Inktobertangles 2019

We are soon entering October and Inktober Tangles Challenge 2019. I have done this earlier on Bijou-tiles and in my Calendar. Stephanie Jennifer CZT has published a list of tangles to do each day of October. Here is the list:

You can find more details in the blog 7 Forests 5 Rivers.

This year I want to try the Inktober Tangles on an Opus Tile. I have only made two Opus tiles before this and now I am stepping out of my comfort zone! As I decided to do this I wasn´t sure of how to. Should I divide the surface into 31 pieces? Should I make a string? After I had thought about it I decided not to divide the tile into 31 spaces to fill. It is risky, maybe there wont be room enough for 31 tangles??? Especially as I wanted to start like this:

I was really pleased with this beginning: Inktober 2019 as embedded letters. I will use my favourite fountain pens, one filled with sepia colored ink and one with black ink. As I am going to be travelling for two weeks in October I needed to start with the Inktobertangles earlier. I will not make blogposts every day with my inktober tangles, but hopefully my blog will be updated more often than I have done the last months! Here are the first three tangles of Inktober:

Printemps, Tunnelvision (Jody Genovese) and Toodles. I am excited to do this! I love that I don´t know where this will end if everything will take place on this Opus or....This is also something that feeds  my creativity, the uncertainty of art in progress. I have thought about that if I don´t have room enough I could continue on the back of this Opus.... Working with fountain pens is nice. The ink is flowing easy, no need of pressure to make it work! Why don´t I do this more frequently???

Hello again! And a new tangle AAW!

The exhibition went well. I didn´t have to come home with all my work this time. Ofcourse I was happy for those of my paintings that got new homes! But the week was much more than about selling. So many interesting talks with people I had not met before and also with some I had met. And so many asked about the Zentanglemethod! Some of them also went for a try, which was great! Among the paintings I had a couple of Opus-tiles and a few zendalas. I shared the showroom with a friend of mine, Gerd Vading and on an exhibition like this there are also moments in between visitors and then we had a chance to tangle too. 

The first tile ever for one of the visitors!

Tiles made during the exhibition. Some visitors are represented,
some could not come back to get their tiles at the end of
exhibiton, so they brought their tiles with them at once.

During this week I also played with my chop which resulted in a new pattern! My chop has changed since I started tangling. It might change again. This pattern looks different depending on if I only use one kind of stroke or if I draw it with a rounded stroke (C). First one page from my sketchbook:

Then the final step-outs:

I didn´t do the steps on the exhibition, but I made one tile with it:

I was happy with this and I liked to do it so I might go on with it now and then! One thing I liked with it is that it was very simple and that gives a lot of possible variations to play with. If you want to try it, please let me know so I may see what you come up with! It is a great joy for me when other tanglers try my patterns!!!

Ofcourse it was inspiring to be able to tangle during this week sitting among Gerds and my paintings in such a beautiful place! 

 I have got some more to work on after this which might result in at least one more deconstructed pattern! But right now I have a lot to do to get my studio properly cleaned after some months of intense work here!

Calendar 4th-9th of December

I belive the red spots is pointing out December as the month of Christmas. Can´t help thinking in that direction. The patterns: Florz, Zenith, Icantoo (Hanny Nura), Icanthis, Bales var. Ing, Locar and Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner). About the last three days with Ing: After the seminar there was another gathering of CZT:s called Zenagain. I wasn´t there, but after that I saw some wonderful Ing variations and I kept those in mind since I wanted to give Ing a round with fragments this time. I loved to do that, using fragmens from the Zentangle Primer.

Daily tiles and a classphoto!

To me it is important to do my daily tile (=daily meditation)in one way or another. It helps me to keep my focus, to appreciate, to relax and stay calm. Every tile, and I mean every single one, represents something that is important to me. Every tile is a moment of gratitude for something in my life, gratitude for the method that says "anything is possible, just one stroke at a time". 

Tangles: Quandary, Pokeroot, Pokeleaf and Heartvine (Lori Howe). In gratitude for a short meeting that created a difference in my life.

Tangles: Pokeroot, Pokeleaf, Diva Dance rock-n´roll. In gratitude for Bach´s cello suites played by Jo Jo Ma.

