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.

a whole lotta love

For the past two weeks my tangling has been wholly heart-shaped as I've been joining in with Margurite Samama's ValenTangle – now in its fifth year. I took part for the first time last year in an effort to overcome my aversion to heart-based tangles. It worked – as I can now see them as just another geometric shape, ripe and ready for tangling.

ValenTangle 2020 - pencil and paper and ink and love

Last year I worked in blue, this year I decided to warm things up, but just a little. I'm still enjoying working on grey tiles, so as well as grey papers I coloured some of my own tiles using a simple watercolour technique. Take a grey water-based marker (I used Tombow on these), scribble it on to a plastic sheet, spritz with water and plonk your tile onto it. A little trial and error to find the right amount of water, but when you do it works a treat, and the tiles almost look like marble.

As well as black ink and graphite I chose a Signo metallic gel pen in bronze and a
Derwent Metallic pencil in Copper. I have no idea why I didn't buy a matching
bronze pencil – but there you go, and I think the mismatch actually works quite well!

I shared my tiles each day in the dedicated Facebook group, but for those of you who weren't there, or would like to see all my tiles in one place, let me lead you by the hand through a fortnight of love.

Day 1 - playing with V & A, a new border tangle by Marguerite

Day 2 - Trinity variation with hearty versions of Beadline and Sandswirl

Day 3 - Exploring Minstrels (a variation of Demi)

Day 4 - exploring Marguerite's DoubleHeartZ fragment

Day 5 - having fun with Starsky, hidden in a Phroz-type
framework! With added Tipple, hearts and black ribbons.

Day 6 - Marguerite offered a mosaic-friendly string
and invited us to explore it on Bijou tiles. 

Day 7 - the suggested tangle was Jackstripes - which I used as a
frameworkto fill with lots of organic tangles.

Day 8 - one idea for today was to adapt existing tangles in a hearty
way - I chose to do that with my Divi tangle and Marguerite's Madama

Day 9 - playing with the tangles of Tomàs Padrós in a hearty way.
I used BlindMembranart, B-Leaf and Fortuna.

Day 10 - tangle the 4 corners of your tile and enjoy the space.
Trenthwith hearts joined by Melting Mooka.

Day 11 - organic tangles and the contrast between a dark pen and a light.
Marasu frames and then lots of pale grey botanical tangles.

Day 12 - tangle a Khala knot (I used a pencil, I admit it!) and then
glorify with hearts.  Arukas hearts made another appearance!

Day 13 - revisit the ValenTangle string but on in a larger space. 
This is 4 inches and mostly filled with a Bunzo variation and Heartline.

Day 14 - Marguerite asked us to decorate an envelope and write
a note to ourselves to put inside.
A hearty Zenith, Cubine and embellishments on my black envelope.

I've mentioned before that committing to a tangling event that invites daily pieces (not insists of course, but it was hard to resist such good prompts!) takes time, energy and commitment. It's not something I do often, but sometimes it's worth that extra push. I like to see a cohesive collection at the end of the journey. I like the days where I'm in my comfort zone - Days 1 and 10. The days I struggle with are quickly left behind - Day 3! And I especially like the days that take me by surprise, when I initially feel uninspired by the prompt or tangle, but then find the process and my result one of the most satisfying - Days 5, 6, 7 and 8.

It's been a journey taking in bends and dips and corners, a steady stroll about the perimetre of a heart. Now we've reached the end I feel gently warmed and not just by the copper and bronze.

grey skies and muted blues

It's not always easy - even with the things you love the most. I've struggled in a number of ways during the second half of the 12 Days adventure. For one we've had so many dark days of rain, and I like to tangle in natural daylight so I've been trying to catch the odd hour here and there where it's been bright enough. I've also started to feel a little resistant to the colour blue following the recent result of the UK general election! In addition I felt a little underwhelmed by some of the recent Zentangle videos - the ideas just didn't spark my interest as much as they sometimes do, which perhaps ties in with my fourth struggle – finding the time and energy to tangle at this hectic time of year.

But the good thing about spending time doing the thing you love, is that it encourages you to overcome most barriers that arise. So I tried to keep tightly focused on the method that is central to Zentangle. Focused on the fact that it's about the process rather than the product, focused on the fact that I can turn these tiles whichever way I want, whichever way works on any given day.

So for the second half of my 12 Days offerings I've muted the blue, and while I've held onto each idea, I've carried it a little closer to my natural and comfortable tangling style. So my tiles are a little darker, a little more minimal than those shared by the ZT team. But I love these tiles, and I loved tangling them, despite my lack of energy and the sky's lack of encouragement.

On Day #7 we were encouraged to play with an oversized Bales -
which we then filled with pods and auras. In the spaces of our grid
we put a three-pointed Well style fragment. I chose to contain my
tangling in just one half of the tile.

On Day #8 Maria demonstrated a whirling dervish of tangling -
with abundant embellishment and shading and gold pen. It's a look
she carries off so well, but not me! I tamed mine a great deal – adding
more black, less blue, less variation on the fills, but including Beadlines
and choosing to have two of the Cadent style frames on my tile.

