Wednesday 6 August 2014

on the trail

When I first read about Bijou the snail in the Zentangle newsletter at the weekend I thought Rick and Maria had gone a bit mad.  Then I thought about it a bit more and cynically assumed it was a marketing ploy to shift more products.  And then I thought about it a bit more and realised it was quite fun.  And funny too - he makes me laugh and smile - he encourages playfulness.  And then I thought it was quite clever, and profound and very much in keeping with the whole Zentangle ethos.  And all this before I'd even tried a Bijou sized tile!

No surprise that this week's Diva Challenge encourages us to try our hand at these scaled-down tiles.  Always thrifty and keen to make precious materials go further I was thrilled to find that I could cut 5 2 by 2 inch squares from the remains left from cutting two round tiles from a sheet of A4 watercolour paper.  And a good job I did because the Diva was right when she said we wouldn't stop at doing just one...

[click to enlarge]
Tangles used - Nzeppel, Purk, Bales, Fescu, Pepper and Tipple
I did three.  Each with two official tangles on it.  And I loved the process.  To begin with I thought there wouldn't be enough space to fit anything worthwhile onto the tile - but then as I did it I really felt the 'less is more' - the sense of choice of tangle, delicacy, care and patience.  And these finished tiles feel even more precious because of their diminished scale.  In my other pen-work I write - and in part I write poetry, and mostly I write haiku - one of the smallest sorts of poems you can find.  Distilling everyday wonders into limited syllables that pack as big a punch as the greatest epic.  And Bijou's tiles feel a lot like that.

In just a few days of reading and thinking and tangling my way around this Bijou thing I've come on quite a little journey - without ever leaving the table!  And by the looks of it Bijou passed through too - look at that trail running through the tiles!

[click to enlarge]
Bijou - coming to a tile near you, fairly soon!

15 comments:

  1. I love the trail connecting the tiles. The one with Fescu makes me think of a family of snails peeping out.

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  2. oooooh! I love, love, love the snail-trail idea!

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  3. Awesome way to connect the tiles with Bijou's trail! Nice set of tiles!

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  4. Brilliant concept, "Cross Tile Connection." You kept Bijou busy on this challenge. Beautiful Pattern work. Beautiful work.

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  5. Beautiful work. Great snail trail theme.

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  6. Love the idea! Beautiful drawing

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  7. Absolutely creative and fabuolus :)

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  8. Bijou is one busy snail! Looks like he had you busy too!! Love the string connection! you did a fabulous job on them all!! :0) Share Humanity

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  9. You did an amazing job on these! They're great, I just love that snail trail.

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  10. Clever idea with the connecting trail. Nice work on the tangles also.

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  11. Beautiful tiles! I love the Bijou trial that you (or he) created.

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  12. All three are wonderful and great idea for this Bijou trial!

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