Going in circles

Very early this morning at approximately 4:00 I felt something wet in my hand. It was our little dog licking my finger, waving her tail! She wanted to go out and I stumbled out of my bed, put some clothes on and we went out in the slight misty morning. We walked in a circle, she did her thing and we went back to bed. She usually don´t get up this early. Not me either. But there was something peaceful in this short morningwalk. I brought that into my morningmeditation somewhat later and went into the Diva´s challenge tangling in circles.

All is done by freehand and looking at the result I am a little surprised that the circles looks quite round!The patterns in the orbs are: LO´s (mine), Yah (Emily Classon), Yuma (Tina Akua Hunziker), Zing-Zing (Marie Penzing),B´twined (Pegi Schargel), Revolution (Sandra Chatelain) and Stripes.

Circles are the theme right now. I did give the Joey´s challenge a try too. Circular string. The challenge-pattern is Pearly (Sandra)and that´s a pattern that I wouldn´t have choosen myself.

It might be a little bit too pearly to my taste. Maybe if I work on it something will come out of it that satisfy me more. Anyway I tried to just keep it simple the way it was. I did add Laced (Mary Elisabeth Martin) to the original Pearly. Then it needed some surrounding and there was Z-trik (Yamit Fridman) and at last Anee (Sandy Steen Bartholomew).

Well this is the way it went today. Maybe I get another impression from this tile tomorrow. Or it can be a tile that after some weeks or months, get a remix. You never know. But it is ok for now.

Striping Stripes

I have done a lot of striping in my life. Mostly in painting, a lot in knitting and now in zentangle. Striping is an original zentanglepattern and now it is the focustangle in Square One. I have used it before. The challenge is to do it on freehand and get the stripes as even as possible. And to accept the fact that they become uneven and that is ok. After a while it is not only ok, there is a beauty in the non-perfect lines. 

As I accept the way it goes, then I also can rest in the moment, be happy that I am able to do this and have a moment of peace with myself. String 135. Patterns: Striping and Girdy (Karl Stewart).

LO´s - New Tangle

It took me a couple of days but here is my new tangle!It is  built on letter l and letter o. If there is someone out there who has made the same tangle, please let me know! I have played with it a lot and there are lots of possible ways to embellish this pattern and change the character of it. It works as a spacefiller, a ribbon and as a solitaire. It can be drawn in a grid or very freely. And it is very simple to learn. Here are the steps:

And here is my daily meditation on it:

A little bit of Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner) also took place! The story of this tangle has a strong connection with my last post. Hope you´ll enjoy it!

L and O-tangles

L and O are The first letters in the first and last name of a close friend of mine. He is now in hospice and his status is so bad. This is difficult to cope with for his family and so it is for me.  I live 300 km from him and last weekend I belive was the last time we saw eachother. It is a great loss for all of us who knows him. Today I made this tangle from the two letters L and O and in a remarkable way I felt  comfort doing this.

I belive this is what it is all about. To find the peace deep inside even if things fall apart around oneself. I cannot do anything to stop what is going on, I realize that. But to do zentangle is a way to face what´s coming and I am really greatful to be able to do this. And every stroke I made in this tile is a prayer, a meditation for L and his family. 

The tangles are Lotuspods (Margaret Bremner) and Oke (Michele Beauchamp).String no. 134 (Grace McIntyre). 

Particularly about Echoism

Echoism is the featured tangle in Square One for the moment. When I first met this pattern as a zentangle I wasn´t overwhelmed. It is one of the basic-patterns I learned as I started as a tangler. But I had used it so much in my work as a teacher when I was teaching about handwriting and when I was teaching about how to loosen up tensions when you are drawing.But to use it as a tangle? Could that be fun? The answer I got as I made it in the Diva´s challenge as you saw it in my last post. It was fun. I could see it with new eyes and now I start to see the possibilities in this pattern as a tangle. This morning my meditation went with Echoism:

I am surprised myself about how easy I landed in the zone and how much I enjoyed to be there with Echoism! Double D´s (Judy Murphy) and Beadlines (Margaret Bremner) also followed. I used string 133 (Barbara Finwall).

I haven´t forgotten Joey´s cirkular challenge. I want to catch up with it, since it is a challenge I really enjoy. The last one I did is in my sketchbook:

Organic (Sayantika Ray), a new pattern to me, was in this challenge. It is a lovely pattern! The others are: Brrrst (Kelly Barone), Mooka, Tipple, Fescu and Eddyper (Mei Hua Teng). This is the 6th  of cirkular strings and I want to do them all so I better work on it!

Moving tangles

I am the Diva´s weekly challenge 276 was perfect last week! I was going around. I wasn´t in my old routines. So when I was on a trip to Stockholm I took my chance. I went by bus, and the road was bumpy which is to be seen in both tiles!

The first one was done early in the morning on my way to Stockholm. Echoism with stripes in between. And string 132. It was fun to do this, and the journey appeared much shorter than it use to be! I forgot the time, I was just relaxing. Though the lines are wobbling I do like the way it went!

The second one was made on my way back home in the evening next day. I was much more tired this time. But the same thing happened; the journey became shorter and I was able to relax though my head was full of impressions from my stay. I made a string of my own, and used the patterns that came up: Reticulated (Livia Chua), Cubine, Flip-Flap (tangleation of Lap) and Finery.

