Kintsugi in Journal and applied on September 11th

Kintsugi is a Japanese technique how to mend broken pottery and make the mending visible. The history is in focus, how things happened. The purpose of the mending is to make the broken piece become even more valuable then before. In Zentangle there are no mistakes and this can very well go hand in hand with the Kintsugi philosophy. Unexpected things happens, these are opportunities to walk a little bit further, finding new meanings, new possible solutions that might bring even more beauty to the art. I loved this prompt created by Janet Burdit and I belive this will affect my other artwork as well. In my journal I first used one zendala that I wasn´t happy about, I teared it to three pieces, glued it on a leftover-paper from my monoprinting sessions, and mended it with gold acrylic paint. I also made some tranzending on a part I liked, the Ocsidot by Sandy Kelley-Jones. The second one was a smaller tangled wonky orb which needed something more, so I worked on it the same way. I love how this spread came out!

This week´s Hump Day Challenge was in remembrance of September 11th and I knew what I wanted to do! Not exactly how though! But I started with a black tile and went on from that:

I used Windfarm (Margaret Bremner), Therefore and Tipple. Then I tore the tile to pieces, glued them on a white Apprentice tile, "mended" it with the same gold acrylic paint and then went on with Wud (Joni Feddersen). As I made this I was back on that bus in the afternoon (yes, in Sweden it was afternoon)where I heard the news about the terrorist attack. The bus was crowded and the driver had turned the radio on. Then there came these breaking news about what happened with the Twin Towers. All of a sudden everyone on that bus was silent listening to these hard-to-belive news. I know exactly where the bus was in that moment. 

To practice the Zentangle method is to practice gratitude. This was a very present feeling as I did this. Life isn´t about finding pieces of a puzzle, but it´s about creating and putting those exceptional pieces together.....

Hump Day 06 and a peep into my Journal

Recently I was invited to "Hump Day Challenge" on Fb. This is a weekly challenge from CZT Suzanne Fluhr and I thought it would be fun since "I am the Diva" is taking a break. But I have been so busy last weeks so I haven´t participated until today and this challenge was right up in my alley and I loved it. You find the challenge in her blog here. And if you, like me, don´t know what Hump Day is she gives an explanation in her blog.

Here is my entrance on rennaisance tile:

The prompt was to use a tangle as a string. I choose Hollibaugh

I am not sure that Hollibaugh is the string though I tried to think of it as a string.The "over and under" technique is so much this tangle and I love that. I used Diva Dance Rock n´Roll, Shattuck, Tortuca and fragment T7, which is one of my favourite fragments from the Primer. Everyone talk about the heath right now and I am happy to say that my studio is the coolest place in this house! So I had to have some soothing, cooling dewdrops on this tile as well.

My journal has become an important space to go to thank´s to the prompts published in Our Tangled Life. Though it was a little difficult for me to keep it up in June/first half of July, I have done them.

The 13th prompt came from Priscilla DeConti and she wanted us to tangle an animal. Since The Zentanglemethod to me is non-representative which means freedom and this is very important, I didn´t know how to approach this prompt at first. Then I looked into my other artjournal and found something I did during a workshop led by Carla Sonnheim earlier this year. To see an animal in cracked pavement! So I brought that workshop into tangling and this was the result. I used Arukas, Tagh, Crescentmoon and my newest tangle AAW. I had fun and I enjoyed it! 

Patterns: Doo Dah, Tripoli, Scena, Crescentmoon, Scallopillar (Karin Tarter)
AAW (mine)

This page I finished yesterday and this turned out in a special way. The prompt said Let´s map it! First I was in trouble not knowing how to do this. Maps are special to me, almost magical. I always keep maps I have used on journeys and hikings. When I was younger I was an eager hiker in the Swedish mountains. The nature, the wilderness, the lonliness, all of that was essential to me. Yes I kept the maps in a nice and tidy pile. Among the maps was one over the Abisko-Kebnekaise area and this map was so much used it had fallen into parts. I took one of those parts which happened to fit perfectly in my journal, so I glued it there and started tangling. Someone hade spilled some coffee on the map, it might have been me... As I tangled on I was sent back in time and I could see the stony paths for my inner eye, the amazing views from high points, the marshlands, the clear water, the wild animals, birds, flowers... And I could feel the gratitude that I once have been able to be a part of this wonderful landscape that forever will stay in my heart!

Through this prompt from Malia Benson I got some new ideas to work on in my collages/paintings too! 

Journaling: Recycling!

