Joey´s challenge 3/9

At last I got the time to do this! Joey choose the third pattern to includ to be Cruffle (Sandy Hunter). I love to play with theese orbs and they can change a lot! Here is my tile no 3:

My patterns here are Diva dance, Cadent, Huggins, Tripoli, Fescu, Pookeroot, Cubine and Cruffle. Here is what the mosaic looks like by now:

Love to do this, it excites me a lot since I like surprises! I don´t know where it is going! One question has grown in my mind: Among these patterns my own choices are official zentanglepatterns except one... how come?

2000 members in Today´s Tangles and a pattern new to me

Today´s Tangles on FB i celebrating again! This time we have reached 2000 members! To celebrate this we published a string made by me and Sandy and asked the members to celebrate with us by tangling in this string. As Jane Eileen is the guestartist we asked for using her tanglesuggestions this time. Here is the string: 

And here comes my two tiles:

I used Jane Eileen´s pattern 4Mom, Ah I love You, Socc (Erin Olson), Beadline (Margaret Bremner) and Crescent moon (Zt) in my first one.

In my second tile I used Jane´s patterns and added Cubine and Printemps.

In Square One Ballenchain (Sandy Steen Bartholomew) is the focuspattern after Hakrall. I have seen it done and I have had the stepouts for some time but not tried it. It is a high-focus tangle as well as Hakrall was. Here is my first tile ever with it:

In the background I used Maria Tovar Perez Barquillos and I kept Ballenchain simple. As I got the hang of this I found it very relaxig to draw and I se a lot of possible ways to work on this.

25th-30th of August

The calendar is a perfect companion when I am on journey! I have been away from home a couple of days visiting an old friend of mine and my grandchild. Tangling-time is hard to find under these circumstanses, but the calendar is the solution! 

It can take a lot of time to do it or about no time at all. Hakrall (Holly Atwater) did travel with me. I tried to do it in different ways. It is a highfocus-tangle and I made a lot of Hick-ups as I started in my sketchbook and on the 25th the Hic-kups were still present. Hick-ups is a word I got from Lynn Shelton Mead and I must say it describes very clearly what is happening drawing this tangle! The easiest way to do it for me was to combine it with other tangles. So from 26th I let it play with Sand Swirl (Karry Heun)(using my Lamy fountainpen) and 27th with Balloya (Anya Lothrop). the Bronx Cherrie was also there.

28th was my last day away from home and I continued with Hakrall together with Dansk (Margaret Bremner), Pokeroot and Knightsbridge. I tried to put Hakrall in a box too. 29th, at home celebrating my birthday I waved goodbye to Hakrall for this time. I have been waiting to get Lynn Shelton Mead´s Tangledeck 1 and 2, and guesswhat was waiting for me at the postoffice this day! I got myself a birthdaygift kind of! Looking through the stepouts she made of patterns well known and her examples was so inspiring so I just started off with Verdigogh and following her example I made auras around it! It got a quite different and pleasant look and I loved to try this!

More Spoken for IAST 209

I am in a hurry to let my Spoken away for IAST 209. Not to make it but to post it. Here it is:

Adele asked for a monotangle in her challenge. This is almost a monotangle. Printemps jumped in and I couldn´t do much about that!

22nd, 23rd and 24th of August

Spoken is not finished with me. I guess we have to make friends first! It is funny, now I see something else in this pattern and I start to really enjoy it! Today as I made 24th, I was having teatime too and I spilled from the teapot on the 23rd! As it is no misstakes in zentangle I had to do something about this! I had watched Rick Roberts demonstrating tranzending on a video and decided to give it a try. I am surprised of what came out! Love it! the other patterns on the page are Tripoli, Moka, Arukas and Tipple, all Zt.

Joey´s weekly part 2 and some surprises

The first surprise today. I got a pre-birthday-gift! Something that I really wanted but found too expensive! The zentangle-app! I haven´t discovered everything yet, but I have seen some interesting videos that are soo inspiring! I am so grateful! Today is a beautiful day. Joey has published part two of the 9-tilechallenge and this was a surprise too! She wanted us to add Merryweather (Sandy Hunter), which happens to be another of my favourites! Here is the result:

I went on with  African Artist (Tina Hunziker), Cadent (Zt), Merryweather, Tripoli (Zt) and Diva Dance(ZT). Left an empty space, which I am not sure will be an emty space in the end! But I felt like leaving it like this

It is so fun to put the tiles together! I had to take a second alloverpic.