Blog-comeback!

I am back. I had a wonderful time in Östhammar with my artcompanion Gerd Vading. It was a busy time too! Not only the exhibition, but having 2 workshops and also performing with poems in the Ekumenia-church (Ekumeniakyrkan).Anyway I managed to do a few challenges. The first one was for IAST 152 where my pattern Lenche was one of the tangles! It was fantastic to see the outcome! Here is my entry (taken with my iphone):

The two workshops were very exciting. The theme was meditative drawing. Ofcourse with the inspiration from zentangle! It was very inspiring to work with people I never met before and they made a great work! Have a look here on the amazing outcome:

The Wednesday-group:

The Thursday-group:

The next IAST-challenge was a monotangle of Crescent moon. I took my time to do it since Crescent moon is one of those basic-tangles I learned very early and I have come back to it several times. It is such a adaptive tangle and I still love to do it.

String 130 and 131

This will be my last post for a week or so. I am busy with my exhibition in Östhammar and I am looking forward to see it hanging there!There are some last details to fix and then pack my car to leave early tomorrow morning. Yesterday evening I relaxed with  string 130 by Henrike Bratz. This string I have tried before in a challenge, I belive it was the Diva´s challenge with a guestblogger. Now I made it on an original black tile:

It went in a completely different direction. I see a very busy tile so it reflects the way things are right now. Patterns from top to bottom: Allium (JJ LaBarbera), Wud (Joni Feddersen), Xav (Adele Bruno), Crescent Moon, Kauribena (Tina Akua Hunziker) and the frame is Bambooz (Julie Evans). I slept quite well tonight after finishing this one.

The morningmeditation I made on an original white tile and I used string 131. This string is a little bit alike 130. In both I see stones stacked in one way or another.

I started with Afterglow (Carole Ohl) in the biggest "stone" and then I went on with Brrst and variations of Brrst. There are also some beadlines in it.

After that I opened my mailbox, I haven´t done that since Tuesday... and I was so surprised! My pattern Lenche is now on Adele Bruno´s challenge IAST this week! Whow I cant wait to see the result. So exciting! I hope I will be able to participate with a tile, but I am not sure I can make it....Well that´s another question, I will give it a try if I am able too! My utilities for tangling are going to be packed too!

Into the center

The first challenge this week is Joey´s theme of circular strings. This time with Girdy (Karl Stewart), which I haven´t tried before.
This day has been one of those days when things doesn´t go my way. 1. My car didn´t start this morning. 2. Then I was going to make a cake and found out i missed some ingredients to do it. And so on. I know, I should have started tangling before all this happened, then some things might not have happened! But finally I sat down doing this Girdy- tile. 

It was fun! Here surrounded by Marisu and in the background (corners) Diva Dance. I was stressed up when I started, now I got myself together. And can go on working on my exhibition and be focused.

Meditation

It is very easy to get lost sometimes. One start to think of the outcome or start planning. There is someone sitting on my shoulder telling me; this isn´t good enough, try harder,you have to increase your technical skills and so on. I know I am not alone with thoughts like  theese! Where all this comes from is not interesting, what counts is the way I can handle it. The way to handle it is very often: Back to basics! 1. Keep focus on the breathing. 2. Pencil-dots in the corners and bind them together. 3. Draw the string and go on tangling.

Last night I went to bed with a book written by Beate Winkler: "Zentangle - Beseelt und entspannt zeichnen: Strich für Strich die eigene Mitte finden." It was a good choice, I decided to keep her words in mind doing my next tile this morning. To find my own center by keeping focus on the breathing. And this is a wonderful way getting into meditation. 

In this tile I used string 129 and the patterns are: Andromeda (Lily Moon), Munchin and Tipple. I am satisfied that this was only for my own relaxation, not for the result. But the thing is; I do like the outcome!

Floatfest and Circles

Carole Ohl is the designer behind several beautiful patterns. Footlite, Unyun and Puf are such patterns I just love to work with. I have avoided Floatfest for one reason or another. But this week IAST is about Floatfest so I gave it a run.

I made it on a renaissance tile and for being my first try with the pattern I think I like it. Aah was the second focuspattern in the challenge. I also used Marisu and Tipple. 

After doing this I found out I hadn´t done Joey´s weekly this week! So I went to her blog and the string was like a cat´s eye!

The tangle we should use is Gnarly by Barbara Finwall and then tangles of free choice. As Barbara Finwall has created som wonderful patterns too I had to use one more of hers: Zonked!  Both worked so well together and I liked doing this. It is something with that circular thinking. Doing it on freehand. Not perfect but the focus comes immediately!

Brrsst

The new focustangle in Square One is Brrsst by Kelly Barone! One of my absolute favourites! Now it is some time since I used it, so I am glad it came up! Here are the step-outs!

It is a grid-based pattern but it it so easy to transforme it into a very free one! I used it with string 128 and I liked the way it went. To be in the zen-zone means not to worry, just to focus! No planning just go with the flow one step at a time. The other patterns are: Tapple (Judy Murphy), Crescent Moon, Florz and a Zen-gem. 

The Zen-gem in this tile is for a close friend of mine, may he feel hope, strength and courage whatever will come!