It's Still Saturday Night . . .

. . . and I just HAD to try Assunta on a black tile!

Fun! but it's past my bedtime!  

I'm going to link this, then off to bed. Busy day tomorrow, and a Busy Week ahead.

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

Another Class, and Another Challenge

Yes, just FYI, I've posted a class for this coming Thursday, 9/1, 3-6pm. 

And now, to the Really Important Stuff: The Diva's Weekly Challenge #36 !

This week's Challenge, of course, is to use Rick's new tangle, Assunta . This tangle was posted in a Zentangle Newsletter dated August 15. It's a gift from Rick to Maria on the anniversary of her birth. What a lovely gift!
I found myself pretty Challenged getting started with this, despite Rick's great deconstruction & excellent Tips. My little "hash marks" or "take-off & landing lines" were too long, or too close together or too far apart.

I finally got the spacing, and the turning of the tile, and everything figured out, and it began to Flow Beautifully. Each little teardrop nestled next to its partner. Cadent flowed directly off of Assunta. So did Bales.

Then came Photography! Oh, dear! I ALWAYS

just Scan my tiles! But I'm not near my scanner right now. It did take me more attempts than I expected: light, no light? flash, no flash?  Where did that glare come from?

Ah Hah! Got it! 

Now, what was the next project?

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

September classes posted!

I have just posted dates & times for 4 classes in September on the "Learn Zentangle" page above. I've been goofing off for most of July & August. Blaming most of that on my new granddaughter  :  )

But it's time to get back to work, and play. I tend to get more creatively motivated around the Solstices & Equinoxes, so September should be a great month!

Just e-mail me: maggiekattangles@gmail.com if you're interested!

I LOVE sharing Zentangle with new people, so come join us. It'll be fun, at the very least!
Class descriptions, prices, location and so forth are also on the "Learn Zentangle" page.

If I don't have anything that suits your schedule, please get in touch with me.

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

My Tangle Pattern: Abbe Road

Abbeville, SC is a charming, historic little town in South Carolina's "Upstate," near the (current) home of my dear friend, BlueRidgeWoman. The Square has lots of great shops, the Abbeville Opera House, and this Very Tangle-able brick paving:

This is a simple herringbone brickwork pattern. You don't even HAVE to use the pencil grid. The general proportions of the "bricks" is 1 unit wide x 2 units long. It's easiest to draw a line of bricks, each offset by half a brick, then rotate your tile 90 degrees and do the next row.

Enjoy this!

Blessed Be & Joyous Tangling!

Tile-in-a-Tile--3 Versions!

The Diva's Challenge this week is from guest host Margaret Bremner of Enthusiastic Artist.  The object is to do your "dots" and "border" "way in from the corners [and sides]" [of the tile] Then draw the string over the Whole Tile. Add tangles & shading to set the small inner tile-shape off from the rest.

Fun! I came up with 2 and started a third before I knew what I was doing! (Then I misplaced the half-finished third tile, and had to start over. Actually,it ran away, and its disappearance had nothing to to with any action of mine!)

I can't really decide which I like best: each has its own charm.

I drew the tile, and the string. Then I needed some little curlicue things. The twisty ribbons just grew from all that. I tried to pick some new tangles, medium-to-dark values, and the usual combination of rounded and straight lines.

Next I thought I'd do something with a darker border and a lighter center:

More organic, but no tangle carry-through to the borders. I need to work more on shading/highlighting the white-on-black, but overall I like this one.

Then I had the idea of using Hollibaugh to tie together the small tile and the border. The use of Hollibaugh to "tie up" the tile, rather than to make string spaces was introduced in our CZT 4 class by Molly.

I seem to recall Sandy Bartholomew posting a truly beautiful example of this. I'd link you to it, but I can't find it right now. Maybe it ran off with my half-finished tile?

Somehow, my original vision didn't have the white- on-black tangles flowing into the borders, but tiles often know better than I do.


The herringbone brick pattern in the lower left section is my own tangle "Abbe Road."
I'll post the steps for this either tonight or Saturday!

Blessed Be, and Joyous Tangling!

Opposites Attract

Another terrific Challenge from Laura Harms' I am the Diva site. This week our "guest host" is again Christina Vandervlist of stART, and she brings us the idea that "Opposites Attract." In this case, combining a straight-line string with curvy tangles,or vice-versa.

Again, this was trickier than I thought it would be. I started with the straight string, thinking that I'm so fond of the curvy, organic tangles, that it would be simpler. Then I could try the curved string/straight tangles one.

I tried a few tangles I hadn't used before, and I had a lot of fun stretching. The first tile was more of a stretch than expected, and I'm pleased with the result.

The second tile was going more smoothly, other than a small "goof" in my Hollibaugh (not a Mistake, of course, just an unintended line).Then I got to one last section, and Could Not figure out how to fill it!

I stared, and sighed, and pondered for (what seemed like) hours. I finally did fill it in, AND as I began to rotate the tile I found another one of those serendipitous heart-sort-of-shapes.









My house is full, so I'm going to post this.

More soon! Until then,
Blessed Be, and Joyous Tangling!

Pendrills-New Tangle, New Challenge!

Last Sunday, Rick & Maria offered us a new tangle, Pendrills, in their Zentangle Newsletter. And of course, on Monday "Laura-the-Diva" presented us with a Challenge (#33 in a series) to Use this new Tangle!

I quickly discovered that Pendrills can very easily slip free of all constraints and take off!

I did some testing in my sketchbook, but it was much too prone to take up entire pages, so I thought I'd try to restrain it within the limits of a tile. I got this far before being called away to a family crisis:

This sat on my table for a day and a half, waiting for me to return. Finally I completed some other projects and responsibilities and got back to it.

By that time I had completely lost whatever vision I had, so the end result is, well, I don't know, just Not Quite.

I want to post this before it gets any later on Saturday, but I may try again.


I'm quite in love with the Blue Ridge Woman's Dream Catchers and I've been playing with this idea.
In her second posted Dream Catcher she uses two lovely feathery tangles: Sandra Strait/molossus's Jay  and Carole Ohl's Featherfall! Sandra's wonderful organic tangles were some of the first ones I tried!

At any rate, I'm going to spend some more time with Pendrills, and some unexpected time with that awesome BlueRidgeWoman!

Until next time, 
Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!