getting to grips with a new year

At the start of a new year I like to take a little time to reflect on where I've been in the past year, to better know where I might want to go this year. In terms of tangling I like to look through the tiles I created and pick out some of my favourites.

Last year I worked on a year long project to tangle according to the seasons. At times it felt challenging, but I feel a great sense of satisfaction having done it and it's wonderful to flick through my album and see the colours fading through the spectrum in tune with the seasons.

12 of the best from 2019
Admittedly my favourite pieces come from a fairly limited part of the year's palette!

This year I want to do things differently - I want more freedom. I have a long list of things I want to do. Some are new things I've never tried, techniques I've read about but put aside for the time being. I have e-books (speaking of which) I want to work through, devoting the time and focus they deserve. I also have a long list of things I want to revisit - things I enjoyed but want to spend more time with, to dig deeper thereby getting more from them. I also want to linger over the things I love doing often and regularly. I want to strengthen my weaknesses and have wild times with the things I feel I'm good at.

I want to spend more time doing and less time reading and thinking and talking about Zentangle. I blogged 42 times last year. I might blog less this year, or the same, probably not more. But the style of my posts might change a little. There will still be themed posts where I share a cohesive body of pieces and talks about the techniques I used. But there might also be simpler gallery type posts where I share a snapshot of the things I've been working on, without as much wordy padding! Hopefully my blog will still remain interesting and attractive!

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To start this year I've joined in with Zen-untangled which is the latest collaborative project from Alice Hendon. She talks about it on her blog as well as uniting many fellow tanglers who are doing it on her Facebook group Tangle All Around. Simply put, Alice is inviting us to get to know the 170 Zentangle core tangles. She encourages participants to create a book, including step-outs and examples, which will become a wonderful offline resource for your own tangling and to pass on to others.

I was taken by the idea as soon as I heard about it, mostly because I love the official tangles - well, most of them anyway! But it's important to know and acknowledge what will work for you. And what won't!  I knew I wouldn't like doing Zen-untangled in the exact way Alice suggests. I don't like working in books on a regular basis and I knew I wouldn't enjoy drawing step-outs for every tangle either.  I'd rapidly fall behind and abandon the whole thing.  Thankfully Alice encourages us to join in whatever way we prefer.

At the moment I'm storing black cards and finished cards in the tin -
but I when I finish I think the stack of tiles will probably be too big,
so I might clip them together with a binder ring unless I have a better idea!

A bit of pondering and a dose of luck and I've struck on a way that works for me. My partner gave me this little tin for Christmas, and it's a perfect fit for ATCs, which is a tile shape I'm liking a lot these days. So I'm doing my Zen-untangled on ATCs.

On the left - Eye-Wa and Florz
On the right - Dex and Hurry

On the left - IX
On the right - Avreal, Ahh, Snail, Therefore and Tipple

On the left - Centipede, Ynix and Frondous
On the right - Echoism

On the left - Cubine and Ixorus
On the right - Flux and Hollibaugh

As you can see, on some days there's just one tangle on the tile, some days 2, other days more. I like the way I get to see how the tangles play together, I get to draw a simple version and some variations if I want to. I get to use colour in large or small amounts or just celebrate the beauty of black and white. And when it's finished I'll have a lovely deck of cards to shuffle through for pure Zentangle inspiration.

full of beans

Last week I enjoyed a holiday at home. Predominantly a week's rest, a disconnection from the outside world, before the return to normality, all set to plough through the last couple of months of this year.

After Inktober and its tangling intricacies, working with two pens and 3 tangles on each ATC, I wanted something different, something easier and therefore more mindful. I remembered I'd bought a sketchbook sometime back that I hadn't used. It was from the wonderful The Pink Pig, a British company that makes sketchbooks in all shapes sizes and colours, and at very reasonable prices. I've got a couple in white, but this is filled with their delicious Cappuccino paper (which is apparently 30% made from recycled coffee cups)! It's a good weight (150gsm) - smooth enough for the pen, with enough tooth to please the pencil, and such a rich shade.

Armed with just a bare minimum of supplies -
the pad is A5 size (roughly 15x21cm).

For my first piece I worked with two tangles that I struggled most with during Inktober.  One was Jalousie, which appeared in my second piece, but I wanted to add some curve and movement and fun to it. The second was Trentwith. A tangle which seemed to polarise people - some loved it, some hated it, I just struggled to give it the attention it deserved.  Fellow tanglers gave me much encouragement, and now I better understand the tumbled heart of Trentwith.

