Journal and DC 387

I really enjoy this journalprompts! No.5 is Textures. Textures is something I have been aware of all the time working with my paintings in my studio, and it has been important to me as an inspiration and as an expression. To make it in a minor size like this was so thrilling! I started with those eco-dyed papers I have saved from the fall 2017. The first one (with the heart) I had made in february 2018, but I had to cut it to fit in the journal. On this page also a strip from a tissue with the pattern bleed through. Talking about my other work in the studio I cut a piece from a paint cloth and tangled on it with Identipen and a Permopaque pen.

The second eco-dyed tile I tangled for this purpose and I love the way it came out! On this page is a structure paper tangled with Rahat Farzana´s new pattern Najam,and then a tissue tangled with Flux (the frontside this time). The page needed some Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner) too.

This weekly challenge no387 from the Diva is UMT (Use My Tangle), which is an event the first challenge every month and this time it is all about Holly Atwater´s ha Wy. This tangle is a challenge to me, I admit that. I have tried it in my sketchbook, on bijoutiles and at last I made it on a black Apprentice tile (11,4x11,4 cm).

It is a fun pattern based on an asterisk. I like the geometric qualities but I have to work on it to get it going. I placed it in a round as a monotangle and I am pleased with the way it came out.

Abandoned tiles in Diva´s challenge.

Art is never unfinished, only abandoned! - Leonardo da Vinci

This quote is what Laura Harms starts her challenge 386. I totally agree. It has been a lot about abandoned art/tiles for a while. In my last blogpost I went through this with my journal. So I couldn´t resist this challenge as it walks hand in hand with the Oopses!!

I first found this one:

I belive I started this one in another challenge for the Diva, but put it away, I thought it looked clumsy and didn´t like the way the colors worked.

An here is the result! After I had worked on it a while I actually put it away and almost gave it up. But then I brought it back and went on telling myself I had to look for what this tile wanted and start playing, not judging! Now I am happy I did. The patterns: C-View (Ria Matheussen), Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner), Quabog, Maze, Mini-Tipple, Printemps and a little piece of Shattuck.

For the next one I almost forgot to take the before-pic. I just started with Mooka and then I remembered. So the first pick only would have had Printemps on it!

This one wasn´t abandoned in the way my first one was. I started to do Printemps when I was interrupted for some reason and had to do something else. Then I forgot all about it. Now was the time to finish it!

The patterns added: Crescentmoon, Mooka and Fescu. I didn´t go on with the micron I started it all with, I choose to work with  my fountain-pen that sort of has been abandoned for a while and I loved to take it up again!

Valentineweek with Divas challenge and Zenuari 2019 Swap

Hearts hearts everywhere. I am not doing a lot of hearts. I have never done, except when I was a teenager. But I can´t avoid them either. I eat them:

I have also drawn some this year. But I didn´t follow the Valentangle 2019, like I did 2018, since I have been busy with other things in life. Painting f.ex. But I have something to post anyhow! Lucky for me there was a Zenuari Swap on the 27th and I asked if Susan Kelley Pundt wanted to do the swap with me and last week I got a happy mail from her!

The before-pics!

I started with the hearty one! Susan had begun with
La Bel (Sue Jacobs) and Funsin (Ru Yu Chen) and I
continued with Hearty  (Livia Chua).

Susan´s start was Ubiko (Cyndi Knapp) and
Zari (Veena Arun) and I finished with
Denma (Anoeska Waardenburg) in combination
with Sez.

There were some hearts from me this Valentine too! I give Susan an extra hug because of this! And an extra hug because her tangling forces me to work with color on the tiles. I do love that, she is pushing me out of my comfort zone!

I am the Diva´s challenge no. 385 also was about Valentine. So I made this as an opportunity to try Dolly Bolen´s new Valentinetangle

"Vintage Heart":

I needed a border so I picked Lo Lo (Hsin-Ya Hsu). Now my hearts will rest for a while!

Two swaps and The Diva´s challenge 382

Every swap (traveling tangles) is a happy moment. And every swap is so different. I have been lucky having two swaps recently. The first one came all the way from China! May May Chui sent me these beautiful starters:

Blue Toodles with some Tipple on a zendala!Whow!

And then a green amazing gem with Flux, Diva Dance, Static and Printemps....

I finished these and was happy to find the right blue among my colorpencils! Here are my finished tiles:

I don´t use much color in my own tangling so this was like having a party!  I added Dorsal (mine), Fassett (Lynn Shelton Mead and Mooka.

Then the green gem... How to match this very expressiv and beautiful gem? I had fun doing this, adding Cubine, Printemps, Bales variation and Crescentmoon variation.

