Diva's Weekly Challenge #294 and a room with a view

What a busy week in this sparrow's nest!
The sheet of packing paper that was serving as a curtain in our bathroom fell down, so I knew it was time to get creative! I decided to cover the glass with clear Contak paper, which looks a bit frosted. Then, I used my Permapaque white pen to draw a Fife curtain and some "vegetation". This was lots of fun!

That took care of too much on view in this room!

A room with a view to love! 

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with our daughter and son-in-law. I started cooking on Monday, so I wouldn't have everything to do on the day of. I enjoyed taking my time and planning, and loved putting together my table "art" with recycled kraft paper, pine cones and needles, gingko leaves that I happened upon the day before and my fake pumpkin. After the meal, we relaxed by doing leaf rubbings on the paper. I'm looking forward to using the gingko leaves later. They last a long time, and keep their golden color.

This week, the Diva asked us to use the principle of reticula and fragments in our tile. If you have the Zentangle Primer, you've seen this. But if not, it could have left you scratching your head. I haven't taught this principle yet in my classes, but if I may just give a nutshell explanation, here goes:

• Reticula is a fancy word from frame which, like a string, divides the tile. Unlike a string, it creates regular shapes. It can be a grid or a spiral or a sphere made up of other squares or triangles or spheres. In the Primer, Rick and Maria have included 30 reticula.
• You fill the reticula with fragments. (There are 154 4-sided fragments, 66 3-sided fragments and 45 orb fragments in the Primer.) I think of the fragments as little tiles, or stones, or beads that I use to fill in the frame. The general idea is to repeat a fragment, or rotate it as you repeat it or mirror it, but you could also use different fragments within the same frame.
• This is the basic concept. The beauty is that it really opens up a new level of creativity as you work with the smaller fragments as opposed to sections of a string or tile. It moves away from a named tangle, created by a named artist, and shows that, in fact, we can all create original patterns! In the Primer, the reticula are labeled, but only R (for "reticula"), a letter A-L (minus I and J)  and a number 1-33. Likewise, the fragments are just labeled with a letter A-L and a number 1-25 to help you find what you might be looking for. 
• Check out this post from the Zentangle June 6, 2013 newsletter for more information.

For my Diva tile, I used R-E 1 and a variation of fragment G-1.

If you can't imagine what that looks like, and how could you???, here it is:

I used a blueberry stained tile and experimented with tangling on top of and around the stain. Has anyone stained a tile with cranberry? I'm thinking of giving that a go! 'Tis the season and all.

What do think about reticula and fragment theory? Have you tried it?

Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful week!