Another Skye

There has been a lot of Skye going on in Tangle-world last weeks. A great challenge has been done  and now one more. I am the Diva´s challenge this week is about Skye. Is there a celtic flu or?...?? I haven´t any idea about it. But here it will go on for at least one more week. Margaret Bremner´s pattern is already famous I think. Me myself will take the chance to improve my trials with this amazing pattern. So here is my first Skye this week:

Maybe it is not the main focus in this tile. But I want to use it together with other patterns I know . And getting it work in a string. Here it is with African Artist (Tina Aqua Hunziker), Ragz (Christina Vandervlist), Flux and Tipple. The string is no.119. 

Keep it simple!

Bales is a pattern that kan be light and airy or heavy and solid. It depends. It can be a carrier of light or it can be made dark. It can also be simple and work all the way or it can be made as complicated as you wish. It is a pattern based on a grid, but  this pattern is so easy to get flowing and makes the grid change to correspond to any string. It is also a pattern that easily can transform to other grid-based patterns.

This is my Bales for today with Fescu. I used string 118 by Barbara Finwall. I was aiming to keep it simple, even more simple than this. Just focus on the line that came from my pen out on the paper. The outcome was not the goal and I could enjoy the process an feel the relaxation. That´s the point.  Not perfection. And now I can be happy for the result!

Focus on Bales

The focustangle of the week at Square One is Bales. This is one of my earliest learned original tanglepatterns. It is easy to learn and just leaves you on the go! A pattern that put me in the meditationcirkle at once.

There are many possibilities to embellish the pattern and once looking at the original step-out, you know the pattern by heart! 

It can grow to a very complicated pattern in the end! But I wanted to keep it simple, using shading as the main embellishment and black perfs. As a string I used a freehand drawn "cirkle" It is not a perfect cikle but that is nothing that bothers me.

Mom´s Day in Sweden

Tomorrow is Mom´s Day in Sweden. My Mom passed away 8th of february 2001.  She would have been 91 years old if she still had been alive.  I was thinking of her while making this tile for Mom´s day. We celebrate it tomorrow in Sweden. My mom was special. As every mom is in this world. She came to Sweden as a refugee from Finland during World War II. My father and she fell in love and that´s why I exist. She raised 8 children in a very small village on the countryside in North of Sweden!  I loved her and I miss her today. She was a strong woman and she cared about people. Love and solidarity are the two words I associate with her. I never doubted in her love for me or the rest of the family, including cats and dogs.As I think of her I am filled with gratitude and I will always remember her in my heart. This is for her:

The lovely m-string is from Adele Bruno´s challenge celebrating Mom´s Day in the States and a big part of the rest of the world. I used it together with a zen-gem, Fassett (Lynn Shelton Mead), Beadlines (Margaret Bremner) and Ellish. Here is an old picture (scanned) of my Mom and Dad which I took 1974 outside our House.

With this I want to celebrate my beloved Mother and give the celebration on to all who are going to celebrate tomorrow! Don´t forget your Mothers! They are the reason why you excist!

Ellish and Lenche in a string

I also wanted to try Ellish in a string. Some patterns give me problems when I try to use them with a string. Ellish has such a strong and beautiful form in itself so I was hesitating about this. I didn´t want it to disappear in the string thing. But here it is:

I used it with string 117 in the tanglepattern´s library. The other patterns are: Fescu, Tipple, Off Key (Lori Byerly), Widget (Kate Ahrens and Lenche (mine). There are some striping too.

Add color

IAST no. 146 this week contained Cubine, Cayke (Rose Brown) and CanT (Chris Titus). The string is from Adele Bruno.  As I was finished with this tile, I felt it was something missing. 

I had to move one step further and added watercolor. Just blue nothing else. Then it was completed. I also publish the string this time: 

I don´t use watercolor regularly on my tiles. But sometimes it works and sometimes it is really needed! This time it was the way out!

Ellish

The latest official tangle from Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts is Ellish. It is also in the Diva´s challenge this week. Ellish is so easy to learn though it seems complicated. I do love such patterns. That means I will come back to it over and over again. Here is my first entry to the Diva´s challenge and I had much fun doing it. The other patterns are: Mooka, Tipple, Kings Crown (Suzanne McNeill) and also a small version of Lenche (my own). I am happy to tell that Lenche now is found in the library of Tanglepattern.com! 

