Travelling Tangles: October-Swap

For October there were two themes offered from Sabrina Kirjavainen: Breastcancer awareness and drawing with the Non Dominant Hand. I got so exciting tiles from my swapping partners. The first one came from Michele Wynne, California :

She also gave me an empty ATC to finish. That one I will save a little more!

And here is my finish on her amazing background! I went on with her Dreamcatcher (Daniel Lamothe) and added Lolly Wimple (Sandy Hunter), Tagh, Tipple and Shattuck.

Next Swap came from Tharina Etsebeth, South Africa. She had made one with the nondominant hand and one for the breastcancer awareness. The first one with her nondominant hand:

Her patterns: Diva Dance and Athitzi B4 Seven.  She told me that everything on this tile, from the dots in the corners, the string, to her writing on the back of the tile was entirely made with her left hand! Amazing!

As you can see, my lines are much more uncontrolled! I added Nipa (with straight lines only), Tipple, Fescu and Antidots (Anita Roby-Laverý). It was quite an experience doing this!

Her second tile:

She used the ribbon as a string and tangled with Claws (Elena Hadzitjaneva) and Tipple.

I am still using my old camera and didn´t get the exposure as I wanted. That makes a difference but as you can see she had made a lovely start. How to continue on that?!? At last I went on with a tangleation on Florz, Zinger, Fescu and Widgets (Kate Ahrens).

The third one came from Nathalie Marinoff. Also one with the non-dominant hand:

A lovely start with Echoism, Flux and a little Fescu. One more chance with my left shaky hand! I start to fall in love with shaky lines!

I made some more Echoism and Flux, then added Tagh, Betweed and some more Fescu. I tried to make some shading too, even if it was difficult! I had so fun!

The last one came from Dusty Darrah, Colorado:

This tile maybe was the most difficult for me to finish but very exciting. The difficulty was about the surface. Dusty didn´t say but I belive her surface must have been done with something that didn´t cooperate on some spots with some of my pens. She had started with a ribbon,Luv-A and Morning Glories.

I went on with Wacho (Livia Chua),Meer, Crescent Moon, Cubine and Florz. I also added blue with Soft color pencils.

What a wonderful and adventurous swapping month of October this have been!

After Work

Today was one of the most beautiful days of autumn here. Sun was shining and the temperature was about +12 C. Not windy at all. So we were working in the garden most of the afternoon, together with our two dogs. What could be better after having dinner than sit down making todays zentangle? I went for IAST no 168 this week. The string reminded me of another string I have tried a couple of times String 95.

The patterns this time were Tira (Ragged Ray), Fang (Celia Norman) and Florz. Florz is a pattern I have done a lot the two otheres were new to me. Both were easy to learn and relaxing to do. Fang was maybe my favourite this time!

With interruptions!

The Rennaisance-tile is something I do have to practice a lot I belive. I used it today for Joey´s challenge no. 136. 

The quality of the paper is different from white tiles. The surface is softer and the shading has to be done much lighter, or not done at all. Or did I miss something? I have seen a lot of beautiful rennaisancetiles done. When I see my own effort I know I have to go on to improve. But this tile is done during other circumstances than I am used to. Iris, our puppy has been around trying to eat my studio! The interrupts are many, my focus is not what it should be. Another thing happened. When I should pic up my camera I found out that she had eaten upp the USB connection between the computer and the camera! My God! Lucky for me I found another camera which I haven´t used for years, so I reloaded the battery to that one and also found the USB ok. So I have been disturbed enough today. But here is the tile anyway. Patterns: Fracas, Onamato, Pokeroot and Maria´s variation on Flux! I had to try that since I never have given it a chance really after I fell in love with the variation of Rick!

Flux vs N´Zeppel

Two original Zentangles, Flux and N´Zeppel, are in the Diva´s challenge no 290 this week. Both are beautiful patterns and both are very often in use. I like to draw them too and have done that a lot. As I had one leftover from the leaf-challenge, I turned it into a Duotangle for this week. With color.

This is an ATC-size, which I don´t use too often. Next try with the Duo Flux and N´Zeppel, I made as an original Zentangle on original tile 9x9 cm.

The string is no. 182. There are two ways to choose between when it is about Flux. The Maria-way or the Rick-way as you can see here. Both way to draw it has it´s own caracter, but I mostly choose the Rick-way of doing it.

