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!

28th-31th of December and a Happy New Year 2018

My last post with the calender for 2017. The end of an adventure with tangles. 

28th: Phen (Beth Snodderly). I find this pattern interesting. Easy to learn and very simple. Which opens up a lot of possibilities, how to use it, make tangleations and how to embellish it. 

29th: Phen with Organic (Sayantika Ray) and Fescu.

30th: Organic, Pen and Opus. Opus is a tangle I don´t use much and it is a tangle I need to work on to make it mine. Tipple down in the right corner too.

Last day of the year. I looked through my calendar and there are a lot of interesting and fun patterns during the year. I picked som of those that were new to me. Balloya came across my way as I saw a video from Melinda Barlow. In March I played with Edgar (Judy Genovese). I met Meshmerize (Tomas Padros) in the autumn and Toodles was in the #Twelvedaysofzentangle from Zentangle.com 

Ofcourse there were a lot of other new patterns but as I started with Balloya, that pattern decided which would follow!

I found another very nice pattern as I saw a tile done by Ela Rieger. It is called Flormoeba and is designed by someone with a pseudonym; cherokee 410. I needed to try it on a black tile so here it is:

Isn´t it a lovely pattern! You´ll find it here.

Today it is the first day of the New Year 2018. I had to celebrate it doing my first tile for this year:

Yes, Flormoeba again, Organic (Sayantika Ray) Orbs de La Dee (Anneke van Dam), a blown up part of Featherfall (Carole Ohl), Diva Dance, Striping, Tipple and Fescu.

Well I guess I will go on posting from my new calendar in the future. I got one as a gift from a friend of mine. The tangling in the calendar is very addictive. And I love that addiction!!!

IAST 215

I don´t work n ATC-size (8,9x6,4 cm) very often. But I got a few black ATC:s from a friend. I wanted to try this weeks IAST-challenge #215 on this one:

Two patterns suggested for the string: Clob (Jem Miller) and Delys (Jenna Black). Love them both and will sure use them further on!

Diva´s challenge- Guest Post Marguerite Samama

As I said in yesterdays´s post, Marguerite Samama made the guestpost for the Diva this week. The focus is on fragment D1 from Zentangle Primer. It is such a fun challenge, it can lead to whatever! I love this because there is a lot of possibilities to get surprised! Here I tried this on a black tile:

Except D1 I used Wud (Joni Feddersen) and Snorr (Sandy Hunter. The string is Margaret Bremners "ropestring". It was such a joy to do this! Thank´s Marguerite for a relaxing challenge!

Calendar and letters

I got stuck with Block´d (Jane Eileen) for some reason! For three days I played with squares in my calendar.

22nd of July: My first Block´d ever. Here with Metro (Anya Ipsen).
23rd of July: Block´d with Beelight (Zt).
24th of July: Block´d with Fragment W7 and Diva Dance (Zt.

Very relaxing to work with this pattern and it may take a lot of appearances! 

Then this happened: I ran into a video with Kitchen Table Tangles. I looked at it twice at least. It was all about embedding letters. I love letters. Letters are magic. But there is also a problem. A close friend of mine (not longer with us), she was an illustrator and made beautiful calligraphy. I followed her work during several years and I admired her creating so much beautiful letters! I know it takes many years of practice to be able to do what she did by hand, not at the computer. I decided not to go deeper into that calligraphy-thing because I figured out I won´t have that time at all. Looking att the video I found another way to think about it. And I couldn´t wait trying!

Actually I thought I couldn´t make letters beautifully. But looking at this I know it is possible. I loved to work with this the way Maria and Rick presented it in their video! It was so easy! I made my first steps with embedded letters on small Bijou. It felt safer in a way.

You can also check out Melinda Barlow´s lesson about embedded letters here! 

One more Heart

I couldn´t help it. But the truth is, I had to make one more Heart! I had to try it on a black tile too! So here is my 5th (!) Heart for the Diva´s challenge!

Papyrus (Suzanne McNeill) in the background. Fluxecho (Lynn Shelton Mead), Flux and Tipple. That is all there are. Tangling on a black tile again was a happy moment. I love this surface! Because of the problem getting original black tiles I am very economical with those I have got! Too economical! So now I promise myself to work on them more regularely! Because I enjoy doing it very much! 

About the Heartshape as a string: It is liberating to use the shape as a string, at least for me it is. I can leave all my representations about hearts aside and only let the tangles flow. It is amazing. Thank´s Jessica Davies!

10th, 11th and 12th of May

This page i only use Fragments from the Zentangle Primer. I have thought about that for a while inspired by Simone Menzel´s work.