XIV

Joey´s challenge Roman number XIV. Only five left. I liked to do this on a Renaissance-tile. Joey´s choice of patterns told me so.

The patterns are:Bunzo, Cadent, Shattuck, Cheesecloth, Papyrus and Barber Pole (Suzanne McNeill). My first time with Barber Pole. It is related to BTL Joos though, which I have done several times. The cheesecloth was very relaxing to do, only straight lines!

Zen-Gem

After a day filled with a lots of busy things I really was longing for this hour when I could just go into a moment of meditative drawing. Zentangles are addictive! I didn´t look for a challenge, I didn´t open my computer, I just sat down and focused on the lovely empty tile laying in front of me. I choose to work with the next string in the zentanglepattern library. No. 116 by Sandy Hunter. I had done this string before in a challenge. But now I just let the string go on and this is what came out:

In the middle is a zen-gem. I don´t really know if it is a tanglepattern or not but they are really fun to do. Here are steps for those wonderful jewels. I don´t use them too often but today I wanted to have it there. It gives me a feeling of luxury. And gratitude. The other tangles or some of them are Ix, Papyrus (don´t know who has come up with that) and Ragz (Christina Vandervlist)

The outcome from doing this is obvious. I feel relaxed and released from the pressure of today!

Zendala + Ix and Skye

Today I am having a party with Ix and Skye as special guests! I looked at Lynn Shelton Mead´s last tile with Ix and felt I had to go on with it. First in my sketchbook, trying to find Ix in me! And there it was! To celebrate I made it on a zendala tile together with my latest tanglefriend Sky(Margaret Bremner). 

It is not a well-centered zendala. But I don´t care! The Ix was so fun to do this way and ofcourse Skye! I really wanted to use Skye in a round but it was a little scary. So I started with Skye and then let Ix come into the play.  Fescu also popped up! 

From this I learn something: When I don´t really get along with a tangle: Just do it over and over again in the sketchboo till it clicks in!

Ix meets the Diva´s challenge

The new focustangle in Square One is Ix. Last time I tried it (several months ago) I actually didn´t like the pattern. I really don´t know why, because similar patterns are true favourites of mine. So I started it all up in my sketchbook:

This is a scanned version. I used my fountainpen, Lamy, and shaded with graphite 2B. The other patterns are: Tipple, Hollibaugh,Msst, Black Perfs and Kassandra (my own pattern. This time I felt a little bit more relaxed doing it. I guess I need to keep it in focus for a week or so to overcome my resistance! Here comes the tile I made after my first drawing:

I started with Rain, a tangle I learned in the beginning of my zentangle-journey. I haven´t done Rain so much. To me it is a dramatic pattern and it has a touch of anger in it! Today it was the right day for some aggressivity. Then Ix could join in the background which made me feel a lot better about that pattern! Tipple and Cruffle (Sandy Hunter) is also following in the bottom underneath. This tile will also work as a third entry to Diva´s challenge no. 268! I also used string 113. That string was perfect fit to my mood today!

Batumber-day 2

Batumber (Kelley Kelly) has become a favourite of mine. It can be used in so many ways and it never disappoints me. A pattern to go to. This time I made it as my second for the Diva´s challenge. And I blackened the petals inside. Then the black went out to a petal I didn´t want to be black. But that´s the way it went and I had to do something else with that one...

Anyhow I like that little deviation after all! Under Batumber, Fescu is growing and at the bottom; Verve (JJ La Barbera). The string is my own; the curvy line in the bottom and the straight one were Batumber is climbing!

Skye is the limit!

Adele Bruno´s challenge this week is all about Skye (Margaret Bremner). And Antidots (Anita Roby Lavéry).After practicing the tangle I am able to use it as a tangle at last! It is such a nice pattern and I am glad I didn´t give it up because I had to work with it sevral times. But now I am at the point I can draw it without having the step-outs in front of me.

