22nd - 27th of December

Christmas time is a special time if we like it or not. Things are not going on as usual. At it´s best, we are together with people we love and are deeply connected to. At it´s best we are in a peaceful mind. This year I have not spent much time tangling. But my calendar has been with me anyway.

I almost never use other pens than Microns. But on 27th I was sitting tangling with my granddaughter and we had a bunch of Sharpies around and I wanted to try this in my calendar. Not so clever, the Sharpie bleeded through the paper and came out on the 22nd! But now it is there like it is and I won´t correct it.
22nd-24th: X-mas Red (Liu Chiu), Drawings, Auraknot and Fescu.

25th-27th: Mooka, Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner), Toodles, Crescent Moon and Noom Repus. By the way I like that name Noom Repus which is Super Moon backwards!

I also finished a tile for the 12 Days of Zentangle!

This is Day Ten. Striping like Marasu in a Paradox Reticula. Very relaxing and very easy to do. Perfect in the middle of the night before going to bed!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Adventure with Toodles and 12 days of Zentangle

I have revisited my old working place at school the last three weeks. I am retired but sometimes I luckily get the question if I can do some more working, meeting my old students. I appreciate every occasion I am able to do this. During this period Toodles was released from Zentangle. Couldn´t resist presenting Toodles for the students. They watched the video from Rick and Maria and then we went to work on it. We had so much fun and I want to show you some of the artwork they did. With their permission ofcourse!

They all look very different and unique. And we had a joyful time together!

Late the same evening I couldn´t stop myself I had to do one more for Twelve Days of Zentangle Day Six. Here it is:

Now they all have their Christmas holiday and I am preparing my own christmas here at home. What could be better than take a break, watching one more video an tangle? Lucky for me I had got one prestrung zendala from Ela Rieger, a couple of month ago! And it was a tan zendala. Exactly what I needed for Day Seven video!

Mostly when I do a zendala it takes a lot of time to finish it. But doing it this way with auras it didn´t take long at all! So relaxing and very simple to do! Loved it!

16th to 21st of December

Two more calendarpages on the shortest day of the year. 16th-18th of December Toodeling around with Rumpus and Toodles, two newly released patterns from Zentangle. Both are fun to do but toodles has got something extra I think. 19th-21st of December I remembered Icanthis from last year  here with some more Toodles!

Apprentice tile

12 Days of Zentangle goes on and a lot of inspiration follows! I think I have not mentioned Apprentice tile?! It is a little bit larger: 11,4 x 11,4 cm. The common tile is 8,9 x 8,9cm. On Day Four Rick use the Aprentice tile and since I cut my white tiles myself from a sheet of Fabriano Tiepolo paper (same as in regular tiles), I easily cut me a couple of Apprentice tiles, just to experience the difference. Original Apprentice tiles are cut from a Bristol-paper though.

I used Pigma Micron 0,3 to get closer to the same pen Rick used in the video. It was fun to do this and I had no trouble at all using a larger space. Doing the Diva Dance with Sproings as it was demonstrated was fun and very relaxing. I had to tell myself to STOP, it just went on and on and on! 

I also realized that Apprentice tiles are prefect for not only young beginners but also for adults and not only for beginners! It offers a larger space (sometimes that is very refreshing), which might be easier to handle if your eyes don´t function as they should do or if you have trouble with fine motor abilities! The effect of the 0,3 pen on this size is comparable to the 0,1 on 8,9 x 8,9 cm !  

10th-15th of December and 12 Day´s for Christmas.

One of those things, I don´t have much time for in December is posting in this blog, or being present in social media. That´s the way it is. I try to make my christmas-cards, and allow myself to prepare things I like to do for christmas. But my calendar is on the priority-list as well as be sure I have a moment for meditation every day. 

10-11th, I went for Flux. Flux is a flowing tangle and can go on forever! This was inspired by Molly Hollibaugh´s day two in the 12 Day´s of Christmas.

13th of December is important here in Sweden. We celebrate Lucia from Siracuse. This time of year we need some enlightning in the darkness, the sun doesn´t shine too long during the daytime so Lucia coming whit candles in her hair is popular in more than one way. I felt for star-shaped tangles and started with Afterglo (Carole Ohl, Auraknot (Zt) and X (Lila Popcheff). The stars are accompanied by Striping, Pokeroot, Pokeleaf and Echoism, all (Zt). A little glimpse of blue...

