22nd-24th of February

Man-O-Man is both simple and complex. As I first saw the tangle was when Lynn Shelton Mead transformed it into a Celtic Knot. But I like the tangle as it is from the start too! So many ways to go with it! The negative and positive spaces  has so many possibilities! I think Man-O-Man will follow me for some time now! 

In Square One there is a tangle new to me: Elven (Elena Hadzijaneva). Another high-focus tangle! I did practice it in my sketchbook and also made a monotangle of it before I felt that it worked! Here is my first tile with it and I was happy to make  Elven and Man-O-Man get together!

Skye was the last challenge and now comes this! I love it, it is beautiful, but I need some more practice to make it mine. Well I like to challenge myself, so that is no problem! 

I am the Diva´s challenge no. 352

Last week I didn´t go for the Diva´s challenge. The reason was I wanted to practice SKYE. Another reason is I wasn´t that interested in the Olympic theme, it didn´t speak to me.  This week´s challenge, no 352, is about hearts and I thought I was done with hearts this month! But then I visited Michele Wynne´s blog  and couldn´t resist to give the heart one more round! I opened up my treasure-box filled with eco-dyed papers and there it was!

Can you see the heart glowing in there? I did and here is my nested heart:

The tangles: Chainging, Tipple, `NZeppel and Dro´t/Wire (Ferenc Nagy). The size is different from what I use to work on, 9x17,7cm.I used some brown colorpens, bronze and white gellypen. It was a nice surface to tangle on and I love the eco-dyed colors a lot. 

19th-21st of February

I wasn´t finished with SKYE (Margaret Bremner). I went on in my calendar trying to use the Wholly Hollibaugh-technique demonstrated by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts in their latest KTT-video available in the Zentangle-app. On the 21st I was really confused where to go with it, but I am happy with the result somehow!I had fun too during the process. But now I am going to let Skye rest for a while since I know it will come back to me again!

16th-18th of February and Skye x 3

Last three days in my calendar I revisited patterns I have learned from the beginning of my tangle-journey. Rain was one of the first which I learned from One Zentangle a Day by Bekah Krahula, my first book ever about zentangle. I did like this pattern a lot but haven´t used it very often. Chainging was also a pattern I learned from that book and I liked the way it looked when I first saw it. However I found Chainging quite difficult, mine didn´t look the way I wanted it and I gave it up after several trials. But now, a couple of years later I found it easier and I did like the outcome! Yes this might be a pattern I will use further on! The last pattern is Cyme. I only did it once, at least what I remember. Why? It is such a pretty one!! I belive it depends on the fact there are several patterns reminding of this one, that I have used a lot more. But I did love to do Cyme, it reminds me of a small cactus I once had... It is organic and the shapes can be found here and there in nature.

Well well, if this wouldn´t be enough,  SKYE (Margaret Bremner) is the focustangle in Square One. I have tried it before. But I haven´t come to a point with SKYE that makes it flow out of my pen. It is indeed a high-focus-tangle in celtic-pattern-style. Here is my first go this time:

I was satisfied with the way it looked here with oopses and without and I also liked the combination with And (Sandra Harsveld). But there wasn´t much relaxation doing this, I had to check all the time where to go next!

I made a second one:

I did slow down on this tile. Then I focused on the embellishments and I felt I was almost there...

My third one:

I think I have got hang of Skye! At least I didn´t have to look for the steps this time. And I did enjoy the process which was much more relaxing than before. Skye did go it´s own ways but that is ok. Maybe I will be able to draw it more freely in the future.  The other patterns in this tile are: Webz (Suzanne McNeill), Knightsbridge and Tipple. 

I do appreciate the way it looks on all tiles and I am happy to say that on my last tile I also did appreciate the process! So now I wait for more Skye to come along!

10th-15th of February

I went on playing with corners and focustangle in the middle. 10th-11th, I choose random tangles with the help from Lynn Shelton Mead´s Tangledeck. Bales, Knightsbridge and Cubin was the resultof this.

13th-14th included Valentines day on Wednesday so hearts were in focus these three days.
13th: Skelter (Debbie Raen) and a Fragment I made up for the Valentangle 2018 initiated by Marguerite Samama.
14th: Heartline (Helen Williams)
15th: Fragment made up by Susan Kelley Pundt.

Yes I participated in the Valentangle 2018. Fourteen days with hearts! It was fun and I learned a lot. In my next post I will have pics and comments from this event.

7th-9th of February and Diva´s Challenge 350

A couple of days ago, Sandy Kelley-Jones posted a page from her calendar where she put Crescent moon in all corners and used a focustangle each day. I wanted to try this because the idea was so simple yet so interesting. It is possible to get into a zen-zone immediately doing it this way! The focus, the centre. I had to try it and I must say this was very satisfying! I also choose Crescent Moon in my corners ans focused on Arukas, Flukes and Tipple. This way to tangle will go straight to my toolbox!

I am the Diva´s challenge this week is UMT = use my tangle. Rimana by Nadine Roller. Here is my tile:

One more heart to tangle! I added some Tipple but the rest is for Rimana! This pretty little pattern may be more useful than it first seemed to be! I liked to do it!

1st - 6th of February

Last six days in my calendar. I have done one a day but not posted. I choose to try new tangles for the first part of february. 

1st - 3rd of February: Roloflex (Pilar Pulido), Ta-Da (Margaret McKerihan), not a new one but all of a sudden I had to do it,  and on the 3rd my new one Ezpei with some Tagh.

4th - 6th: Ezpei again with Dublin (Chris Titus), Lee-Bee (Sue Schneider) and at last Rayz (Sarah Fowler).

For me the calendar has become a great start of the rest of my artwork for the day. I am so happy for that.

EZPEI - new pattern found!

I am fascinated by wallpaper. There are so many of them and with so many different delicate patterns. Recently I found a new favourite! Here it is: 

This looks very much Art Deco, which I am a fan of and it could be transformed to a tanglepattern! I worked on it and now here comes step-outs for EZPEI! 

I made the step-out in two parts, first the detail and then I made it as a repeating pattern. It could be used as a solitaire, but I think I prefer it as a pattern repeated.  There are a lot of possibilities. You can draw it right away, no grid.

The name Ezpei comes from the first letters in Ezperanza, "Hope" and the first letters in Eivor, my lifecompanion, to whom I dedicated this pattern. 

Here is my first tile practising Ezpei:

Hope you like EZPEI and find this pattern fun and useful!

Back to Rumpus

In December, Maria and Rick released a new tangle, Rumpus. I haven´t done much about it since then, but now Laura Harms has it in the weekly challenge #349. As Maria draws it she used color. But if a tangle will get into my own library of tangles that I will use it is necessary to get it work in blackandwhite! Otherwise it will be a pattern among others that just passes my way. So for this challenge I saw my chance:

Here it is with some striping and `NZeppel in the background! I loved to see the result coming out like this, because drawing Rumpus is in itself very meditative, with basic, repetitive strokes. I think Rumpus has moved into my tangle-library by now!