falling into autumn

Last week me and mine took a week's holiday at home. Many gentle hours spent reading and snoozing and nibbling and cross-wording and resting and loving. And of course a little tangling too. I knew I wanted the opportunity to tangle, but that I also wanted to largely disconnect from the outside world. I didn't want to be going online looking for tangles - so what perfect timing that the new book by Alice Hendon arrived just in time. 

I began our holiday armed with the book, a handful of pens and pencils, and three postcards I pre-coloured
with Inktense bands that carry my late summer colours through to my autumn palette.

Those of you who know my tangle shopping habits know that I rarely buy much without careful consideration. I own only five tangle books, and this is my sixth.  But as soon as I heard about it I knew this would be on my shopping list. Tangle All Around the World (UK link to buy) is the latest in a series of books by the ever inspiring Alice. This one is a bumper compendium of tangles, tangles and more tangles. Alice put a shout out to tanglers in her Facebook group asking for contributions - and I was lucky enough to have eight of my tangles included in the book! In total the book contains 453 tangles from 50 people, spread fairly liberally through this wide world. There's also plenty of Alice's own tangles in here too - and many of them are mighty fine! You can find more details about the book, as well as sample pages on this post by Alice.

Late summer colours tangled with -
Paddle Pedal (Alice Hendon) - page 93
Plicated (Sandra Strait) - page 45
Echo Two (Sherri  Lee) - page 25

I'm impressed by the book. It feels like a quality product, well-sized and robust. The tangles are packed in with no space going to waste, but the step-outs are clear to see and easy to follow. Alice has divided the tangles into sections grouped by tangle type - and while I initially thought there were chapters I was less likely to visit I was soon proved wrong.  For instance Steampunk tangling has a section - and that's not something I'm partial to, but of course all tangles are ripe for reinterpretation - and something that started as a very mechanical looking disc, turned into a fragile autumn flower (see Oscillator on my final postcard). If I had to find one criticism - and I believe all balanced reviews should try for one (!) - it's that some of the tangles were a little similar to others, either others in the book, or others published elsewhere.

Summer slides into autumn - tangled with -
Flora Flower (Smita Toke) - page 84
Instacon (Alice Hendon) - page 32

For me the biggest plus point of Tangle All Around the World (US link to buy) is the ability to work offline, away from any screens or devices. Mostly I'm able to pull tangles from memory if I want to work unplugged, but sometimes you want to try new tangles without trawling for them through a screen, and this book is perfect for that.  I discovered plenty of tangles I'd never seen before, and worked with some new-to-me tanglers, and I know the book will be a resource I visit again and again.

Autumn's arrival - tangled with
Patchett (Donald Wilka) - page 43
Tierso (Donald Wilka) - page 57
Oscillate (Alice Hendon) - page 171

When tangling my postcards I mostly stuck to using one tangle in each coloured section, but crossed the lines at times to better tie the sections together. I was pleased with the line work, but my shading went a little awry as these postcards had a challenging surface, both bumpy and slippery, and they resisted smooth use of coloured pencil or graphite. Had I not been on holiday I might have tested more thoroughly before I began, or chosen to shade differently, but this was about relaxed no stress tangling. So while the finished postcards may look a little rough and ready, they gave me great pleasure to work on - a little bit added here and there over the course of a lazy week, a week that took us from bright bone-warming sunshine to crisp blanket-craving autumnal nights.

I ended our holiday a bit more rested and ready to resume normal life, 

and with a panorama of global tangling to show for it too!

a blaze of glory

Way back in March I was working from a list of botanical style tangles gathered together by UK CZT Lucy Farran.  I got halfway through the list and then drifted to other things.

As the UK was blasted with a burst of intense heat last weekend I decided to show botanicals at their most vibrant on 3 ATCs that I coloured using 3 watercolour brush pens in orange, purple and teal.  I put little blobs of each colour onto the other tiles to better tie them together as a set.

Tangled with Andromeda, Pozer and a grid version of Oke

For each tile I used only 3 tangles from the list - one that could form a band, one grid tangle and one clump type tangle.