It is a true tanglepattern sprung out of a celtic tradition!  I am in love with it and I am going to get back to it later on!

Roman number XIII

When I saw this challenge from Joey my first thought was, I won´t be able to use all patterns proposed. But as I started tangeling with the Garlic cloves something just kicked in and when I was finished I realized that all patterns were there! Maybe it was because all of them were familiar to me so it was easy to just let it go!

13 is such a weird number. But in Roman way XIII it is something else. The patterns are: Verdigogh, Garlic Cloves (which I don´t know who has made up), Chemystry (Sandy Steen Bartholomew), Cruffle (Sandy Hunter) and Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner). Ipso is one of those tangles i use a lot. Easy to learn and it can be done big or small and go in any place where I need something that lighten up! I love that pattern! The others are also so fun to work with, once I start I can´t stop!

Add some drama

This week the Diva has a relly interesting theme for the challenge. Add black. Black is very powerful. Of course white is too, but black is special. I might have played on safe cards this time, but it was very relaxing. Bet I´ll do this again this week. I love black. I hardly can be without it. I concentrated on the shading as well and managed to take one pic before and one after shading.

I like to see what difference shading makes to a drawing. Here it is so obvious! The depth after shading is striking! I am happy for the result. The patterns are: Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner), Crux (Henrike Bratz) and Fugu (Sonya Yencer). I also used string 112.

Celtic patterns

Celtic patterns are most interesting. I have been watching Ted Nichols at youtube. He is a master drawing these. I have tried it myself after watching his tutorials. To me it is like training the brain to draw those. I haven´t done it for a long time now. The patterns are gorgeous, but they are not tangles. Margaret Bremner has done a great job recently to deconstruct a celtic pattern and turn it into a tangle. She has published the step-out for Skye in her blog. I have practiced it today. Her step-out is so well done and I think I have got hang of the pattern by now. It is fun to do it but takes a lot of practicing for me anyhow! Here is my first try:

I used string 111. When I had made this one in my sketchbook i went on with a renaissance tile with the same string. 

It is still practicing for me. Not much in the "zone". But somewhere inside me I know it will be worth the effort to learn Skye. So I´ll continue! The other patterns are Heartline (Helen Williams), Shnek (Hanny Nura), Annee (Sandy Steen Bartholomew) and Tipple. I used micron (black and color), colorpencils, white charcoalpencil, graphite and a little gellypen. A lots of stuff. But this is the way it went.

Slow down and breath with Bijou

Bijou came by today. But not appearing with a common white little tile, but with a black one, which was sent to me by a friend of mine CZT Ela Rieger in Germany. The story of Bijou you can read here. This was the first original black Bijou-tile I have tried (I have made my own from black paper earlier). I can say I enjoyed doing this one. The smooth surface makes the zenstone be a perfect tool! So thank you Ela for giving me this!

Bijou-format: 5x5 cm (2x2 inch). The pattern is Fugu (Sonya Yencer). I often use this format when I practice a new tanglepattern. I´ve found that it is perfect when I need to slow down wherever I am or when I am in a situation that I have a very short time to tangle. Just be there for a few minutes of focus makes a great difference. Today is Pentecost, so I can just relax, taking the time I need and that is so relieving. The cat is sleeping, the dog is out with her other owner and I am doing what I want in my studio. So I made another one before going into painting: 

One more Fugu but now also together with Flux and string 109. Happy Pentecost all of you!

Upside-Down

During making a zentangle you are supposed to rotate the tile. I do that. There are no ups and downs. Or shouldn´t be.  Then there is the shading. To add the shading means also I have to decide where the light-source is. If there is no light there cannot be any shade so simple is that. When I was a photographer in the 70ties and 80ties I learned a lot about shades, how to use them to get most 3D in my pictures, how to use them to focus on, or not focus on something. It is such a delicate thing to work with light and shades! I still love it and still I have got so much to learn about it!

Right now the focus tangle in Square One is Fugu (Sonya Yencer). It has got the form of an american football and it really invites me to use shading. This is a monotangle I used with Adele Bruno´s string. To take a pic of it means I have to decide what should be up an what should be down! I am still not sure which way I prefer it. Here is a second alternative:

I keep my tiles in a square box. When I look at them I can change the view, so it doesn´t really matter. But if I frame the tile and put it on my wall I have to decide! So I guess I´d better let it be in the box!