I am constantly keeping my eyes open for papers, letters, labels and other stuff that I can recycle in my art (collages - mixedmedia paintings). Now as I got the chance to make a prompt in a FB-group I took my chance and made it all about recycling. I haven´t been tangling a lot on other materials so this was also a challenge for myself. My first page went like this:

I used watercolor, stamps and a crossword I tangled on. Since I don´t do crosswords very often I liked to do them this way instead! The tangles on this page are: Cat-Kin (Mimi Lempart), Sistar (Hanny Nura), CaligraV (Mary d´Angelo) nd fragment H5.

The second page:

Recycled material: A label from a coffee-packaging, a part from a golden envelope, a piece of marbeled paper I have kept for years and a piece of a thicker paper that had a beautiful brown color. the label I had to find another pen to tangle with and Sakura Soufflé worked fine.  The golden envelope is tangled with Sakura Identipen and white charcoal. I am not scrapbooking but once I found some borders for sale, very cheap and I thought I might be able to use it someplace....That is in the bottom of the page. It was a little difficult to take a photo of this page, it was quite glossy! The tangles used:Wud (Joni Feddersen), Tripoli, Pokeroot, Mooka, Sez, Tipple and Printemps.

The third page:

If the second page was about coffee, I had to use a label from my favourite wine! Which wasn´t easy to tangle on! Micron´s didn´t work too well. Gellypen were ok. But then I found out that I could use Acrylic-paint-pen and then tangle on the dried surface! I also added a tangled part of a page from a book I won´t read again. Here are a lot of tangles, some I have forgotten the name of but here comes a list of those I know: Mooka, Tipple, Diva Dance,Dewd, Ruutz (Eni Oken), Pop-Cloud (Carla du Prez), Laced (Elisabeth Martin), some Crescentmoon... The page from the book was tangled quite long ago but I didn´t know what to do with it until now.

Oh yes! I had a lot of fun doing this!

Journal and Fullmoon Mosaic

Prompt6. Magic Carpet Ride. To create a magic carpet? This Prompt from Karen Polkinghorne was so fun to do. A magic carpet that flies away above the clouds.... I once again went to my box with abandoned tiles and found one made on white notepaper and one on a paper painted with black gesso. The first one was a low quality paper, you know those who comes in notecubes. As I started as a tangler I just took any paper to work on. The next one was an experiment, I wanted to try the black gesso surface if it could work tangling on. It worked, but it didn´t work the way I liked so I stopped trying this. Now I made some weaving and went on tangling a border around the middle part of the carpet. It needed some color, so the watercolorpencils got to do the work. Still it wasn´t enough magic in this, so I used my Sakura Gold, that I got on the seminar and made the carpet glitter! There it was and I liked it!

I have seen the Fullmoonmosaic (a challenge from Hanny Nura) done a couple of times and I have thought it is a beautiful thing to be a part of. Now I did go for it and if the Magic Carpet Ride was a magical ride, this Fullmoonmosaic sure was magical to do. Hanny Nura gave us 2 strings and one pattern, Irka (Alena Light), to take off from. Here are my tiles:

Patterns: Irka (Alena Light), Peace Petals (Sandy Kelley Jones)
Locar, Poke Leaf and Poke Root.

Patterns: Irka (Alena Light), Icantoo (Hanny Nura), Flux,
Tipple and Fragment Q7

I wanted to have them together too:

Oooh I loved to do this! The fullmoon is shining!

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.

A long blog-post about Oops!

Warning! This will be a long blogpost! At the bottom of this post I will give a summary in Swedish dedicated to my students in the Workshop I had in Östhammar recently! Svensk sammanfattning i slutet.

In Zentangle we learn: There are No Mistakes! This was one of the first things I heard about when I started my Zentangle-journey. As things happens that doesn´t go the way we intended to on a tile, there is another word for it: Oops. O: Outstanding, O: Opportunities,P: Presented, S: Suddenly. This describes very well what it is all about. To look upon mistakes as there are no such things as mistakes, but new oportunities to go into another direction. 
Common Oopses:  The pen doesn´t work like expected, the ink comes too fast or doesn´t come at all, the drawn line occasionally doesn´t go the same way as in the step-out for a certain pattern and so on. Or spilling coffe all over the tile, not by purpose but by accident! Or a pet jumping on your hand while drawing a subtle line!

Very early I got a good advice, not to throw tiles away, (but keep them for further consideration) just because they didn´t look like I wanted them to look or because I thought I had ruined them! So I started to keep them in a box named "Z-bargain". I didn´t look into that box until recently when there came a prompt in a Fb-journaling group about Oops.

Digging in this box I found a lot of stuff but my first choice was a black  self-cut zendala, without date,  done long ago and another black tile done recently. Unfortunately I forgot to immediately take a before-pic but this is what the zendala looked like after I had highlighted it a little more and worked on the gem adding some orbs around it.

