no work and all play

The other week I sent an email to Annette who is collating tiles for her latest Mosaik Project.  I also made a comment about how I was sorry to have fallen behind with her Zendala Moments series.  She quite rightly replied saying that there was no deadline, and that she would enjoy my pieces whenever they were completed, however long that took!  And of course that is true.  There is no time limit, there is just the invitation to use her string and share where it takes me with others who have done the same. 

I knew this, I know this and yet I still fell into the habit of thinking I'd fallen behind.  We live in a world where we often have to keep up, get ahead, or struggle to catch up if we fall behind.  But we really don't need to carry that ethos over into our tangling.  We must fight the urge to mirror the attitudes of work and chores and obligations, onto the experience of pleasure and play, relaxation, meditation and escape.

Zendala Moments #5 - tangled with Diva Dance, Papermint, Doodah and my own newest tangle, Blaw

In part the reason I took longer on these pieces was because I was doing a lot to them.  I thought it might be fun to see the Zendala strings on a rectangular tile rather than a round tile.  I decided to use a couple of Hahnemühle cold pressed watercolour postcards.  I added a fair bit of colour to them before I started - using watercolour brush pens in shades of teal and purple.  Once dry I added some extra dark teal, using a Distress Ink pad and making subtle marks on the postcard using the rim of a small jam jar, the cap of a pencil protector, and the edge of a ruler.  I tucked the postcards away and only later got them out to tangle - working in black ink mostly, with a few pops of purple ink.  I shaded and highlighted where appropriate.  Then I got a bit daring and went in and added some more splots of purple watercolour, using a small sponge through a dotty stencil.  It felt a little dangerous adding wet colour to a piece I'd already tangled but I felt it added a little extra interest.  I then finished off with some dots of silver gel pen and white paint pen - following lines in the both tangling and background.

I'm often very minimal and safe in my use of colour, but I've been getting more daring and growing in confidence and reading Alice's glorious technicolour blog and her encouragement have surely helped a lot! 

Zendala Moments #6 - tangled with a Cruffle variation, Cubine, Meer and Beadlines

We're halfway through the last month that I define as summer, soon thoughts will shift to all things autumnal.  But for now my colours are changing - the yellows, sky blues and vast array of greens are handing over to sea blues and the purples of blousey blooms and butterfly-bobbed buddleia. 

So today I've shown you my responses to two of Annette's Zendala Moments string invitations - which she shared in May and June - but I finished just yesterday, in August!  These two pieces took a long time, but I think they were well worth the wait.

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!

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.

say hello, wave goodbye

Last week I said goodbye to the winter instalment of my seasonal Inklings project. When I started this I knew it would be challenging - while I have very few concerns with managing the colours of winter and autumn, spring and summer are not my natural palettes. To me spring is the time when colours return - tentatively, just a touch here and there, pale suggestions of colour slowly intensifying as the months creep by.  Tender greens and warmer blues, but especially yellows and pinks - my least comfortable colours. But what's the point in challenging yourself if you only stick with what is comfortable?!

The following three tiles allowed me to dip my toe into spring. Each has one foot still in winter, but a burst of colour breaking through.

My fellow tanglers inspire me each and every day, in small, large and sometimes unexpected ways. My first tile is testament to that. Among her many delights, Anica has recently been sharing some tiles where she mounts a Bijou of one colour in the middle of another coloured regular sized tile. She then tangles, seamlessly blending the two together. I wanted to give this a try. Elsewhere, in a conversation with Alice, mistress of colour, we were talking about whether yellow tissue paper is more reluctant to give up its colour, when used in the tissue dying technique. I did a couple of tests on scraps of watercolour paper and found by luck more than skill that it worked! A two inch square tinted yellow and pink just begged to be used in an an Anica style tile.  It's actually mounted on a white tile which I then mostly coloured grey, the same grey I used on my winter tiles. I don't think my integration of the two parts is even close to seamless, but the process was great fun and one I'll revisit.

