the patience of a leaf

Autumn strikes me as a season that won't be hurried.  In its own time it carries the natural world from the warmth of summer through to winter's cold.  Leaves steadily change colour, setting their own pace, deepening and darkening until they eventually drop.  Each leaf will only fall when it's ready - and I like to imagine it's that waiting that allows those leaves to paint themselves in such stunning colours. 

I like to time my time over the things I enjoy - and so it was with this two tile piece.  The tangling and shading took me a couple of hours.  Steady progress - adding ink, then stopping at look at my tile, then adding a little more.  The same with the shading and the highlights.  Pausing often to look and ponder my tile helps me to appreciate the process as well as tweaking my tangling here and there to make it look the best it can.  My tangling won't be rushed any more that the littlest leaf!

Rich and warming - Ginili, Yuma and a Pokeleaf variation.
Pigment ink, graphite, white pencil and Ivory Posca paint pen highlights.
Three shades of Brusho powders created the background - Sandstone, Terracotta and Burnt Sienna.

I've made Persian Mosaics for Winter, Spring and Summer as well as exploring them in the original colours schemes suggested by Marguerite Samama.  Every time I work on these connecting triangles they take me somewhere new and remind me that there is endless variety and pleasure (not to mention value for money) to be had from Marguerite's carefully crafted kits.

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.

concentrically yours

Sometimes an idea catches hold of me and won't let me go - and that's what happened recently. Hanny Nura shares monthly prompts, and for the September Full Moon Mosaic she invited us to draw concentric rings on a round tile, colour each a different colour, tangle the bands and border with gold. People share their results and a wonderful collaboration arises – each person bringing their own interpretation to the theme.  I shared the following tile in the Full Moon Mosaic Facebook group.

My contribution to the September Mosaic -
for the outer ring I used Eni Oken's version of my Divi tangle.
And moving inwards - Kaboom, Pixiose and Gelijoy.

However, I didn't feel like I finished with the idea. So I prepared four more backgrounds with variations on the idea of concentric rings. I coloured these using just three Ecoline markers - although with greater and lesser intensity, and more blending on some pieces than others.

Broken rings - filled with a rough Ratoon, with Bunzo between -
black beads and shading almost managed to hide the gaps between my rings!

Zem Button style shading brought this simple piece to life -
rings of Marasu and Doodah with a Printemps middle.

On these last two tiles I found myself drifting away from using 'proper' tangles. Instead I was just drawing lines in repetitive ways, but that repetition in itself is very close to the notion of tangling. When I first started my Zentangle journey this would happen sometimes, but as I've got more used to the practice it happens less - and perhaps that's a sad thing to have lost? Following the pen with no destination in mind is sometimes just what you need to do.

I started by drawing an ogee shape mandala flower - filling each section in the same way.
Without intention shapes that resemble familiar tangles start to appear -
relatives of Antidots, Fescu and Msst hide in this glowing bloom.

On this postcard I placed my colour in segments rather than rings - in a faintly
pencilled grid I tangled leaf shapes with tiny Tipple to cover those wobbly edges!

After recent rains gave way to sun the temperature has suddenly plummeted. Autumn can no longer be denied, summer slammed the door on her way out. Not many leaves have fallen yet in our garden, but they're getting ready – their colours are changing, and any day now they'll start to let go. We have evergreens to tide us through the colourless winter months, ivy and laurel - but the green on these tiles will be the last I use this year.

step into my parlour

It's been almost 5 months since my last confession - since I last showed you my inner workings, the jottings and explorations that fill my sketchbook.

As I browse online any new tangles I spot, or old tangles I'm reminded of, get doodled about with on the torn off papers from my page-a-day desk calendar.  Roughly once a week I have a session where any of those tangles that I like I play with further in my sketchbook.  I might copy the tangle faithfully and then try variations.  I might see how two tangles work together.

My sketchbook then becomes the resource for any tiles or pieces I'm working on.  Often I use recent pages for inspiration, but sometimes I go back, pull out an old sketchbook and rediscover treasures I've long forgotten.  For my recent Relaxagon Paradox tiles I dusted off a page of Paradox variations from 2015! 

Points of interest -
There are tangles here that I've used a lot - Sitiko, Saatin and Blind Membranart
And those that have only had one outing so far - Line Dance and  S-Vine
And those that haven't yet made it to a tile but will when the time is right - the (missed named by me) Oritigol

Points of interest -
A trio of Padrós tangles on this page - often challenging, always rewarding - Tissoooh, All Stars and Taiga
Revisiting Dreamdex - which I struggled with on first meeting but am warming to now
Checkmate and Salo - both proving that simple tangles can be just as charming as complex ones

Points of interest -
New discoveries - Matuvu and Windmill - both of which I love
Spotting harmonious tangle pairings - Seespan and Squirk
Playing with the Ogee shape with nothing else in mind (bottom left)

Points of interest -
The aptly autumnal Gelijoy and Ada which was the star of a recent IAST show
Kaas and RunCC - two wonderful grid type tangles
Skyview which takes much concentration and Violetka which doesn't

Working in my sketchbook is an invaluable part of my Zentangle practice - if you'd never tried it I'd encourage you to give it a go - you might be pleasantly surprised with where it leads you.  And even if you don't fancy that, hopefully there are plenty of tangles here to take your fancy - I wish I could link to them all but that would eat up too much tangle time!

uneasy explorations

This week my tangling path led me back to the wonderful world of Relaxagons. I shared my first post about them in May, my next in June.  I've been hankering to get back to them for a while, and it was a pleasure to be working within their unique shape, with the careful guidance of Marguerite Samama's instructions.

Warming up - highlighted and shaded and with added Mooka on an orange tile
and with added dots and mini gems on a tan tile

However, the next idea Marguerite invited us to play with proved a real challenge for me!  She wanted us to focus on the tangle Paradox - a great choice as it's a lively geometric tangle which can dance neatly with a six-sided tile. But I have an very uneasy relationship with this tangle. 

Soft colours under Ginili, Divi and Cruffle against a background of fan-style Paradox

Early on in my tangling life I found it a real struggle to learn, as you can see from one of my earliest Paradox tiles.  Since then I'm able to tangle it without too much trouble, and I use a little pop of it every now and then, or use the Paradox principle for other tangles.  But I don't particularly like the tangle.  Despite those curves that appear it's so unforgivingly straight-lined, it's hard to get it to play nicely with other tangles, and it makes me feel utterly incapable when the time comes to shade it!

Something more minimal - three ribbons of Paradox in my early autumn colours

But I'm not one to dodge a challenge - so I persevered and managed to tangle a handful of tiles, some of which I almost quite like, and in a few places I even started to soften a little towards this cold-hearted tangle!

My favourite piece - Paradox in two sided shapes,
with 'Nzeppel and Fescu

Paradox will never be a tangle I use often, or one which gives me great satisfaction to use, but that doesn't matter, as there are so many more to chose from, I can't expect myself to love them all. 

If you'd like to buy the Relaxagons kit it's available from Marguerite's Etsy store.  She also sells her Relaxagon tiles in different colours and paper types.

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!