gathering dust

My 'newest' tangle has had a strange evolution - born in disregard and rapidly abandoned to the care of others, I felt it was time to welcome it home and show it some love.  

For the first half of 2020 I worked on Alice Hendon's Zen-Untangled project, working through the entire collection of 'official' Zentangle tangles. I drew mine onto ATCs which I keep in a small tin. It's become a handy resource I dip into whenever I need inspiration.

On one card, created in early July
I tangled a variation of Static
(alongside Jonqual and Orlique)

My good friends Debbie and Stephanie from 7F5R enthused about my tile, particularly my version of Static. They encouraged me to name and claim the tangle as my own. I was stubborn and reluctant, insisting it was merely a tangleation and sure that others were already using it. No amount of cajoling would encourage me to draw a step out and share it at that time, however I gave them my blessing for them to share it, which they did. You can see Stephanie's step out for Ecstatic, her example, not to mention her perspective on my reluctance here!

I'm thrilled to learn that Ecstatic will be featured in Stephanie's selection of tangles for this year's Inktober. In honour of this I thought I would spend a little time getting to know my orphaned tangle. This time with my heart and mind a little more open to its potential.

The evolution of Ecstatic

Static was one of the very first tangles I learned, but I've never particularly enjoyed using it. Those zigzags rapidly start to round beneath my pen and it only ever becomes background patterning rather than anything particularly exciting in itself.  However in my 2018 sketchbook you can see that I started to play around with a variation, which appeared again when I was practicing tangling using purple ink on the back of a tile.

The key difference between Static and Ecstatic is that you don't draw every line of the zigzag, some are cut short.

My stepout differs slightly from the way that Stephanie drew hers, both work equally well and you may have one you prefer.  As I've worked more with Ecstatic a number of variations have appeared. Extra interest can be added to the tangle by rounding, or blacking out sections of the rows after drawing them.  The lines themselves can be thick or thin, or even a mixture of the two, and can be kept sharp or more rounded. Shading can be done in blocks like we do with Static, or each row shaded individually to give a sense of texture.

 

Because Ecstatic grows one row at a time it allows you to tuck in other tangles as it builds. I like this as I'm always looking for easy ways to get my tangles to meld with one another.

Ecstatic running sideways for a change - joined by
Rumpus, Pokeleaf and Damsel Leaf on a Kraft tile.

Another simple way to bring additional drama and layers is to tangle your Ecstatic first, and then go in afterwards with your black pen (maybe a thicker one if you're impatient) and adding solid black tangling or ribbons. The following progression shows how this tile came to be and also demonstrates how forgiving this tangle can be – the original lines are pretty wobbly in places but that soon gets lost when more tangles, rounding, shading and highlighting added.

An intense Brusho coloured tile.
First add Ecstatic, then pen in some additions.
Darken them, and add highlights, texture the background.
Shade and add more tiny highlights.

A year on from casting this little tangle into the hands of others I've learnt a lot. About being willing to come back to an idea and look at it again with fresh eyes and a less jaded heart. Not to mention the importance of listening to friends when they tell you something has merit! Thank you Debbie, thank you Steph – there would have been no Ecstatic without you!

I hope fellow tanglers enjoy using Ecstatic - I'd love to know how you get on with it!

taking flight

The global pandemic has made vast and small changes to most people's lives. Personally I've found that I prefer to largely withdraw from the world, limiting communications and connections, focusing on mindful concrete activities to get me through my days. As such I haven't blogged in many months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been tangling.

There was a patch near the start where I felt too anxious and unsettled to pick up a pen, and then when I did I felt uninspired and lacking in ideas as to what to do with my urge to tangle. Thankfully I had the perfect project still on the go – the one I started at the very beginning of the year when few of us could imagine how this year would unfold.

Week after week, month after month I've been adding to my stack of ATC cards. On each appears one or more of the core Zentangle official tangles. The project is the brainchild of Alice Hendon, and she's led us through it lovingly for the past 25 weeks! And through 170 tangles. Which I've inked onto 65 cards and placed into my little tin which is now threatening to burst!

It's been a pleasure to meet tangles I love, tangles I really don't care for, tangles I use often, and many I've overlooked. I've liked noting their similarities, and encouraging them to play nicely with one another. I've moved back and forward between the surprise of colour and the elegance of black and white. And in the process I've realised how far I've come in my Zentangle journey - revisiting tangles that I first learnt perhaps eight years ago. Tangles which were hard to control or unfathomable to recreate now come with relative ease as my penmanship and understanding of patterns has become stronger and more instinctive.