Enjoying the benefits of a larger space -
allowing the tangles to swoop and bloom.

On my second piece I used an oval template to create my string. I filled these initial ovals with bands of shiny, bulging Marasu.  I then went in and added a simple trinity of Mooka, Fescu and Printemps.

Shading and highlighting come to life on this paper -
the tangles look like burnished metal.

I only tangled these two pieces all week – adding a little to them each day. Sometimes that's the most satisfying way to work.

As autumn deepens in the weeks ahead, colour will depart from my tiles, to mimic its steady fading as the natural world around us gets ready for winter. But don't worry it may not be bright, but I'll do my best to make it beautiful!

unpacking an inky month

This time last year I was writing about the 'failure' of my attempt to join in with Inktober. This year it's a different story, I started well and managed to complete the entire month. I'm pleased with the results and proud of myself. Sensible planning helped – I set my sights realistically, knowing a tile a day would be too much. Instead I decided to do every three days worth of tangles on ATC sized tiles.

Ta-da!  A handful of autumnal delights.

My Inktober experience brought pleasures both old and new from every direction. I enjoyed a return to tan tiles - time away from certain colour schemes has made me relish their rediscovery. I worked with fountain pens in two colours (Diamine's Raw Sienna and Deep Dark Orange). To begin with I was missing my black fine liner, with the all the control it offers. But the more I used the fountain pens the more I came to love their ways (not including the increased risk of smudging!) - and there's something truly thrilling about the variety of coloured inks available, and how economical and renewable they are compared to throwaway pens.

Days 1 to 3 - Printemps, Tunnelvizion, Toodles
Days 4 to 6 - Zonked, Jalousie, Flukes
Days 7 to 9 - Huggins, Bales, Lola

I tinkered about quite a bit before October began, both choosing my materials and deciding on a few embellishments that would carry a sense of unity across the tiles, and make them more cohesive as a group. I used lots of white gel dots on inked auras, as well as areas where I used the ink to make a paler wash, either left bare or tangled once dry - another benefit of working with liquid ink!

Days 10 to 12 - Cubine, InaFlux, Floo
Days 13 to 15 - Yin-Cut, Arukas, Mayhill

Days 16 to 18 - Trentwith, Dreamdex and Sindoo

Days 19 to 21 - Diva Dance, Antidots and Batumber

It was a pleasure to have my tangles chosen for me, doing away with the need for decisions. I worked with familiar tangles I love (Arukas, Antidots), some I struggle with (Tripoli, Ratoon) and others I rarely use (Trentwith, Jalousie). Trying to fit three (and on the last tile four) tangles onto relatively small tile made me think more about how tangles connect or overlap with each other - an area I sometimes struggle with. Links to all the tangles used can be found on this year's list - compiled with care by Stephanie Jennifer. If you didn't join in it's still a great resource to use at any point!

Sharing my pieces every three days in the 7F5R Challenge Facebook group has added to the feeling of being a part of a community effort. I've seen the wonders created by many of my friends, and I've discovered new tanglers whose paths I've never crossed before. I've seen people struggle and people soar - and I've seen 31 tangles used in a wild array of different ways.

Days 22 to 24 - Abundies, Pixiose and Baton
Days 25 to 27 - Tripoli, Ratoon and Crescent Moon
Days 28 to 31 - Well, Well, Who, Kuke, Nik and Florz

Who knows what I'll find myself doing next October, but for now I'm content to share these 10 tiles – a record of a challenge completed, a tan-toned tangle adventure, or merely the passage through one month of this particular autumn.

dipping autumn's inkwell

There is no unifying theme to the pieces I'm sharing today other than their warming autumnal tones and the fact that I've worked on them all within the last week.

Inktober is underway once again. Last year I only made it to Day 3 before getting hopelessly waylaid by the lovely Ginili. This year I'm doing better - and I've made it to Day 9 so far! I'll hopefully blog about the whole month once it's done, and share all my tiles and process then - but in the meantime a couple of images to show what I've been up to, especially to those of you who are not seeing my tiles every few days in the Facebook group.

A work in progress photo – real inks in real pens, slightly scary but fun too

Nine days, nine tangles, three tiles

I've also had fun exploring some new tangles recently. Sometimes the best way to get to know a tangle is to simply fill an entire tile with it. Drawing repetitively helps cement the shape in your mind and hand, as well as allowing you to see how it fits together.

