Kiss my Grids!

The latest  Challenge from Laura-the-Diva: create a tile using only grid-based tangles.

Now I DO remember (first-run, not syndication) the TV series Alice and the film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I Adored Flo and her "Kiss my grits!"  And the grits discussions on Laura's blog this week were almost as much fun as the Challenge!
motherjulie apparently posted a really yummy recipe for pimiento cheese grits, but my computer won't let me see it this evening. I'll try again!

I got one tile done, and had ideas for a second, but the week got away from me (what a surprise!)
At any rate, here's my Challenge Tile for Week 37

And once again, I'm off to bed: up before 0500 tomorrow! I'm planning a just-for-fun post Tuesday, in the meantime

Blessed Be and Joyous Tangling!

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!

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!

Zentangle is for Everyone! Weekly Challenge #32

This week's http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2011/07/weekly-challenge-32.html is brought to us by guest host Carole Ohl. Carole invites us to create a tile using 4 specific tangles, AND to mail these to her for participation in a showing of art to emphasize that "Zentangle is for Everyone."

The selected tangles are Baton by Carole Ohl,  Keenees by Donna Hornsby, Pais by Mikee Huber, and Zedbra by Margaret Bremner & Laura Harms.
I have tended to limit myself to Official Tangles, not through any bizarre chauvinism, but I think because I become utterly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of tangle patterns out in the world! So this was a Giant Step outside my comfy box, and I embraced the opportunity. I've also had more tangling time, since I'm taking a couple of weeks off work to be with my Last-Born daughter and new granddaughter KiSSy. (Not that I'm really needed, but it's nice to have a little downtime, and spend time snuggling the baby, and tangling!)

This is actually my 3rd attempt at this Challenge: I wanted to let Pais run wild

I really like Pais, and had a lot of fun with Zedbra. Keenees and Baton are fun, too. Good for me to learn some new stuff!!

So it's only Wednesday, and I've finished 3 tiles!! I'm going to post them all here, and probably send the first two on to Carole. I think it's a  terrific idea to show people that Anyone can create a Zentangle, and that there is no Right or Wrong way to do it!
Given four specific patterns there will be an unlimited variety in the end products, only dependent on the number of artists participating. Very Exciting!!



2nd attempt: the idea for shading Zedbra was one of those early-morning visions!



First try, and my least favorite of the three


BTW: my spell-check doesn't recognize
 "Zedbra,"
but offers Zed bra as a valid option.
 Reminds me of a joke about lingerie sizing
; D.

String Theory v. V

"Initialize"  Weekly Challenge #30 from "the Diva"  as guest-hosted by Christina Vandervlist, CZT in Ontario. (I hope I spelled your name right!) uses our initials overlaid to create the string.

Now I'm not always too great at following directions, and I couldn't decide which of the many combinations of my own initials I might use, and besides all that I have Baby on the brain! So I used the initials of the name intended for the next grandchild, when she arrives.
But I couldn't just do two: I tried, but I really liked it with the 2 S's doubled up behund the K (I'm going to call her KiSSy)

Then I forgot/failed to scan the string before I tangled it. But it looked a lot like this: 

(from my "string tests" in my sketch book)


All those curly, curvy letters made a lot of Very Tiny Spaces to tangle on a
3 1/2" tile, but I persevered! 




 Now, I must get ready for work!!!

Blessed be, and Joyous Tangling!

DuoTangles

Another Laura-the-Diva Challenge! Create a tile using ONLY the official tangles Dex and Verdigogh.

Now I use Verdigogh quite a bit, but had never actually used Dex, so this was fun!
It's good for us to try new things.

But of course, I had all the awesome new Black Stuff, so I had to start there!

And then I thought I'd do a black-on-white one, too.

Looking forward to more classes, the next Challenge, a new granddaughter . . .

but now, to sleep, and tomorrow to Work!