Tangled with Mumsy, Dooleedo and Jasmin

On bright tiles with limited space I had to work hard to avoid the tile becoming cluttered and the tangles overpowered.  Dark auras and rounding at the final stage really helped refine the definition.

Tangled with Ying, Aura-Leah and Krokus

As a set I think they have a particularly late summer feel to them.  They are bright, but a little overdone, the blooms are full but close to falling apart, or at least falling out with each other.  It's like the party has reached its peak, soon it will start to disperse, and then all we'll be left with is the clearing away that is autumn.

Riding the wave - this piece measures roughly 11 x 8 cm. 
It's tangled on a piece of Medioevalis paper which I finally bought following numerous recommendations.
The colours are the same as on the ATCs but my scanner really disagrees with the orange!
Some tangles you see here - Mooka, Esher, Gelijoy, Tipple, Bales, Flukes

I've also been working on this piece, albeit very slowly.  I started it about a month ago and added a little bit here and there every so often.  Usually I like to leave significant space on my tangled pieces, but sometimes I like the feeling of cramming lots of tangles in with little room to breathe.  There's not a lot of space but they look like they're having fun!

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.

monochrome rainbows

Shading is one of the aspects I enjoy the most when I work on a tile - but last week I barely shaded at all, and I realised that often, particularly at the height of summer, I tend to forego my pencil and work with ink alone.

I decided to continue to leave my pencil to one side, and this week I worked on some Notan style tiles. In brief Notan is a Japanese artistic technique that uses only black and white to create striking and varied images or patterns. It's a style that lends itself to Zentangle. There are a handful of tangles that Linda at Tangle Patterns groups together under the tag of Notan - including a few Zentangle originals, of which we're all familiar, and probably use quite often in our work.

Whilst Notan tangles look great in black on white tiles, they also delight on more colourful backgrounds. I prepared my backgrounds by blending three shades of Distress Inks (Crushed Olive, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord) on a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth. I then cut this into two 4x4 and 4 2x2 tiles to fill a page in my binder.

I set to tangling, choosing a handful of my favourite Notan tangles. Filling in large amounts of black ink can feel time-consuming, but I find it quite relaxing. If it seems daunting to you then try working small as I did on these four Bijou size tiles. I used a 01 pen to draw the initial tangle and then filled using an 02.

 

Tangles used -
on the Bijou (top to bottom) - Dyzzee, Knightsbridge, Strircles, Flontrast
on the two large tiles (top) - Chloë & Ozzie (bottom) - Blaw

It's worth taking a little care as you move from section to section. It's easy to think that it such an easy tangle that it doesn't need much focus - sometimes a wicked sprite seems to whisper in your ear telling you to jump ahead and fill in a section, and suddenly you've messed up. Or you slip and your pen crosses from an area of black into white. No disaster, just a chance to add a little flourish or change of direction. There is no need for these tangles to be considered stark or boring, in my examples I've added little tweaks - frames, or perfs, lines or bulges.

While I played with other Notan tangles I started to devise one of my own - loosely based on the structure of Bales. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Blaw - named after a contraction of the phrase 'black and white'.

Just a few steps to build the basic frame, and then fill as you desire.

It's easy to underestimate Notan style tangles, to think they can be nothing more than their bold black and white selves. But there's subtlety to them if you choose to look for it - as can be seen here.

Detail lines, rounding, and auras, or a a combination of these -
all add interest and variety to a Notan tangle

And that's without the power of shading which of course could be included too! Margaret Bremner takes the Notan concept even further and twists it in all sorts of interesting directions.

I look forward to seeing what you do with Blaw - please let me know if you use it, and if you like it.

As always, if this tangle appears to be too similar to any others in name or style, please let me know.

seeking shade

This time last year I was writing about tangling through a UK heatwave.  And the same is happening at the moment, albeit thankfully on a smaller scale.  I'm lethargic and disinclined to work on tiny details or pieces that need a lot of blending, smoothing, tinkering.  I'm adapting my tangling to the mood of the weather.