Then the next swap with Daria Heidendael from the Netherlands. We first met at the Designmuseum in Providence before the seminar started! Here are her starters:

I do  love black tiles! And here with beautiful Tripoli!

Next one is one more gem! And now drawn in greyscale! I almost forgot to take the beforepic, you can see the little line I started with on the right side of the gem! But then I stopped and took this pic!

Here are my finishes:

I went on with Diva Dance , Quandary and Indyrella. Yes I tried my goldpen on this one too!

This one was so delicate to start with. I was anxious to ruin the whole thing. But then I started to think about Rick and Maria. I heard their voices in my head about "no worries, just one stroke at the time" and "no mistakes"! We learned the Crescentmoon variation at the seminar and also how to use Florz in a different way, so I just went on with this and the whole tile came alive.  This was a moment of magic!

Diva Challenge no 382. Laura asked for stripes as string. That is fun to do and a chance to use bordertangles... 

My string

Zenith in the middle with Meer, Shattuck, Marasu and Fanclub in the corners. I liked to do this and they are all tangles I know so well, I don´t have to think what to do next. Thank you Laura, even if I don´t do every challenge, I do enjoy every one I do!

I am the Diva´s Challenge 380

Laura Harms has run her blog 8 years now! Amazing! She is celebrating this with a challenge based on circles. As I am quite busy right now I had to go for a quickie, since I wanted to celebrate this! And Zenbuttons are so fun to do, invented by Marguerite Samama! Here is my Zenbutton on a cardstock selfcut tile:

Congratulations Laura! Hope you will go on for another 8 years! By the way, I used  Sakura micron: pink and burgundy.

Calendar 19th-21st of october and one more for the Diva´s challenge 372

This post might be my last for a while, since I am not sure I will have the time  to post before I start my long trip to US and the CZT seminar 32 in Providence! The inktober patterns keep following me though! Here comes Abeko (Lynn Shelton Mead), W2 (Zt) and Hamadox (Diana Schreur). Drawing with the fountainpen looks so different from the Pigma-pens. I think the main reason for this is that in zentangle I slow down my strokes a lot. Doing so with the fountainpen is a little bit risky, since the ink i very flowing. Normally as I draw with the fountainpen I draw very fast strokes but working with zentanglemethod this won´t be the case!!! Somehow I like the result and it is very relaxing.

On the 20th the inktobertangle is W2.  I like weavingpatterns and W2 is no exception. I decided to let W2 have a meeting with Dewd for the Diva´s challenge and this is what happened when I choose to work with a random string and dots in the corners:

I thought I was finished with Dewd but obviousely I am not. It is just going on. It might follow me all the way to Providence.... Now I will concentrate on doing packing-lists and get everything together before Thursday morning when I leave for Stockholm Arlanda!

Taking ink seriousely in calendar 13th-18th of october and DC 372

I used to do a lot of drawing with my fountainpens earlier, but I haven´t done this so much when I tangle.  But for inktober last 6 days I have taken the ink seriousely. I hade some deep burgundy in one of my pen and that made my first page. But now I have no more of that ink left! Maybe this will be the last page ever with this ink from Mont Blanc!!! I hope not.  The patterns: Dewd (Zt), Ando (Kim Winebrenner) and Inapod (Carole Ohl) 

For the next page I went on drawing with my Lamypen filled with black ink (I have a lot of that) and changed to blue in my Mont Blanc and it got just a little touch of the previous burgundy ink! I love that effect! The inktober tangles: Joki (Kim Aarts), Narwal (Sam Taylor) and Luv-a (Sharon Carforio).  With some help of Aquafleur and a tiny Squid.

The Diva challenge 372 is all about Dewd. This pattern is so fun and relaxing to draw, I feel like I could go on with it for ever!

I decided to try something different. I used a fountainpen which is made with a caligraphy-nib (inspired by Lauras dip-pen): 

I don´t use this pen very much but I like the way it works. The result is a little bit rough but I still like it. Then I went on making Dewd on a black ATC-tile:

Couldn´t resist having some Tipple in the middle. This one is very different from the first tile depending on the surface and on which tools I used; gellypen and white charcoalpencil. Since this wasn´t enough I tried it in my journal with tan surface:

Also quite different approach! I only used gellypen, white charcoalpencil and graphite. Yes Inapod is there too. I think I am a little bit addicted to Dewd by now. Definitely a tangle to go to when stuck!