My little tin has become a precious receptacle of tangle wonders – a great resource that I can dip into time and again whenever I'm stuck for what tangle to use next.

With this project complete I'm ready now to let myself drift into uncharted waters, following where my pen will lead me. I've got e-books, swap tiles, and simple scraps of paper with rumoured ideas - plenty to keep me occupied in the months ahead. Who knows how long it will be till I visit here again – but in the meantime listen to the right people, stay safe and take care of yourself and those you love.

territorial jottings

I go through phases of working a lot in my sketchbooks, gathering new tangles galore, and playing with ideas, colours or techniques.  And then for no apparent reason I'll just stop... spending less time inside these pages, and instead working straight to tile.  Then I'll start again.  Perhaps it's about filling the book with inspiration which sustains me for a while and then I need to top up again.

Here's the latest batch of pages from my sketchbook - the earliest one was started last summer, the most recent one was started in December but I tucked a couple of tangles into some gaps just last week.

Points of interest -
White ink on black - showing that I was playing with Project Pack 6 around this time
Comparing Dealys with Aura-Leah helped me to appreciate their differences
Hanamar which seems to confuse me less than similar tangles
A new take on Finery (middle right) and Dewd meets Mooka (middle left)

Points of interest -
Using a Doodah as a zipper - a Maria Thomas' idea I really love
Ravel - endlessly relaxing to tangle
Trinity - a tangle that doesn't come easily but always rewards my efforts
Una which I just remembered when looking at this page - almost looks like it's knitted

Points of interest -
A couple of delicious Ela Rieger organic tangles (top left)
Hollis - which really demands me to slow down
Tangent - which is a really quirky tangle and so much fun, I need to use it more

Points of interest -
 Blue ink comes onto the page as I play with Zentangle's Project Pack 07 ideas
Experimenting with Afterglo was fun
High Stakes is a great tangle for when you need a handful of excitement to finish a tile

Points of interest -
More blue fun from Project Pack 07 - Day #8 giant decorated Cadent was a pleasant surprise
Two bands of Elegan - which took the tangle world by storm recently.  I was trying out colours ready for Valentangle - I really wanted to be brave enough to work with purple, but retreated into the comfort of grey in the end!

Points of interest -
The end of Project Pack 07 - Day #10 organic bouquet was comforting to tangle
Sun is a mesmersing spiral tangle, and seems to play very well with Hollis. 
And Nana is a great new find for when you need a hit of dark drama on your tile

I've just started working on two new pages in my sketchbook - which I'll no doubt share with you some way down the line.  On one I'm playing with the ideas introduced in the Project Pack 08 videos from Zentangle HQ.  On the other I'm exploring the technique known as Whatz-Its. I've bought the course (which is offered by my friends at 7F5R Studio) - but you can get a free taster of the technique (which is a lot of fun and very versatile) by watching their free preview lesson, which gives a heap of inspiration in itself.

a handful of tangles

I was captured by Alice Hendon's Zen-untangled idea as soon as I saw it.  I knew there was something precious and important about spending time with the core Zentangle patterns - once I'd found a way that would work for me.  I've embraced each and every card, even the challenging ones, and I'm gaining so much on the way. 

I'm getting to know new tangles I've never met before.  Some of them are a lot less elaborate than those we are used to seeing from ZTHQ these days - but each has a certain charm and potential once you start to work with them.  It's also comforting to know that even Rick and Maria started somewhere quite basic!

I'm revisiting old tangles that I used to struggle with, that I can now tangle with ease - which is a comfort and reminder that we all develop and improve the more we do something, even if we don't always notice.  I'm also re-discovering tangles that I love, that I'd forgotten, and have been inspired to use more.  In addition, needing to fit a few onto an ATC often provides a great way to encourage tangles to play together.

There's a bit of a backlog to catch up with, as I've been preoccupied with Valentangle - but here are my last 3 weeks worth of cards.

A handful of organic tangles Fescu, Springkle, Zinger -
filling spaces defined by Doodah.  On a Distress Inked tile.

Marvellous Mooka - tangled in the styles I favour.  As a border, with
Melting Mooka and Easy Mooka - on a dark grey tile.

Hollis cups Moonpie, and sprouts from Tagh
clustered corners.  Watercolour and graphite on white.

Similar tangles share space on this Distress Inked
tile - Drupe and Fracas with a Dyon background.