I'm also learning to work with my materials, rather than against them.  I picked two tiles from the stash of lokta paper kindly sent to me by my tangle friend Yvette.  Last time I worked on two tissue thin pieces with grasses trapped within them.  This time I picked two of the thicker pieces, in this shade that reminds me of parched grass.  This paper is heavily textured, especially on one side, it calls to mind baked earth desperate for rainfall.

I knew the paper would challenge fine pen work, but I wasn't in the mood for that anyway- so grabbed my 02 and 03 black pens and set to work tangling loops and giant Tipple and then adding a few other tangles.  I added some small pops of brighter green, from a particularly juicy pen and watched the paper suck the ink into itself.

Going loopy - mostly unnamed ink roamings with added Pixioze

The view from down under - similar but with Inaura

A handful of white highlights and the merest suggestion of graphite shading and they were done.  I tangled them separately, but they were always destined to be a pair.

***

I found a small burst of additional inspiration, and tangled this piece on an ATC sized tile I'd coloured with a Faber-Castell Gelato, a set of which I received as a recent birthday present.

Melting moments - a simple spread of Esher
with added detail lines

The heat is set to break tomorrow, and I hope the week ahead brings some sea breezes because I'm keen to bring some summery teals and blues into the mix.

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.

a pocket full of pretty green

Sometimes I have a clear focus and momentum to my tangling - I have certain projects or themes to work on and they spur me on to the next tile.  Then there are times when I feel like I'm drifting.  I have enthusiasm and desire to tangle, but no clear aim as to what to tangle.  Similar to writer's block - it's simply fear of the blank page or tile.  But then I remember that with Zentangle the 'why' is far more important than the 'what'.  I tangle for how it makes me feel, the focus and the calm and the pleasure of creation - those things are far more important than the finished results.  Which isn't to say that a pleasing tile isn't a thing of joy too!

The first time I tried Dreamdex I got in a mess,
and rapidly abandoned the tangle.  Recently I tried
it again and things went much better.
The fresh green of this tile clearly influenced me and
as I tangled a distinctly apple atmosphere developed! 

I felt that way this past week.  I floated around, fiddling with ideas, preparing backgrounds, looking at lots of other people's tangle art, but not settling to much of my own.  I soon realised that I wasn't going to find what I was looking for until I started putting ink to tile.  Soon after grabbing a tile, a pen and a tangle things started to fall back into their rightful place.

I magnified a couple of my Ahhs until they resembled giant seed heads
or possibly the copper crown of Lady Liberty herself!  Tweak takes
concentration for me - but is well worth the effort.  The final tile
looks a little like a printed circuit board garden -
a nightmarish concept if you ask me!

I haven't joined in challenges much this year.  I still love seeing what others do with the prompts but I've been so driven by my own themes this year I've felt less need for the gentle guidance of a challenge prompt.  But prompts are a great fix for tangler's block and so I thought I'd join in my oldest challenge friend - It's a String Thing #296.  I  finished my tile too late to play with the others, but you can still see them gathered together on Adele's blog.

I haven't used Vano in such a long time, and I think
I've underestimated this tangle.  It's simple and
calming to tangle and really welcomes a bit of shading.
Anyone fancy a slice from a square lime?

By the time I completed this last tile all vestiges of tangler's block were long gone and I'm feeling fired up for the next tile and the one after that.  Sometimes the only theme you need is pen, pencil and paper.

you've been framed

One of the things I love about the wonderful world of Zentangle and its inspired art is the way that techniques you learn build on one another. 

I've previously shared the fun I've had making Zen Buttons - and earlier this year I noticed Debbie Moss Colton's Zentastical 3D frames - which use similar principles of shading to add dimension, but take the result in a subtly different direction.

Alice Hendon made a PDF with Debbie talking through the detailed steps of how to make her frames.  This PDF is shared freely in Alice's inspiring Tangle All Around Facebook group.  But you might be able to get the gist of how to do it from my photos and descriptions.

Some colourful tiles are a good place to start and I coloured mine this time using the bleeding tissue paper technique.  I had mixed results when I first started using this way of adding colour, but I think I've finally got the hang of the amount of water needed to make it happen.  Not too much, not too little!  Also, the paper of the tile impacts on the result.  As you can see on the ATC shaped tile the colour spread was very different - smoother and more washed out.  I decided to not use that tile for this technique, but tucked it in my stash for another time.

