morning comes and morning goes with no regret

Great-great grandmother Selina -
not looking keen on being tangled!

Zentangle HQ recently released the latest Project Pack and the accompanying series of videos.  The theme this time is to tangle frames and borders around various keepsakes and treasures.  I have a fair few precious things tucked in safe places, and plenty of wonderful old photos of my family both near and distant, with copies of some going back to the 1800's.  But I just didn't feel the desire to connect those things with my tangling.  Which isn't to say I didn't like the techniques introduced in the videos!  I loved tangling along with the gang, in my sketchbook, and I knew that sooner or later I would find a way to use those frames in a way that made sense to me.  I often work that way - noting down an idea, to return to it sometime later, when it's mulched down and fermented into something a little different from how it started.  Sometimes that takes months, sometimes years, and sometimes it happens much sooner.

Over the long Easter weekend I found myself tangling those frames onto some tiles that I'd pre-coloured using Moss Green Brusho powder.  I've had these powders a few years but have struggled to develop proper affection for them.  They are either too pale or too intense.  But this one, this one worked just how I wanted it to.  And when it works it's wonderful - because you get to see little blooms of all the different colours that work together to make Moss Green.  Part science, part magic, pure wonder.

'Empty rooms that echo as I climb the stairs
And empty clothes that drape and fall on empty chairs'
Don McLean

In one of those little blots of pigment there is a very deep purple, and so I found the need to reach for my rarely used purple pen.  My black ink, graphite and hints of white chalk all took turns to bring these frames to the tile.  Each empty of any image - which feels just perfect to me.  I'm a person who finds charm in derelict places, abandoned spaces.  Hospitals and homes long vacated and left for nature to reclaim.  I see these frames hanging on damp and mossy walls.  Perhaps the frames once held photos, fading images of friends and lovers who've since moved on, departing on a spring breeze.

POSTSCRIPT - In this old post from 2016 I tried to use Brusho powders with less success, and I also attempted something involving empty frames.  It seems I'm contendedly regurgitating the same ideas, but at least they are improving a little each time!

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.

a little of what you fancy

I don't think I have too many art supplies.  If gathered together in one place they would fit in two drawers of my old bureau.  I've seen people with far more, and equally people who create magic with a ballpoint pen on scrap paper.  I resist the urge to buy every new pen that catches my eye.  I read copious reviews before trialing a new paper.  And often I come back to my old favourites again and again.  But sometimes I think perhaps I have more than enough - in the literal sense of the phrase.  I have more than I can hold in mind.  More than I can choose from.  Things get forgotten, which of course also allows for the thrill of rediscovery.  

And so it was this week.  The Diva challenged us to tangle with straight lines only.  I knew I wanted to draw bands of Shard, a tangle I rarely use despite it being a close cousin to Baton which is one of my favourites.  I almost grabbed a square tile, then I remembered my 3Zs!  A little box of precious triangles I treated myself to earlier this year!

Diva #368 - Shard / 3Z tile / pigment ink / graphite

I recently took myself a week long holiday at home.  Time spent with loved ones, away from normal activities, chores, hours spent on this computer.  We talked, we read, we ate cakes, we laughed, loved, listened to starlings singing from the fir tree, we slept late and long, and walked out on a grey day to a beautiful little churchyard.  And of course I wanted to tangle, but didn't want to be rooting through options.  So before I 'left' I packed up a little set.  3 tiles cut down from Zentangle Apprentice tiles, to something postcard shaped (roughly measuring 11 x 8 cm).  My trusty black Uni Pin 01, a turquoise Copic SP I very rarely reach for, a Zig Clean Color Brush in Haze blue and a pencil and stump.  And these are the tiles that came from that. 

Bran and Printemps / Shattuck, Bunzo, Clob, Beadlines, Printemps / Huggins, Antidots, Clob

To summarise - I like having choices, but not too many.  I like limitations too, but only if I know I can break free!

a touch of blue

Around this time last year I blogged about my recent festive tangling project.  I'd chosen a handful of tiles and tools in a limit palette and worked with nothing but those over the Christmas and New Year period.  I really enjoyed limiting my parameters and have repeated the process a number of times throughout the year.

I decided to do the same this year, but limited things even further.  I had a small stack of bright white tiles of pastel paper, my usual tangling kit (pen, pencil, tortillion) and then added one extra - a Koh I Noor Polycolor pencil in Cobalt Blue that I'd bought as a single, but hadn't yet used!

The only other rule was that I wouldn't spend time looking up patterns, challenges etc.  It was just me and my imagination, away from screens and sketchbooks - drawing whatever came to mind.

And the results were quite surprising at times!  Tiles started to form that seemed a bit of a departure from my usual style, but in a most pleasing way.  Now for a little journey through the tiles - I've tried to label tangles where I can!

Drawings and Arukas and also a few bands of nothing I can name!

