25th-30th of April and Walpurgis Night

This is the busy time of Spring. Everything seems to accelerate in the garden which means a lot of stuff to take care of. Here were I live we use to gather branches and other stuff we need to get rid of  and carry it all to a Walpurgis-fire in the middle of our neighbourhood. Our fire will be quite big this year, if the weather doesn´t stop it all. I am very happy I have my calendar these days to draw my tangles in, since I don´t have much time to spend for tangling. I like to explore one tangle at a time right now.It is so satisfying to see what happens with small variations done! I can´t get enough of this I think.

25th-27th: Boucle (Cherryl Moote) is so fun to draw and with lots of possibilities! Loved it!
28th-30th: Zander (zt). Zander is a tangle I have used now and then but till now I haven´t tried to make it mine or adding some variations to it. I did like what happened! And I had some fun, that is for sure!

I have made one tile during these 6 days! Here it is:

Lily Moon has designed Carcole for us to play with. I did like it a lot! Here in company with Shard (Carole Ohl), Striping, Tipple, Flux, Fescu and Shattuck.

Working with the Primer

Exercise no 16 in the Primer was something extra! Go back to one tile I wasn´t happy with and redo it slowly. I went back to a tile done in August 2015 (early in my tangling journey). As I saw this tile again I got the feeling I had when I had done it. I know there are no misstakes in zentangle. But this tile made me feel like a failure!!! Here comes the journalpage with both tiles (scanned):

The difference is obvious, isn´t it!! Here comes the first tile (photo):

I find it so messy and so unsure. Yes it was the first time I tried Schway but I get a little nervous looking at this tile. Here is the one I made today:

I like this one much better.  This exercise was very interesting. Not only because I think I have improved. But because I can see that my confidence in myself has grown, I have calmed down and another thing is: I have got rid of the feeling I had looking at my first one, which was a bad feeling! And the point is, now I can accept the first one and also find things that are interesting in it! Yes, this exercise was healthy and fun, I will sure try this again!

22nd-24th of April and some more tangling

Now I start to belive Spring is here to stay! Just one snowpack outside our house is to be seen, but that one has been hughe, now our dogs can jump over it! Flux is a tangle that speaks about growth and brings a promise of a warmer season to come! I love this time every year and it is worth everything!

A couple of days ago I visited a friend of mine and she wanted to know about the zentangle method. I brought her some of my books, some tiles, pens and a pencil. We had a wonderful evening tangling. 
I always love to go back to basics, to basic patterns, it is always so relaxing and I always feel happy doing it.

Nipa, Crescent Moon and Knightsbridge. Nothing more is to be needed. 

Today I made this tile:

Boucle (Cherryl Moote) is the focustangle in Square One. Such a lovely one to draw. It reminds me of Printemps ofcourse. Here together with Shattuck, Maze, Flux and Tipple, all Zt. I am happy how this came together. It has some Spring in it!

16th-21st of April

I think I could go on playing with Oof maybe for the rest of this month, but I won´t. I stop with Oof drawn with straight lines. This tangleation (or maybe a new pattern?) makes me happy.

I am ahead (?!) in my calendar! I am not able to do anything in it tomorrow soo... I now revisited Umble. A pattern I didn´t like at all when I first learned it. I have tried it a few times after that but Umble has not spoken to me. I rather draw Hollibaugh or something else. I belive it is depending on my hands are a little more shaky than they used to be in my youth. Umble is very easy to learn, it is one stroke and Auras. My lines always seems to wobble. It doesn´t really matter that I slow down as much as I can. Most of the time I doesn´t care about this . In most patterns this isn´t disturbing, on the contrary it adds something. But with Umble I am not sure of that. I have tried to find my way with Umble on this page. I have made it thinner, fatter, with more or less black in it. I admit we are not friends yet, but some steps closer. I haven´t given it up, I will go back to it again further on.

Diva´s Weekly challenge 360

This week´s challenge from the Diva is to make a duotangle with Shattuck and Tripoli. These are patterns not often made as a combo, but watching Laura´s video is a great inspiration! Here comes my entry:

To use Shattuck as a reticula is a great idea. I will keep this in my mind! This was a great challenge, with wellknown patterns (no need for step-outs), so much fun and relaxation! Shattuck and Tripoli also happens to be my favourites which made me even more happy about it!

More Oof

I don´t think I am finished with Oof yet. There are so many possible ways to go with this pattern. Today´s meditation:

Oof in the middle is the common Oof. Above I put fragment W7 into the rounding and also I made a simpler Oof. In the bottom I straightened out the roundings and got another tangleation, Oofsed Squares! To the left Oofs-A-Daisy, the lovely tangleation by Cris Letourneau!

And yes I had some fun!

13th-15th of April and a black tile

Oof is an official tanglepattern and I have been using it now and then. I like to play with it and it always looks different! Now I found Cris Letourneau´s tangleation Oofs-A-Daisy which is a great one too! I had to try it on a black tile:

It went this way with a lot of Tipple. Very relaxing moment with this tile!

10th-12th of April and a tile for Cris

Amphora (Lily Moon) for three days. This is a beautiful tangle that I use now and then. It can take many shapes! 

Recently Cris Letourneau CZT, artist and author has been affected hardly as her husband died in a fire that totally destroyed their home. Cris and her daughter Alexa are safe since they were not at home that nigt. In the group Today´s Tangles were Cris is a member, Sandy asked us to make tiles, send them to her and she will send the package to Cris for comfort and support. Here is my tile for her, now on its way by mail.