12 Days of Christmas from Zentangle consists of one video a day, starting on 12th of December and is very inspiring. I intend to try them all but in my own pace and own order. Don´t know if I succeed..

Here is my tile for Day One, using Crescent moon, Hollibaugh, Printemps, Bales and Sprinkle. Sometimes it is so good visiting some basics as the Z-string and early learned tangles just trying to do something new with them!

Then I jumped to Day three:

Maria demonstrated her new tangle Rumpus. I followed her instructions to experience this tangle from the start. It was a meditative moment today, doing it like this on a white Zendala and Rumpus will stay in my library of tangles for sure! I love the repetitive strokes, and the possibilities I can imagine for this tangle!

Some Daily tangles and the Diva´s challenge

Eye-Wa (Zt) and Zedbra (Margaret Bremner/Laura Harms) works well as Drama-tangles for the prompt in "Today´s Tangles". Actually this was my first round with Eye-Wa! But it won´t be my last, since this tangle was so fun and easy to do!

Another one for the prompt: Echoism (Zt) as a string and a favourite of mine; Cubine. 

And now for I am the Diva´s challenge 344:

Afterglo (Carole Ohl), Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner) and `NZeppel. I did this on an Echo-diyed tile. Afterglo is one of those patterns I did love from the start and used quite a lot for some time but then I almost forgot it. 

4th-9th of December

I do like my plan to make friends with patterns in December!

4th-6th I spent time whit Phicops (Laura Harms and Brad Harms) and Swarm (Zt). A little Fescu also grow n the 6th. I did improve specially with Phicops, a beautiful tangle.

The last three days I spent with Pea-nuckle (Molly Hollibaugh). I like Pea-nuckle a lot, but I need to work on it to find the flow! Some Swarm and Phicops still wants to participate!

About Prompts + 1st-3rd of December

Right now in early December, the busiest month of the year, I find prompts for tangling very useful. In today´s tangles Sandy Kelley Jones have made some prompts for 1-12 of December and even if I maybe don´t do everyone, I want to do as many as I can. I am one day behind already but the prompt for 2nd of December seemed so fun to do I didn´t want to miss it! Here comes the first one:

1: Use the first tangle I ever did. Don´t know exactly if this was the first one. But anyhow, one of the very early recognizable tangles I did was Hollibaugh!
2: Use the latest tangle: That was easy! Veez by Margaret Bremner!
3: Use a tangle I want to make friends with. There are some but I choose Swarm,which is a tangle that confuses me a lot. 
4: Use a bold tangle: What could be more bold than Schway!!! 

Here comes the one for yesterday:

I won´t explain this, but the prompt is soooo fun! The patterns I used: Veez (Margaret Bremner), Hypnotic (Elena Hadzijaneva), Papermint (Sandy Hunter), Dewd and `NZeppel. First I thought I should leave the open space in the middle, but then I had to Papermint it! So much fun! Thank´s Sandy!

And the calendarpage:

1st of December: I used the Z-fragment Carole Ohl suggested which I liked a lot. But now we are closer to X-mas, so Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner) also wanted to come! 2nd and 3rd: Swarm. The tangle I want to make friends with. We are not there yet but much closer!

28th-30th of November

This was all for November and #Giveatangle2017!  Patterns: Drupe, Chain Link (Barbara Finwall), Amphora (Lily MOon) and Batumber (Kelley Kelly).  Yes, I tried some tranzending on Drupe!

Striping on a black zendala and calendarpage 25th-27th of November.

In PP01 there was a video with striping on a black presprung zendala. As I didn´t have a presprung black zendala I searched the web and found a template I wanted to try. Here is what I decided to try. I printed the template, used my white charcoalpencil on the back of the paper, placed it on my zendala and traced the lines and so there I had a "presprung" zendala! I don´t use templates very often but for this purpose I thought it would work ok.  This is the first time I made a monotangle on a zendala and I must say it was the perfect thing to do on a presprung one! I do enjoy the process  working on a zendala very much. So: More zendala in my life is a promise to myself. 

Here is the calendarpage:

Viaduct (Wayne Harlow), Cubine, Beeline and Drupe. A strange combination I thought. Especially to get some Drupe on 27th to be done! But however it came out and I do love this page more than I thought I would. Cubine is a favourite of mine for sure but I wouldn´t have chosen these combinations if I hadn´t followed the #Giveatangle2017 -prompts! So glad I did. 

