More about the String and a calendarspread 13th-18th of June

Kuke (Katie Abbott) is the focuspattern in Square One (FB). I have done it once before and I did love the way it looked. The black and the graphite is such a nice combination! I haven´t used it since and for one reason only: I didn´t know how to make this pattern mine. It was drawn in circles an it was beautiful as it was.

Then I saw what Margaret Bremner did, letting the string guide her.  The string is the clue! The string is a kind of limit and limits are important to reach another creative level! At least that is my experience and Maria and Rick often speaks about the "Elegance of Limits" in this way. So I made my string and then it was all about Kuke with a couple of Beadlines (Margaret Bremner).

Now Project Pack #03 is to be found on YouTube. The project is about ribbons and this is very much about the string made in a special way. As I haven´t had too much time for tangling recently this was what I applied in my calendar:

Actually I started already on the 12th, but then it was so easy to make the ribbon continue on the whole spread starting with the 13th! I haven´t used the string much in my calendar. But I think I will do it more from now on since it is fun and it is a tremendous way to avoid planning, just let everything grow! 

On this spread I also wanted to do something different using graphite not only to create shadows. It is fun but this technique needs some practising I think. the patterns I know the name of are: Paisley Boa (Amy Broady), Sez (Zt), Peace Petals (Sandy Kelley Jones), Hearts 4 G (mine) Kuke (graphite version), Dex (Zt), Meer (Zt), Dorsal (mine), Loev (Ela Rieger) D´Rua (Damy), Orbs, Eke (Zt) and a last Kuke in the corner.

Well yes I have started working on the project pack 03 too, but that will be another blogpost! 

4th-6th of June

Time is running fast these days! Last three days has been filled with activity! The 5th was the World Environment Day and that was a great day from early morning till late at night, since I took part in an event about our forrests here where I live. We had bright sky and sunshine but not too hot. With us on our guided tour through Ore Skogsrike was Jens Holm who is in the parliament for Vänsterpartiet.

Yesterday was our National Day with a lot of celebration. We went to Levin´s Garden Center nearby that also celebrated their 100th birthday! But here comes my calendar:

Msst (Zt) is a tangle I don´t use very often. I find it a little bit difficult to get it together with other patterns. The transistions are not so easy to make. It is a lovely pattern though. Now I tried to find my ways for it. On the 5th it was so obvious I let Nipa join, then on the 6th I tried it with a completely different pattern, Asian Fans (Suzanne McNeill). Somehow it worked quite well, maybe not too much of Msst though!  

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!

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.

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.

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! 

7th-12th of March

As I have been busy with my paintings last few weeks I haven´t spent much time tangling! But then the calendar is perfect to keep me on the road, doing something every day!

Last three days I have practiced Tofube (Damy). It is the focus tangle in Square One. At first I didn´t really get it as you might notice. But it was fun and I went on with it and now I like it a lot! I let Huggins make the job on 11th which made me take it to my heart! 

1st-6th of March

W2 and Huggins are two tangles that are similar to eachother. I seldom use W2, Huggins is the one that takes the space! But I decided to give W2 a chance using Lynn Shelton Mead´s Tangledeck for inspiration. There has been a lot of crazy Huggins around so I had to check if W2 could go wild and crazy as well. And it sure could! So right now there is a lot of Wild and Crazy W2 here at my place. It is so fun....

...so W2 followed for the next three days too! Now it is moving!

25th-28th of February

Working on Lynn Shelton Meads description how to make a Celtic Knot from Man-O-Man. This was very interesting, I think I understand something more about these patterns! But the last adventure was almost going out of my hand:

Free-form string went into free-styling! Margaret Bremners illustration on this page was my saviour! It was quite fun though!

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! 

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!

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.

7th-9th of January

Doing one challenge a day following the prompts at ElaToRium is like stepping out of my comfort zone. Most of the patterns I haven´t done before. Some of the patterns are, in my way to see them, tangleations of patterns I know. The point is not to learn as many patterns as possible, but try to follow somebody elses intention and see what I can get out of it or where it leads me. Where is the zen in this? I am only speaking for myself, I am aware of that, but following this, the result is NOT in focus. I try to embrace the patterns whatever goes through my head as I see them. It is like jumping from a cliff not knowing how the landing will be and that might be scarying! For sure there are surprises to expect!

7th: Breeze (Ksenija Vojisavljevic)- I see this as a tangleation of Rixties/Pokeleaf. Winzetta (Loretta West) and Gyro (Mei Hua Teng).

8th: Triaxal (Lizzie Mayne)- A tangleation of Beeline?. Twydl (Emily Perkins)- This pattern was the oposite; My own Mec-Mec must be a tangleation of Twydl, since Emily published this 2013 and I wasn´t even a tangler then :)! Wrap (Dörte Seupel-Kör).

9th: Rauschi (Sandra Strait), ACGT (Mafé Mavronati)- A tangleation of Echoism and something else. Tamisolo (Hanny Nura). Tamisolo is the only pattern I have done before.

I think I´ve learned some things the last six days. One thing is not to be Prejudiced. Because it is not the same thing what I see when I look att a pattern and what is happening drawing it.

16th-18th of November + Crazy Huggins

Following the November Prompts in Today´s Tangles (FB)in the calendar is very relaxing! And fun!

16th of November: Sandswirl (Kerry Heun) and Molygon.
17th of November: A favourite of mine,Papermint was added.
18th of Novemger: Then a new to me tangle, Flourish (Stephanie Skelton) showed up. I love the way the combos of patterns worked out.

Of course I watched the video about Crazy Huggins published by Zentangle on Youtube. I was unsure about doing it, since I don´t have the new Sakura gelly-pens. They are not available in Europe at the moment. Hopefully they will soon, since I would like to work with different tips on the pen. I have got some, but the quality of the ink is not so good, at least not on the finest tip 0,7. It works well on black gesso-surface, but not on the tiles, it seems to disappear into the surface. But despite of this I decided to give Crazy Huggins on black tile a round!

I did it as an exercise, following Molly´s instructions and I am quite satisfied with the result. I love working on black tiles. But I am soon running out of them....

Sunday - Zendaladay

Yesterday I tried to learn the tangleation of Well called Well Well Well! I watched the video Maria and Rick posted on Zentangle Mosaic several times and it looked so fun and relaxing. I did it in my calendar earlier... Here is my first tile:

I had some fun with it but I really felt like I wanted to do it on a Zendala! So today was my partytime with it and I did enjoy it a lot! There are many possible ways to play with this pattern Well! This is just the beginning!

Evoke joined and some Beadlines. And something else. I love to work on the Zendala. Most of all right now on a Rennaisance-Zendala!

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!

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 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!