IAST 144

The string Adele Bruno created to honor Mothers day is truly a beautiful string. I saved it for future use! This is my entry:

The patterns are Hollyhock (Jason Lau) and 4Mom (Jane Eileen Malone). Here is the string:

Thank´s Adele for a nice challenge!

2nd round on Joey´s weekly!

I had to make one more on a white tile, as I said in my last post. Knightsbridge is a name but this pattern is truely universal. You can find it in very old cultures around the world. It is impossible to know who created it at the start. To me that means an evidence as good as anything that everything is belonging together in one way or another.

You don´t have to be religious to admit it is so. A feeling of humbleness - that´s what takes place in me doing this. Someone somewhere long long ago invented the pattern that has been used through centurys and will be used as long as human race exists.

XII

Here is my entry for Joey´s challenge: Roman number XII. A monotangle with Knightsbridge! I love the monotangle in itself. I really do.  It is so easy to find a realaxing state of mind doing this.

I made this one on a black tile using White Gellypen, zenstone and white charcoal. The zenstone is nice to work with! Zenstone just glide over the surface and does it´s work! There might come one more monotangle using Knightsbridge to this challenge, because I also want to make it on a white tile...

Pooke Root and Drupe

This week the Diva´s challenge is a duotangle with Pooke Root and Drupe. Both are official zentangles. Only using two tangles don´t sound too difficult. But it is an other kind of challenge. You have to get them work together. 

I choose to work on a renaissance tile and do it with color this time. I was completely out of renaissance tiles, but today I got a wonderful package in my post-box so I couldn´t resist it! Yes I had fun! I used my brandnew renaissance tile and also my new red micron! 

Last focus on Crux

I am not done with Crux (Henrike Bratz) yet. Maybe I won´t be. It is such a nice pattern to go into.  As I started to play with string 108, Crux popped up as a tangleation. Together with Cubine, Wud (Joni Feddersen) and Ruutz (Eni Oken). Then I had to go on giving Crux one focus-round on it´s own meeting Showgirl (Vicki Bassett)one more time.

Messing it all up and going further.

This time I thought I´d really mezzed things up. We are having hot days now. In the beginning of May. In my head it was like chewing-gum or something like it. So Batumber went it´s own way and I didn´t like it at all.  But then I remembered again; there ARE no misstakes in zentangle, so I just went on drawing. This is what happened:

I am glad I didn´t throw it away, but let the flow go on the way it wanted. I am grateful for the relaxation it brought to me. String 107. Patterns: Batumber (Kelley Kelly), Crux (Henrike Bratz), Tipple, Crescent Moon and a Zen-gem. It is not so much Crux in it but I like the way it works here so I send it to  the Diva´s challenge! 

Batumber-Day

Today I wanted to try Kelley Kelly´s Batumber, which is the focus-pattern in Square One. When I first tried it in my scetchbook this pattern made me feel happy! I couldn´t wait to try it!  I used string 106 and this pattern carried me away. When I was finished i realized I had made a tangleation! I had left the steps behind and the result was something else than I intended to.  Here it is:

I like the result and this was a real string-thing. It just happened.

Yesterday I published the IAST for this week. I wasn´t to happy about it, so today I gave that intresting string another round. Now with Batumber. This time Batumber is Batumber and nothing else. 

Here with Flip-Flap, Flux and Tipple. This tile might not be so free as the first one, but I am pleased with it. And I guess the string from Adele Bruno will come back in other constellations. It is so inspiring to work with!

IAST143

Adele Bruno has made a nice string this week! I really love it and I will try it more. Here it is:

I felt a little stuck with the patterns belonging to the challenge though. But that´s the way it is sometimes. I have nothing against the patterns but I didn´t get into the flow I really want to be in when tangling. That is also one important point in the zentanglemethod:

Don't judge the outcome. So I show it here:

Maybe tomorrow I will look at it with new eyes.

