Abeko for my friend

In Square One Abeko now is the focustangle. No wonder! This tangle is sprung out of a tanglers mind, Lynn Shelton Mead and it is such a beauty in itself! At once, the day it was published, a lot of tanglers wanted to try it, including myself. Starting to use it I found it lives it own life and I don´t know when I start where it will end. It is so special! It doesn´t ask for embellishment. Not even shading. So today I just let it join my other tangles with string 139 (Barbara Finwall).

The other patterns are: Offkey (Lori Byerly), Olb (Helen Williams and LO´s (mine).

I made this tile especially for my dearest friend Lennart, who passed away last night. When I made this, I didn´t know that it was all over, but I thought of him every stroke I made. I miss him so much and I am filled with sorrow but also with greatfulness that I have known such a great person and that we became so close friends for many years.

L and O tangles 2.

After a day of cleaning and washing I finally sat down tangeling. My thoughts are all the time with my friend, dying in brain tumor, and with his family. 

This tile is for him and I used L-tangles in the center surrounded by an O tangle. They are: Lotsadots (Carole Ohl), Lantern (Donna Blair), Lava Juice (Carole Ohl), LO´s (mine), Olb (Helen Williams). In the corners Beadlines (Margaret Bremner). The string I used is no. 138 (Lianne Woods).  

More moving and travelling tangles!

Today I was spending a lot of time sitting in the backseat of our car. At my right side I had our dog in her cage. So I took the chance to tangle, since there wasn´t much else to do. The Diva´s challenge a couple of weeks ago was like that and I did like to do it in a situation when I really couldn´t think of perfectionism or other silly stuff. As the Diva has a challenging pattern this week, Knightstar (Daniel Lamothe), it is stuck in my mind and it was relly something else to do it like this!

It is from my sketchbook, since that was what I had brought with me. It was harder to make this in the car than in the bus. Much more bumpy. The patterns are: Florz, Crescent moon, Ruutz (Eni Oken), Knightstar (Daniel Lamothe) and O (Adele Bruno). This was on our way to Borlänge. On the way back home I made another:

This is for IAST´s 3 celebration. I liked the way it went and I like the patterns Adele has chosen for this special occasion: Orbs-de-la-Dee (Anneke van Dam), O (Adele Bruno), Onomato and Opus.

This day started with an extraordinary surprise! When I opened my FB I found that Sandy Kelley Jones already had finished the tile I sent to her! It made me so happy to see this. What she added was like a continuing movement from what I started with. Without the beforepic it would be difficult to know where the beginning is! Here is the result!

Before:

After:

I love this outcome! It is flowing so gently. The patterns are:
Leaflet (Helen Williams), Flux, Tripoli, Diva Dance and Tipple. 
Thank´s once again Sandy! So glad we did this!

To catch up or not

I did catch up when it was about Joey´s weekly challenge. I learned from this: Not to catch up. It is pointless and it just means I get stressed up and cant keep focus on what is important in tangeling. So from now on I won´t catch up! I have promised myself not to. The only good thing with doing that is that I won´t have to catch up any more! I love to tangle. And I love the challenge with circular strings from Joey! So today I had a party on a renaissance tile!

When I did this today I had some fun. The difference is when I just play and let things happen on the tile. The patterns are: Gra-vee (Laurel Sponseller), the focustangle, Abeko (Lynn Shelton Mead) and Printemps.

Lynn Shelton Mead wrote about her tangle Abeko, that when she comes up with a new tangle it is like it is given to her, it is not a decision. She just passes it further. I love that statement because it is the essence of zentangle. Thank´s Lynn for those words! 

The Diva´s challenge: Knightstar

Knightstar (Daniel Lamothe)is a completely new tangle to me. It is logical, but I must say it is a real challenge. Not so much to understand the pattern and do it. But for me it was very easy to get lost in the lines and do something else. That shouldn´t be a problem, patterns often go their own ways and it is possible to let them do so and the outcome might be something unexpected! Well I tried to make something from my "misstakes".

