it's a spring thing too

I was also late in completing my tile for last week's It's a String Thing Challenge.  So I thought I'd pop it here instead of it lurking, forever unseen, in one of my many hiding places for finished tiles!

I often notice other tanglers having very distinctive styles or looks to their work.  I'm not sure I've found my personal style just yet.  But I do seem to go through certain phases where my designs show similarities.  And at the moment I seem to be in quite a light, airy mode.  I think it's probably all down to Spring, to the lightening and lengthening of days.  To new growth appearing everywhere and coaxing me to bend and sway with it.

And so a weaving double-threaded string, blooming with little individual bursts of Mumsy, and Printemps patterned Kelp leaves.  I can almost imagine looking out of the window and seeing this growing up and over the fence!

ever decreasing circles

One of the current themes in my life is plentiful ideas but limited time to put them into practice.  Hence drawing this tile a full week after the Diva Challenge was issued.  

But I'm glad I made time to get it down on paper, as it came out fairly close to how I saw it in my head. 

A simple spiral of Jujubeedze snapped and dropped onto a background of Florz. 

(The white highlights were done using a fine pointed Zig chalk writer - the white colour doesn't appear for the first few seconds but it goes on in a less gloopy way than other white ink pens.)

ripe and ready

It's been an age since I did a Diva Challenge and I nearly didn't do this one - because I struggle with Pokeroot.  It never looks nice, always a bit too big or two small.  Or messy, or uptight.  But I think I hit on a way to work with it that I like. 

And it all came about by working with it alongside the boxy delight that is Cubine!  Now when I draw Pokeroot I imagine it has to fit into a small square space, in this case a border, but then let it bulge out a bit.  And suddenly I like it!

warming up

It's been too long.  Days and weeks tumbling over one another, each leaving no room to tangle.  But I'm getting there.  And what better way that by playing with a new tangle shared by my long-time Tangle Mentor Adele Bruno.  Teenos is welcoming and lively and keen to let you have fun with it.  And so I did, having a bunch of smaller ones burst out of a couple of large, and a border of dark disappearing into white and so on.

With no intention to be representational I find I've made an image very reminiscent of this week - the first real stirrings of spring - flowers popping up everywhere you look and a sense that the year is starting to really get going at long last.

off with a blast

What better way to come back to the wonderful world of Zentangle following my Christmas / New Year break than with a celebratory Diva Challenge!  She had reached the 200 milestone and is still going strong!  She invites us to use our go-to tangle and fill that tile!

So I grabbed a brand new Micron (there is nothing quite like that smooth flow of darkest black ink!) and went to work with Ticking.  I still don't have a go-to tangle as such - whichever one I fancy at any precise moment is the one I use.  But certain ones feel very satisfying to draw and Ticking is one of those.  So methodical and even and so tactile once you add the shading.

A couple of gaps in the bands and a couple of curved arcs of it as discovered in a previous unpacking of the tangle.  I darkened a couple of the edges just for added contrast and there you have it!  Like ropes pulling us into the new year.  Like elephant trunks trumpeting our arrival!

simple symmetry

It's a hectic time of year - the to-do list grows a little longer with every item I cross off.  It would be easy to fall away from tangling, but that would be a great shame - as it's the perfect chance to have a little burst of downtime, of calm and focus.  But now is not the time for learning new tangles, or trying complicated designs.  The Diva knows this as evidenced by her challenge for this week.

Simplicity is the key.  And what could be simpler than Bales.  Drawn out of a grid but following the lines to form a cluster of snowflakes shapes.

Best wishes to my fellow tanglers for the festive season and the year ahead.  May all your ink flow smoothly, and your pencil stay sharp, and may you find pleasing splashes of colour wherever you desire them!

it's a wrap

Having submitted a very lively tile for this week's It's a String Thing challenge I decided to draw a second tile, to simplify things and hopefully calm my seasonally over-agitated mind.

And there it is.  Verdigogh wrapping itself round the edges of the string shape and Pauline's Pigtail doing the same on three little balls.  It gives both tangles a slightly new look - both wintery, like bare branches and festive, like ribbons and strings.