Singapore tangler Debbie New recently shared the heart-warming story behind her newest tangle, Wingfrond. I held the connections and friendships that grow from this shared passion tightly in mind and heart as I drew her tangle over and over again. I decided to use a slightly larger piece of paper, to allow the tangle to dance as freely as it chose to, and I like extravagance of the result, but I am curious next time to try and pack Wingfrond more tightly to see how that looks.

Wonderful Wingfrond – pigment ink and graphite on a 12x12cm piece of Medioevalis paper.

Autumnal colour was added in places by blending two Clean Color Brush Pens.

UK based Lucy Farran had a new tangle published recently on Tangle Patterns. Apparently Swooshi came about by replacing the C strokes of Molygon with an S stroke instead. Lucy admits that the tangle doesn't fit together quite as neatly as Molygon but it has a lively look – somewhere between floral and fiery. As with Molygon the trick to drawing this is to relax a little and allow yourself to get into the rhythm of the strokes.

Sensational Swooshi – pigment ink, graphite, watercolour brush pens.

This tangle has vast potential for fills and quite by accident I found
that little blocks of darkness between each piece looked quite appealing.

Hanny Nura just started a new month of her Full Moon Mosaic. She invited us to work this time within a suggested string on a Renaissance tile, with one section coloured. She also introduced a new Zentangle official tangle, called Hollis, which was recently shared at the recent Asian zenAgain event. 

October Moon – featuring Hollis, Bunzo, Cresent Moon, Tipple, Mooka - on a tan Zendala, coloured with Terracotta Brusho, and shaded using black micron, white gel, white and red chalk, graphite

 

I rarely work on the official Renaissance tiles – their colour is wonderful, but I find the surface so delicate for my rather heavy-handed approach! However I worked slowly and carefully, building up my colour and smoothing my white and graphite shading without totally destroying the paper. Tentative and at times mildly terrifying, but mindful and satisfying too.

celestial happenings

The year is running away with me.  The list of things I need to do, let alone want to do, is longer than will fit into the days that are left.  I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way.

I don't want to totally sacrifice the things that calm and refresh me, things like Zentangle.  This is just the time when I need them most, to charge me up to keep going.  But what I can sacrifice is any unnecessary pressure that attaches itself to my tangling.  I can particularly dispense with worries about deadlines.  I've made a habit of being fashionably late for Zentangle challenges all year, so why worry now!

There were a couple of challenges that caught my eye last month - but which I only finished today.  One was Adele Bruno's It's a String Thing #269.  She introduced an idea she learned at ZenAgain from Maria Thomas.  That of starting at one corner of your tile with a tangle drawn large and then the same tangle smaller from the other corner and letting them meet in the middle.  Adele suggested we try this with Soluna.   It was a great choice and the time I spent on this tile was so relaxing, steadily drawing one orb after another, embellishing some more than others, not worrying about any orbs that had an odd shape, as the later crescent auras and shading would smooth out any inconsistencies.  I love the depth in the finished tile and I know it's an idea I'll visit again.

IAST #269 - Soluna over a very old tile coloured with watercolour pen

I also couldn't resist joining in with the most recent of Hanny Nura's wonderful Full Moon Mosaics.  These are based on Instagram and there will be a new one starting quite soon.  She dreams up the most delightful ideass and runs each one to time in with the phases of the moon.  The last one involved a circle of Marguerite Samama's Madama in the middle, and A-dalfa around the edges and a tangle of your choice in between.  I chose Nik and used lots of dark auras and repeating lines to pull it all together.

Tangled on tan paper, with touches of Wine coloured ink

Like many others in our community I'm currently joining in with the Zentangle Twelve Days project.  I'm enjoying watching the videos, sucking up the enthusiasm of the team, and being reminded of some great older tangles that had been gathering dust.  I'm not working on a Project Pack spinner though -  I don't get on with large ares of paper.  Instead I've decided to do the Twelve Days as one of my Zigzangles.  It doesn't divide neatly into 12 sections, or more, so I'm cramming the tangles in how and where I can!  I've left some spaces in the centre of each panel, I don't know really why, but I'm hoping that something will crop up on later days for me to go back and add to the spaces.  Or not! 

I don't usually share unfinished pieces, and I won't shade until the end because I'll only get covered in graphite on future days, so I'm feeling a bit exposed with only my naked line work for you to see! 