I found out quickly that the size of all tiles together is the same size as one Opus-tile. I have cut one myself sometime ago, but not dared to go for it yet. But Joey´s challenge gave me the courage and an idea how to manage this and still use the zentanglemethod, no planning, just be in it and see what happens next. It is so fun! I love it. Don´t know where it leads that will be another surprise but here is what happened so far:

I leave the shading till I have done the whole piece, since I also leave the decision about color or not. One stroke at a time. No rush. Exactly the same method I use working on ordinary tiles. I find this so relaxing and satisfying.

Spoken 19th, 20th and 21st of August

I tried to learn Spoken, newly released from the Zentangle highquarter. I haven´t tried it on a tile yet, I think I have to practise more before I do that.

Spoken is easy to learn. But it is not easy to draw. Not for me anyway. Or more exactly, it is easy to draw, but it is hard to draw it well. It doesn´t come out the way I want to. Not yet.   

Joey´s challenge and a fresh start!

Made by Joey has moved from the old page to this. It is a fresh start! The new challenge is so exciting! We are supposed to use 9 tiles and get something to include in our tiles each week. Here is my start:

Nine tiles with a penciled border and a string running all over the tiles. Then the first challenge: Include African Artist (Tina Hunziker) in the first tile:

And here is the closeup:

The patterns I used: African Artist (which is an old favourite of mine, now remembered!),Orbs-de-la-Dee (Anneken van Dam), Bee Bug (Sarah Fowler), Beadline (Margaret Bremner) and Cadent. I can´t wait till the next pattern is announced! this is so fun!

Diva´s challenge- Guest Post Marguerite Samama

As I said in yesterdays´s post, Marguerite Samama made the guestpost for the Diva this week. The focus is on fragment D1 from Zentangle Primer. It is such a fun challenge, it can lead to whatever! I love this because there is a lot of possibilities to get surprised! Here I tried this on a black tile:

Except D1 I used Wud (Joni Feddersen) and Snorr (Sandy Hunter. The string is Margaret Bremners "ropestring". It was such a joy to do this! Thank´s Marguerite for a relaxing challenge!

Happy Birthday IAST! And triangles in my calendar.

Isn´t this amazing! Adele Bruno has challenged tanglers all over the world for four years now! IAST Happy birthday to you! Every birthday adds one more candle to the string. Here is my happybirthdaytile for IAST 208.

The patterns for the celebration are: Trella (Adele Bruno), Copada (Margaret Bremner), Wud (Joni Feddersen) and Knightsbridge (Zt). I colored this tile with micron and watercolor. It took me some time to figure out where to start and how to make this. Then I decided to skip the planning and started with my favouriteborder, Wud. This is what came out. All patterns Adele wanted us to use are there! I am surprised!

In my calendar I tried to use patterns with triangles only the last three days. I love triangles and very often I come back to triangles as I paint. It also happens that Marguerite Samama is the guestblogger for the Diva´s challenge and she chose a fragment as a challenge. Fragment D1. As I thought about it I immediately saw that it would be perfect for my little triangle-play! So this will be my first entry on that challenge!

16th of August: Impossible triangles, Fragment D1 from Zentangle Primer and Knase.
17th of August: Fragment D1, D11, `NZeppel and Munchin.
18th of August: Tringle (Lara Williams) and `NZeppel. 

Tringle was all new to me, I found it here.

13th, 14th and 15th of August

Here is my latest calendarpage:

13th of August: Bysomnus (Milde Weiss) is a fascinating tangle. It is kind of wild and starting to draw it makes things go in other ways than expected. I love that but I intended to try Caps (Sue Bailey) with it too, but Bysomnus can be very dominant and you hardly see Caps in this!
14th of August: Caps in focus because I felt some guilt for what happened on the 13th! Caps is a fun pattern and drawing it make me feel a party is going on! Here with CO2 (Antonine Megger) and Fescu.
15th of August: Today our black beautiful Pumi Bisse celebrates her 2nd birthday! Lenche, is a pattern made for her and the name Lenche is Bisse´s hungarian name. Caps went on and Oddbalz (Francoise Lip) joined!