It was very fun and I only used one kind of Reticula, the one with squares. I started with one I have tried before, W7,  then I  went on with P6, M7, P5 and F2. M7 became a favourite! I think I will go on with this Fragment-Reticula-thing for a while it is so fun!

I talked a lot about Molygon in yesterday post. Today I tried it on a black tile and I got a tip from Sue Zanker, Australian tangler, to make them fatter.

Now I think I found a way to work with Molygon that I feel more comfortable with. This one was really relaxing to do and I like the way it talks to me.

Frunky Diva´s challenge

I am not joking when I say I got Frunky this time by the Diva´s challenge! I just couldn´t stop doing this pattern from Katharina Königsbauer-Kolb! I tried it on black with Meringue (Kelley Kelly) and some Tipple....

I tried it on a little Bijou with Striping......

and finally on an original white tile with Joki (Kim Arts-Bruins).

27th of February and string 240-242

February 2017 is soon gone. Looking backwards, it has been a busy month and my studio is full of things going on. The calendar is very often my start of the day, before I go into anything else. It wasn´t planned but now I have had three days with Waybop, a tangle I didn´t even like from the start....

The last one today is different from the two before, as I only used 6 "seeds". It looks more like a decal or something you put on the wall. I liked it though. The patterns except Waybop, are parts of Arukas, Pardox, Caviar (Lori Howe), and Mashed (Lori Byerly). there is one thing with the calendar I am not comfortable with. As I blacken bigger areas, the black doesn´t come out black and even, if I try to make more layers of black it will all be messed up. Now I have tried that, I will be more careful not doing so much black areas.

Now to the strings I have done´. The first one, string 240 (Anette Plaga Lodde):

A monotangle with Tri-O (Hanny Nura). This one started with a little Oops and then it went out of control into a monotangle-orgy! It was so fun and I think Trio will be one of my favourites. 

The second one, string 241 (Barbara Finwall):

Barbara Finwall has made a lot of very interesting strings! I used it with Yaw-Dee (Peg Farmer), the focustangle in Square One, Huggins and Beadlines (Margaret Bremner). Yaw-Dee is so cool!

The third one string 242(Joyce Blodgett):

Yes! A black tile at last! Haven´t done that for some time now. It is odd that I did this since it was my first try on Ragged Ray´s pattern Flec. But I had to try that since I liked his example on the black tile in his blog a lot! It is a fun and easy pattern. I will sure try it more. Here I used it with FragmentY1 in a wavy reticula following the string and Some tipple.

12th of February and one travelling tangle!

One more page finished!I love this calendar!

I went on with F Q2 and R A2, Florz (Zt), Crescentmoon (Zt) and Web (Suzanne McNeill). Then Zimba popped up again and also Beadlines (Margaret Bremner). From now on I write F for Fragment and R for Reticula and the letters and numbers coming with it refers to fragments and reticula in Zentangle Primer. I liked the way it all turned out.

Then I went on finishing one of Sue Zanker´s beautiful starters for me! Forgot the beforepic, but I took a groupie as soon as I opened my Happy Mail, so everything is to be seen!

Sue started this black tile with Relly-Telly-One (Karin Klang-Meier) and I answered with Tipple and 2 patterns of Helen Williams: Heartline and Heart Offset. Heart Offset is a new tangle to me  and I liked to play with it. Here you find the entire Happy Mail from my friend Sue in Australia:

Wonderful Black

I love black tiles. They are comforting in a certain way. Today is Christmas Day and the Daylight doesn´t stay to many hours. I walked my dog at 7:30 this morning, it was still dark and now 14:15 the daylight is fading away. But it is slowly getting brighter.  I worked on a black surface today and in the basic way, dots in the corners, frame and string 215 (Shirleen Long). I took my time, breathing, appreciating and gratitude.

I can´t help thinking of Angels when I draw the pattern Drawings, the most recently published pattern from Zentangle. I know it shouldn´t be representative but to me it is. Here together with Tipple (Zt) and Gord (Sue Zanker). I tried to think of Drawings as fragment and then enlarged fragment.

I loved to do this and I am very happy with the result and that´s because of the process! It is important to start and end with appreciation and gratitude. To focus on these things gives another perspective upon life. This method has brought a lot of joy to me and it has brought new friends to me from around the world. We may not have met in person, but we have met on other levels that has become very important. I am grateful this is possible!