Tagh

Tagh is an official zentangle from Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. Now it is the focustangle in Square One. That´s one of interesting things with this Fb-group, patterns you once learned comes up and get a new chance! I haven´t used Tagh since I learned it. No particular reason, but I then didn´t get a relation to that pattern. Now I took the chance to get one! First I made it on a white tile:

I used string 181 and LO´s (mine). There is something else to but I am not sure what it is! That happens in zentangle: you don´t always know if you have drawn a pattern that is someone elses or not!  I loved to try different shadings on Tagh this time! Tagh is so easy to learn and so easy to make variations on! And very relaxing! I have a feeling that Tagh will become more special to me after having it in focus. So yesterday evening I made a black tile as well:

My own string dissapeared almost here. Dreamcatcher (Daniel Lamothe) and Tipple came along. Black tiles are special to me. I need them.

In the moment

Life changes. We have a new member in our family. A puppy of three month has arrived into our home yesterday. Her name is Iris and she is sweet from the nose to the tip of her tail! Our Pumi, Bisse, is 14 month and she has until now been the centerpoint here. She isn´t any more and that creates a real mezz! We´ll have to reorganize ourselves and our way of living for some time. It is fun but it also means a lot of work! So this morning when I got a moment for myself I sat down tangling, doing the IAST challenge 167, I needed to focus on something else! 

Two to me new patterns in this challenge: Ponio (Mei Hua Teng) and Winflo (Nadine Roller). Yesterday I had no chance to tangle. But I did use my sketchbook, trying to learn these two. They were simple to learn, but I had to struggle a little to make them my own (tangling in the car and in my bed before going to sleep)! Here is the result. I didn´t try to keep it simple. I had to do that, since there wasn´t time for anything else! But I loved to do it and I loved the outcome. To be in the moment, not in the past nor in the future is what I really must care about. When it comes to a little puppy, a junior Pumi and whatever that is what is necessary!
Thank´s to zentangle, it helps me to stay on that path!   

Autumnleaves now and then

When I look back one year ago today I found that I tangled Autumn Leaves. It was for the Diva´s challenge. Here they are:

Today I also tangled the same theme for Diva´s challenge no 289! I didn´t know I made it on the same day! The tile for today is different of course:

I am not surprised I used Leaflet (Helen Williams) in both tiles, since that is a favouritepattern of mine! The other patterns for todays tile are Lief (SSB), Diva Dance and Tipple.

To use leafs for tangling is not only fun it is also very meditative. At least for me. Leaves they come and go and their beauty are on the highest level short before they disappear and go back to soil. This time I made a print (gold stampink) of Aronialeaf and used that as a string. As I made it a print, the thought appeared in my head, that this special leaf will go on exsisting out in cyberspace as a picture - forever! Whow!

Black and Renaissance

I ran out of black tiles a couple of weeks ago. I have worked on other black tiles handcut by myself, but since I love those black original tiles I have missed them. Two days ago I got my original black tiles and yesterday I just went for it. It was so fun!

Now I am on the go again! I used string 180 (Beth Snoderly) and patterns: Cruffle (Sandy Hunter), Chakra (SSB), Mooka, Bales and Tipple.

Today I tried a Renaissance tile for Joey´s weekly challenge no 135.

I don´t work on rennaissance tiles too often. Don´t know why because I am satisfied most of the time with the result.  I do find the shading difficult depending on the surface and the color of the tile. I like to keep it simple and use just a few tools like pencil and micron. Here the patterns are Dicso (Mina Hsiao), Drogon (Lily Moon) and Msst. The string is Joey´s.

History

I was thinking about my relationship to history and my family´s history. History has always been fascinating to me. That was in my mind yesterday. Not a coincident, my youngest brother called me and wanted to come for a visit. Even if we don´t meet often we have a lot in common and we have a lot to talk about.  So here is my daily meditation in one way reflecting that:

Patterns: Antique (Kathy Barringer), Tropicana (Kate Ahrens), Ionic (Margaret Bremner), Printemps and Cubine. The string is my own.

A lot of strings and fun!