Tangling in a round

Today I remembered something important. Tangling in a round is special. It is hard to explaing why, but at once started the focus is there. 

I love to do this very much. It is relaxing and very meditative. I went out on the internet looking for thoughts about this and ofcourse I ran into Mandalas. I don´t want to use rulers nor templates which seems to be the common way, at least on the internet. Happily I found a blogpost made by Margaret Bremner, which I think nailed important things about mandala. She writes: "The circle is one of very few virtually universal symbols throughout history and across cultures, representing eternity, wholeness, protection and unity. The mandala is symbolic of balance, transformation and the interconnection of all things." Of course this is not new, but it is good to keep in mind.

About this tile: I used Zailz (Loretta West) and Lisbon Fragment (Henrike Bratz) with string 77 (Barbara Finwall). Starting with the circle lightly penciled on a 8,9x8,9 cm white tile then just going for the tangles. So simple, so relaxing, so meditative. 

One more Duotangle

I had to go on with Paradox and Bunzo for the Diva´s challenge on a white tile. It is something with this combo that just goes on and on. Both tangles are onestroke-tangles. Maybe that´s why...

And they appear so differently, but still there are just onestroke-tangles! That is magic! And very relaxing! 

Calendar 22nd-24th of November and the Diva´s challenge 342

Margaret Mc Kerihan´s Ta-Da is a favourite of mine though it was some time since I used it. Thank´s to #Giveatangle2017 I found it again! Some small Fengles also joined and then came Phroz (Lynn Shelton Mead) and Viaduct (Wayne Harlow).

I am the Diva´s challenge no 342 is about making a duotangle using Paradox and Bunzo. Paradox is one of those I want to make friends with. The pattern looks complicated, but as Laura Harms says: It isn´t complicated to draw. I don´t use it very often though I find it relaxing and flowing easily. It is something else. I find it difficult to make variations on. If I try to, I am not so pleased with the result. It is like Paradox is so perfect by itself... But I like to let Bunzo play with it. It kind of soften the sharpness in Paradox. I made it on black tile today and here it is:

Bunzo is a kind of wild striping and I like that a lot. Like there are something organic inside it waiting to come out!

Calendar 19th-21th of November and Crescent moon

One thing I like about the calendar is that you never know what the next page will be like! I am surprised about how Flourish turned out and also about Fengle.  Bales is also something that surprised med. The variation in the middle is inspired by Martha Huggins video. To me this variation is the same as Puf (Carole Ohl) I didn´t realize it actually is the same tangle! I will use it further on thinking of it as Puffed Bales!!

And now the next video from Zentangle! Crescent moon on black tile! It was so fun to draw this!

If you haven´t already watched the video, I recommend you to do it!

Bookmarks from Ela

In beginning of September I got som happy surprises from Ela Rieger. Among others three untangled bookmarks. They had such beautiful surfaces, I had to wait and see how to treat them. But then Dewd showed up! That pattern wanted to take place on these! 

The bookmarks has another side too in other colors. So I made some more tangling there:

The yellow one to the right was the hardest one for me to tangle on.  I think I am more a red or a purple person than yellow....  But I am very pleased with the process and I do love the Dewd on the light green surface a lot! In the middle is my first try on Meshmerize (Tòmas Padrós).

16th-18th of November + Crazy Huggins

Following the November Prompts in Today´s Tangles (FB)in the calendar is very relaxing! And fun!

16th of November: Sandswirl (Kerry Heun) and Molygon.
17th of November: A favourite of mine,Papermint was added.
18th of Novemger: Then a new to me tangle, Flourish (Stephanie Skelton) showed up. I love the way the combos of patterns worked out.

Of course I watched the video about Crazy Huggins published by Zentangle on Youtube. I was unsure about doing it, since I don´t have the new Sakura gelly-pens. They are not available in Europe at the moment. Hopefully they will soon, since I would like to work with different tips on the pen. I have got some, but the quality of the ink is not so good, at least not on the finest tip 0,7. It works well on black gesso-surface, but not on the tiles, it seems to disappear into the surface. But despite of this I decided to give Crazy Huggins on black tile a round!

I did it as an exercise, following Molly´s instructions and I am quite satisfied with the result. I love working on black tiles. But I am soon running out of them....

