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!

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!

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! 

13th-15th of September and Slow Down with a Zendala!

It is nice to revisite old strings! And so different from when I started working my way through all strings in the Tanglepattern´s resources! Here are three more takes on string 002! I used Tipple, Twilight (Judy Genovese), Beadline (Margaret Bremner), Printemps, Paradox, Webz (Suzanne McNeill), Eke, Diva Dance and Undu (Daniel Lamothe). I would have liked to show the one I did first, but I can´t find it right now. I will look for it.

Today I made a zendala. I saw something somewhere that reminded me of my bottle with Chinese ink and brushes belonging to it. So I made strings on a couple of zendalas using Chinese ink. I love the blackness in this ink!!! Here is the zendala:

I have been writing a lot of Haiku  (Japanese poetry) and doing so I also used this kind of ink doing ilustrations for some of those little poems. Now I could use the same ink with the wonderful brushes like this! So much fun!!! In the centre the pretty pattern OCSIDOT (Sandy Kelly Jones), and then Tipple, Printemps, Indyrella and Fescu. 

Blue on zendala

A few days ago I saw an interesting post by Sandy Kelly-Jones. She tried an idea from Dominique Frottier. Dominique had made a string with words, written on a quarter of a zendala-sized paper and then traced it on the zendala x4. I wanted to try this too and used my oldest granddaughter´s name Juno. I worked in blue which I don´t do often but it was nice to do. The patterns I used are: Stikz (Laurel Spoonseller), Lollywimple (Sandy Hunter), Fragment L25 and Fanclub. Below you can see the traced string. 

This technique was very fun, I like the idea of hiding words under my tangles!

IAST 256

IAST 256 is all about Ria Matheussen´s patterns and doing it in a round.I have tried Hexa once before, Horti and Mazorito are new to me. I like them all but Mazorito is a tangle I took to my heart at once!

This is the way it went. I made Hexa in a wonky way and I liked the way it comunicates with the rest on this zendala. Thank you Ria for sharing your most interesting patterns! I will get back to them all I belive! 

Daily tangles and I am the Diva´s challenge 353.

There are many techniques to learn in Zentangle-world. Recently Rick and Maria posted a video in the Zentangle-app, demonstrating something they call Wholly Hollibaugh. It is fun to do and easy to learn. I practiced it a few times on little Bijou and here I made it on regular tile 8,9x8,9 cm:

It is like cutting wholes in a pattern to be able to watch what is going on underneath! I used Hollibaugh and Pixioze (Margaret Bremner) for this one, after watching Melinda Barlow´s video. I like to tangle in a round!

Rick and Maria explores this technique aplying it on a couple of tangles so I wanted to give Elven (Elena Hadzijaneva) a try. I also used And (Sandra Harsveld) and Printemps. I am happy the way it turned out and I did enjoy the process.

Next one is a Heart-Zendala for the Diva´s weekly challenge. I hesitated doing this. I think I have had enough of hearts by now. But I searched for a template and found one on pinterest. Since I don´t have any prestrung zendalas this was my option if I didn´t want to create a heartstring myself. It works pretty good to do it like this! Here is my zendala for the Diva:

The patterns: Tipple, Paradox, Hibered and 5C (Ina Sonnenmoser). I am glad I did this challenge after all. It was relaxing and I am satisfied with the outcome. Using a template is very much the same as using a prestrung zendala and there are a lot of them to be found on the internet!

Adventure with Toodles and 12 days of Zentangle

I have revisited my old working place at school the last three weeks. I am retired but sometimes I luckily get the question if I can do some more working, meeting my old students. I appreciate every occasion I am able to do this. During this period Toodles was released from Zentangle. Couldn´t resist presenting Toodles for the students. They watched the video from Rick and Maria and then we went to work on it. We had so much fun and I want to show you some of the artwork they did. With their permission ofcourse!

They all look very different and unique. And we had a joyful time together!

Late the same evening I couldn´t stop myself I had to do one more for Twelve Days of Zentangle Day Six. Here it is:

Now they all have their Christmas holiday and I am preparing my own christmas here at home. What could be better than take a break, watching one more video an tangle? Lucky for me I had got one prestrung zendala from Ela Rieger, a couple of month ago! And it was a tan zendala. Exactly what I needed for Day Seven video!

Mostly when I do a zendala it takes a lot of time to finish it. But doing it this way with auras it didn´t take long at all! So relaxing and very simple to do! Loved it!

10th-15th of December and 12 Day´s for Christmas.

One of those things, I don´t have much time for in December is posting in this blog, or being present in social media. That´s the way it is. I try to make my christmas-cards, and allow myself to prepare things I like to do for christmas. But my calendar is on the priority-list as well as be sure I have a moment for meditation every day. 