I am having a somewhat impromptu class on Tuesday, June 28. If you're in Asheville and interested e-mail me!  maggiekattangles@gmail.com

The Challenge of String Theory

This week, Laura-the-Diva provided us a string, to be filled with tangles of our choice. As usual, I had a little struggle with "over-thinking," but managed to get beyond it pretty quickly.

The next challenge was to translate Her String to My This took several tries, since I sometimes fight with my technology. Eventually I managed to copy the picture, and resize it appropriately. I actually did this in a Word document! Then I printed it on regular printer paper, and colored the back with pencil: the old "poor-woman's carbon paper." Laid it on a tile and drew over the string lines, and Voila!

As you may have noticed, I'm currently very enamored of  PokeRoot.

I Really want to try it with some color. The color of the Poke berry is a deep rich purple.

Medicinally, they are very detoxifying to the lymphatic system (but must be used Only under the advice of a qualified professional! They can be toxic if not taken properly)

In the garden, the poke weed is extremely invasive and has an amazing root, which can be all but impossible to eradicate. Trust me~ I've tried!

It's Late: I have to go to work!! Looking forward to Saturday, when I can look at all the Challenge entries.
and a visit from the Blue Ridge Woman on Sunday!

Out of Focus (OoF)

In the recent Zentangle newsletter Rick gave us a new tangle, OoF, inspired by a window at The Cloisters, a NY museum I've always wanted to see! (also influenced by Rick's lack of visual acuity without his glasses:thus the name: Out of Focus)

And of course, Laura-the-Diva challenges us to USE this new tangle in Challenge #21 at her I am the Diva blog.

I skipped last week's Royal Wedding Challenge: time constraints, AND I was completely overwhelmed by the opulence of it all!

This week's Challenge was a little more manageable for me: I've done 2 tiles and could do more with this, but I'm out of time (again, as usual). This one is fun: you have to pay some attention to get the arcs right, so it's not SuperSimple, but it's not so complex that I had trouble wrapping my brain around it!

I like the way it works with Bales.

I want to play with this some more: try a little more relaxed approach. I feel that I'm still a little too "stiff" with it.
Ahhh well, another excuse to tangle. As if I needed one!

William Morris~Zentangle-style!

I've Finally gotten back into the "swing" of  The Diva's Weekly Challenges! This week's challenge  is inspired by Maria's Blog post  regarding William Morris and the subtle background images in his art. Maria introduced a "zenhancement" using black background behind our tangles.then drawing in fine patterns in white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

I was inspired by the technique itself, and thrilled that Laura Harms Challenged me to try it! I was also inspired by the botanical motifs of William Morris.

This is my first attempt. I felt that Sampson really lent itself to this.














I like this second one better. I'll definitely be playing with my white pens some more!! I have more ideas.

Where the heck have I been?!

LIFE sort of picked me up and slammed me! I've been Completely Overwhelmed the last couple of weeks. Opted out of Laura-the-Diva's  last two Challenges: Mooka because I needed more time to work/play with this tangle, and 15 Minutes of Fame because I couldn't find 15 consecutive minutes that I could actually time.

I held in mind Laura's reminder that this is supposed to be Fun, not Stressful, and I released the Challenges for those two weeks! Good For Me!

I did get a tile done for theEggZZZZellent challenge, but didn't get in scanned and posted!

So here's a basket of Eggs.  And now to try a little Color! Do I use my old reliable watercolor pencils? or my new Tombow markers?

                                                                                                       

Tombow Watercolor Markers!

I still need some practice with both the marker techniques and my scanner!

And the Diva's Challenge # 19  is to use Zentangle's (Maria's) "William Morris" background technique using Sakura's white Gelly Roll pen to create "subtle background images" behind your main tangles.

I've been looking forward to trying this technique "when I have time." So good of Laura to shove me in a direction I wanted to go anyway!

Lovin' my Curves

The Diva's 15th Weekly Challenge: after last week's  all-straight-lines challenge is to create a tile (or other ZIA) with all curvy lines!

This was a little trickier than I expected: I DO love curves, but I tend to try to balance straight or grid-based tangles with curvy ones in my tiles. So I paid more attention to dark/light, filled/open. I had a lot of fun with this one!!