On Day #9 there were a couple of aspects that I just
wasn't keen on, so I tangled this instead. Using an ATC
sized tile allowed the tangled spiral to feel more settled.
I left out the tricolour background and instead just used a
little graphite and some tiny white gel Therefore dots.

Day #10 seemed to take using a very different direction, feeling far
more botanical and calm than any of the other days. This surprised
me at first but proved to be a welcome oasis of calm. I  got
thoroughly lost tangling my Bronx Cheer, Flux and Mooka,
and even a sprinkling of Fescu. Adding just a hint of graphite,
white and blue pencil. Rounding is always the finishing touch - and
then also a 3Z sized triangle frame drawn behind - I don't know why -
it just looked like it belonged there!!

When Rick tangles Paradox you can clearly see he's in his comfort
zone. Not so for me! By Day #11 I couldn't face 4 Paradox Bijou
tiles - so instead this.  A square the size of a Bijou in the middle of
my tile.  I left the centre of each Paradox open allowing me to drop
some Beadlines through the holes, plus a couple of black ribbons.

For Day #12 Maria led us through a variation of Hollibaugh to create
the look of a coffered ceiling. I relished this exploration - it embodied
everything I love about Zentangle - seemingly complex but broken
down into mindful attainable steps.  In a nod to where I started - I drew
a faux Zendala on a 4 inch Strathmore grey tile.  My initial bands came
out thinner so I put in more, and I got a little carried away with shading!
I know I'll play with this idea lots more!

We've reached the end of the Zentangle countdown, and there's a week to go until Christmas Day, but this will be my last blog post for the year. I've prepared some tiles that I hope to tangle during our festive break - and I'll share them here a week or so into the New Year. Thank you for reading my posts, and looking at my pictures over the past 12 months - it's been wonderful to share my tangled meanderings with you. Best wishes for your weeks ahead, however you spend them. See you in 2020!

half a dozen days in December

Every year I look forward to the 12 Days of Zentangle activities.  Whether you buy their Project Pack or not (I didn't) it's a great invitation to watch the videos, tangle along and know you're joining many other tanglers around the world who are doing the same.  It's also a great chance to take some time in your day, to tangle and unwind from the inevitable momentum we gain as the year heads toward its festive finale.

This is the 4th year I've joined in and I often take the ideas in a slightly different direction to suit my mood.  For a couple of years I worked in a sketchbook - and last year I tangled along on one of my Zigzangle's instead of the suggested spinner. This year I needed to make the suggestions work with my Winter Inklings colour scheme.  The grey tiles get a big tick of course, but I wasn't planning on using any colour for this month, however the ideas that Zentangle are sharing do rely on a little pop of colour every day, so I made the exception seeing as it's blue and that works as a winter colour! (Interestingly I also had a burst of blue in my February Winter Inklings when I worked on my Valentangle tiles).  The gold pen had to go, too warm for my idea of winter, but thankfully I had a new silver pen to hand!  I have also used different materials where I'm lacking ones that came in the project pack - but that's great, because it shows that you can have just as much fun, and also produce slightly different results, with whatever supplies you have! I've listed what I used in more detail than usual, which is a little clunky to read but perhaps helpful.  All papers used are discussed on my previous blog post.

On Day #1 I drew 'faux' Bijou on a 4x4 inch piece of Strathmore paper.
I tangled with my Sky Blue Copic and used a blue coloured pencil
(Koh-I-Noor Polycolor 54 / Cobalt Blue Dark) instead of the blue chalk
and it worked fine. I varied my Tipple, colouring some blue,
some white and silvering a handful.

On Day #2 I had a great time working with Tomàs Padrós All Stars tangle 
which I'd used back in Spring. This time it sports a wintery look - on a Murano
pastel paper tile.  Initially a complex looking tangle, the more you use it the
easier it becomes.  White highlights from a Derwent Coloursoft pencil and
white Gelly Roll add bright accents.

On Day #3 I ripped up the rule book - I just didn't fancy that idea on a round grey tile -
I don't know why but I didn't!  So I did it on a watercolour postcard instead,
and added blue watercolour (Clean Color Brush 030 Blue) to the Purk parts,
and only blacked in some of the Jonqal lines.  Graphite and colour shading
sharpens up the finished piece.

On Day #4 I traced around a Bijou tile 3 times onto a regular black tile
and then tangled in silver (Uni-Ball Signo).  I'm not that keen on tangling
predominantly with the metallic pen as the line feels so thick compared
to the white gel, let alone the my usual black 0.1.  But I like the way my
watercolour pencil (Faber-Castell Phthalo Blue) adds a touch of colour
onto the black - that's an idea I might play with again.

On Day #5 I didn't fancy tangling the ornament exactly as Martha did,
so I decided to create a band of ZINGsplatz right across my tile
(Clairefontaine PaintOn).  I'd hope to make it more angular and frosty
looking but of course every line made it more and more soft and curvy -
so there it is.  My white was done using a Graphitint white
pencil. In winter zebras dream of blue flowers!