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...

for your eyes only

Maria Thomas recently wrote a blog post asking for advice for new tanglers.  I responded by suggesting people shouldn't be over-eager to share the all the results of their tangling.  Don't get me wrong, I love seeing people's art, and I love sharing my own.  But I think some balance has value too.  I think we can tend to feel that everything we produce is for the public eye, and that can make us overly self-critical.  If instead a tile is sometimes only for us it can be something more precious, more personal.  And perhaps we'll share it later, but when we've come to know it better.  Which might eliminate some of those 'this is a bit rubbish' disclaimers that people post beneath their work!  I feel that I was lucky to initially learn Zentangle  from a book, with only my pens and tiles and paper and no-one to show it to.  I still like to do that now - tangle tiles, play with ideas and not share them at all, or at least not straight away.  For every benefit of an online community - whether that is blog-based, Facebook groups, Instagram - there are drawbacks too.  It's not about not doing it, but bearing in mind the influence it has on your practice of the art.

That said, here are some of the pieces that I've worked on over the past few weeks.

This started as a practice piece - playing with how white gel and pencil only would look on a tan tile.  I drew a little section of Krokus in a frame.  And I loved how it looked - to the degree that I forced myself to leave the tile at that, nothing more.

I recently got lucky and stumbled across some bargain priced original Zentangle tiles, which encouraged me to get reckless with the scissors and do one of those cut ups that were all the rage at the end of last year.  I'm heavily into Diva Dance Rock 'n' Roll at the moment and stumbled on the idea of only filling in certain parts with black - I really like the result.  Some curls of white Diva Dance on the black side and metallic purple Therefore to pull it all together!

In a developing theme I finished a tile for Adele's It's a String Thing #256 challenge - but not in time!  But here it is!  A simple band of the lovely Mazorito - with single Horti sprouting from it here and there.  All done on a grey pastel paper tile, with shading and white highlights galore!

And lastly, it's that time again where the Queen of Tangled Mosaics Annette asks for contributions for her forthcoming Project.  This time she gave us a string based on the Zentangle ribbons done in Project Pack #3.  And she asked us to tangle and shade some of them in red!  Which was quite daunting as I find it quite an unfriendly colour and usually only use my red pen for step-outs.  But once I'd found a pencil that matched I was pleasantly surprised with the results.  These are the two tiles I'm sending her and I can't wait to see what they look like mixed in with all the others - she'll share the results on 5th September.

Back in May I shared this tile that I was sending to Annette for Project #13 and once the Project was done she sent me a mini Mosaic she'd made with my tile alone.  Every time I'm wowed when I see how a single tile can be flipped and rotated and grow into something so wonderful.  And of course the full glory is when all of our individual tiles come together - in many different layouts - see the full story of Project #13 here.

 

a little something

It's often the finishing touches that really bring a tangled piece to life.  Those little additions joining disconnected sections, or adding a light border, or breaking out from a tight clump of tangling to loosen it a bit.  Favourites that I used often are Beadlines, Barberpole and the lovely Tearce - which bears the strongest relation to the latest tangle I've developed!

Idly browsing Twitter recently I spotted someone with a little tile on their desk featuring Miffy the rabbit - a Dick Bruna character that has charmed children and adults alike for over 60 years! On this ceramic tile she is peeking out from behind a Delft style plate, with a charming border I couldn't resist working into a tangle.

An image of the tile
that inspired the tangle

She needed to get credit in the name - but sticking with my self-formed habit of 4-letter tangle named I'd like to introduce you all to Miff -

The simplest of step-outs

I hope you like it - it's super simple to draw, very forgiving of wobbles and mistakes, with plenty of scope for variation.  Here it is on four Bijou tiles to give you a taste of how it works.

Miff - 4 ways

Changing the style of the line you draw in Step 2 can really alter the look.  In addition, not pictured, you can draw it larger, with deeper cups for greater drama.  You could also have them overlapping, or back to back as a filler pattern. 

As always, if this tangle is too similar to any others in name or style, please let me know.  And obviously, have fun with it and let me know how you get on!

I don't know why I dream this way

Today I want to introduce you to my latest tangle.  It's been haunting me for quite a while, popping up in bits and pieces on many of my tiles.

