the patience of a leaf

Autumn strikes me as a season that won't be hurried.  In its own time it carries the natural world from the warmth of summer through to winter's cold.  Leaves steadily change colour, setting their own pace, deepening and darkening until they eventually drop.  Each leaf will only fall when it's ready - and I like to imagine it's that waiting that allows those leaves to paint themselves in such stunning colours. 

I like to time my time over the things I enjoy - and so it was with this two tile piece.  The tangling and shading took me a couple of hours.  Steady progress - adding ink, then stopping at look at my tile, then adding a little more.  The same with the shading and the highlights.  Pausing often to look and ponder my tile helps me to appreciate the process as well as tweaking my tangling here and there to make it look the best it can.  My tangling won't be rushed any more that the littlest leaf!

Rich and warming - Ginili, Yuma and a Pokeleaf variation.
Pigment ink, graphite, white pencil and Ivory Posca paint pen highlights.
Three shades of Brusho powders created the background - Sandstone, Terracotta and Burnt Sienna.

I've made Persian Mosaics for Winter, Spring and Summer as well as exploring them in the original colours schemes suggested by Marguerite Samama.  Every time I work on these connecting triangles they take me somewhere new and remind me that there is endless variety and pleasure (not to mention value for money) to be had from Marguerite's carefully crafted kits.

taming the leaf

I usually begin by telling you about how a tile started, before eventually revealing the finished piece - but this week I'm going to reverse that.

Here is a two tile Persian Mosaic (I've blogged about these at length before) - my summer version of Marguerite's Samama's tangled triangular adventures.

Summer Mosaic - tangled with the hypnotic Doodah, rounded Paradox and a rough version of Decoo

These rich greens and golds didn't start off looking quite so good!  I started with two square tiles that I'd coloured using a new Brusho powder that claimed to be Leaf Green, but which turned out to be little different to their Lime Green.  These two tiles were far too zingy for my mid-summer mood so I set about calming them down a bit.

After pencilling in the unique string, using the template that comes with the Persian Mosaic kit, I tangled with my Olive Green Copic fineliner.  When it came to shading I used a Teal Blue Irojiten to shade along with graphite.  I added only a small pop of white chalk as I wanted this tile to calm down, not wake up. 

Work in progress - I started to shade a section of the first 3Z before I'd finished tangling 
because I wanted to check that what I was trying for might work before committing myself!

As a final finishing touch I used some gold watercolour to add a few dots and some little rings, made my dipping a pen cap into the paint and stamping it on the tile. 

Playing with the light - two tiles at rest of the arm of our garden bench.

I then cut the triangles free from the square tiles and placed the two together to make a whole. 

Sometimes days, like tiles, don't start how we'd like them to, but with a little patience and perseverance, some might end up better than we feared.

as the song says

There's a lyric in a song I've long loved that says 'All the things I detest I will almost like' (Somebody - Depeche Mode).

Some months ago I'd have found it inconceivable that I'd be contentedly working in shades of pink and yellow for the past six weeks!  I actively dislike pink, unless it's a very hot cerise, and while yellow is okay, and quite beautiful in natural settings, it's a bit too bright and lively for the way I like to work.  But the more time I spend with these colours, the more I get to know them, understand them, refine what works well with them and what doesn't.

Marguerite Samama's Persian Mosaic original concept invites us to tangle with a cobalt pen, but is infinitely variable too.  Earlier this year I gave it the winter look and now these two 3Z tiles are showing off their spring style!

In bloom - Dayzee-Mae, Auraleah and Flux
Watercoloured tiles, shaded with pink pencil and graphite

A rare work in progress image -
most of the line work is done,
and I'm starting to colour and shade

Quite a few of the backgrounds I've used recently have been made using the hefty hack technique.  Whereby you lay down some watercolour from a pen, spritz it with some water and then pick it up using your tile.  The interesting thing is the results differ every time, and not only because of the random spread and mix of the colour but because the paper you use seems to influence the spread and absorption.  On the 3Z above - I used the same pens, two yellows and one pink, but the colours mostly blended to a peachy yellow.  On the Zendala tile below the colours stayed more differentiated and created a wonderful design reminiscent of raspberry ripple icecream!

I used this tasty looking tile for the background to my piece for Annette's Zendala Moments #3 prompt.  I've not tangled many Zendalas over the years - in fact this tile bring my grand total to only 11!  I've no idea why really, perhaps just because their extra size makes them more of a commitment, or perhaps because I'm naturally drawn to the straight sides of the square tiles.  But every time I tangle one I love the process and the result.  The pleasure of picking a few favourite tangles and methodically working my way around the tile, the rhythm and repetition are mesmerising.

A whirling dervish -
Diva Dance, Bunzo, Kaboom plus tassles!

I love how this Zendala turned out.  I went darker and darker with the shading, without ever muting that lively background.  I also added some tassles to further enhance that sense of movement.  It makes me think of genies escaping from confinement in bottles and lamps, magic cushions and hats spinning their way across deserts in Scheherazade's tales.

I'll be moving on soon, adding another shade to my spring palette, and while pink and yellow will never become my favourite colours I'm far less afraid of them than I used to be.

farewell, my frosty friend

At the start of this year I set myself the challenge of tangling in line with the changing seasons - picking appropriate colours and tangles and styles - and working only with those. I defined winter as December, January and February. On this, the first day of March, I therefore declare winter over!

The only colour I've picked up in the last two months is a couple of cool blue pens, which mostly featured in my ValenTangle adventure. However I haven't missed colour in the least, and in fact I'm a little wary about having to reconnect with it again. My last tiles for my Winter Inklings theme really stripped back to the basics. Black and white and graphite, and a little grey watercolour on one or two.