A speckled grey background and a bit of imagination
helped 3 initially uninspiring tangles to enjoy their
moment in the spotlight - Ibex, Facade and Xircus

Beautiful basics - Crescent Moon and Knightsbridge -
I bought in white and subtle colour to this tan tile.

I've never been a fan of Enyshou - but omitting
the 'hat' and having it sprout from Festune made
me like it a lot more!  With a band of Hibred on
a gently watercoloured tile.

Huggins meets W2 - passing through a Crazy Huggins
stage on the way.  Sometimes this kind of woven tangle
is a delight to work with.  On a very orange tile for me!

That's me caught up to date so far.  46 of the 170 official tangles worked into 19 ATCs!  It's going to be a delightful deck to shuffle through one day, but making each card is an exciting creative oppurtunity in itself.

Gallery #1

In my last post I talked about changing things a little on my blog.  As well as posts where I explore a theme or style or technique I want to have posts where I simply share the pieces I've worked on recently, with minimal commentary (by my standards)!  A guided tour through my tangle gallery if you like - and this is the first of those posts.

I'm in an opinionated mood today, so bear with me, and just enjoy the pictures if you don't like what I have to say.

Time to say goodbye -
(Arukas, Mooka and Fescu )
Pigment ink and graphite on a Distress Ink coloured and stenciled tile

I tangled this tile today - the day that the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. This is not something I wanted, not something I voted for. But I understand, with a heavy-heart, that I have to accept the workings of democracy, and the so-called 'will of the people' - even when I think their choice is short-sighted and will leave our country poorer in so many, many ways. I feel sad today, and scared about what lies ahead. I want to reach out to my European tangle friends and tell them I'm not letting go.

I'd rarely choose to work on a such a bright blue tile and with yellow stars too - but sometimes how things look isn't as important as what they represent!

AusTangles Part I
(S-Vine, Veezy, Gottago, Leaflet, Remo, Sevy)
Pigment ink and graphite on a watercoloured postcard - 6x4 inches

Over the past 2 weeks I've joined in with Austangles, hosted on Facebook by Yvette Campbell. She picked a daily tangle by an Australian tangler and invited us to join in however we wanted to. It was great to work with some new and old tangles and I had fun weaving them all together on a pair of postcards - one to represent the warmth and richness of Australia's natural habitat and culture, the other for the cooling waters that surround it.

AusTangles Part II
(Trimonds, Appease, Mak-Rah-Mee, Swimz, Oddballz, Brax)
Pigment ink and graphite on a watercoloured postcard - 6x4 inches

Australia has been suffering in recent months with devastating wildfires causing significant death and destruction. It's hard to know how to help when you're many miles away. I don't personally believe in prayers for rain, but I do believe in what we can do as individuals. I can donate to charities that are helping those affected. I can read to stay informed and educate myself about what's happening and why - which is undeniably related to the worsening state of our climate. I can make sensible and necessary lifestyle choices that might limit my negative impact on our climate. And I can vote for those who properly respect our world and are willing to do what needs to be done.  I can also spend time reflecting on these things as I tangle using along with others all around the world, and hope that a little connection can go a long, long way.

Lastly and with no agenda whatsoever -
these are the next 3 tiles for my Zen-untangled tin (a project to explore the full set of Zentangle official tangles).
On the first - Molygon, Nipa and Bumper
On the second - Verdigogh, Locar and Pepper
On the third - just Ellish

I'm about to dive into this year's ValenTangle - a two week celebration of connection and love, carefully designed and hosted by Marguerite Samama.  I had a wonderful time last year, and came a long way towards conquering my dislike of drawing hearts.  Join us if you'd like to, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks to share my results.

the legacy of a leaf

With just over a month left in this year I find myself tangling less. There's limited daylight to tangle by and I often have one eye on Christmas planning.  I'm spending less time with pen and tile, but that makes tangle time feel all the more precious.

'Nzeppel fills a band of Shattuck and a section of Spoken.
I worked on Strathmore tan toned tiles, trimmed to regular size.

I remember meeting 'Nzeppel - how my first use of it coincided with my first experience of using an official Zentangle tile. And of how it reminded me of fishnet stockings! I don't use it often, and when I do it's usually just a small fragment of Crazy 'Nzeppel.  But I was interested to see how the tangle would fare in the full glare of the spotlight. (While you're at it be sure to check out some of the wonderful ways Margaret Bremner uses this tangle!)

A mostly regular 'Nzeppel fills a Bales string.
No highlights but gently built up shading (using a 4B pencil)
makes Bales rise from the tile.