 This one I started in one doctor's waiting room on Wednesday, and finished in another.

Wednesday was a very doctor-y day!





"Love Your Curves: aka Waiting at the Doctor's Office"

The second on was just for fun, to try some different tangles, and because I had a little extra time.

"Lovin' My Curves!"

So I DO love my curves, and my daughters' curves, and Every Body's unique and special curves!!!

Walk the Line

Another Challenge from the Diva: This is #14! This means we have been Challenged for a quarter of a year: the first Challenge was 12/20/2010, just at the Winter Solstice, and now the Spring Equinox has come.

This week's challenge is to create a Zentangle (or ZIA) using only straight lines! Pretty tricky for those of us who love lush curvy forms. I know I wasn't nearly as creative as some: I didn't create "tangleations" of traditionally round tangles, using straight lines.

But it's not a competition, it's a challenge. And I felt challenged, and had fun! Which is the point. In the future, I may try some of those tangleations. Another thing to add to the "someday, when I have time" pile! That pile just keeps getting higher!

I Swear, every line is as straight as I could make it : )

We know about the illusion of curve in Rick's Paradox, but I hadn't seen the illusion in Cadent, because I usually draw it with curvy lines. These were done straight, corner to corner, and they still look curved to me!

I LOVE spending time every week looking at what others have done with Laura's challenges. Soooo inspiring! This awesome Zentangle community inspires me in so many ways, and I'm so glad I'm here!

NON-Dominatrix

I have a friend who has told me for years that my voice could make me good money as a dominatrix on the phone.
This Challenge, however has nothing to do with that! The challenge is to create a Zentangle with our non-dominant hand. For me that's my left. I won't call it useless: the strength is good, and right now it's giving me less pain than the right, but as far as dexterity and fine-motor function . . .
(Isn't that some sort of oxymoron: dexterous left hand? Obviously the word was created by anti-leftists!)

My first attempt was, to my eye, even worse than expected:

So shaky and uncontrolled that, in order to comfort myself, I recreated it with my right hand:

just to prove that it still worked, I think.

My second attempt, I concentrated much harder on keeping my strokes steady & deliberate. I know others have mentioned their dominant hand trying to seize control of the pen. I didn't have this problem, because I was using it to clench the sketch pad! I kept telling myself to Relax and Breathe, but my right hand clutched the sketch pad in a death grip, and my left hand clutched the pen in the same fashion. I kept trying to relax my grip  on the pen,  but it would only work for seconds before tightening up again.

At any rate, I did finally complete a tile (really, without any hidden discarded tiles!) that I felt was as good as I was likely to get in the allotted time.

I can see this as something I should continue to attempt now and then, as a growth experience.

I notice that I didn't actually sign any of these : )  Freudian, no?

I have a LOT of things to post this week, so I'll try to spread them out a bit.

But be sure to check out Rick and Maria's post from Friday!  All 3 masks are just beautiful, but my favorite is the third one. I'll post more photos of that here later.

Am I Blue?

Well, not really. I was pretty blue on Friday, with concerns over my first class in the new studio space. But world events were certainly much bigger and far more devastating than Anything in my little world!!

So I send out prayers and healing energy to all those harmed in any way by natural disaster! And my little world will just have to continue to turn.

The Diva's Weekly Challenge #12 is "Something Blue," in honor of her Mom, Mom's birthday and her love of the color. This one was difficult for me. My first attempt was rather heavy-handed with the blue. I liked this second one better. But I think I'll post them both: there were things I really liked in the first tile! I just felt that I "lost it" in adding color.

OK, so the scanner toned it down some, but I still don't like what I did with Hollibaugh.

And the second, the scanner toned down too, so it's kind of dark:

I could probably adjust the settings, but I'm too tired.
;  )  [me with one eye closed]

Busy week last week and another coming up!

On the bright side, even though I had a smaller-than-expected-or-hoped-for class on Saturday, I did have a class, and everyone who did attend seemed to enjoy it and want more.

