So long, squiggle. (See it grow: finale)

Having known several writers over the years, I've often thought about editing a piece of writing and how we "edit" in Zentangle art. We don't use erasers, so we might take an "oops" moment and cover it with ink or graphite. We might morph the marks into another pattern. Or we might just leave them, like a loose thread on a Navajo blanket. There is almost always an addition to the mistake, although on rare occasions we might cut the mistake out!

Last week, in my post "Oh, noooooooo!!!!!" I described how I had inadvertently made a squiggle in the white space around the large project I was working on, and panicked for a moment before continuing to work on the rest of the piece. Not sure how I was going to finish it this week, I knew I had to do something. I would not just leave this to the side, unfinished, or throw it away, or cut it!

I took a few days to play with collage. No connection to my Zentangle work, just for relaxation and something different. Then I took a class on creating a gold look with colored pencils. I just needed to clear my mind before going back to the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2023 piece. I'm glad I did.

"A Fragment of My Imagination", 11x15 in.

I'm grateful to 7F5RStudio for the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge. Grateful to Lindy's Magicals (and the squiggle!) for inspiring me to leave the fragments and see the flowers. Grateful to the Zentangle crew for Project Pack 19 and the courage to think big. And grateful to Rick and Maria for giving me the desire and the means to get reacquainted with my inner artist.

Trust the Process and See it Grow: Week 1

Inspired by last month's large piece for the 12 Days of Zentangle Project, I've embarked on an 11 x 15 inch project using the prompts from the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2023.  (There is a lovely FREE handout that you can download. Thanks to Debbie New in Singapore and Ildica Boyd in New Zealand for so generously putting this together for the Zentangle community.) Every day, there is a new little fragment to use, like little tesserae in Roman mosaics, but in ink! We are using square shapes, orbs, triangles and seed shapes. I'm not using all the suggested fragments, and I'm going out of order, but it's Zentangle, right? No mistakes. Here's my work in progress for this week:

The beginning of my fan

Day 2

Day 3

As you can see, after three days, I had covered a good bit of space. Rather than continue, I chose to put it aside for a week to come back to it with fresh eyes. Wanting to continue with the fragments, I found other uses.

These are all the Week 1 fragments in my sketchbook with

the names of their origins.

I used three of the triangular fragments for this week's 

cards for our friends at Meals on Wheels.

As with any of my art, I don't have a plan, other than filling in a fan shape with these fragments. Check back next week for a look at what has transpired!

 

InkTober 22: Week 5

Ta-da!

The finished piece, 10.5 x 10.5 inches, with

Lindy's gang pigments, distress ink, watercolor 

pencils, white chalk, Microns and white GellyRoll

Here are last week's and this week's patterns:

Many thanks to Stephanie Jennifer at 7F5RStudio for her challenge and all the helpful links to step-outs.

I had lots of fun learning new-to-me tangles and look forward to using them again soon!

 

InkTober 22: Week 3

My friend Rhonda had a birthday last week, and we celebrated it this week. I wanted to make something to honor her joyful spirit, with her favorite color, purple. I remembered a series of Phi tiles on the 7F5RStudio site that celebrated friends. I used the string.

Rhonda: joy, kindness, laughter, energy

I wanted to do more cards for Meals on Wheels, but my neck and shoulders were not in agreement! So I pulled out a design I had done last year using Gourdgeous, and spiffed it up a bit. I was really pleased with the colors. I used Prismacolors and mineral spirits to blend them. They are quite vibrant! What do you do when life gives you pumpkins (like a stiff neck)? Make pie!

InkTober came next. Here are the tangles:

And the overall piece:

Here's to wonderful fall days!

Transitions in the Dance

Autumn. New colors. New temperatures. New patterns in our daily routine. New light. So many people say it's their favorite season, including myself. But it represents a transition to shorter days, longer nights, and that can be challenging.

As my body tried to alert me to changing barometric pressure, changing light and changing temperatures this week, I thought, "It needs to learn about the weather app and leave me alone." But that's part of my life, with its thunky stiff joints. This too shall pass. In addition to the autumn changes, we had Hurricane Ian sweeping through. (We are safe and warm and dry and grateful for this good fortune that many cannot claim.) And this intense weather had me looking out the windows, watching the swirling treetops and intermittent moments of calm and marveling at nature's power. "Sometimes storms come through to clear the air." Usually after a hurricane, our skies are a perfect azure blue. For now they are still grayish white. But the sun is popping through, and we know that blue skies lay ahead.

Inspiration came from those hours in front of the windows, and from a birthday gift of more Lindy's Magicals. (Thank you, Lar.) The Autumn Leaves set showed up at the perfect time. After making some distress ink backgrounds in Walnut and Vintage photo, I made some swatches with the pigments and a background.

More to come...

And other stuff, before the pigments came.

Illern, by Annett Rumpler

Colors from "Prairies Meadows" set. They stole the show!

An ugly duckling tile. Yuck. 