Reflections on "Non-representational"

As I ran into Zentangle method, one of the first things I heard of was that Zentangle was non-representational. To me that means Abstract. It isn´t made to look like anything. I was attracted by this idea, since that was very close to my thoughts about my own art. Of course I can draw a cat and then tangle on it. But as I do that I immediately jump into planning. Another aspect of this is  that the cat has a top and a bottom. Zentangle hasn´t. Nothing prevents me from doing tangles on a cat just for fun but the only thing this way of drawing has in common with the zentanglemethod is the structured patterns.

Today I made a happy tangling, doing an exercise from Zentangle Primer using Shattuck, Jetties and Bales. Couldn´t resist to make the tangleation of Bales I learned from Martha Huggins.  Here it is:

Jetties is a pattern consisting of orbs. Could be balls in the eyes of the observer and if so it could be representational. But the meaning of non-representational is something else. Abstract doesn´t mean there are no recognizable objects. The picture as whole is abstract and there is no intention to make it in an other direction. Maybe this Shattuck may look like a fence? If the observer think it is, than it is ok, but there is no intention to make a fence, the interpretation is in the observers eye.

In abstract art you find a lot of symbols, well known or only known by the artist. Patterns are used in symbolic ways. In zentangle this also happens, but it is always unpredictable, since there is no planning. Even if this was an exercise, I didn´t plan the outcome, but I decided to use these patterns as suggested in the exercise.

This tile is special in another way. Tanglers are using "chops" to sign their tiles. Till now I have used the signature I use on my paintings. But today I knew what my chop should look like! It took some time, but here it was!

Another example of non-representational drawing:

I tangled the cover of the notebook I got from my granddaughter a couple of days ago. Tangles used: Showgirl (Vicki Bassett) and Well Well (Zt). Looking at it I could make an interpretation and speak about whirling feathers or something else, but it still is non-representational.

I love the possibilities non-representational pictures, abstract pictures gives to me: It can be anything and I never get tired of looking at them. And I never get tired of making them, since the focus is mainly on the process and the process is so liberating!

10th - 15th of November

A busy time and I have not updated my blog! But I have been tangling in my calendar between singing in my beloved choir "Siljans Vokalensemble"! So here we go:

10th of November: Betwinkle (Alexandria Cortez Diaz) and Noon.
11th of November: Betwinkle with Papz (mine). It was special to have my own tangle as #Giveatangle2017! I loved to see what others has created. Here I tried some tranluZence with the beautiful Betwinkle!

12th of November: Papz meeting LaBel (Sue Jacobs).

In the Fb-group Today´s Tangles, Sandy Kelley-Jones reminded us all that in zentangle there are no ups and downs, so I tried to turn my page 180°!  Because of the numbers this is easy to forget. But this time I happened to like the page more when I turned it!

13th of November: Huggins and LaBel. Huggins is such a great tangle! I just love it! Some extra Huggins appeared. There are days I tangle in my calendar at the Breakfast-table. I spilled some tea on this page accidently. And ooops some more Huggins grew up right there!

14th of November: Verdigog with more Huggins.

15th of November: Molygon and Verdigogh.

It is a little more than a month till Christmas. But here I have felt like it was Christmas due to the last Newsletter from Zentangle! Rick and Maria has published a Project-pack with some videos that are like Christmas-gifts! Here are my latests tiles inspired by the videos:

A new zentangle Dewd! So nice and so addictive to draw! You find the video here.

And this is a new tangleation on Bales as shown by Martha Huggins here. I loved this little one while listening to her voice telling what to do. So easy and so much zen. 

4th-9th of November

Continuing with #Giveatangle2017. The tangle for 4th was Inapod (Carole Ohl). I don´t feel like monotangling right now, so Schway joined. On the 5th Dragonair (Norma Burnell) was accompanied by Inapod and a little Tipple. The tangle for the 6th was Twirl (Helen Williams). That cute little pattern wasn´t  my easiest though I thought so at first. I only looked at the steps and just went for it. But then I realized there was a video too so I watched it and to my surprise I had missed the last step of the pattern! But here it was like this together with Dragonair and Vitruvius!

I got a new chance on the 7th and now I tried to do it properly with Zinger in focus. My first take went into Assunta instead!!! But at last I made it!!! The 8th came with one of my favourites: Ing! Also with more Zinger. For today Noom was the tangle. I DO like Noom, though I haven´t played with it much. I think I will further on. Here with more Ing.