Diva's Challenge #308

Mac 'n' Cheese. Comfort food. Familiar. Memory-filled. Easy. Go-to.

This week, the Diva challenged us to do a tile with our "mac 'n' cheese" tangles. Mine was not at all what I would have expected. First, when I went to choose a tile to use, I saw my Renaissance pre-strung Zendalas, which I still have after 2 years!! I love doing Zendalas, but have never felt totally comfortable with the tan paper. I decided that the Zendala love would overcome the tan fear :)  Second, I chose a string that seemed Mooka-esque. Mooka, one of my comfort tangles, seemed like a good idea, until I started drawing and couldn't identify any sections of the string. What was I going to do?!?
Jump the fence!! After all, a string is a guideline, not a hard and fast border, right?
I started slow and easy, still under the doctor's orders to limit drawing to thirty minutes a day. Not something I'm comfortable with, since I usually stay with a tile until I'm done. Squid came to mind. And from there on out, over a few days, things just happened. I like the results.

Happy Spring! Or Autumn! Thanks, as always, for stopping by! "In-joy" your week!

Ghimghoul Garden, here in Chapel Hill

Diva's Challenge #307

Have you ever known someone who lived their life as if creating a piece of art? Before jumping into the Diva's challenge, I thought I'd share an inspirational experience that my beloved and I had yesterday: a trip to the Goathouse Refuge, one of the largest no-kill shelters in North Carolina. Founded by an Italian sculptor, Siglinda Scarpa, it offers a loving haven to more than 300 cats, all well-fed and cared for. There is a gallery for her gorgeous pottery and a collection of wonderful gardens. The whole property is just a joyful ode to nature, from the cedar post and vine fences to the bird feeders hanging high up in the trees to the hilarious guinea hens running about to the kitties basking in the sun. It is the realization of Siglinda's childhood dream of creating a place where sick and abandoned cats could live happily.

A porcelain birdbath in one of the gardens

Another garden enclosed with cedar and vine fencing

Kooky guinea hens

The cat compound

This week's challenge was to use Indy and Mazzy's new tangle "Zingo". I made my tile while watching their Kitchen Table Tangle video, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thanks for visiting! Have an inspired and artful week!

Diva's Weekly Challenge #306: Amphora

Hello, Blogosphere!
It's been a while, but I am back with an attempt at Lily Moon's beautiful Amphora tangle. Lily is a rock star in our Zentangle world. Her Amphora tangle is way out of my skill set, but I decided to give it a try. Totally unsatisfied with the results, I dug out my notes on Maria's tutorial for glowing black tiles. (I believe this has only appeared on the Mosaic app. Please correct me in the comments if you know where to find it online.) I just did a few of the shapes, as my hand is still unhappy with me. Maybe I'll go back later and do the whole tile. I had to "resurface", i.e. cover the existing white lines in black. I had read about this technique on Mosaic, without really understanding it. On my tile, when I applied white charcoal pencil over the black ink, the texture from the lines from my white Gelli Roll appeared underneath. You can see a trace of it in the top spiral. This could be an interesting technique to explore.

In other news, I have fallen down another rabbit hole: Mexican nichos (not nachos!!!). These are basically shrines. What I fancy are the gorgeous colors. While recovering from my hand injury, I found that I could use my fat Moonlight and Koi pens and colored pencils to do simple frames that reminded me of the shadow box that is used in so many nichos.  I'm really happy I discovered these! The colors delight me! (On a side note, yesterday my wonderful son-in-law presented me with a box of Magnetips pens in all the brightest colors I could dream of! Look out!)

Thanks for your visit! Have a delightful week!