Patterns: Arukas, Ammon (Sandy Steen Bartholomew) and
´Dillo (Lori Manoogian)

I still didn´t like it so I made a cut with my circlecutter (not a very good one) and fixed the unbalance.

The squared tile I made while preparing for the workshop in Östhammar about Reticula and fragments. It was in a mess and I did mess it up even more using Colorsoftpencils. That´s when I remembered to take a pic:

The Colorsoft pencils was a bad idea. After adding the colors nothing else seemed to work on this surface! I realized that I had to do something totally different and something I usually never do working on my tiles. In my other artwork I often make collages and mixed media and recently I have been working on paper from books to make them translucent so that the words will appear on the collage without too much paper to be seen. I glued such a piece of paper on my tile and then worked on it a little bit more. Here is the final journal page:

This was such a satisfying way to bring tiles alive! I had to dig a little deeper in my box and found this:

Lucky for me this tile was dated! As I found it I knew what this was all about. I was deeply disappointed with the tile at the time I made it. Now I didn´t think it looked too bad but I was still bored looking at it. The reasons why I gave it all up was, I didn´t like the shading at all and to save the tile I used watercolor on it and the green pen obviousely wasn´t dry enough! What to do with this? My first impulse this time was to grab another tile to recue, I wasn´t sure I could make anything with this one. But then I said to myself: There are No Mistakes! And from there I went on working on it. Doing so, I really enjoyed the process and here is my finished tile:

Patterns: EAXY (Nadine Roller), Fassett (Lynn Shelton Mead)
and as a border I used Centipede.

I was happy when I saw the outcome and grateful to this opportunity to give this tile new dimensions! Here is the final journalpage:

Of course I have earned new skills and techniques over time,but this is NOT about that at all. This is about finding out the truth in the message: No Mistakes only New Opportunities. A way to look upon my work from another angle, without condemning, but with curiosity where everything will go and what will happen if I do so or so. A chance to discover new solutions. To embrace the Oopses and be grateful as they appear. This is one of those things that are important in the Zentangle method. When I am able to watch my work in the light of "No misstakes" a magic door opens up and wonderful things might happen! I do love that.

Svensk sammanfattning: I Zentangle lär vi oss att ”Det finns inga misstag!” Det var en av de första sakerna jag fick höra när jag började min Zentangle-resa. När oväntade saker händer, som inte tycks bli det man själv avsett använder vi ett annat ord i Zentangle: Oops. Skulle man översätta det så blir det  istället EMVP: E: Enastående, M: Möjligheter, V: Visar sig  P: Plötsligt.  Att byta synsätt, se på misstag som att de inte alls är misstag utan nya, oväntade möjligheter att gå i en annan riktning.

Vanliga Oopses eller på svenska Emvp: En penna ger ifrån sig för mycket bläck, för litet, eller inget alls, en ritad linje avviker från en step-out,  eller man råkar spilla kaffe över sitt arbete. Eller att något husdjur hoppar mot ens hand när man ritar!

 Tidigt fick jag också ett gott råd: Kasta inte bort en tile bara för att den inte ser ut som jag tänkt mig eller för att jag tyckte att jag förstört den av någon anledning. Så jag spar allting i en låda som jag döpt till Z-fynd. Jag brukar inte titta i den lådan särskilt ofta tills  nyligen när en prompt kom upp i en Journaling-grupp på Fb. Prompten handlar just om Oops.

När jag grävde i lådan hittade jag både det ena och andra och valde till slut ut en svart, odaterad Zendala som jag själv skurit till. Den gjorde jag för länge sedan. Jag valde också en nyligen undanlagd svart tile som jag gjort när jag planerade workshopen i Östhammar. Den blev rörig och jag la undan den och gjorde en ny.  Tyvärr tog jag "före"-bilderna efter att jag kommit en bit på väg i arbetet. Zendalan bearbetade jag först med att förstärka högdagrar och lägga till rundlar runt stenen i mitten. Men det räckte inte, jag fick också skära ner den till en mindre zendala för att få en balans. Den nyare tilen rörde jag först till ännu mer  genom att använda Colorsoft pennor, vilket gjorde att inga andra pennor fungerade på den ytan, så jag fick ta till metoder från mina collage innan den blev sig själv. Ingen zentangle precis men en ZIA! Jag sammanfogade allt sammans till en ny sida i min journal som jag är glad åt!