On Day #6 I tweaked Rick's idea a little - I only inked with a black pen,
added blue into the bands of Hollis using an Irojiten pencil (Horizon Blue VP-8),
and added background of grey texture lines which ties it in with
my recent Hollis tile, although this one is far more minimal.
The key to tangling Hollis is to slow down -
and make the most of whatever strange shapes arise.

So that brings me up to date with the current 12 Days videos.  I'll be back with the rest next week.  There's been days of endless wind and rain of late (apt for the uncertain political times my country is facing today), and many times I've struggled to see the line I'm tangling, or the truth of the colours I'm adding to my tile.  But then a little later, I'll tilt the tile and the silver ink will glint as it catches the light - and there is my moment of hope.

grey is the word

Many people find it dull or depressing but I find it comforting and full of charm and warmth.  It makes me think of clouded skies and favourite knitwear, feathered and furred visitors to our garden.  I'm talking about the colour grey of course. (Or gray if you're reading from the United States!)

I've long loved grey but not used it a great deal as a feature colour in my tangling.  Too often it's simply the colour that gets added when I shade - although it got some attention in January, when I last dipped my toes into Winter themed tangling!   But for the next fews week I'm turning my tangling spotlight onto this wonderful colour to show you what it's capable of.

Trust me when I tell you I'm not sitting a mountain of grey paper, but I rooted through various packs and pads and gathered together quite a sample.  A wide range all claiming to be grey - some dark, some light, some with the barest hint of green, blue or brown.  That's the nature of this colour - it's never easy to pin down, or quantify.  It's also fairly hard to get a photograph that captures their true colours - the truth lies somewhere between the photo of them all together and the scans of my tiles!

[a range of grey papers - detailed below]

1 - Daler Rowney Murano Pastel Paper - from Cool pad - probably Slate
2 - Khadi Paper Dark Grey
3 - Clairefontaine PaintOn Grey Paper
4 - Two Rivers Paper - included in their Studio Pad
5 - Daler Rowney Murano Pastel Paper - from Neutral pad - probably Platinum
6 - Strathmore Artist Tile Toned Gray
7 - Khadi Paper Light Grey
8 - Official Zentangle Gray tile
9 - Stonehenge Colors Paper - Pearl Gray
10 - Bockingford Tinted Watercolour Paper - Grey

I set out on a voyage of exploration - a way to try out some of these papers, to harness and showcase their grey charms, to see which pens and shading styles suited them.  Not a methodical comparison mind you, just a meandering trip through a grey landscape.

I kept my choices simple - a  handful of Official ZT tangles and black pens, white pens, graphite shading, white shading.  First up - something quite minimal, quite sleek.

Mostly just Fife - black ink, graphite and white coloured pencil
on an ATC of Two Rivers Paper (4).  A somewhat delicate paper,
but a rich shade to work on. 

Next up - something different, switching the black pen for the 08 white Gelly Roll with a touch of graphite and some smoky white pastel along the edges.  I find the Pokes quite tricky to tangle elegantly, but rounding helps a lot, a chance to smooth out any anomalies and add definition.

Pokeleaf and Pokeroot - looking frosty and fabulous!
On a tile of Dark Grey Khadi (2) - rough but the Gelly Roll coped fine!

As I moved onwards, each new piece became a favourite - and that's often what happens when I start to get attuned to a certain combination of colour or tile.  I become more confident, but at the same time more calm - more instinctive, more engaged in the process, doing rather than thinking about doing.

Exploring Hollis, with rounding and Tipple - on a tile
of Clairefontaine Mixed Media paper (3).  A lovely paper
to work on, I used the tan version for Inktober.
Black ink, white chalk, graphite and some fine detail
lines in grey ink to add some background texture.

Those three papers all leaned towards the darker and rich end of the grey spectrum, but the next two went to the other extreme, being paler and cooler.

I love how Spoken looks when cut up by the limits
of an ATC.  With Printemps filling certain sections,
rounding and gentle shading in graphite and touches
of white I really like this Stonehenge paper (9).

Last, but by no means least, I tangled on my first ever Zentangle official Gray Tile - released just a few months ago.  This tile seems to be made from the same paper as their Renaissance tiles.  It's a beautiful shade of grey, very classy, very cool - and while you have to work a little gently at the shading stage, both the graphite and white chalk look wonderful

Nothing but Rumpus - looking like frosted flowers. 
This is a tangle that never disappoints offering
a truly mindful calm as you add circle after circle
and then link them together.
Black ink, graphite, and white chalk on a
Zentangle Gray tile (8).

That's all for now with these papers - but I have previously shared tiles tangled on a few of the others.  When I was a novice tangler, way back in 2014, I experimented with my Snag tangle on a Bockingford tinted tile.  A couple of years ago I tangled a lovely set of tiles on the lighter shade of Murano pastel paper.  In January this year I did some reverse Tranzending on a piece of Strathmore! 

My winter time has begun, the nights are colder, the days shorter - but it isn't often about snow and ice and sparkle here in the UK, there's a lot of damp days and grey skies too.  And that's what my last month of Inklings will celebrate - the beauty of winter even when it doesn't look like the image on a Christmas card, even if it's more likely to be raining than snowing on Christmas Day!