Tangles: Mooka, Shattuck, Tipple, Pokeleaf and Knightsbridge. In gratitude for the Zentangle Method created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas.

Tangles: Qua-Sahnt (Heidi Halpern Kay) and Brizl (Susan Kelley Pundt and myself). In gratitude for friendship that means a lot in life.

Tangles: Zenith and Bales tangleations. In gratitude for little friend Bijou!

Of course there are days when everything seems to happen, almost no time at all left for tangling. But there are always at least 10-15 minutes! Who can say there isn´t? And 10 minutes is what it takes to make a little Bijou! Bijou is always a friend in lack of time! Yesterday was such a day. I had to go to the vet with our black Pumi Bisse, she has been limping for a while. It is one thing to be sitting in a waitingroom by yourself, another to take care of your dog during the examinations and x-ray and waiting for results. You can´t tangle. You just has to stay calm, and be comforting. Home again, having supper, taking care of other things that had to be done, I was very happy to have my little Bijous to go to before bedtime! 

Why do I write about this? I do because I want to stress the fact, that zentangle is not a competition, it is not about doing the perfect tile, it is not about being clever, it is not about having lots of time to spend on yourself, it is not about perfectionism and all that. It is all about the process. To slow down, to appreciate what comes out of the pen and leave the worries behind. Then appreciate the little piece of art that came out of the process. It is so simple!  

At last the classphoto from the CZT 32 Seminar! Love to look at this and remember the days we shared!

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! 

My calender 22 oktober - 18th of november

I decided to make my first post after the CZT-seminar a post with my calendarpages. So much has been going on and so much I would like to share!

In november I want to land in my role as a CZT. So I plan to only use official tangles in my calendar this month, trying to explore each during three days.

What pattern could be possible at the Niagara Falls? Of Course: Nipa!

Inktober in my Calendar and my new Journal!

Inktober! Mr Jake Parker started this and participants are around the world.  Stephanie Jennifer has made prompts for tanglers and I did participate last year too. Now I decided to make the prompts in my calendar and this suits me very well! But started I couldn´t stop myself trying it on a tile with the first three patterns together: Mooka, Yah (Emily Classon) and Ginilli (Randi Wynne Parry).

Doing so it was much fun and the next thing I had to try was in my new Cappucino-journal.

For once I didn´t use any black micron, just gellypen, white charcoal and graphite. Oh I loved to do this. So I just went on yesterday too:

The color looks different in these pics, because the first one is taken with my iphone and the second is a scanned one. Maybe the iphone pic is more correct! But anyway it is much easier to scan this book than to take photos, so I try to live with this result. I have no intention to make my journal an inktober one, but it was very fun and relaxing. I will not plan, just let it go with the flow!

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!

22nd-24th of September and a Daily tile

I find it so pleasing to revisit strings I have done before and do them more then once! It is a way to see them from other angles each time. This is string no 28 from Tanglepatterns. The patterns on this page are: 3 Loops G (Mina Hsiao), Hexonu (Cherryl Moote), Maryhill (Betsy Wilson), Starmap (Suzanne McNeill), Knightsbridge (Zt), Scallop (Suzanne McNeill), Veez (Margaret Bremner) and Tektonik (Tomás Padròs). Last time I tried this string was in november 2015 and it looked like this:

Hurry, Nipa and a tangle I don´t remember the name of. 

In Square One, the focustangle is Lee Bee (Sue Schneider).I have been playing with it in my sketchbook trying to make it mine.

I am not there yet, but I like this tangle. It can be used as a reticula I think. I have tried it earlier but not really taken it to my heart. Now I definitely have and here is my first tile with it in Square One:

I had some fun with it.....

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.

16th-18th of September and looking back.

three days with String 002 from Tanglepatterns.com. 

The patterns: Meer, Florz,Beadline (Margaret Bremner), Onomato, Undling (Susie Achter) and Spawn (Shoshi). This time I found the very first tile when I used this string october 13th 2015! My first year with zentangle! Here it is:

As I made this in a project making one zentangle a day for 365 days I also wrote down the patterns: Tour, Quib and Quipple! It seems so long ago though it isn´t.  It is overwhelming to look back like this on early work. I can´t belive it is the same person... but I know it is.