Now I am back home again afte a few days up in the mountains. We have had such relaxing time, walking, taking things slowly, watching our little dog run for joy out in the wideopen landscape and we are happy she always comes back to us when we call on her! Back in the little cottage we rented we had dinner and went into the sauna! In between I have had my time for tangeling too! Doing that I have worked on my personal challenge with strings. Here they are.

string 175 (Audrie Wiesenfelder). This string was perfect for my first tile in the cottage! After I had done it I saw that this was the picture of our presence there! Not planned but there it was: I see us two adults and our little playful and curious dog. In the wintertime a lots of people come to this place for skiing! There are ski-slopes everywhere! That is what came up in the background of this tile: Slalom (Sandra Strait). The other patterns are Ceil (Sandy Steen Bartholomew) and Beadline (Margaret Bremner).

Next one was done in my Sketchbook. String 176 (Barbara Finwall). Gourdgeous is in the Diva´s challenge this week. I had decided not to bother about challenges during our stay, but this string asked for Gourdgeous! Florez (Andrea Schuman) also joined.

We saw such beautiful North Lights, Aurora Borealis, in the evenings. I belive that is what came out on this black tile! String 177 (Sandra Schubert) with an Abeko-tangleation (Lynn Shelton Mead), Stix (Sandy Steen Bartholomew) and Hibered.

String 178 (Anne Marks). Kathy Barringer´s pattern Antique is the focustangle in Square One. This is almost a monotangle. But Laced (Mary Elisabeth Martin) couldn´t stay away! 

String 179 (Cynthia Gannon). Back home, after I had unpacked our bags, I sat down doing this. Rixties is not a pattern I have been working with so much. But this string begged for it. The other patterns are Printemps, Tipple, Wud (Joni Feddersen) and Laced (Mary Elisabeth Martin). Very often I get back to Wud as a frame. I love how it pops with just a little shading!

Troubled mind

This has been one of those days when things doesn´t go the way they should. My joints have been aching so I went to the doctor taking some bloodtests. I have to wait for the answers of course. Then shifting the car-deck for winter on my car: I´ll have to by new ones, my old are bad. I KNEW it! But that wasn´t all. They said I have to get new summer car-deck in the spring as well! So when I sat down tangling as I got home, I was pretty mad about everything.

I bet it shows in this tile! As a string I used nr 174 (Annette Plaga-Lodde) and the patterns are: Shark Kisses (Jenna Black), Tatle (Milde Weiss), Dreamcathcer (Daniel La Mothe), Wall Break (Tina Kirchhübel) and Indyrella. Shark Kisses was absolutely the right pattern to start with: Angry teeth! I can tell I am in much better mood after doing this one!

Tomorrow we are going away to the mountains for a few days. That means no posting. But of course I am happy for comments! Always!

Thorn Paper

Joey´s challenge this week is about Thorn-paper technique. This is about curiosity. Who doesn´t like to peep through a hole to find out what is on the other side? This is the same thing I belive. Joey had made a Thorn-paper string for us to work with. Here is my result:

I used  Starcrossed (Jenna Black) and 2n5 (Anita Roby Lavery). And some shading. This is fun to do and very fascinating!

String 173

Today I have come to string 173 (Judyellen Palumbo) in my personal challenge. When I first saw it I hesitated. What to do with this. It was so much in itself. I could either fill it up with a lots of patterns or keep it very clean. The string looked like this:

Since this is about zentangle, I can turn it around and change the orientation as I want. 

I did and I started with the first pattern that came to my mind: Zedbra (Laura Harms/Margaret Bremner). Then came Sails (Helen Williams) and Wired (Suzanne McNeill)to keep everything in its place! Then it was time to leave to go to the vet with Bisse (to check her ears), so I just let it be that way till we got home again. Having a new look at it, I decided to shade a little and then it was finished. I am satisfied with this and most satisfied that I was able to leave it like this not putting in every tangle I could! 

From the start when I found Lori Byerly´s blog I have admired her way of leaving the tile exactly at the right moment and not overdo it. This has been a great inspiration for me, although it almost never, or very seldom, has come out in my own work. But this time I am so happy to say I am close to something else! It is all about focus. All about being in the moment not rush away into something else. No worries.  This is the process and this is what is important to me.

TangleDreams

Ria Matheusen has made a great post in her blog today about our collaboration in Travelling Tangles Project. You can read about it here!

Something new

Today I wanted to try something I haven´t tried before. As I was trying Sandy Steen Bartholomew´s pattern Oshun I also wanted to try her app "Tangle Library". I do like her book "Yoga for your Brain" which I bought more than a year ago. It might look a little too simple at the first sight, but there are a loots of goodies in there and I have had much fun with it.  So I got the app for my iPhone! To be useful to me I soon found out that I had to buy some more pack of pattern inside the app, since all the patterns that came with it were the same as in the book. I didn´t like that at first but then I told myself to give it a round. Tangle library is very easy to handle. The step-outs are good, but maybe the most important thing is that this app gives me a chance to organize my patterns since there is a pretty good scanner in it and it is possible to add tags and information about the patterns I add to the photo-library in the app. 