You can see - bands of it running through my twisted rope string tile -
it edges Batumber on my grey tile - I use it to create a simple but
favoured fill for Dreamcatcher, and it was the perfect choice to finish
a Travelling Tangle sent to me by Elena Greer

For a long time I thought it wasn't really enough in itself to class as a tangle.  It has so many tangle-relatives, which it shares less or more characteristics with.  To mind come Isochor, Indyrella, Barberpole, Marasu, Sugarcane, Starcrossed, Ticking and Kristillis - I'm sure you can think of more?  All of these tangles particularly appeal to me, and all rely on those repeated curved lines for detail.  But each has a particular initial shape which defines it and the detail lines are almost an afterthought.  I wondered what would happen if the lines became the star of the show, and the structure merely the framework to hold them...

And so Clob was born.  Clob because the little lines work best for me when I draw them as I would a CLOsed Bracket!  Of course the name might not suit you if you prefer to draw open brackets instead!

I find the repetition of the Clob line so relaxing.  Shading is so simple - you just pop a line of pencil into the valleys and smooth it out a bit, making it as dark or light as you like.  And suddenly the tangle is transformed - it really seems to shine, and jump out from the paper.

There are so many variations possible, depending on how you lay your initial lines.  Parallel or not, straight or curving or spiral, closer together, far apart, laid over each other, or with gaps between.  You can even embellish within the little brackets.  And of course it plays well with other tangles.

White on black - always the trickiest combination for me. 
Clob accompanied by Flux.

Renaissance tangling - Clob dances with Henna Drum and Cat-Kin.

Call it washed-out or call it dreamy?  Blue and purple tones
give a soft look to Clob with big bright Printemps.

Last but not least the simple elegance of black and white.
  Abukas with bands of Clob and a handful of Fescu.

Perhaps by now you can see why I think those little shiny lines deserve a tangle and a name all to themselves?    I hope you have fun playing with Clob and I'd love, as always, to see your results.

[Hopefully this pattern doesn't replicate any existing tangle I might have missed, in name or appearance, but please let me know if it does.]

enjoy the silence

I've found time to tangle of late, but not always to share what I made.  So, in a break from my usual routine, this post will be mostly pictures, few words.

Jessica Davies is guest hosting the Diva Challenge this week -
and she asked us to use a heart string.  I'm not partial to hearts, but am smitten
with Jenna Black's Cross-UR-Heart - so all came good on this tan tile.

 

We've had a couple of spikes of unseasonably hot weather recently - one in June, one last week. 
On both occasions I tangled onto a tile dyed with tissue paper.

As the temperatures fell, clouds gathered and the rain began.  I tangled this
for It's a String Thing #202 - but ran out of time to send it to Adele!

And lastly, but not leastly - my tanglefriend Michele is guest hosting
Joey's challenge this week.  She asked us to use Margaret Bremner's
rope string and step away from anything other than the tangles we held in mind.
  Which left me with Printemps, Beadline and those shiny lines
I can't resist drawing everywhere!

weird and wonderful

I started this sketchbook page over a month ago - but I think it has spawned enough results now for me to share it and them with you. 

My responses to a couple of challenges took shape on this page - as well as a bit of playing about with Rainking for a tile to go in the Square One Magic Bag (I'll keep that one a secret so the group gets the thrill of the reveal when that is the chosen tangle).  I also used a variation of CC to start a tile for the Travelling Tangles Project that has now winged its way to Australia. 

Credenzo (for Square One) / Rain, Hibred and Raindotty (for IAST #161) / C.C.

And then things started to get a bit crazy.  Crusade is a really tricky tangle.  Very unforgiving of even the slightest wobble.  It takes a lot of concentration to get the lines in the right places - but it does look great.  And I feel quite similar about the colour red.  It's stunning - but so temperamental - so hard to manage with elegance.  So why oh why did I decide to grab the pot of red when experimenting with my new Brusho powders (I'm in try-new-things-for-backgrounds mode at the moment, can you tell?!)?  I was also reading a novel called His Bloody Project - the title of which must have been worming away in my subconscious while I drew this tile.

Her Bloody Project - Crusade - line work / detail / shading

Lastly, I wanted to try something with Cheers, and I wanted it to be a Renaissance style tile.  But that wasn't quite how it turned out - something wasn't working and to make it work better I grabbed some green pencils and got to this. 

Which makes me think of a dusty gallery hung with framed portraits, of long-dead relatives, all of whom drowned.  Although the images have all since vacated their frames, leaving only the bubbled green waters of their doom.  Or something like that!