Reticula and fragments

Reticula is the new name of the grid. And fragment is the name of the pattern in each part of the grid. The terms Reticula and Fragment are introduced in Zentangle Primer Vol.1. I haven´t got that book. I would like to have it. But to order it from US is not to think of, since I have to pay more than double the price with taxes and fees shipping it to Sweden. I have to live without it as long as it is this way. But I like the new terms.  the Diva´s challenge this week is to make a Reticula and fill it up with fragments. It is a way, well known to create patterns, working with textiles, ceramics, tiles or other stuff. Yes, even painting, remember Matisse and Mondrian! Maybe come up with a new personal pattern if you are lucky! Here is my first try in the challenge:

I had a lot of fun doing it. Don´t know if anyone out there created a pattern similar to this one, but I bet there is. Please tell me if there is a name on it already! 

Last night i also made a black tile with string 194 (Anette Plaga-Lodde). 

I used Ceil (Sandy Steen Bartholomew), Papyrus (Suzanne McNeill), Meer and Tipple.

 

Two challenges or more

Tomorrow I am going to Uppsala with my choir, Siljans Vocalensemble. We are having a concert in a medival church called Rasbo Kil. To sing is a very physical activity and it is easy to find similarities between singing and drawing. Zentangle is about focus. Singing in a choir is also about focus. To prepare myself I have done two challenges that became three. One last night, for Joey´s weekly no. 138 also became one more for the Diva´s UMT this week! 

This is also a "finish my tile"-challenge. Joey started it all with Twile (Lesley Scott Gillian). It is a nice little weavy-pattern that I have done before, but forgotten about. I added EAXY(Nadine Roller), just a little Cracked (lori Howe), Flux and Tipple. About the Cracked; I had made more of this, but then the tile felt to "Cracked", so I darkened a lot of it. Then I needed Wud (Joni Feddersen) as a border. EAXY was the reason I made it on a rennaisance tile, I was curious to see what i looked like. 

Next tile is today´s meditation and IAST 170.

The patterns are Oke (Michele Beauchamp) and Jelly Legs (Amber Davis). Jelly Legs is a new pattern and it reminds me of a sort of candy that is called "fried eggs"!

As I am going away until Sunday evening I won´t post anything. So until then, Happy Tangling! Now I am going into music!

Haloween in tangling world

Halloween is all over the web. Also in tangle-challenges! Halloween is quite a new  phenomena in Sweden and here it is driven by commersial sources mostly. That´s why I am a little split about the whole thing. I like party-feeling and celebrations, that is not the problem! I also like to decorate a pumpkin or two from my garden and eat something good. But some things has gone to far. You´ve all heard about clownmasks, which shouldn´t have anything to do with Halloween at all, but these clowns has exploded during this time of the year in Sweden, and that is totally a new and unpleasant thing for this year´s celebration. Noone should be afraid to take a walk or just being hanging out when it is dark outside... But I decided to not bother about these problems when I sat down doing the Diva´s challenge for the week!

This is my celebration-tile for Halloween 2016! I made it on a black zendala-tile and I had a lot of fun doing it. I haven´t worked on a zendala for some time, I don´t have many of them left so I only do that for special occasions and to make a Halloween-zendala is such an occasion! Patterns I have used: Boze (Jan Stainle), Web(Suzanne McNeill), Garlic Cloves (Jacquelien Bredenoord)and Tipple. This time

Boze are my Halloween-Bats! If they have evil minds they will be trapped in the Webs -Ha-ha-!

Tagh

Tagh is an official zentangle from Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. Now it is the focustangle in Square One. That´s one of interesting things with this Fb-group, patterns you once learned comes up and get a new chance! I haven´t used Tagh since I learned it. No particular reason, but I then didn´t get a relation to that pattern. Now I took the chance to get one! First I made it on a white tile:

I used string 181 and LO´s (mine). There is something else to but I am not sure what it is! That happens in zentangle: you don´t always know if you have drawn a pattern that is someone elses or not!  I loved to try different shadings on Tagh this time! Tagh is so easy to learn and so easy to make variations on! And very relaxing! I have a feeling that Tagh will become more special to me after having it in focus. So yesterday evening I made a black tile as well:

My own string dissapeared almost here. Dreamcatcher (Daniel Lamothe) and Tipple came along. Black tiles are special to me. I need them.

Black and Renaissance

I ran out of black tiles a couple of weeks ago. I have worked on other black tiles handcut by myself, but since I love those black original tiles I have missed them. Two days ago I got my original black tiles and yesterday I just went for it. It was so fun!

Now I am on the go again! I used string 180 (Beth Snoderly) and patterns: Cruffle (Sandy Hunter), Chakra (SSB), Mooka, Bales and Tipple.