10-11th, I went for Flux. Flux is a flowing tangle and can go on forever! This was inspired by Molly Hollibaugh´s day two in the 12 Day´s of Christmas.

13th of December is important here in Sweden. We celebrate Lucia from Siracuse. This time of year we need some enlightning in the darkness, the sun doesn´t shine too long during the daytime so Lucia coming whit candles in her hair is popular in more than one way. I felt for star-shaped tangles and started with Afterglo (Carole Ohl, Auraknot (Zt) and X (Lila Popcheff). The stars are accompanied by Striping, Pokeroot, Pokeleaf and Echoism, all (Zt). A little glimpse of blue...

12 Days of Christmas from Zentangle consists of one video a day, starting on 12th of December and is very inspiring. I intend to try them all but in my own pace and own order. Don´t know if I succeed..

Here is my tile for Day One, using Crescent moon, Hollibaugh, Printemps, Bales and Sprinkle. Sometimes it is so good visiting some basics as the Z-string and early learned tangles just trying to do something new with them!

Then I jumped to Day three:

Maria demonstrated her new tangle Rumpus. I followed her instructions to experience this tangle from the start. It was a meditative moment today, doing it like this on a white Zendala and Rumpus will stay in my library of tangles for sure! I love the repetitive strokes, and the possibilities I can imagine for this tangle!

Striping on a black zendala and calendarpage 25th-27th of November.

In PP01 there was a video with striping on a black presprung zendala. As I didn´t have a presprung black zendala I searched the web and found a template I wanted to try. Here is what I decided to try. I printed the template, used my white charcoalpencil on the back of the paper, placed it on my zendala and traced the lines and so there I had a "presprung" zendala! I don´t use templates very often but for this purpose I thought it would work ok.  This is the first time I made a monotangle on a zendala and I must say it was the perfect thing to do on a presprung one! I do enjoy the process  working on a zendala very much. So: More zendala in my life is a promise to myself. 

Here is the calendarpage:

Viaduct (Wayne Harlow), Cubine, Beeline and Drupe. A strange combination I thought. Especially to get some Drupe on 27th to be done! But however it came out and I do love this page more than I thought I would. Cubine is a favourite of mine for sure but I wouldn´t have chosen these combinations if I hadn´t followed the #Giveatangle2017 -prompts! So glad I did. 

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!

Friday - Zendaladay!

Today I felt like celebrating something. No birthday around no special events. Just give myself the opportunity to work on a zendalatile celebrating Friday. Here it is:

The patterns appearing are: Mooka, Tipple, Nipa, Quabog (all Zt) and Lenche (mine). I very seldom use gold in my tiles but today I felt like it was the right thing to do. Working on a Zendala is very relazing. But I admit it is also sometimes frustrating. It happens quite often I come to a point working on a Zendala when I have doubts about what I am doing and start to think of the result instead of the process which means loosing my focus. It doesn´t happen very often working on an ordinary tile 8,9x8,9. But a Zendala takes more time for me to do and then unwanted thoughts may pop up during the process. By now I have learned telling myself, when this happens, just go on knowing that my doubts just are reminders that I´m not finished yet! And it works!

So here is my Friday Zendala. Finished. Doubts forgotten.

Zendala-Time!

Today I wanted to go on with round ones. So I choose a white zendala-tile. It is different from drawing in a round on an ordinary tile. It is larger. And for me it takes a little bit more time to do than a tile 8,9x8,9 cm. The zendala is 11,7 cm diameter. But as I start I love to do them. Here is my today:

The patterns that came by: Pach (Judy Okawa), Balloya (Anya Lothrop) Orbs de la Dee (Anneke van Dam), Beadline (Margaret Bremner) and Locar (Zt). Pach is a pattern I learned not long ago. But looking at the steps was not enough! As Adele Bruno posted her tips for drawing it, I suddenly could draw it easily and fluently! Thank´s Adele!

Today I made a string very simply using another tile to draw the "wings" and then a can-lid to get an inner circle. Sometimes it is good to have a geometric structure and I thought I needed one for this occasion.

A funny thing, today I had to go and consult my dentist to solve a problem (it has to do with age I am afraid) and as I look at this zendala I can´t help looking at white teeth! I didn´t plan the patterns and where they should be, they knew it themselves! And I end up with a smile! 

IAST 205

I bought a circlecutter a while ago. It was cheap. But I wanted to try it. But the result was not too good. I made two zendalas with this cutter that are almost ok. But I don´t recommend others to try it since the difference between original tiles and handmade ones is far to big. Anyhow I made IAST 205 on this handcutted tiles.

The first pic is the unshaded one. 

The second is after shading. Adele asked us to use Shard (Carole Ohl), Pauline´s Pigtail (Adele Bruno) and Shattuck (Zt).