Giving a PersianMosaic the winter treatment -

straight Shattuck over grey and white coloured 3Z tiles

Baton and 4Fun with holes cut out -

a sense of winter breaking up ready to melt

The recent Square One focus tangle was Ipso -

here getting a winter fix with Cat-Kin and more Baton

I end close to where I began the year -

strong diagonals of Diva Dance, Basketweave

over deep grey, and Edie with fragments of Baton

I love living in a country with changing seasons, it feels natural and right to me. Each season has its own character and things to love about it - but usually by the end of winter I'm willing to let it go. But this year I'm letting it go with a little more sadness than usual. I might just miss those bare branches and frosty mornings, that cool blue ink and grey watercolour. It might take me a week or two to get used to the idea of spring.

It's starting to look a lot like Zentangle!

I had all sorts of wonderful tangling plans for this week and those ahead.  I started strong on Monday throwing some seasonal style at a couple of Persian Mosaic triangles (please take a look at my previous post if you want to know more about the Persian Mosaic scene).

Cobalt and Deep Scarlet Pitt pens, gold pen, graphite and white chalk - and lots of Baton

But life had other ideas when I hurt my arm on Tuesday morning.  I've rested it since, and today was the first time I picked up a pen, holding it far more tentatively that usual.  I had grand plans for a Poke Leaf Wreath (trying saying that in a hurry!) for the Diva's Holidaze challenge, but needed to scale back my plans.  Instead I managed to tangle a Zenbutton on some suitably deep green pastel paper.

Tangled with Sistar fragment, Mooka, Tipple and perfs

The wreath will still be there, for another week, another year - the good thing about tangled Pokes is they never wither however little you look after them!

***

When I tangle I mostly tangle for tangling sake. I rarely 'use' my tiles for anything, and I hardly ever tangle objects. When I see other people making things with their tangle art I'm suitably impressed, but that's not what I want to do on a regular basis. For me the pleasure and the benefit is tangling with no destination in mind.

But there are occasional exceptions - and I thought I'd share a few festive pieces from past years as the build-up to the Christmas season gathers pace.

I've dabbled in Zentangle inspired greetings cards for my nearest and dearest. I've cut out Baton tangled holly leaves, with vaguely Bunzo berries. I've stacked various tangles on a large parcel label and mounted it to a card. But my favourite Christmas card is this one - where I used Distress Inks to colour a tile graduating from green into red. I then tangled using the unintentionally festive LitBee alongside my own tangle Tira.

There's always a tile in a simple frame that sits on a shelf in the room where I tangle and write these posts. It's usually a recent tile, one that I'm particularly happy with - it inspires me and guides me on those inevitable days when the line wobbles and my shading smudges. Sometimes I'll frame an additional tile suitable to the season and put it on a shelf in our lounge.

Any tangle takes on the Christmas spirit if you want it to!

But last year I took the plunge and tangled a set of four coasters for use on our Christmas dinner table. I coloured tiles with Distress Ink, and then tangled in black and complimentary colour with shading and highlights. As well as varying the tangles I made sure to repeat some over all four coasters to bring the set together. These tiles were then sealed inside a set of glass coasters that I found on Amazon. A pleasingly personalised addition to our tableware, and one that we will be pulling out again this year.

fitting it all together

I'll start with a confession.  I rarely buy books, lessons, or kits relating to Zentangle.  In part this is because I have a relatively limited budget, and also a desire not to accumulate more stuff than I need, and also to avoid shipping too much of said stuff half way round our planet and back.  But it's also because I sometimes feel like I don't really want or need the kit, because I can pretty much see what I need to do (roughly speaking) to get the desired result or look.  I don't mean that to sound as smug as it probably does.

I consider buying some lessons and kits and when weighing up my choices I try to pick ones that I know will give me the most value.  Not just in their immediate content, but in how I might use what I learn from them in my ongoing Zentangle practice.  I want the teaching to be adaptable and open to my own interpretation.  I want to be able to expand beyond the basics.  I want to be able to put my own stamp on the results.

Having had a taster of the scope of the kits designed by Marguerite Samama thanks to working with her Zen Buttons early this year, I knew I would find all of the the things I was looking for in her latest Persian Mosaic™ kit.  The kit is available to buy from Etsy via this link.  If you are in Europe you might prefer to buy directly from Marguerite - who you can contact through Facebook.

Toward the end of September my kit arrived and I dived in.  The instructions guide you skillfully through a number of projects to help you understand and appreciate the concept.  An invaluable component of the kit is a special stencil that divides up a 3Z tile.  You then fill the 3 sections with tangles of your choice.  A Cobalt colour pen is also included and further feeds into the Persian design scheme. 

This was the first one I drew, on tan paper I cut myself.

Attractive enough in itself, but the magic starts to happen when you draw more and lay them alongside each other.  

Next up Marguerite invites us to work with the Cobalt pen alone, and also add coloured shading using an included matching watercolour pencil.  I love the fact that each tile looks good alone, but bought together a new level of wonder appears!

As if that wasn't enough fun Marguerite adds bonus projects using a Zentangle Fragment she calls Shiraz.  Here it is repeated 3 times on a 3Z tile.

And here it's used to form a hexagon.  Both example use the Cobalt pen, alongside my own Sanguine pen.

This gives a taste of the basic projects included in the kit.  I followed the instructions closely, allowing myself only the occasional irresistible deviation!  I've been thrilled with the results, which I've shared in a small but thoroughly supportive and inspiring private Facebook group.  But the real excitement for me is seeing where I go next.  Because this kit isn't done and dusted for me now that I've got the hang of it.  What unexplored Persian pathways await me?  What shining cobalt treasures can I find there?  I think it's fair to say that this post is to be continued...