Yesterday I sat tangling in the car (not driving!) and tried  2 patterns I had not used before. Ceil (Sandy Steen Bartholomew, from now I write SSB) and Slalom (Sandra Strait). Ceil I had in the app and Slalom I found at Tanglepattern.com. When I had practiced in my journal I scanned my work in the app and there I have them very easy to look at and it is easy to bring the patterns with me whereever I go as I usually have my phone with me! Here is my tile for today using Sandys tool:

I used string 172. Oshun (SSB) and Florz is also there. This time I didn´t forget the befor-shading-pic! Here it is:

I am not a friend of using apps for everything. But sometimes I admit it makes things easier in one way or another. I think I will use the Tangle Library when I am travelling, when I am on vacation, when I am in the doctor´s or dentist´s vaitingroom or some place else where I won´t carry my books and stuff around with me. 

Pattern in Focus

There are patterns, I admit, I never would have tried, if it had not been for challenges or Square One´s focuspattern. I Square One the new focuspattern is Oshun (Sandy Steen Bartholomew). I wouldn´t have noticed this, nor tried it if it hadn´t been for Chris Titus in Square One.

But here it is in relation with string 171! To me this is a good example what a string can do.  I just decided that Oshun should work in this string whatever. As I went on with this, I forgot time and what to do next, it just went it´s own way finding it´s own place. I liked to do it and I liked the experience that a pattern that doesn´t appeal to me at first sight might give me a great surprise working on it! the other pattern is Hollibaugh and a sort of tangleation of Star Map (Suzanne McNeill). 

PiB

PiB means Pearl in Balance. It is a new pattern from Hanny Waldburger. The pearl or zengem as it is in my version is a treasure, that should be protected, not to be thrown to the swines. Read more about that in Hannys blog! I wrote about it in yesterday post and there you find the link to the stepout and what she wrote about it. This tile of mine is my entry to IAST 165.

The other patterns are Verve (JJ La Barbera) and Flux. I couldn´t resist involving Tipple too! I do that quite often as you might have noticed. It comes automatically!

Dreamcatcher and string 170

Maybe this Dreamcatcher will catch Nightmares? Here Daniel Lamothe´s pattern does it´s job with string 170.

In fact i had a nightmare before I woke up this morning. Maybe because I am not feeling well today, I have caught a nasty cold. In my dream I was driving a bigger car than mine, almost a bus, with Bisse (our dog) in it. All of a sudden the road was closed and I ran into a fence. There were other cars too and almost impossible to turn around and get back. But driving through a fence, across a ditch and dribbling a lot I was released and could go in another direction...  In this tile I have used except Dreamcatcher, Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner), Yah (Emily Classon), Betweed and Mr E.

So Dreamcatcher, do your job and please catch my cold too!

I made some practice too today using a new little beautiful tangle from Hanny Waldburger. Here it is:

I suggest you follow this link and read about the pattern. Hanny has explained a lot of things in her blog and I loved to read it! Hanny has written both in german and in english so there shouldn´t be any trouble to understand it. 

Daily meditation with Joey´s challenge no 133

It has been a busy but beautiful autumn-day today. Mostly about training a little Pumi. Walking nicely along the street, playing at the beach with her friends and then school in the afternoon! Coming home I grabbed a challenge that just kept me going: Joey´s finish my tile-challenge. A happy one with a beautiful start: Relly-Telly One (Karin Klang-Meier). I might go for it again, since I loved that Relly-Telly One. It is a tangle that reminds of other tangles but it does have a twist!

 As our little Pumi did give a show at the class in Rally-obidience this afternoon, Showgirl (Vicki Bassett)was the obvious pattern to follow! Circfleur (Sandy Steen Bartholomew)also wanted to play and Flux and tipple too.

I am exhausted after today but I am quite happy about just being right now and this piece gave me a very relaxed feeling.

Catching up Dreams

Several years ago I had a class where we made dreamcatchers. The students were young, 9-12 years old. Some struggled a lot with threads of yarn but finished the reward was to embellish the Dreamcatchers with pearls and feathers. They all were so beautifully embellished and the final result was great. This memory came up when I visited the Diva´s UMT for this week. Daniel Lamothe has made this pattern Dreamcatcher.

