its challenges, of course, but I can't imagine a job I'd rather have. Those kids bring such smiles to my face, such joy to my heart! And I work with an amazing range of colleagues. I am truly blessed by my job as well as my family.

This past week I began with the the beginning Zentangle lesson for a few of my 5th grade classes. YAY! I can't wait to teach more. (I have a total of four 5th-grade classes, but only get to see two or three of them a week due to the funky Encore class schedule combined with my job-share arrangement.) But before I introduced Zentangle to those 5th grade classes, I introduced it to about 100 art teachers in my district at a county-wide art teacher meeting. I couldn't give them a full intro lesson, as I only had 30 minutes, but fortunately I will have more opportunities to share Zentangle with my art education peeps throughout the school year. My next opportunity with them will be September 21st. I'll get to teach this session in my own classroom! No, I can't fit 100+ in there all at the same time, but I'll be teaching them in smaller groups, about 25 at a time...similar to my usual class sizes. Should be fun!

I'd better get going--time is short these days, but I'll try not to neglect my blog for weeks on end anymore! I can't tell you how many times I wrote posts in my head--posts that simply never made it to the keyboard to end up in the blogosphere.

I'd be thrilled to get some comments...about my Copada tile, about how much you've missed me, about how you wish you could be one of my art students, etc. ;-) Really, it's just nice to read that someone notices what I do and has a reaction to it, whether it's a compliment or a question or a suggestion.