Let It Snow

In November, I had the great pleasure of attending a retreat for Certified Zentangle Teachers in lovely Ogunquit, Maine.  I learned a variety of inspiring new techniques from fellow CZTs and was taken away by their creativity!  I reconnected with my tangling friends and made new ones at the fabulous Beachmere Inn.  It was a rejuvenating weekend for the body, mind, and soul.

One of my favorite new projects included techniques taught by Lynn Mead, CZT.  We explored the idea of creating open space for tangling or shading inside our tangles, convergent shading, and this stunning snowflake design.  I adored Lynn's classes and was thrilled to be able to experience her clear and inspiring teaching style.  By the way, if you'd like a fantastic tangle book for on the go, check out her Tangle Decks!

Here is the original piece that I created in Lynn's class.  It's shimmery and elegant in person; a photo doesn't do it justice.

 

I've been playing with different open snowflake designs to prepare for an upcoming winter class I'm teaching.  It's been fun to try these techniques on Opus and black Zendala tiles along with different pens and inks.  I love how the shading/coloring technique really makes the snowflakes pop.

Finding Color in the Darkness

I've been battling a nasty cold and haven't had much energy for anything let alone whining on the couch.  Not very zen.  I can get pretty down when I don't feel well, and I sometimes find it hard to see the light at the end of the tissue box.

Today I am feeling slightly more human.  

I left the house.  

I ate normal food.  

I tangled.  

If anything will get me out of my funk, it is tangling.

I had been inspired by several posts on the new Square One: Purely Fun Zentangle® Facebook group inspired by the fabulous Meredith Yuhas, CZT.  After such inspiration, I knew what would make me feel better--playing with color!  I used a black Zentangle® tile and filled it with some Fife and Fescu then colored areas with Prismacolor pencils.  I added a little highlight in the intersections with some white charcoal pencil.

This piece makes me happy.  It reminds me that there is always color and light even on the darkest days.  Even if I feel horrible, I can find comfort that it is temporary and that I will feel better, brighter, and happier soon.

Weaving Tangles

"O, what a tangled web we weave ..."

I love tangle patterns that look woven!  They look so difficult to construct and usually only have a simple line or two like Auraknot.  

For this week's Diva challenge, a duotangle, we were tasked with using the patterns Auraknot and Mooka.  I like both patterns because they can be so stunning when they come together.  

The same day I went to start my tile, I received my new pack of Sakura Moonlight Gelly Roll fine point pens.  Of course I had to try them!  They were awesome to use on the black Zendala tiles.  I love how shimmery they look and appreciated the finer line I could achieve.  I ended up using four colors to create this piece.  This was a fun way to play!

Cinderella Swirls

My daughter has been bitten by the princess bug and has started her journey into the world of Disney. After falling in love with Frozen and The Little Mermaid, she wanted to try watching Cinderella. I had not seen the movie in a decade or two and was surprised by some of he animation. Sure, it wasn't nearly as impressive as Frozen in storytelling, animation, visual effects, or music, but I enjoyed it in different ways.

It is hard to be impressed with older animation when faced with the computer-animated beauty of a movie like Frozen, but older films remind us of earlier advances. Each movie, Disney or otherwise was remarkable in its day.

Movies make us nostalgic. They can also make us see new sources of beauty--like tangles.

While watching Cinderella, I couldn't help notice all of the swirled patterns used throughout the story. The railings in all of the staircases had a serpentine structure. Cinderella's pumpkin coach blossoms with swirls and curls as vines transform into wheels in an elegant and flowing fashion. And of course, Cinderella mops the massive tile floor covered in the epitome of tile patterns, Florz. You can catch a glimpse of some of the images on the Cinderella photo gallery page.

When I saw this week's Diva challenge was to play with circles, I immediately had to tangle Cinderella's carriage. I drew three circles for the carriage and two wheels. I tangled in white and filled with colored pencils. Crescent Moon seemed fitting in a circle-inspired piece.

I love how tangling can be random and evolving or can be inspired by something specific.

I am drawing my magic want for some tangling magic for you... Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!

Out of the Darkness

I was not left in the dark during last night's Inverted Tangles class!  I spent a wonderfully relaxing evening with four repeat visitors for my first ever class exploring the magic of black Zentangle® tiles.

Surprisingly for me, I was in a pretty dark place before class started.  Drama and stress affect us all, and I was feeling both.  

Once my students arrived and we started talking about the fun things we were going to learn, it was like my day and the worries just washed away.  Instead, I channelled my energy into the joy of watching the white Sakura Gelly Roll pens float across the black tiles for the first time.  I breathed as we added ghostly highlights to our tiles.  I embraced the fun of trying something new with my students and of watching them learn and explore on their own.

The energy in the room was as electric as the glowing tiles everyone created.  It was a magical experience and one that I desperately needed. After class, I felt like I could walk on water, leap over buildings, and succeed at just about anything that came my way.  That's pretty amazing after feeling low and stressed only two hours earlier.

The Zentangle® Method is transformative.  In a short amount of time, it took a human ball of stress and created a relaxed, creative, inspired, and inspiring individual.  

This particular group of women chose to join me on my Zentangle® journey last night.  They trusted me, despite my initial mood, and they let me guide them through creating these stunning pieces of art.  They trusted the process and didn't panic when presented with new tools.  They breathed, tangled, laughed, and created stunning art together.  There is something special that happens when a group of talented, like-minded, creative individuals comes together to share something as simple as tangling.  Just look at the class tiles.  They all look amazing, and I bet you can't tell which is mine! 

Here is the second tile that we started, but not everyone had a chance to finish.  I love how unique and special each and every tile turns out.  Little masterpieces!

I am truly thankful for my Zentangle® practice, being able to teach and share my passion with others,  the amazing community of artists I have joined, and my wonderfully creative students who inspire and challenge me every day.

Thank you!

Black Magic

I love to learn new things!

At Tangle U, I picked up a fantastic new technique for working with black Zentangle® tiles from the fabulous Marie Browning, Tombow goddess and author of many crafting books including Time to Tangle with Color.

Marie led us through an exercise using Tombow's new Irojiten colored pencils. The wide range of beautiful colors is interesting to layer.  This easy technique is like magic because the colors and tangles come to life quickly before your eyes.

Here were the pieces I created during Marie's class:

I've been pretty hooked on this technique since class and came up with these two tiles.  I am pretty much in love with the black, white, and red one (I'm sure there's a zebra joke in there somewhere).  For these two tiles, I used my Prismacolor colored pencils.

My daughter selected the colors for this tile:

Isn't it fun to try something new?  You never know what you might come up with when you let yourself play!

A Day to Tangle

I love spending the day with fellow tanglers. This weekend I taught the My Tangled Garden class to a couple of my return students.  Since they've tangled with me on many occasions and have taken my original garden class, I gave them a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure style class and let them opt for the white garden on black paper.  We played with white Gelly Roll pens, white charcoal and colored pencils, and the new Zenstones from Zentangle.

It's breathtaking to watch the ghostly gardens appear on the black background.  We explored a variety of new patterns too.  Didn't they do a beautiful job?

Next the Tangle Club met and enjoyed a few hours of tangling, chatting, and sharing new ideas.  I pulled out a fun project for everyone to try--scratch magic papers!  We used some animal stencils to create a variety of fun and colorful critters.  The different colors emerged before our eyes as we made our selections of patterns within or around our animal shapes.

It's getting close to Halloween, so I thought I should tangle a bat!  I love him.