Now I got use of my last bargain, the marbeled sheet I found when I cleaned up my studio a couple of days ago. I only added some shading to the pattern, a litte Diva Dance (Waltz) and three Dewdrops. Read the turorial for this in Lynn Shelton Mead´s blog! I am happy for this tile! A beautiful memory came to me and for once I am pleased with my Dewdrops though they are not perfect.

Paper and a tangle I never liked.

This post is about two things. The material, paper, in original tiles is so special. I do love it. And the corners and edges of the tile are so beautifully done. In Sweden it is difficult to get these tiles. There was one shop where you could buy it and that was Panduro. But this summer they sold out their stock of tiles and startkits for zentangle! They don´t have it any more. Not even the pens! How to deal with that? As I started doing zentangle I ordered from Zentangle.com. But with shipping and other fees that is not an option. Now I can get original-tiles going abroad or if someone comes to visit me! But as always there is a solution! With the help of my friend, Marie Penzing, I now can by sheets of the same qualitypaper as in original tiles! Marie is so clever, she had found the only one selling this in Sweden, Svenskt Konstnärscentrum in Kristianstad! She sent me some tiles she had cut herself to try. It is fantastic! It is the same feeling in this, the pen glides smoothely on the surface, no bleeding and the shading works in the same way! The paper is called Tiepolo. So all Swedish tanglers, here is our salvation! The only thing is, I have to cut the tiles myself, use a corner-punch and there it is!!! What I don´t get is the print on the back side where it says Original Zentangle. And the edges are not the same, they are straight. But the price is nice, I can afford this. Of course, I might get original tiles now and then from abroad. But I am so happy to have this possibility to always get good material to work on.

Here is my first work on this material:

This tile is special. Last night when I already was in bed I was thinking about tangles I never use. There are several reasons why a tangle I have learned not is anything I go to regularely. There are so many patterns around. Quite seldom it happens to me that I strongly dislike a pattern. I use to like them when I have learned them. But there is one pattern I learned very early and that is Vitruvius, an original zentangle. I can say I hated that one. So as I didn´t fall asleep last night I took my tangle journal and pen and started to play with it again. I can´t explain why I disliked this pattern. But I have noticed that Vitruvius very seldom is used by other tanglers. So there might be one or two that has the same relation to it as I had. I decided that my daily meditation today should include Vitruvius. I used string 169 (Beth Snoderly) and this time Vitruvius took me away. The outcome is a monotangle!! And I loved to do it.

Well I have one or two patterns left to go a round with like this. But from this I learned how easy it is to get another relation to a pattern!

Thank you for visiting my blog and reading. When I get your comments it is a party for me to read them!

Autumntangle and a bargain

This morning was the first morning when autumn came with low temperature. It must have been below zero last night, the ground was carrying white frost here and there. After walking the dog I took a look at our garden. Nothing seemed to be destroyed though. When the sun warmed the air I went out taking care of things that I needed to save from the coming coldness. Mostly herbs and some flowers. My big Alöe I surrounded with cloth, it can stay outdoor one more week. It is to heavy for me to carry myself.

I like to do this. It gives me some calmness. Maybe that shows in today´s meditation:

I used string 168. The patterns are Lollywimple (Sandy Hunter), Antidots (Anita Roby-Lavery), Florez (Andrea Schuman) and Meer.

After doing this I made some clearance here in my studio. I love to do that, I always find things I have forgotten I had! The bargain today was a beautiful paper which I had marbeled long ago! Now I knew what to do with it! Look here:

The paper is heavyweight and of good quality! I love them as they are, but there will be tangling on these!

After Te Deum-tangle

This evening I have participated in a consert with music from a Swedish composer, Otto Olsson. His opus Te Deum is overwhelming to do and it is still circulating in my head! To relax I made Joey´s challenge this week. The last in a series  of "Finish my tile". The start was Diva Dance (Walz), and to me it is a very musical pattern so that suited me perfect!

I added some more dancing (Rock n´Roll) and those who followed were: Flux, Tipple, Huggins (or is it W2?), Dragon Air (Norma Burnell) and Florez (Andrea Schuman). I am grateful to have been able to sing in a chorus like tonight with such great musicians! And I appreciate to do this tangle as a result of a wonderful day!