Nästa räddningsaktion blev så en daterad tile från 2016. När jag återsåg den kände jag igen känslan av besvikelse som medförde att jag la undan den. Orsaker: Jag var totalt missnöjd med skuggningen och försökte uppväga det med att lägga till akvarellfärg, vilket medförde att det gröna bläcket flöt ut. Oops! I efterhand kan jag konstatera att jag hade fallit för frestelsen att planera den här tilen och den blev inte som jag hade tänkt från början. Men nu tyckte jag inte att den var så dålig som då. Efter en viss tvekan fortsatte jag, nu utan att planera! Jag njöt av processen och blev glatt överraskad över resultatet!

Självklart har jag genom åren lärt mig mer och tillägnat mig fler tekniker, men det här handlar inte om det. Det här handlar om att se att det faktiskt inte finns några misstag, bara nya möjligheter. Ett annat sätt att se på arbetet jag gör från en annan vinkel, utan fördömanden och snabba slutsatser. Om att ta till mig Oopsen och vara tacksam när de visar sig, för de ger mig chansen att upptäcka skönhet i det oväntade. För mig har det tagit tid att kunna vila i detta! ”Inga misstag” är en magisk dörr om öppnar sig och underbara saker kan hända! Det gillar jag!

Journaling - Zentangle

I have thought about journaling for quite a long time. Michele Wynne´s blog Coffee and Creativity has been and is a great inspiration. I love the classic Zentangle, I love to do my tiles in black and white and I love the possibilities when it comes to "beyond basics".I haven´t done a lot of ZIA:s (=Zentangle Inspired Art). But journaling is something that I want to explore more. I decided to post my first steps on the journaling road and I might post some more further on. Here are my first pages:

I have joined a group on Facebook (Our Tangled Lives),which will be a support for me I hope. I have chosen my word for 2019, which was the easy part: Possibilities.

Then I found a quote: "You don´t need to know precisely what is happening or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope" - Thomas Merton

This quote just popped up as I looked for it and it is special to me. A couple of years ago I was reading Thomas Merton and his thoughts made a great impression on me at that time, so this is exactly what I was looking for!

This page is about Schway, which I have avoided as a pattern. But maybe Schway will follow me further along???

I have done a ZIA!!! This was because of a prompt in the Fb-group. I read a story about a tradition in Nepal where they use to make flags with messages, prayers to dead ancestors, friends and so on. It was a wonderful story and that made me do this page. I loved it! I also made me a bookmark for this page:

It is tiny just 8,9x4cm!

My latest page is about imagination: Notice the invisible. I used Embedded Letters, Denma (Anoeska Waardenburg), and Sistar (Hanny Nura).

I don´t know where this will take me. But now I have taken my first steps on the journaling road. I will try to do this once in a while and look for the possibilities.

Arukas Day 11-15

This is a tangle-adventure. When I sit down with my little journal I never know what it will end up with. I hope you can read my notes.

I think it is a good idea to try Arukas in different strings. This string is offered by Sandy Kelley Jones in the Fb-group Today´s Tangles -Keeping it classic.

One more try on the same string as day 12.

These five days I think Arukas lives her own life. I think of Arukas as a female no doubt. And I do love her still. She is too adventurous, I have no chance to get bored!

Arukas day 7-10

These are the last days with Arukas. I still enjoy it. A lot!

New pattern Brizl and then 30 days with Arukas!

From the 32CZT Seminar I went back to Susan Kelley Pundt´s home with her. We tangled every day together, most of the time in her studio and we had such a nice time doing this. 2 people that doesn´t talk to much (we did that too), just sitting together drawing and appreciating the moment, that is very developing and a way to get very close. I don´t recall exactly the day, but at one point Susan showed me a pinecone and we started to deconstruct it. I have made a separate page for this pattern, Brizl, you find it here and I hope you will enjoy it!

Now I am back to my life at home and my head is still full of ideas which I think is a good sign. At Providence I had the joy to meet Juliette, the woman behind Artsamuse. I had seen a repost she made on Fb about drawing one pattern for a month! I have been thinking about this and I was thrilled about the idea. I hesitated though, which pattern should I chose? One that I wasn´t comfortable with and try to make friends this way? Or one I do love and use a lot. I made my decision, I choose Arukas, a pattern that is a true friend. If we are going to see eachother every day, it must be a very good friend. There is a risk; we might get bored of eachother! Here are my first 6 days with Arukas:

I have mentioned Lynn Shelton Mead´s tangledeck now and then. As I have drawn Arukas several times I have been inspired by Lynn´s take on this pattern which will be seen during this month with Arukas too!

This is so fun! I had no idea what should happen day 6! I only tried to get Arukas in a string, which is not the easiest for me to do! But Arukas knew where to go! 

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!