Inktober 7 and DC371

Since I follow the inktober prompts made by Stephanie Jennifer in my calendar I have not made them on tiles so much. But I got the chance to do Onion Drops as monotangles following the Diva´s Challenge! there are a lot of fun challenges to be found on the web and I have decided to limit myself following only two of them. Sometimes I do one or two other challenges too, but I don´t want to  have that haunting feeling of catching upp challenges. I am the diva´s challenge and IAST are high priority when it comes to challenges though. Laura had made a video where she demonstrates onion drops (a little different from what I have learned it) drawing it with a dip-pen. So I wanted to do my first one with a favourite fountainpen (Mont Blanc) of mine on a litte Bijou-tile:

The color of my ink is very deep burgundy and I love this color! Then I made one more on a regular tile with my micron:

Onion Drops (Shasta Garcia) is a very relaxing pattern, it just goes on and on and every space can be filled or surrounded with it. I think this pattern already has jumped into my box of go-to tangles! 
Here you find the step-outs.

Inktober Calendar and DC370

This time inktober just went over the edges. It was fun to revisit patterns I have tried before, but maybe not experienced the posibilities with! Facets (Nancy Pinke) is such a pattern. Now I am going to use it more often I am sure. Fleavy (Hanny Nura) can go anywhere! And at last Pais (Mikee Huber) is also a pattern I haven´t revisited since I first tried it. So much fun to do with this!

Then it is time for an new UMT-challenge from the Diva. UMT = Use My Tangle. Laura pics a random tangle from other tanglers and this time it was a pattern from Heidi Sue, Mezzanine.

I have not seen this pattern being used before, nor have I tried it. Maybe I wouldn´t have found it if it wasn´t for this UMT-challenge! It reminds me of Abeko from Lynn Shelton Mead but different. Easy to learn and fun to do. Mezzanine worked nicely with Onion Drops (Shasta Garcia). I tried it on a selfcut zendala (!) on the cardstock I have been using for a while. To cut out a zendala is not easy for me but I got some ideas about how to do it from my friend Susan Kelley Pundt. First I traced around a circle I have cut in thinner paper (zendalasize) with my circlecutter. I used a Sakura pen, well used and almost dried out for the tracing part. Then a pair of scissors (sharp one) and cut it as neat as I could. The last step was to use sandpaper around the edge, very lightly.

For the string I used my youngest son´s name, Erik. Almost invisible, but I draw it on white paper first so here it is:

To use a name on a zendala as a string is fun. It is also such a pleasant way to keep someone in focus involving a lot of warm thoughts! 

Diva´s challenge 369

Only doing this with orbs, circles! This challenge is all about orbs. What is more like orbs than Tipple! Here is my entry:

And what is more orb-like than doing a zenbutton!?! I enjoyed this challenge and I love to do orbs in all kind of ways. Also some Printemps wanted to play. Thank you Laura for one more special challenge! Now I am ready for bed and tomorrow morning I am going to visit my granddaughters!

19th-21st of September and one more for the Diva

Now is the time when nights get colder and the garden is changing a lot. I am busy digging up and taking in herbs and some of the plants to be sure they will make it through the cold part of the year. I can see it in my calendar! The string is no. 22 for the last three days. Yesterday I also tried to monotangle Crescent Moon, inspired from what I saw Sandy Kelley Jones do in Fb group Today´s tangles. the other tangles on the page are Mooka, Afterglo (Carole Ohl), Membran Art (Tomàs Padrós), Tipple and Papyrus (Suzanne McNeill). I found the first tile I made with this string! Here it is:

Peanucle (Molly Hollibaugh) and Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner) made in november -15.

I liked the straight-line challenge from the Diva this week. I wanted to try it with a curvy string and picked  no. 138 from Tanglepatterns.

I tried this with Lily Moon´s B´tweed-tangleation and Hexonu (Cherryl Moote).B´tweed went a little wild, it doesn´t look the way I thought it would but I kind of like the crazyness in this one! And most important, it was fun and relaxing to do!

Only straight lines in Diva´s challenge no 368

Only straight lines. Yes. I find this challenge so relaxing. It is like keeping things together in a way. Thank you Laura Harms for doing this. I have always liked geometry and straight lines. Not that my lines are so straight, they are wobling and swaying a lot. But that´s not the point. The process is the main thing and doing straight lines or trying to do them is just possible when I slow down. So here is my first tile on this theme:

I also choose a string from Tanglepatterns with straight lines, string 032. A nice one! Choosing the patterns was also a challenge, there are a lot of wonderful straight-line patterns! Here I made it with Balloya (Anya Lothrop), Arukas, Cubine and Paradox (all Zt). Paradox is a paradox, the lines are straight but they look like they are not! I like that effect! I guess I must do some more with straight lines! This was so fun.

I am the Diva´s challenge 367

Here is my entry for DC 367!