Colouring the tiles using Spectra tissue paper.
Make sure you use some robust paper for your tiles so they don't break down
with all the work you will do to them.

Once my backgrounds were dry I tangled a border around each tile - I decided it would be fun to work with 3 different shapes for my frames.  We are invited to add touches of additional colour to the frame once the ink is dry.  I did that in on two of my frames but not on the other.

A double band of Zander - with touches of blue on the bands.
A single Cruffle suspended by Beadlines in the middle.

Debbie encourages us to make the frame the star of the show, so try to choose open tangles to go in the frame.  I like spacious tangles so choosing wasn't hard for me.  I decided to add a Cruffle to each tile too, to further pull the set together.

A time-consuming but worthwhile border of Stikz -
with a minimal Arukas / Cruffle centrepiece.

Once I'd done some basic shading of the tangles in the middle, I started work to add dimension to the frame.  Lots of darkening at the edges, smoothing, blending, adding more.  I used a number of products to achieve this - watercolour, graphite and black coloured pencil.  I worked quite instinctively, adding more until I felt I was happy with the look.  On the first two tiles I also added a band of white chalk, but didn't do that on the square tile as when I started to add it I felt it covered the tangling too much.  Sometimes you need to follow the rules to the letter, and sometimes you need to listen to yourself when you know something is or isn't quite right.

A Remo frame, with spiral Barberpole and a hanging Cruffle.

I like the way the frames really do develop a sense of dimension once you shade them.  It's more apparent in the flesh, the scanner struggles to capture it well.  The tiles also feel a bit like windows to me - they frame a view onto a tangly treat beyond.  And despite adding lots of darkness to each tile the colours seem to shine more brightly.  I had great fun tangling these tiles and hope you feel Zentastically inspired to try them yourself!

playing games in the rain

I'm now officially in the Summer portion of my year long seasonal tangling project or Inklings as I call it.  Midsummer's Day is next week - but the temperatures have been stubbornly low lately and this week we've had high winds and lots of rain.  I'm not complaining - the plants and soil need it - but I'm not deterred from working with more traditionally summery colours either!

I prepared my tiles using Distress Inks in 3 colours.  On each tile I used a blending tool and gently built up smooth colour all over the tile, darker at the edges, lighter in the middle.  Using a stencil I then added a section of one of the other colours.

Sinking into summer - Alice Hendon recently blogged about her Line Dance
tangle.  It's a great one to tangle - simple and deliciously repetitive.  Shading
takes it to another level and there's scope for embellishment too.

My choice of tangles was mostly dictated by those that have come to my attention over recent weeks, and that I haven't yet worked with, or those I wanted to try again.  There was no greater planning involved and yet somehow I tangled a very cohesive set of tiles.  One reason they work well together is the similar colouring and background.  But the other is those black vines that appeared on every tile!

Stars and Stripes - with pleasing similarites to Romancy and Clob
Checkmate (Jody Genovese) is a joy to draw and shade. 
I added a handful of Helen Williams' Seeing Stars too.

I often add black details as I come to the end of a tile.  To me they feel like the finishing touch, and help to give an extra layer of excitement to a tile that might look a little flat.  Sometimes I might use perfs, or some Fescu or Beadlines.  There's official terms for this I think - to do with contrast and value maybe.  But to me it's just instinctive.  Is there enough black, white (or colour) and grey?  If not, add a bit here and there till I like it more!  These vines also help to connect different areas of a tile.  They can be vines, or ribbons, or long Fescu.  They can break out into an area of negative space, without completely filling it.  They can also cover over any little wobbles or slips I'm not happy with!

Dark and disturbing - Saatin (Nadine Roller) is one of those tangles,
deceptively simple and yet with so much potential for variation.
Blind Membranart (Tomàs Padrós) is another stunning fusion of organic
and mathematical and just begged to be envined!

Lately my black ribbons and vines are not content to merely wrap around or between other tangles - now they want to go through!  And who am I to stop them.  Just as summer days are sometimes cut through with rain, so the brightest tile needs its shot of darkness.