This is from my sketchbook. I was a little happy when I could let the lines go like a broken net when I didn´t get the pattern to work!

Next one I started on Bijou tiles. The first one only got three petals. That´s ok with me, but I still haven´t been able to reproduce the pattern as it "should" be.

This time I thought I got it ! Wanted to try some color and blue was my choice.

This is the third bijou, now trying to get more than one sample of the pattern. Now it is possible to focus on the net, not the petals and that gives the pattern a new dimension. There are problems with the pattern. To embellish it and make it personal is not easy for me. I guess I have to work on it a lot more to really make it mine. But it is interesting. So now I made it on ordinary sized paper, I wanted to have it on watercolor-paper in case I should choose the color in the end....

This is the final tile. It is all drawn freehand with an L-string. And I let the blue come in. The other patterns are Cheesecloth (Suzanne McNeill) and Puf (Carole Ohl). I am not at that point when the Knightstar flow naturally. Maybe I never get there. But it was fun to try this and I am quite satified with the result.

Traveling Tangles Project

There is a project going on in a FB-group. I don´t think this will stay in a group. I belive it will be spread among tanglers over the planet! It is fun and it is conecting people that would never have spoke to eachother! The name Traveling Tangle is exactly what it is. I start a tile with something and send it by ordinary mail to somone somewhere. Someone finish the tile and publish it in the FB-group. Ofcourse it could be published anywhere. The group is a closed group which means you have to be let in by the moderator Jennifer Stephanie. If you don´t want to join, the idea is great and can grow and be spread wherever it happens.

The last traveling tangle I received came from Czt Sandy Kelly Jones. It was a happy tangle-post and when I got it I wasn´t in a happy mood. To receive this, made the day change into something hopefull! I got it late in the afternoon. I looked at it and wanted to start at once. But I said to myself to wait a little, let it rest over the night at least. This is what it looked like:

I waited till the next morning (yesterday), had my breakfast, brushed my teeth and then started tangeling. Here is the beforepic:

The simplicity of the lines and the fact that this wasn´t a finished tile really got me on the go. This is a very good example of a traveling tangle that works and just want to go on and on! A worked through pattern doesn´t give you that opportunity! But you got to have courage and trust when you leave it to the one who receives it not just to go on tangeling but also to finish it! Thats why I am convinced that Sandy is an exellent teacher! I think I learned something from this. I will be careful with the tangles I send on, that they are so open as possible for further development! Thank´s Sandy for this knowledge. It is not new to me, this is what I have tried to do when I have been teaching students through the years. Not to give to much but give enough! Now I got this knowledge back from a new angle. I am greatful for that! Here is what happened:

It is not about skills or anything like planning. It is about being in it and let things grow. I had such a great moment and I am grateful for that. This tile I will frame and keep in sight as a reminder to myself what tangeling is all about.

String 136 and more

I got mail today from Linda Farmer as an answer to my pattern LO´s . Sometimes things just go their own way. Early in my tangling journey I learned a basic pattern, Eke. I then found it uninteresting and in fact; boring. After that I never used it again and forgot all about it. Linda told me that LO´s was a tangleation of Eke! I am so happy she saw that. I belive I am a little bit wiser today than in the beginning. When a pattern seems too simple or when it doesn´t appeal to me, then I do consider it more than one time and not seldom I find myself really like it when I have tried it out. So I thank you Linda for reminding me on Eke! 

Here is my tile from this morning. I started with string 136. Then the patterns: Echoism, Nipa, Tipple, LO´s (my tangleation of Eke) and Ipso (Jennifer Hohensteiner). Note that I had not opened my mail-box when I did this!I love when moments like this appears. It is a reminder to me that there is so much more than I can see at the first sight, and there is knowledge beyond what I know of! More to find out....