Today I tried a Renaissance tile for Joey´s weekly challenge no 135.

I don´t work on rennaissance tiles too often. Don´t know why because I am satisfied most of the time with the result.  I do find the shading difficult depending on the surface and the color of the tile. I like to keep it simple and use just a few tools like pencil and micron. Here the patterns are Dicso (Mina Hsiao), Drogon (Lily Moon) and Msst. The string is Joey´s.

Black is Black

There is something about black tiles. I love to work on them sometimes. Not always. There are traps to fall into. One of them is to get  balance in the greyscale on black surface, not to smudge everything up. The easiest way to avoid this is not to use anything else than white gellypen. If you do that, there is no greyscale. Only black and white. As I am deeply in love with greyscale, that is not an option. I get bored very easy if there isn´t one. Now I almost have run out of black original tiles so today i used one I have cut myself.

This is the week with Garlic Cloves so i made a monotangle inspired by Lynn Shelton Mead´s monotangle on white tile. The zenstone is a tool I like to use to make the greyscale! If i get too much of zenstone, I only use a brush with a little water on and then I can get rid of the excess! I start "shading" with the zenstone and use a little amount of white charcoal to get some brighter highlight. Ofcourse the gellypen also bring highlight! But there is a value in getting something less "high".

Then there is a second trap. It is easy to belive that a black tile works the same way as a white one. It doesn´t. I have to spare the black parts out if I want them to be black. Ofcourse I can change my mind and go on with a black micron on white parts made by the pen or white charcoal, but that is not the same. I can get some effects doing so, but I am not so fond of that technique. I want to do it the easy way. For me that is to think about the spaces, about forms and where I want it to be very dark and where I want the light to be bright.

Is there any zen in doing black tiles! Ofcourse there is! To me it is like going into a another zone of zen. Especially when doing a monotangle. I love to do that and when I keep it simple like with Garlic Cloves I love it the most. 

Daily Tile and more travelling tangles

Today has been one of those days when autumn is at its best. Sun was shining and the temperature was warm! When I look at photos from last year, the autumncolors hasn´t come so far this year. But the colors of ocher are just about to appear and I do love this time of year. What could be better than finish the tile from Sue Bailey for the autumn-theme in the Travelling tangles project? 

This is her beautiful start. Except that I had drawn 2 petals before I stopped and took the before-pic.











She had started with Arukas, one of my favourites, and Quandary (the petals). I had an adventure doing this!Quandary was so delicate drawn, but I started from there and then I let Arukas take over and grow. Then I added Tropicana (Kate Ahrens) and Cubine. The penciled string divided the tile in two parts and that was challenge no 1 this time. I wanted the tile to be an unite! I went on and at last, when I added the colors I think I succeded! I was happy with this outcome and I hope Sue will like it too.

She also sent me a black tile:

 

The start is a string consisting of Ansu (Lori Manoogian) and Henna Drum (Jane McKugler).
First I considered not to do anything, it was so nice just like this. But then I couldn´t stop myself.  

I made a pair of auras round the "string" and then I tried a new pattern, Eleganca (Simone Bischof), and one of my go-to-pattern, Florz. 














This evening, when everything was silent I made my daily tile. Next string in my personal project was 167 (Sandra Schubert).

This was my relaxation/meditation for today. I love to go for Garlic Cloves (Jacquline Breednort)so here it comes with Schiefer (Simone Bischof), a tangle I almost had forgotten, but a tangle I like very much. 

Travelling tangles connecting people!

I have met a lot of people by now because of the movement "Travelling Tangles Project". To get mail from Australia, USA, Belgium or wherever from is so much more fun than to get those bills or advertisement that fills up the mailbox! Today I´ll let some of all those beautiful starters fill up this post! 
From Kat van Royen in Virginia, USA:

From Debra Huff, California, USA:

From Michele Wynne, California, USA:

From Lin Laidler,MA,USA:

Something happened two weeks ago or so! I got e-mail from Ria Matheussen in Belgium! She is not on Fb but she wanted to participate in this project anyhow and she wanted to do it with me! I then got such a beautiful letter with a wonderful handmade card from Ria. Now I have finished both tiles she sent me, and I have mail for her on the go! Here is her happy mail for me!

This is almost a "before-pic"!  started to embellish the ribbon before I remembered to take the photo! But you can pretend the lines in the ribbons should not be there:

I am so happy to be in this project. It gives me a lot of inspiration and also with theese exchangings it is like I know the persons behind their mail and by their finishing the tiles I sent them in another and a deeper way than only "seeing" eachother in communities on internet. This is such a beautiful idea!