I used other tangles as if they were strings, and then filled only with 'Nzeppel.  It's a relaxing and forgiving tangle that really comes into its own once you add simple shading.  I considered adding white highlights all over the tiles, but in the end just stuck with a tiny pop of brightness on those two graphite gems.

'Nzeppel fills an Aquafleur - and two thin 'Nzeppel ribbons
add a finishing touch.  A grey gem adds a little shine.

I'd been toying with the idea of trying something different with 'Nzeppel for a few months and I'd imagined tangling these tiles during my Winter Inklings (I pictured fracture ice and frost patterns).  But then I reached for three tan tiles, and noticed how they grew to resemble the dried leaves of late autumn. All colour mostly faded, leaving behind only the skeletons of who those leaves once were.

step into my parlour

It's been almost 5 months since my last confession - since I last showed you my inner workings, the jottings and explorations that fill my sketchbook.

As I browse online any new tangles I spot, or old tangles I'm reminded of, get doodled about with on the torn off papers from my page-a-day desk calendar.  Roughly once a week I have a session where any of those tangles that I like I play with further in my sketchbook.  I might copy the tangle faithfully and then try variations.  I might see how two tangles work together.

My sketchbook then becomes the resource for any tiles or pieces I'm working on.  Often I use recent pages for inspiration, but sometimes I go back, pull out an old sketchbook and rediscover treasures I've long forgotten.  For my recent Relaxagon Paradox tiles I dusted off a page of Paradox variations from 2015! 

Points of interest -
There are tangles here that I've used a lot - Sitiko, Saatin and Blind Membranart
And those that have only had one outing so far - Line Dance and  S-Vine
And those that haven't yet made it to a tile but will when the time is right - the (missed named by me) Oritigol

Points of interest -
A trio of Padrós tangles on this page - often challenging, always rewarding - Tissoooh, All Stars and Taiga
Revisiting Dreamdex - which I struggled with on first meeting but am warming to now
Checkmate and Salo - both proving that simple tangles can be just as charming as complex ones

Points of interest -
New discoveries - Matuvu and Windmill - both of which I love
Spotting harmonious tangle pairings - Seespan and Squirk
Playing with the Ogee shape with nothing else in mind (bottom left)

Points of interest -
The aptly autumnal Gelijoy and Ada which was the star of a recent IAST show
Kaas and RunCC - two wonderful grid type tangles
Skyview which takes much concentration and Violetka which doesn't

Working in my sketchbook is an invaluable part of my Zentangle practice - if you'd never tried it I'd encourage you to give it a go - you might be pleasantly surprised with where it leads you.  And even if you don't fancy that, hopefully there are plenty of tangles here to take your fancy - I wish I could link to them all but that would eat up too much tangle time!

monochrome rainbows

Shading is one of the aspects I enjoy the most when I work on a tile - but last week I barely shaded at all, and I realised that often, particularly at the height of summer, I tend to forego my pencil and work with ink alone.

I decided to continue to leave my pencil to one side, and this week I worked on some Notan style tiles. In brief Notan is a Japanese artistic technique that uses only black and white to create striking and varied images or patterns. It's a style that lends itself to Zentangle. There are a handful of tangles that Linda at Tangle Patterns groups together under the tag of Notan - including a few Zentangle originals, of which we're all familiar, and probably use quite often in our work.

Whilst Notan tangles look great in black on white tiles, they also delight on more colourful backgrounds. I prepared my backgrounds by blending three shades of Distress Inks (Crushed Olive, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord) on a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth. I then cut this into two 4x4 and 4 2x2 tiles to fill a page in my binder.

I set to tangling, choosing a handful of my favourite Notan tangles. Filling in large amounts of black ink can feel time-consuming, but I find it quite relaxing. If it seems daunting to you then try working small as I did on these four Bijou size tiles. I used a 01 pen to draw the initial tangle and then filled using an 02.

 

Tangles used -
on the Bijou (top to bottom) - Dyzzee, Knightsbridge, Strircles, Flontrast
on the two large tiles (top) - Chloë & Ozzie (bottom) - Blaw

It's worth taking a little care as you move from section to section. It's easy to think that it such an easy tangle that it doesn't need much focus - sometimes a wicked sprite seems to whisper in your ear telling you to jump ahead and fill in a section, and suddenly you've messed up. Or you slip and your pen crosses from an area of black into white. No disaster, just a chance to add a little flourish or change of direction. There is no need for these tangles to be considered stark or boring, in my examples I've added little tweaks - frames, or perfs, lines or bulges.