Tiny Toodles on a Florz-type grid with Baton filling the gaps.

Swirls of something like Snag,
cradling Fluxecho and two stretched Cruffle.

Flux surrounding Dex, dropping into Cubine.

Locas tipped with Springkly with Florz between.

A band of Kuziem, some auraed Toodles and Printemps.

So that's my tangle activity for the past couple of weeks.  Time now to dive into the new year, with all the colours and twists and turns, highlights and shades that it will bring!

burning bright

I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to working on series of tiles.  There is something both comforting and inspiring about having a fix set of variables - pen, paper, colours - and then nothing but the tangles need to change.  I find that limiting choices makes me more inventive.

I've done this a couple of times before - working in grey, honey and green - but this time I grabbed a frightfully bright orange paper and wondered if I could tame it into elegance.

Orange pastel paper / black ink / white gel / white pencil / pale green brush pen / graphite

And I think I did.  The subtle hints of green help to break up the orange.  And then of course I dabbled with the new official technique of Tranzending.  To be honest I wasn't too sure I liked the look of it when I first saw it.  It looked like a way to 'mess up' an otherwise appealing tile.  But then I played about, adding a little hint here and there and it started to make more sense.  As you can see through the course of these 4 tiles I got more adventurous, using a larger and more complicated section of Tranzending each time.  It takes a bit of thought in my mind, to work out how it can be brought in to compliment rather than obscure what's already there.  But I think it's an interesting way to add another dimension to our tiles.

stones in my pockets

Much of my recent tangling has taken place within a journal, thanks to being caught up in the Tangled and Journaled Facebook group and their Little Summer Project.  I've enjoyed following the prompts and working within a journal has been a new, challenging and only infrequently frustrating process.  That particular project has come to an end, so I'm looking forward to getting back to work on some loose tiles.

The first of which was a tile for this week's Diva prompt - a guest post by Jane Reiter who invites us to tangle with the wonder of Petoskey stones held in mind.  I did, but perhaps they rattled around a bit too much, because their influence was a little lost by the end!  I pencilled a light hexagonal grid and then added a 6 sectioned variation of Moonpie.

Coloured pastel paper / sepia Micron pen /
brown, white and graphie pencil shading

Until I have something more current to share with you, I'll offer you a set of green tiles I finished a couple of months ago - companion pieces to the grey and honey tiles I posted way back in May.

Green pastel paper / green Copic ink / green Inktense pencil / white pencil and gel pen / graphite

I've also had the thrill of being involved in another Mosaik Project - where I sent this tile to Annette -

which she then turned into wonders like this -

only far more fabulous as her mosaics also involved the work of 28 other tanglers.  Follow the button to see the results and go on, join in with the next one when it is announced at the end of October!

pieces of eight

I've tangled more than my blog would suggest of late. I've filled pages of my sketchbook with ideas, some of which have wings, but few of which have flown.

Pigment ink / white pencil / white gel pen / graphite on grey pastel paper

I've even drafted a post all about Tangler's block and how to get around it. But that's not quite where I am now - I'm beyond the block but still in its shadow. I've crafted analogies about new leaves hidden in the branches of winter's trees - but now I notice we're halfway to summer.

Pigment ink / white pencil / yellow ochre pencil / white gel pen / graphite on honey pastel paper

Soon I know I'll settle back into familiar rhythms and faithful practice but until then I'll share some tiles. These were created on eight Sundays dotted over the last four months. Tangling with limited tools and choices over the festive period felt wonderfully liberating, so I really wanted to revisit that way of working. Just grab a few pencils and a tile, as we listen to an instalment of our current audiobook, and this is what happens.

nine on the ninth

For the past couple of weeks I've been largely absent from the usual places I lurk in the tangling world - but that doesn't mean my pen has been idle!

I wanted to tangle over the Christmas and New Year break from normality, but wanted to do things a bit differently.  I wanted a change from the circuit of challenges and groups, not because I don't enjoy them, but just to see what would happen.  I wanted to scale down my horizons - not be spoiled for choice in terms of tools, colours, and techniques.  I also wanted to simplify - to get back to drawing a tile quite quickly, with no looking-up of tangles - just lines on paper to catch that little patch of time, that little period of sunlight or shade.

I allowed myself three shades of paper for my tiles -
two were pastel paper, the other a tricky to work on Khadi paper.
Pens in black, brown, grey and white gel - white and grapite pencils.

I didn't tangle at the table as I normally do - but leaning on a notebook on my lap.  This made things a bit wobblier than usual, but I quite like the looseness that appeared.

My completed tiles - in the order they happened. 
Including an unexpected black rabbit in honour of the death of Richard Adams.

I really enjoyed working within self imposed limits.  I like the finished look of this collected group of tiles - it's made me think this might be an interesting way to work at other times.  And I think I might have finally found a way to draw Mooka that I'm happy with (top right)!