I got some cardstock from a friend of mine working in a printing. I tried to work on this for the Diva´s challenge with `NZeppel and Gottago (Lianne Woods). I think it looks nice almost like working on a renaissance tile. I only used Pigma Micron black, White charcoal and graphite. Laura suggested `NZeppel and I wanted to keep it simple since `NZeppel is one of my favourites and I enjoyed this challenge a lot.

More Rain and the Diva´s Challenge 366

I finished this calendarpage yesterday morning. Rain is such a fascinating tangle. I wanted to get it work with other tangles, since this is the challenging thing for me when it comes to Rain. Luckily for me I have Lynn Shelton Mead´s Tangle Deck where I can get some clues to go on with the pattern! I belive you can see this influence at least on the 7th if you have got the Tangle Decs yourselves! The other patterns I used are Tipple, Printemps and one I haven´t tried since I learned it, Kathy´s Dilemma. Some different auras too.

Yesterday was the election-day here in Sweden. As I was sitting in front of the TV nervously waiting  for the results I talked to Susan Kelley Pundt on messenger. She suggested I should tangle while waiting and so I did! It was a very good way to spend the time, I needed to relax! Thank´s Susan, here is my tile from last evening and this one will do for the Diva´s Challenge 365 as well!

A little more Rain, Striping, Tipple, Cubine, Crescent Moon and Bales.

Because of the result of the election I woke up this morning feeling bad. So many in our society has voted for a party with it´s roots in nazi- and rasist- ideology! This is scarying and when I was younger I had no idea that I would see this happening in my country during my lifetime! I feel ashamed too, that this is the reality today! I am so sorry and I am not alone feeling like this, no matter that my own party has grown too. So I sat down and made one more for the Diva, which made me feel a lot better. In both these tiles I used the basic Z-string. On the second I tangled Static, Echoism and Eke, patterns I know so well by heart and as I tangled them I felt like I tangled against hatred and evilness which was very satisfying. 

To those who might read this: I am not thinking that zentangle is a political thing. But tangling must open your mind. Tangling gives you a possible way to learn in your heart that diversity and variations are essential and possibilities to go further on, not something you should be avoiding or fear! I think this is why I love the zentangle method so much!

The Diva is back again!

I have missed the Diva´s challenge! Now she is back and challenge no 366 is all about the basics! So here comes my first entry and I have a party-feeling!

I tangled Hollibaugh, Keeko, Printemps, Crecent Moon and Tipple. I always love to go back to these early learned tangles. And the basic steps, dots in the corners, penciled line connecting them and then a simple string  very lightly penciled on the tile. It is like magic.

I am the Diva´s weekly, the calendar 25th-30ies of May and Keenes

This will be a quite heavy post depending on the heath of the month May. We haven´t had so warm in May during my lifetime. I heard it on the radio, we haven´t had this climate since 1776!!! May is the month when the garden needs a lot of work, when seeds and plants has to be set in the soil. But I wonder where everything goes this year....

Yes I have been tangling. My studio is the best place in the house when it is to hot to stay long outdoors. I start with the Diva´s challenge: a monotangle with Carole Ohl´s Puf.

I learned Puf as one of the first tangles on my tanglejourney. Then I didn´t understand what tangleations means and how this works. I didn´t even see the similar start as Bales has. Now I know that Puf and Bales are closely related to eachother and I love them both. I find it very interesting the way patterns are connected to eachother, the way they can emerge from eachother and go into something else further on.

Here comes my calendarpages from the last six days (oh time´s running fast):

As I watched Melinda Barlow drawing my pattern in her video I felt strongly I wasn´t finished playing with it. So this is what I made on this page. Cheesecloth (Suzanne McNeill), Tofube (Damy) and Cubine also appeared.

In Square One Keenes is the focus tangle. So much fun! Couldn´t stop actually as I started. the negative spaces this pattern creates are so interesting. Tipple was the one who followed. This was the natural way to go, Tipple is a relative to Keenes in more than one way!

Then I went on with the tile for Square One. The first thing was an Oops taking the scene. I didn´t feel like starting this tile with an Oops, so I put it aside and started it all over again. I know, no misstakes, and this is not the way I use to do it. But here comes my first tile for Square One: 

I love this tangle! Though it seems simple, it has so many dimensions! I used it as a string too as you might see. Fescu is there and also Tipple of course.

This evening I started over again with the Oops-tile.  It was so fun to go on with it, not knowing what would happen.

The string is gone (it was the same string as on the first tile. There is some tranzending in this one, which I needed to make something new out of the Oops and I also blackened parts, not to cover but to emphasize the negative spaces. Oh yes I appreciate there are no misstakes in zentangle! Oopses comes my way to give me another direction. I love that!