While I played with other Notan tangles I started to devise one of my own - loosely based on the structure of Bales. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Blaw - named after a contraction of the phrase 'black and white'.

Just a few steps to build the basic frame, and then fill as you desire.

It's easy to underestimate Notan style tangles, to think they can be nothing more than their bold black and white selves. But there's subtlety to them if you choose to look for it - as can be seen here.

Detail lines, rounding, and auras, or a a combination of these -
all add interest and variety to a Notan tangle

And that's without the power of shading which of course could be included too! Margaret Bremner takes the Notan concept even further and twists it in all sorts of interesting directions.

I look forward to seeing what you do with Blaw - please let me know if you use it, and if you like it.

As always, if this tangle appears to be too similar to any others in name or style, please let me know.

playing games in the rain

I'm now officially in the Summer portion of my year long seasonal tangling project or Inklings as I call it.  Midsummer's Day is next week - but the temperatures have been stubbornly low lately and this week we've had high winds and lots of rain.  I'm not complaining - the plants and soil need it - but I'm not deterred from working with more traditionally summery colours either!

I prepared my tiles using Distress Inks in 3 colours.  On each tile I used a blending tool and gently built up smooth colour all over the tile, darker at the edges, lighter in the middle.  Using a stencil I then added a section of one of the other colours.

Sinking into summer - Alice Hendon recently blogged about her Line Dance
tangle.  It's a great one to tangle - simple and deliciously repetitive.  Shading
takes it to another level and there's scope for embellishment too.

My choice of tangles was mostly dictated by those that have come to my attention over recent weeks, and that I haven't yet worked with, or those I wanted to try again.  There was no greater planning involved and yet somehow I tangled a very cohesive set of tiles.  One reason they work well together is the similar colouring and background.  But the other is those black vines that appeared on every tile!

Stars and Stripes - with pleasing similarites to Romancy and Clob
Checkmate (Jody Genovese) is a joy to draw and shade. 
I added a handful of Helen Williams' Seeing Stars too.

I often add black details as I come to the end of a tile.  To me they feel like the finishing touch, and help to give an extra layer of excitement to a tile that might look a little flat.  Sometimes I might use perfs, or some Fescu or Beadlines.  There's official terms for this I think - to do with contrast and value maybe.  But to me it's just instinctive.  Is there enough black, white (or colour) and grey?  If not, add a bit here and there till I like it more!  These vines also help to connect different areas of a tile.  They can be vines, or ribbons, or long Fescu.  They can break out into an area of negative space, without completely filling it.  They can also cover over any little wobbles or slips I'm not happy with!

Dark and disturbing - Saatin (Nadine Roller) is one of those tangles,
deceptively simple and yet with so much potential for variation.
Blind Membranart (Tomàs Padrós) is another stunning fusion of organic
and mathematical and just begged to be envined!

Lately my black ribbons and vines are not content to merely wrap around or between other tangles - now they want to go through!  And who am I to stop them.  Just as summer days are sometimes cut through with rain, so the brightest tile needs its shot of darkness.

it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

Despite how it might sound, this isn't a post where I gripe about my failings and expect you to compliment me in return!  It's just an opportunity for me to talk about the highs and lows of a tangling week.

We can't love every tile we draw.  There are going to be some that we want to frame and hang on a wall, that we want to introduce to our family, or tuck under our pillow at night to decorate our dreams.  There will be many that we feel okay about, but don't really remember much beyond the moment we signed and dated them and set them to one side.  And there will be some that we don't like much at all.  That we want to disown, or dissolve into mere atoms of paper and graphite and ink.  I always encourage tanglers who feel they've made a dud tile to keep it, don't throw it away, because it marks a moment and through that it still has something to tell them. 

Mooka, Cubine, Dex and Crescent Moon -
great tangles but this wasn't a winning combination.

On Wednesday I made a tile I really don't like.  It could have been wonderful - I started with a beautiful Zentangle round tile and pencilled in Annette's Zendala Moments #4 string (I'm playing catch up with these).  And it went wildly off-key from there.  In hindsight I wasn't in the right frame of mind to tangle.  I had pain in my teeth and my hip (both now fully resolved) and while sometimes tangling distracts me from cares and discomfort, sometimes it doesn't.  I tangled through the pain but minute by minute my tile started to decline - my line work was sloppy, I packed too much in and I started to feel really negative about the tile.  I packed up my supplies and only returned to the tile today.  I couldn't do much to save it - and I was sorely tempted not to share it, but I think it's important to share our tangling tragedies as well as our triumphs.  We all have days like that, tiles like that - I bet even Rick and Maria knock out a tile from tile to time that they look at with wobbly mouths and swiftly feed to Bijou!