A window onto spring -

Nik in the corners, and Krokus in the middle

Back in January I broke the rules when joining in with Annette's first invitation to enjoy a Zendala Moment.  A few weeks ago she shared a second installment and this time I transferred the string faithfully to a Zentangle original round tile.  As soon as I saw those squares with their petal shapes I knew I wanted them be cut through to show what lies beneath. Again a tile started to come together that showed the cusp where one season slides into the next. Seeing as I'd already started with yellow and pink I continued, with coloured pencil on my ribbons.  The thing I love most about tangling Zendalas is that glorious repetition, moving from one section to the next, little adjustments to one part repeated in the others.  This piece started very pale, wispy almost - I liked its delicacy but it began to feel uncharacteristic of my style.  I went back and darkened some of the auras, and suddenly I could recognise myself again.

Pretty in pink and yellow -

mostly just Baton, with a few Fescu

My last tile began in the dark depths of December. I was playing around with F2F (short for Fringe 2 Fringe) - a tangle unleashed from the brilliant mind and hand of Tomàs Padrós.  I had an idea of using F2F to form a kind of snowflake.  I confess that I started out with quite a few pencil lines to divide my space evenly.  And then I sort of stopped, put the barely started tile to one side and mostly forgot about it. Occasionally I picked it up and wondered whether to start it again. And then this week I did. I completed the middle section which now looks more like a papery spinner than a snowflake. I added some pink and yellow watercolour in the corners, and once dry added a little Printemps. It's a strange tile, but I've always liked strange things!

Ready for takeoff -

F2F and Printemps

Last week I said I was a little wary about reconnecting with colour, but having spent the week dabbling with my two most feared colours I feel a little braver about the weeks and months ahead.

making and breaking

Contrary to popular belief January is not named after the two-faced Roman god Janus. However I believe the month invites us to take a glance at the year we've just left behind, as well as the one opening out ahead of us. I don't make New Year resolutions, however in recent years I've written myself a short manifesto – a list of aims and hopes for the months to come. And every January I look back and see how much of what I aimed for a year ago I've actually achieved. It's interesting to see where I've succeeded, where I've failed, and where the aim no longer seems so important. It helps me to chart the things that stay true as well as those that change. I split my manifesto into different sections relating to different areas of importance in my life – and of course I have a section for Zentangle. I might list new techniques I want to try, old techniques I want to revisit, new tangles I want to step-out and share with the community. There were eight things on my Zentangle list last year and I achieved five. There are 10 on my list this year, and I'll have to wait till next January to see how many I managed to do! But it's not about merely ticking off achievements for me – it's about thinking about my practice, engaging with it, developing it and keeping it alive and inspiring.

As part of this reflective patch I thought I would look back over all the tiles I tangled last year. I decided to pick out 12 of my favourites and share them here - as much to remind myself where I'd been as to show you. Favourite sometimes means a tile that I really like the look of, sometimes one that was a delight to tangle, sometimes one that has particular significance or memory attached to it.  Different colours, different shapes of tile, different styles and a fair dose of classic black-and-white Zentangle magic. I wonder what a similar collage of your year would look like?

2018 - a year in 12 tiles
a strange kind of tarot - reading tiles instead of cards - decoding the past not predicting the future -
 examining what did happen rather than what might

Turning my attention from the past to the future, Adele Bruno recently invited us to start our String Thing adventures with a string based on the number 19. I didn't get my tile finished in time to send to her (a theme I'm continuing from last year!) but I thought it would fit well here as I talk about the year to come.  Do have a look at all the tiles that others created using the same string.

IAST #274 - featuring Centipede and Lex

Annette, curator of the wonderful Mosaik Project that I regularly talk about here, recently launched a new endeavour - Zendala Moments. She is not classing it as a challenge so much as an invitation to explore the fun that can be had when working on pre–strung Zendalas. She provides a template and then allows us to post links with our results. She plans to host monthly Moments – a great addition to fill the gap left by the Bright Owl.

Zendala Moments #1 - weighted Printemps and aura

As soon as I saw the string I knew I wanted to use a weighted Printemps technique that I'd seen fellow UK tangler Jo Quincey use a number of times to great effect in recent weeks. I also felt instinctively drawn to a regular sized square tile - which of course Annette's templates were not designed to fit. No problem - I just cut the template in half, flipped the halves, and transferred the design to my tile. Pleasant hours ensued, lost to the calm of repetition, of rounding each and every corner, of dark, of light - of getting sucked out of the morning and all the large and small worries that circled me, and down into each and every spiral. I drifted at times, but the pen always pulled me back. Again and again and again.  The end result is not how we expect a Zendala to look - but if we can't break the rules here then where?