Monotangle

I find it most relaxing to make a monotangle. I don´t do it too often, but when I do I always think I would do it more frequently.By repeating one tangle means to me that I very easy reach that point when I feel it flowing, when I am just in the flow and nothing disturbs. No thoughts no planning. Just one stroke at a time.

Here is Ruutz (Eni Oken) as a monotangle. With guidance from string 105. I am happy there are empty spaces this time. I appreciate when the empty spaces appear. It is almost magical. I can´t explain it, but it has to do with something deep inside. Open air or empty room where everything is possible? I don´t know but I feel  satisfaction when it is there.

Crux meets Showgirl

String 104 by Nancy Newlin is a string I have used before. Simple curved lines put together. It was nice to apply the Diva´s challenge for this week on that string. Zentangle is supposed to be nonrepresentative! But as you sometimes see pictures in the clouds sailing by you also can see something representative in a zentangle even if it is not meant to be. I liked Crux (Henrike Bratz) a lot so I just made 3 variations (or tangleations) and put them together. I first aimed to let the middle be an empty space, because I really like empty spaces.

But Showgirl (Vicki Bassett) also wanted to take place! And as she did, I couldn´t help watching a beautiful waist on a curvy figure! Ha. I shouldn´t have told you, maybe you see something else...:)

XI

Joey´s challenge roman number XI. This was a  r e a l challenge for me. All patterns in the challenge were new to me: Vache 1 (Genvieve Crabe), Shons (Lizzie Mayne), Susa and Zippa (both tangles by Neil Burley). After I had practiced them I decided not to use Zippa. I do love tangles that looks complicated but are easy to learn. I hate tangles that looks easy but are difficult to learn. I am sorry to say but two of the tangles looked easy but I felt they were difficult to learn. Both from Neil Burley. I guess there are a lots of people that doesn´t agree with me. Anyway I went on with the challenge. Shons and Vache were really nice to do. Especially Shons is a tangle I am glad I know by now! It has a lots of possibilities. First I was dissapointed how Susa appeared on my tile, but when I had worked on it a little more I think it came out quite ok. Still I find it difficult to do.

And I am not sure Neil Burley would recognize his tangle! Anyway this is the way XI went for me.

Here comes a post scriptum to this:
I actually started on another tile, but gave it up! I couldn´t get Zippa right! Today 14th of May I finished it and I am happy I did:

I like it even more than the one I finished first! Zippa may not be Zippa. Maybe a tangleation, maybe something else. Down in the left corner ther are some Abundies (Hanny Waldburger) too.

About Lava

In the ending of 60ties and beginning of 70ties the Lava-Lamps showed up. They were very popular at that time. Then they faded away but had a great comeback in the 90ties. I never had one of those, but I was really thrilled by them. The movement inside them was so eye-catching. So it is no coincidence that I was caught by Carole Ohl´s pattern Lava Juice. It is so easy to learn and so fluently coming out of the pen. 

Here it appears with Flip-Flap and Ruutz (Eni Oken). I guess there will be more Flip-Flapping too further on. And Ruutz. Ruutz is also very easy to learn and goes whereever you want it to. The string is no. 103.

Tangleations

What is a tangleation? To find the answer about that I went back to Beckah Krahula`s book "One zentangle a day". She says: "Tangleations are created when an original existing tangle is varied or altered." There are so many patterns around. Who knows what is a tangleation or not? Maybe it isn´t an interesting question at all. Most patterns are based on patterns that already exists. Maybe that means that most patterns are tangleations? I was thinking about that when I played around with Flip-Flap. It is told it is a tangleation of Lap by Lizzie Mayne. Lap is also a wonderful pattern and I can see the similarities between them. But digging in the hughe mount of tanglepatterns I find a lot of patterns which has similarities and still they are defined as different patterns. It doesn´t give sense to me. Is there anyone out there who has an idea about this? You are welcome to tell about it!

Here is my tile with Flip-Flap together with Ruutz (Eni Oken), Lava Juice Carole Ohl and Printemps on string 102. I found Lava Juice when I visited Ela Riegers Musterquelle. A collections of patterns that are really inspiring! Thank´s to Ela who let me be a part of it!