All Stars (Tomàs Padrós) takes a bit of concentraion to set up the initial grid -
but once that is done you can go crazy with your choice of fill
and then watch it come to life and the shading stage!

The great thing about Zentangle is that there is always another chance, another tile, more ink, a sharpened pencil.  And what a difference a day makes!  Yesterday I played with two tangles by the masterful Tomàs Padrós.  These tangles were both new to me and both a fair bit more complicated than any I used on the round tile.  But they worked like a dream.  And even when I made a couple of mistakes - lines where they shouldn't have been, or lines that came out thick and wobbly I was quickly able to work those into my design.  I don't have much more to say about these tiles - they speak elegantly enough for themselves.

Taiga (Tomàs Padrós) is a mesmerising tangle with a familiar formation that
cleverly transforms into the look of tall winter trees - or can remain
entirely abstract if you wish.  A slip turned into the invitation to cut out
sections to enhance the appearance of a paper-cut forest!

By my definition my Spring themed tangling is coming to a finish at the end of May.  My pinks and yellows and greens are becoming more vibrant as summer edges nearer.  It's a cusp week next week, so time for something a little different, but then I'll move into Summer tangling mode.  There were quite a few springy ideas I never got to try - but there's always next year, and mostly I'm just proud of sticking to my project and even embracing the use of pink!

vernal wanderings

As spring takes a firmer holder colours start to intensify - the soft hues that seeped in as winter departed are starting to hum with life, leaves almost glowing with the expectation of greater amounts warmth and light to come.  My tiles are becoming brighter too.  Green joined us a few weeks back - to sit aside the pink and yellow. 

As this season enjoys its annual renewal I turn my attention to a handful of recent new tangles - and one that has been around a while but is new to me.  Sometimes people feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of new tangles that appear week after week.  But remember - you can admire a tree without counting every leaf.  Some people feel underwhelmed by the new tangles they are seeing.  Perhaps they would be more content returning to something older and more familiar - the leaf that felt last autumn, the one they pick up and tucked inside the book beside their bed.  Never underestimate the return to tried and trusted tangles.

Maybe some people are in the middle, and that's where I think I am.  I don't try and use every new tangle that appears.  I browse those I see on my online travels and any that grab my interest I pop into my sketchbook.  Some of those make it to tiles - maybe straight away, maybe a long time later.  For me a tangle really comes to life when I work with it, not just look at it on a screen.  When I get to know it and change it a little, when I see how it plays with others.  When I see what I can do for it and what it can do for me. 

Over recent weeks these six tangles have been dominating my tangle time - click on the tangle name under each image to go to the step-outs.

'Eyebrows' - Sandy Hunter
not named as yet I saw this on her Tanglebucket Facebook page.
Akin to Zenith, she begins with the circles and then adds the
'eyebrows' on either side.  Rounding brings it to life.
A pleasure to draw with so many variations possible.

Klomp - Jody Genovese
Easier than it looked at first sight -
especially if you draw the line at step #4 first,
so that your diamond shapes all line up.
Great fun to shade and embellish for variety.

Saatin - Nadine Roller & Lola - Stephanie Jennifer
Two tangles on this tile. 
I didn't fancy the heavy highlighting that Nadine
suggest for Saatin - but I loved the overall design of the tangle.
I added detail lines and shaded to suggest holes.
I ran with the idea of a hole in Lola too -
and then tied the tangles together with a black ribbon!

BrixBox - Anneke Van Dam
Anneke shared this tangle in 2013, just before
I started tangling - but I only discovered it a few weeks ago
when Margaret Bremner posted about alternative grids.
It takes focus to set up the basic grid, but then filling it is pure pleasure.
I popped in bits of Cubine, Dex and Eye-Wa.

Flux d'Lux - Jenny Perruzzi
A fun jump-off from Flux, and reminding me of Cruffle too,
Jenny shared this tangle in her Anything Goes Facebook group.
Relaxing to tangle, wild with embellishment potential -
I love the way your Flux can touch, overlap, or even
stand a little apart.

I'm sure next time I'll be back on familiar turf, but for now it's been fun exploring pastures new.