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!

Family Fun

I love teaching my classes.  Each one is different with new energy, comments, and inspiration.  Class can be very fun when it is with a group of people who know each other.  I had the pleasure of teaching a home party recently for seven family members.

The Zentangle method encourages people to be supportive of their own artwork and to admire the beauty in the creations of others but can be even more powerful when loved ones get together to share the experience.  Knowing about each other makes it that much easier to appreciate when a person succeeds or struggles with trying something new.

I think this family did a wonderful job!  I hope they had a great time celebrating and relaxing together.

Punzel, Punzel, Let Down Your Hair

This week's Diva challenge was right up my alley (not just because we started watching Disney's Tangled (no pun intended) with my daughter for the first time).

The Diva, Laura, challenged us to create a duotangle, a term coined on the Diva's blog, using the patterns Well and Punzel.  Until recently, Punzel was on my do-not-tangle list. The pattern just didn't click with me.  I often made the center chain, the Chainging, too elongated so the braided sections would look skinny and strange to me.  I couldn't figure out how to make the beautifully flowing chains that others were creating.

There's no right or wrong with tangling, but sometimes, I think there can be discomfort with patterns.  Like I encourage my students, I try to let go of the idea of what a pattern "should" look like and focus on how I feel while creating it.  I find that I get a little frustrated by patterns that look better when they have a bit of precision.  I have learned, however, that my frustration can create a mental block that prevents me from exploring certain patterns like Punzel.

Thanks to fellow CZT Pixie Russell, I learned how to find my own comfort with the pattern.  I look forward to exploring it more to see what else I can do with it.  I know I shouldn't compare my art or my process to others, and I truly believe that practice and eliminating barriers can work wonders when I'm stuck.

Sometimes, we all can use a little help from a talented CZT to help us get unstuck and to help the tangles flow again.  Thanks, Pixie!

Liking Lines

I love tangle patterns with repeating straight lines.  Finding them the most relaxing, I have long since abandoned my fear of perfectly straight lines in favor of breathing and drawing each single line.  I love how tightly drawn lines come together in patterns like IX and Zander.  I can create oceans filled with Printemps watching my lines coil and coil into a relaxing wave or swirls.

Thanks to the Diva (based on Carole Ohl's pattern Tink), I got to play with Somnee, as the Diva's new pattern is temporarily named.  This easy pattern, drawn Hollibaugh style, looks like gears, pulleys, or other interesting, movable contraptions.

I had been working on some bookmarks for a swap ages ago but had not yet been inspired to finish them. I love the backgrounds I created with Twinkling H2Os and stencils, but I couldn't decide how I wanted to tangle a few of them.  The second I saw Somnee, I knew I had to tangle one of my goddess dresses!  I love how it looks like armor, crochet, and a harness all in one.  I may also have been inspired by the fact that I've just finished watching the first season of Game of Thrones.

Thanks for the challenge, Laura.  I needed this one to get me unstuck.  Now on to the rest of the bookmarks!

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!

Beyond Inspired

Wow.  Wow.  Just wow.

Okay, maybe I have a few more words to describe the fantastic, amazing, creative, inspiring weekend I spent with 100 plus CZTs at Tangle U.  It's been a few days, and I am still overwhelmed by my fun and stimulating weekend away in Portland, Maine.

I was so immersed in my weekend that I neglected to take photographs of much of what was happening.  I hope that my art and words will fill in the blanks for you.  Trust me, it was an amazing adventure.  Check out CZT Cris Letourneau's blog for a snapshot of the weekend.

First I traveled to Portland, Maine.  It was an interesting city filled with pretty architecture, restaurants, and shops.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend checking out The Holy Donut for the best donuts I have ever had.  They even have gluten free!  We stayed at the newly renovated, beautiful Westin Portland Harborview.  

Now for the tangling!

It was a pleasure to meet many of my CZT colleagues for the first time and to reconnect with others I had met at past events including my CZT IX training.  

We spent three creative days tangling with our illustrious teachers including the following:

• Suzanne McNeill - author of the Zentangle 1-10 books and many other creative titles.
• Sandy Steen Bartholomew - author of Yoga for the Brain and many other awesome books.
• Cris Letourneau - author of Made in the Shade and the upcoming Pattern Play.
• Marie Browning - Tombow goddess and author of Time to Tangle with Color.
• Molly Hollibaugh - from Zentangle
• Beckah Krahula - mixed media artist and author of One Zentangle a Day, and more!

I'll have to take several posts to share all the fun new things I learned!  I was intrigued by the easy ways we explored working with the black Zentangle tiles.  Molly brought us some goodies and a technique from Maria Thomas, co-founder of Zentangle®.  We played with Zenstones on black Zendala tiles.  I love the ghostly look the Zenstone creates.

I hope you can join me for my Zentangle® Inverted class this month to explore ways of working with these black tiles!

READing Tangles

I tangled a wooden READ for my librarian friend's birthday.  The surface was a bit slippery so I tested out the Ultra Fine Sharpie on the bottom and the IDenti-pen.  Sakura's IDenti-pen worked better and gave me two nib sizes.  This was a fun, little project to do even if it did become slippery in places.

Happy birthday, Diane!