As Bysomnus has its caracter of a wild and dominant pattern it will be a pattern I come back to, because it teases me and I never know where it will go! I can´t lock it in! I can´t decide what will happen next! So yesterday i decided to try it with a string on a tile:

I tangled in a round again, since I want to explore the possibilities doing so. Starting with Bysomnus, adding Sandswirl (Karry Heun), Diva Dance (Zt) and at last I added Tipple (Zt) as a border. I felt I had to do that too keep Bysomnus where I placed it! :)

Abukas I and II

I had to do some Abukas (Charlotte Carpentier) today. This pattern is addictive. Easy to embellish and that´s why I think there will come up a lot of variations. To me it is important that Abukas is a pattern that goes on and on and bring me into the zen almost immediately. So I made two tiles right away:

Abukas I: Started with Abukas in the corner using a string of my own,but the string disappeared. The patterns following Abukas are Dreamcatcher (Daniel Lamothe), Antidots (Anita Roby Lavéry) and Tipple (Zt).

Abukas II: I tried to make a combo with Arukas and I tangled it all in a round. Not perfect, but I loved to do it! So fun!

10th, 11th and 12 of August

I did mention my lack of structure working in my calendar. But I realize there is some structure anyhow! Not a planned one maybe. The last three days I have jumped into new patterns irresistible to me!
10th: Cross-ur-heart (Jenna Black). This one has been in my pile with patterns to try for about a month. The name is wonderful! Cross-ur-Heart! And the pattern is emerging from itself and it just goes on and on! Love that!
11th: Here comes Abucas (Charcat / Charlotte Carpentier). Oh this one I fall in love with! Lynn Shelton Mead presented the pattern in Square One as a pattern related to her Abeko and Arukas (Zt). And yes it is! Here I let Abeko come along and my new friend Aloha (Suzanne Fluhr).
12th: Bysomnus (Milde Weizz). As I first saw it I knew this one will stay! It reminds of several other patterns but with added dimensions in it! I can do this in my sleep!

My conclusion is: Three days theme. Patterns new to me! I smile as I learned something about myself, I have a structure but it is somewhat subconscious!

IAST 207

Cross-ur-heart (Jenna Black) is a pretty new tangle. This is the focus on IAST 207 and it should be done as a monotangle.

It was a challenge to use this tangle in the suggested string. No matter if Adele pointed out that we should think freely about the string in this case. Cross-ur-heart is a fluently going pattern, it is easy to learn and easy to draw.  But I wanted it in the center of the tile!!! Anyhow, this is the way it went and I am glad I did it and satisfied with the way it came out in the end.

Weekly challenge with guestblogger Suzanne Fluhr and a calendarpage

The Diva´s challenge this week is created by Suzanne Fluhr. She gave us her own pattern, Aloha.  It is an organic and bold pattern. With many possible way to go. I started with a try in my calender below and then I went on an ordinary tile using watercolor:

I haven´t tried Aloha before. But the pattern attracts me and it can be done in many ways. 

Here is my calendarpage for the last three days:

As I look at this I I find it crowded and quite messy. But this is the way it is. It reflects my state of mind right now I think.
7th of August: This day was emotional. I remembered my friend that passed away and used only L and O tangles. Patterns: Lollipops (Suzanne McNeill), Orange Peal (Suzanne McNeill), Orbs de la Dee (Anneke van Dam), Lotus Pods (Margaret Bremner) LO´s (mine) and Onamato (Zt).
8th of August: I tried to follow Adele Bruno´s tips for tangling Pach (Judy Okawa). All of a sudden the pattern was flowing! Thank´s Adele! Crescentmoon (Zt) also joined.
9th of August: My first try on Aloha (Suzanne Fluhr) and also a first round with Fluxeed (terri Delaune). And of course Fescu (Zt)

Zendala-Time!

Today I wanted to go on with round ones. So I choose a white zendala-tile. It is different from drawing in a round on an ordinary tile. It is larger. And for me it takes a little bit more time to do than a tile 8,9x8,9 cm. The zendala is 11,7 cm diameter. But as I start I love to do them. Here is my today:

The patterns that came by: Pach (Judy Okawa), Balloya (Anya Lothrop) Orbs de la Dee (Anneke van Dam), Beadline (Margaret Bremner) and Locar (Zt). Pach is a pattern I learned not long ago. But looking at the steps was not enough! As Adele Bruno posted her tips for drawing it, I suddenly could draw it easily and fluently! Thank´s Adele!