Tentative plan to repeat Zentangle 101 in a couple of weeks, then a "102--8 more tangles" in mid-April.

More on that soon!

In my downtime this week (if I really have any), I have a lot of work to do on my marketing.

Monotangle?

So here again, is the Weekly Challenge from Laura Harms (I THINK I've been spelling it correctly, but I won't swear to it!)  :  )

This week, Laura challenges us to create a Zentangle tile Using Only One Tangle! Oh, what fun!

First, let me refer you to my tile for the first Challenge:  "Simplicity" That one used only Cadent in graduated sizes of pen.

So, of course, Cadent leaped immediately to mind, but that wouldn't have been challenging at all, since I was Done already.
I thought of  Flux, since I love to draw those swoopy, leafy shapes. But my first few attempts were disappointing. Then I thought of Betweed. I Really like the way this one looks in the long, narrow, ribbon-y format. Again, I was not happy! Too stilted.

Maggie, you're Overthinking again! It's Zentangle!!!

Once I added the third, slightly different area of Betweed, I was much happier!

So then I said, "While you're Flowing, instead of Thinking, draw a string and try Flux one more time.

Much Better!!

I'll have more this weekend. I've been very productive this week!

The Space Between (or maybe Betweed)

This week's Challenge from the Diva is about Space. I found it very synchronous: last Sunday I was working on a larger piece, and my godson said "It'd be really cool if you did some of that lettering in negative space." So on Monday morning I was trying to work out how to do that, when Laura posted this Challenge!

Like many others at the Challenge site, leaving Space is not necessarily something I usually do, although I have made some attempts.

I drew my string with "Leave Some Space" in mind, and it ended up looking very skeletal, but I went with it. Drew the string and started tangling while waiting to get my lab work done. Continued later that day at the vet's office, then ran out of time & didn't pick it up again until today (Saturday)

The Space Between: between the tangles, between the Worlds? The Void, the space of  "No-Thing-ness." The Center of All Things.The Place of Transformation.

Today, I reach deep into the Space Between, to find the Change I'm seeking in my life!

Late Again, but I showed up anyway

Last week's Challenge from Laura/the Diva was to use her tangle "Artoo," which she created while hanging around the hospital with her son of the same name.

Artoo has recovered from his respiratory infection and returned home. Laura, I'm sure, is still trying to "catch up" on everything that didn't get done while she was full-time caring for Artoo. Here's hoping that his recovery is complete, and that all is settling down in Saskatchewan!!

I love this tangle! I love organic, leafy things, so I used this and a couple of others. Spring is Coming, Artoo is growing and healing.

Busy week here, which is why I'm late with this tile, but a couple of days now to relax and spend time with loved ones and/or Tangling. Tangling with loved ones is one of my very favorite things!! In my immediate family I now have 2 daughters, 1 soon-to-be daughter-in-law, one dear sister-friend, one granddaughter and two god-children who are all Awesome Tanglers, each with his or her own special path!

It's great to watch, and share, and Love each other's Art. Maybe I'll share some of their work here soon.

O2 for Artoo

This week's Challenge #8 from Laura Harms was posted from the hospital, where her Baby Boy Artoo had been admitted for respiratory problems. The challenge was to create a heart, using two previous challenges and send healing intentions in Artoo's direction.

I didn't have a lot of actual pen-to-paper tangling time this week, but the intent and healing energy kept flowing to Saskatchewan. On Thursday, during a meeting, the idea for this tile flowed from my pen, all over my meeting notes.

By the time I actually sat down with a tile Friday night, little Artoo had recovered enough to return home!
I used the Challenges "Orbs" & "Breathe."

I even added a little color to this one, because it asked.

All those lovely leafy Flux-y tangles in the heart are Very Busy expiring Lots and LOTS of O2 for Artoo!

All my best wishes to Laura, and her lovely family: B-rad, Chewie, and of course Artoo. Continued Healing, growing Health and Strength, and Many Blessings!