Outside the box?

The 3.5 inch Zentangle square that we all know and love was designed to simplify our compositions, much like the use of one black pen and graphite. It works, and for years, I have felt little if any need to venture "outside the box".

This week, finding less time for tangling, I picked up a 2-inch square, a Bijou tile, in black to play with an idea I had seen on instagram. I was pleased to create something in a short amount of time. The next 3 days, I continued with my exploration. Finally, I mounted the 4 tiles together on gray card stock.

My tangling continued "outside the box", when I picked up a scrap with distress ink. From my "Try This" pinterest board, I chose BonSai. (I love drawing this one. Nice rhythm and focus.)

I wanted to make a card for a friend's upcoming birthday. This was fun to do, and I found a free Google font--Special Elite--that looks like an old typewriter. The butterfly is from Pink Monarch Prints on etsy.

This morning, I continued with a Phi tile format. I really needed to do something with a LOT of white space. I used Ginilli and some Tripoli. After all my color tiles, which I enjoy so much, I wanted to "rest" with some black ink on white. (Interestingly enough, my week actually began by purging the tiles on my walls in my studio space, to leave more space--for wonder, for breath, for rest....)

And for all those suffering from the conflict in Ukraine, мир:

With a little help from my friends

With immense gratitude for friends, I'll do a short post today to share how I got through this week. Many of these tiles were inspired by friends and members of our wonderful Zentangle community.

 

From a composition I admired on 7F5RStudio's website.

Alhambra String stencil by Marieke on Etsy

From Eni Oken's blog on Gothic Tracery

A "What If?" tile that began with one I made last week.

A morning meditation: No regrets. No resistance. No anticipation.

"Take Heart" pattern. #tanglingforukraine

Please take a moment to be grateful for your friends. Where would we be without each other?

All is Well

Happy belated Valentine's/Palentine's/Galentine's Day! I hope that you found yourself surrounded with love and appreciation!

An excellent youtube video from Eva Wu

My week had me feeling stressed out and sad. I know it happens to all of us, and we "muddle through somehow". I found solace in paint, ink, paper and pen, and, perhaps most importantly, the Zentangle Method. As I've mentioned in previous posts, when I give attention to gratitude and appreciation, my spirit lightens.

  

A "note to self". I used the previous tile and added some collage elements.

Inspired by a lovely piece on timefortangling.blogspot.com. This piece started with incredible frustration as I tried to make the string using Bales. You can see some of my scraps. A lesson in self-compassion and patience. "Anything is possible, one stroke at a time."

 From 7F5RStudio's Tea and Tangle Tuesday video on youtube, featuring two new tangles, Everitas and Medianna.

This morning's tangling, from tanglepatterns.com Refresher 233.

I wish us all peace, love, and joy in the week ahead.

Meals on Wheels

"What do we do with all these tiles we make?" My Zentangle students frequently asked for ideas. I usually pointed out that they stood alone without frames, could be tucked by the corner behind light switches, made into cards or gifts, hung from ribbons, placed in albums, only to receive blank stares. And I understood! I, too, was starting to have tiles pile up.

One day, my friend and fellow tangler Melissa offered a new idea. What if we used them for cards and gave them to our local Meals on Wheels clients? Melissa offered to set it all up, and a community service was born. Since October 2020, we have made cards every week. Sometimes, we use Zentangle artwork, sometimes stencils or freehand drawing. Each card has a personal note. There are currently 4 of us in this group, and a few others contribute as well. Every so often, we get positive feedback from some of the 165 or so clients. These always make our day! And getting together with my friends, Melissa, Pamela and Becky, to share our results, has lightened the monotony of the pandemic! We gather every two weeks, usually in one of our driveways, and catch up for an hour or so. A breath of fresh air!

This week, I decided to raid my "tile drawer" to make 41 cards. I added some digital paper words from  Pink Monarch on etsy.

After I made my cards, I had a little time for some random tangling.

Rozhki, with watercolor

Gray distress ink with blue Microns

If you're in the Triangle area and would like to join our team, email me!

Time

"Time expands to fit my needs."

This was from this morning's meditation. I've always thought that time is fickle, that we could never count on time to be constant. It either moves fast or slow! My lesson plans, carefully laid out in timed segments never worked out to perfectly fit the given time. (Thankfully, I always had more materials left over at the end of class!)  Now that I'm retired, time seems more plentiful. This week I enjoyed spending time on several tiles, as I found myself adding more love, as Maria says. I took time to make deliberate strokes, and then enjoyed going back over them to make them more confident and clear.  As I relaxed and focused on drawing, I felt that time was working with me. Here are my results:

Inspired by a pattern on the Mosaic app

A question from Mindful Art Studio

A note to self, with tangles from my "Try This" board

Two "WhatsItz" from 7F5RStudio

Tile 3 from 7F5RStudio's Singapore Botanic Gardens class.

Have you felt time expanding to fit your needs?

Try This

 Are you a "Pinner"? With so many platforms available to explore Zentangle patterns, I probably use Pinterest more than any other. There are lots of step-outs, and my Zentangle board has multiple categories and almost 2,000 pins! Of course, the problem with that is actually looking at what I've pinned! (Sort of like digital photos. How often do we go back and enjoy them?) I recently made a board called "Try this" to combat the problem. I've been checking it often, and using the tangles I find there. Once I've used them, I remove the pin. (You can check out my pins under "Jennifer Sparrow", @mockspar.)