Today I made a string very simply using another tile to draw the "wings" and then a can-lid to get an inner circle. Sometimes it is good to have a geometric structure and I thought I needed one for this occasion.

A funny thing, today I had to go and consult my dentist to solve a problem (it has to do with age I am afraid) and as I look at this zendala I can´t help looking at white teeth! I didn´t plan the patterns and where they should be, they knew it themselves! And I end up with a smile! 

Tangling in memoriam

Today is a special day. One year ago my best friend passed away. My thoughts has gone to him and what we experienced together. In my daily meditation I used the pattern I dedicated for him just a few days before he passed away, LO´s. The other patterns in this tile are: Scute (Lily Moon), Beebug (Sarah Fowler), Knightsbridge (Zt), Embedded letters, Tipple (Zt) and my chop as a pattern/fragment. Tangling is always very personal. This is personal. The outcome is not what counts, it is the process and tangling is a way to heal what is broken and gone. 

4th, 5th and 6th of August

To tangle in a calendar is fun. I have seen a lot from other tanglers doing the same by now. Some are very structured and some are not. Mine is not. I the calendar I just draw what comes up that day. Recently I have seen several new patterns that are so cool and that I love at the first sight. Three of them jumped into this calendarpage:

4th of August: Beebug (Sarah Fowler). So playful and so flexible!

5th of August: I will try Cadent now and then, so here I started with this pattern. Then there is Scute (Lily Moon Luna) which is a geometric channel-pattern with a lots of possibilities!

6th of August: Oddbalz (Francoise Lip). Also a Channel-pattern with a lot of fun! Drawing this I get a smile on my face! 

A challenge in Today´s Tangles

Lynn Shelton Mead has made a challenge in Today´s challenge which is wonderful and basic. In the challenge she choose patterns that all are my favourites! So how could I not participate! :) Here is my tile:

Patterns: Fassett (Lynn Shelton Mead, Munchin (Zt), Shattuck (Zt), Paradox (Zt)and Tipple. I also added some Dewdrops following her instruction (as well as I could). To draw patterns that are so well known to me, I know them all by heart, is the best way to do zentangle. It is basics and as I started with Muchin I didn´t have to think what was coming next, all of them took place where they wanted. I loved to do this!

IAST 206 and the calendar 1st-3rd of August

For IAST 206 has Adele Bruno picked tangles that are known to me. Two of them are tangles I use freequently, one I only have done in my sketchbook. 

Funbee(Beate Winkler), is such a lovely little tangle, that makes me smile when I use it. Yincut (Zt) I used a lot as I learned it and now and then it comes back to me. This is my first tile with Pach (Judy Okawa) I think. Using it in a context with other tangles is really fun! So it may land in my pile with go-to-tangles after this round! 

My first page for August in the calendar:

As usual Carole Ohl has picked fragments to start the month with. This time J15 and K15 from the Zentangle Primer. J15 and K15 are not my favourites among the fragments, so I decided to use them all over the page and see what came out of the pen. 1st of August I tried it in a ordinary square reticula as suggested. I wasn´t too happy about the result. 2nd of August I decided to use Pico (Staub Korn) as a fragment and this went a little wilder and I like this better. 3rd of August I blew it up and had to improvise to make it work which led to a striped fragment and a little different fragment from original. I loved the outcome of this and I had fun doing it! Which means: don´t give up on anything. Just do it more!

Diva Dancing in Lisbon

Henrike Bratz, guestblogger on Diva´s challenge, recently visited Lisbon and was fascinated by the patterns she saw on tiles there. I haven´t been to Lisbon, but I have been to places where they have such beautiful tiles on the walls, on the floor, in the bathroom and other places. I know what she is talking about. One of the patterns she has deconstructed and called it The Lisbon fragment. Here is a pic of the pattern:

Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lissabon

And when you clic here you come to her steps. She asked us to use Diva Dance together with her fragment and the theme is Diva dancing in Lisbon! A wonderful theme. Here comes my entry for this challenge:

Yes. I made it on one of my recycled watercolortiles. I choose this one because I thought of the light at night in a place were people dances somewhere at the Atlantic coast... Maybe Lisbon. Now I have to go back to my photos from Maroc and such places....