The patterns are Flukes, Ing, `NZeppel and Peace Petals (Sandy Kelley-Jones). 

7th-9th of april and Diva´s challenge 359

I found out that I really like to explore a tangle in different ways. To start the exploration in my calendar is so fun. Here is Nipa in focus. I start with the basic pattern and then change a little on the way. Love to do that!

As for the Diva´s challenge 359 I made this:

The challenge was to use my own fingers and trace them on a tile, then using this as a string. A String-challenge. I had some fun and this challenge was a relaxing thing to do, though at first the penciled lines really looked like a mess! Once started to tangle I didn´t think about that.

4th-6th of April

Working with Fragments is so interesting. Here we go again: small changes makes a lot of difference.  I love this. 

4th of April: Trisade Fragment (Staub Korn). 

5th-6th of April: I felt that i had not given Marguerite Samama´s fragment enough attention and this little fragment is so versatile and can have  a lot of appearances. I guess I am not finished yet with this one, it will come back!

Revisiting older tiles and refreshing them.

In the Zentangle Primer 1 there is a very exciting exercise no 15. There are no misstakes in zentangle. But there are tiles I have done, that I don´t smile when I look at.  The exercise is. Go back and pick two tiles that are not so satisfying. Then find out what is missing and go on with them and see what happens.

I picked these:

They are well drawn, I admit this. But something doesn´t make them special. The one to the right was done in October -16 and the one to the left in August -17. Both have the same problem, they look like they are not finished. Not enough Drama.  After taking this photo of them I went to work. I needed a little more shading and more black. Here is the result:

This one from 2017 definitely needed more shading! Then I blackened the corner above Abukas (Charlotte Carpentier) and in the Dreamcatcher (Daniel Lamothe). Then I added some more black details. The other patterns are Antidots (Anita Roby Lavery) and Tipple (Zt). Very little done but with a result I really appreciate!

This one from 2016 definitely needed more contrast and some small details to make it more interesting. I gave it more black, stipples and lines and some more shading. The patterns areTropicana (Kate Ahrens), Antique (Kathy Barringer), Ionic (Margaret Bremner) and Printemps (Zt). Now I do like it much more! Not much done but the difference is obvious!

I am the Diva´s weekly challenge 358

 March was going fast! Now it is already a new UMT (use-my-tangle)challenge at the Diva´s place. This month it came to Tomàs Padrós "Pick Pocket" This is a highfocus-tangle. I had to think a lot about what I was doing. First I made a little Bijou:

Then I tried it on tan surface. I found this heavyweight-paper in a book-shop and it is Acid-free. I liked the color, it is very close to original rennaissance-tiles. But with one big difference: The shading is much harder to do, which disturbs me.

Still I don´t draw Pick Pocket fluently but this is the result. Before I started I watched Laura drawing it here on YouTube!Dewd just poured out of Pic Pocket, which was fun! The string is based on my spilling of coffee. I did that on purpose.

I also used Staub Korn´s tangleation of Pick Pocket, which she named Picker Pocker!With Staubs permission here are the steps!

Oh by the way things happened yesterday which made me register for CZT32-seminar in october. It is hard to belive, but I am GOING! Never thought this would be possible! 

1st-3rd of April and Elatorium challenges

I am not often talking about weather. But during Eastern we have had days with bright warming sunshine and cold nights. The snow is now melting daytime and freezing by night. A promise about spring is in the air though we can walk on the hard surface of the snow covering the fields around here. I can see how this has affected my latest page in the calendar! I used Paradox as a string as well as a pattern, inspired by Margaret Bremner´s illustration for this month. Peace Petals (Sandy Kelley Jones) is the promise of spring coming. Then Crusade (Wayne Harlow) and Trisade-fragment (Tangleation of Crusade by Staub Korn) are breaking Ice and Shattuck is also coming with the springthing.

When I see my patterns used in challenges and/or by other tanglers I get so excited. I appreciate it very much, it is like connections with others get visible. I just love it. 2 challenges recently has been with my patterns Ezpei and Lenche. These are found in ELATORIUM at Fb. The first one was Ezpei together with Ruutz (Eni Oken) and Garlic Cloves (Jacquelien Bredenoord). You find it here. My entrance is made on a recycled watercolorpainting.

So satisfying to make something on old watercolor I don´t want to see any more!

Next challenge with Lenche, Wall Break (Tina Kirchhübel) and Olspin (YuRu Chen) you find here.

And here is mine:

Wall Break I first tried when Tina published the steps on Flickr and I did like it a lot so I was so happy Ela choose this pattern together with Lenche! Olspin was new to me but I like the playfulness of this one and I will get back to it for sure. Thank´s Ela for doing this! You also find the challenges at Elatorium were you also find the wonderful resourse Musterquelle!

Gourdgeous

To be honest, I am ambivalent about the pattern Gourdgeous. At first sight I always see some vegetable. I like vegetables, that´s not the problem. Now it happens to be the focustangle in Square One. Helen Williams has made some wonderful drawings with Gourdgeous. And here are the original step-outs. As I start to draw it I always realize it is quite fun, and after a while it is also very meditative!

I have turned this one a lot not knowing which way I prefer it, which is good, because a zentangle has no ups and downs, but for now in the blog I let it rest this way. Some Shattuck came along, Tipple and orbs. Gourdgeous has a lot of black in it which makes the drama and I like dramatangles most of the time. Maybe we can make friends Gourdgeous and I....