Here are some tangles I tried this week. I enjoyed choosing a colored tile for each one. For me, it's an instant boost of interest and motivation. And since these tiles often use a single pattern, there are fewer choices to make, so more time to relax.

FluxEcho and Krosnaught

Anuleaf

Ha-nuka (variation, aka mistake!)

Playing with soft triangles and petals

From the 7F5RStudio workshop on the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Tile 2: "A Picture of Perfection", with Growhita, Dealys and Oof and Debbie New's "Whats-Itz" string technique. 

This was my second attempt. Turning off the video, focusing on detail and deliberate strokes made for a satisfying experience.

Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2022, from 7F5RStudio.

Week 4

How do you collect new tangles? Any new favorites?

Snow Days

What do you think of when you hear "snow day"? The sudden, unexpected gift of time, with no expectations? Fuzzy slippers, a warm blanket and a good book? Hot chocolate and time to look out the window, or even venture out and play? I guess for me, all of these come to mind.

During our cold spell this week, I found time to play with color and white ink, and to explore some Zentangle lessons from 7 Forests 5 Rivers Studio (7F5R). 

Colored with Lindy's Gang Magicals 

I did the "Whats-Itz" free preview lesson from 7F5R on another tile colored with Lindy's Gang Magicals. This art studio is located in Singapore, and I love their work, which features lots of organic tiles that remind me of tropical plants. What could be nicer when it's cold outside than a little Zentangle tourism?

I also continued working on the 7F5RStudio Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2022. These squares were also colored with Lindy's Gang Magicals.

Thanks for stopping by! If Nature hasn't given you any snow days lately, make your own "slow day"!

Bits and bobs

Freed space. That is what snow days feel like to me*. A sudden gift of space and time that forces us to slow down and use less energy. Today is one of those days, and like my 5-year old self, I got up before sunrise in joyful anticipation. Eyes glued to my "nature TV window" in my office, I savored the dark silence, with small patches of lighter grays where neighbors roofs sported a dusting of snow. Slowly, the grays lightened, and I could just make out the falling snowflakes. Such a gift.

This week, my tangling included some "wanna try" ideas.

@HappyFlamingo has been posting "zebra leaves" on the Mosaic app.

She inspired me to give it a go, and to add some "Sticks" and "Crazy Cubine".

I wasn't expecting much, but like how it turned out!

Looking for a deeper color, I pulled out my gouaches. I added "Hollis" in gold.

Look carefully. The center is actually raised from the paper, by using the embossing/repousse technique from the 12 Days of Zentangle.

A birthday card and tile for a friend

FYIC2022 (Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge from 7F5R Studio)

This reminds me of my mom and her treasured petit four cakes!

*And I am grateful for warmth, shelter, food, electricity, and running water, for having nowhere to go. I am mindful that snow can be life-threatening to others. I hope that you, too, are warm and sheltered and safe with time to enjoy the space.

A Promising Beginning

Today is January 10, and I feel that the year is off to a promising (st)art. We had snow last Monday, without the peril and mess! It only snowed for a few hours, and then quickly melted, but it was a gorgeous sight! I love how snow purifies and muffles everything.

Someone stole my seat for watching the snow

With the cold, wet days, the neighborhood cat and I have been staying inside a lot, which means that I spend more time "arting" about. I really wanted some warm backgrounds to tangle on, and my paintbox had gotten a bit muddied up, so I took time to clean it up and make some tiles. I can't wait to use the red one!

Have you heard about the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge from 7F5R Studio? Every day during the month of January, there is a different fragment suggested for creating your art. In addition to the usual square, triangular and round fragments, they have included some seed shapes. There is a gorgeous, free 20-page PDF to guide you along. Here's my first week:

I made my first mandala with Zen.Linea's Mandala Builder. I had always used templates that others drew. Making my own was a fun experience. I used a distress ink tile, and added some watercolor at the end. I always love mandalas, and the repetition--and relaxation. I included some of the seed fragments from the 7F5R Challenge.

I finished my vision board for 2022. This project included all my favs: reflecting, journaling, calligraphy, painting watercolor washes and tangling! I used the new gray Micron pens to soften the pattern work. Now I just have to wait for the frame to arrive!

10.5 x 10.5 inch Opus tile

I hope your year is off to a great start!

Happy New Year!

 

Although I didn't manage to stay up till midnight, I wanted to begin this post with my warmest wishes for you and yours in this new year! 

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day felt luxurious, as I spent more time resting and tangling, usually while watching video lessons.

7F5R youtube lesson using "Luminesque"

Zentangle, Project Pack 16, Day 4

Zentangle, Project Pack 16, Day 5

I really enjoyed this!

I've started a vision board for 2022. On a 10 inch by 10 inch Opus tile, I made 3 "big" word categories--Faithful, Agathist, and Notice--and then added my smaller visions to each category. I've put lots of green watercolor in blotches around the words, which have a white background so they stand out.

(Green was an important part of my vision, for growth, health, plants, forest, gardening, hope, etc!) I'm drawing tangles in the green areas, around the words.

Have you ever made a vision board? Do you have a time for reflection at the end of the year? I'd love to hear what you do!