But when I painted the Ukrainian inspired "Kivka" pattern on top,

 it suddenly transformed. So glad I didn't give up.

Inspired by Debbie New (7F5RStudio). I don't think it's a pattern

in the middle, intersecting BeadLinz with auras?

In this time of transitions, may our dance move freely, smoothly and with gratitude and appreciation.

Explorations and Artist's Dates

Are you familiar with Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way? It was published 30 years ago, and, luckily, I recently discovered it through a morning meditation two weeks ago. "Mystery, not Mastery" was the phrase that intrigued me that morning, so last week, I started the book and its twelve-week program. At this point, I'm quite happy with it. One of the two actions that you commit to in the program is weekly artist's dates, where you make a weekly date with yourself to explore art / beauty  in whatever form you choose--a trip to the dollar store to buy some new "stuff" to explore, a walk outside, a meet-up, a trip to a museum, etc. My artist's dates this week included some YouTube lessons and a meet-up with my Meals on Wheels card makers, or, as I now call us, the "Sisters of the Travelling Cards".

As part of some self-care that I needed, I purchased a lesson from 7F5RStudio called "Romantic Rosettes". Here's the first tile:

I enjoyed this so much I did another version in my journal:

I did two of the Zentangle Project Pack 18 videos, too, in my journal: 

 

Day 2

Day 3

Maria did an amazing version of her tangle "Verdigogh" in this video. 

Just watching her draw is awesome.

I had these scraps from making my swatch sheet. 

I mounted them on colored card stock and then tangled inside the holes. 

Swiss Swatch!

Lar worked 4 days with a broken toe,

 so he got a little lunchbox tangle, with Gribbits and Cabbits, by Debbie New.

Just for me--and you!

Wishing you wonderful artist's dates!

 

Happy 300th!

300 posts since 2016! Whew! Thank you for all your encouragement and support over the years! I couldn't, wouldn't have come this far with you!

I'll jump right in with a relevant tile from this week, that was not originally intended as a subject for my blog. Serendipity strikes again!

Yes, "Remember how far you've come." This was a meditation one morning this week. I needed a "note to self" to help me to remember to remember. Even though some days require more energy and strength than others, it can help to put them in context with your entire journey. Think of all the rough patches you've been through, of how you've survived challenges and hardships that are just a part of life. Remind yourself of your strength, of what it felt like to move through them into calmer times. What did you do to get through them? Did you call on your friends, your family, your faith, your furry friends? Where did you find resilience? Did you go for walks, do meditation, write in a journal, draw, listen to music, workout? As you remember how far you've come, how can it help you continue your journey?

My week continued with a lovely treat from Lar, through a gift card to Lindy's Gang. New toys, new colors! I've been working on making swatch charts for all the colors I have. (I have way too much fun making these!) To add to my nerdy fun, I bought these little palettes from the Dollar Tree to have the colors at the ready! I'm using my 1-inch hole punch to make the swatches, which I glue onto my spreadsheet. (I'm laughing as I type this!)

I started trying the Lindy's Magicals on Renaissance tiles this week. I had seen examples of this on the 7F5R Studio website, and would never have imagined that they could be so beautiful. The color sinks into that buttery soft tan paper, while the glitter seems to glaze the surface. I'm learning how to work with them. Here is my first go:

I wish you could see the shimmer better. My photo doesn't do it justice.

Here are two white tiles with the Magicals. I used a glaze pen in the first to create a little 3D effect.

Finally, a traditional black and white tile from my journal.

I invite you to remember how far you've come, if you face any difficulties this week. And please remember how much I am thankful your support.

With gratitude and appreciation.

Overcoming overwhelm

Did you know that our brains are programmed to always see the negative so that we are prepared for the worst case scenario?!? I learned this not too long ago, and have appreciated how that fact helps me to overcome anxiety and overwhelm. I can accept the feeling of overwhelm, look at it with understanding, appreciate that I am safe and out of danger, and move on with ease and peace. This feeling of safety helps me take time for creating.

I have continued to find joy in the #SummerFraganic 2022 prompts and my Lindy's Gang pigments.

Day 8, with Yumemi

Day 9, with Pokeroot

 

Day 10, with Dewd

Day 12, with Bronx Cheer (I missed Day 11!)

WingsSwirl, a new pattern from 7F5RStudio

I wish you peace and calm.

More Mesmerizing Magicals

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was learning to use the Lindy's Gang Magicals thanks to a workshop with 7F5RStudio, Mesmerizing Magicals. I've always enjoyed their beautiful backgrounds and jumped on the chance to benefit from their experience. The Magicals are finely ground pigments that are activated with water to produce deep, vibrant colors. Many of them include micah, which gives a subtle shimmer. You can even purchase the "shimmers"--gold, copper, silver, rose gold and pure shimmer--for more dramatic effects.

These tiles are from the workshop:

And these were extracurricular :)

#tanglingforukraine

More powders arrived yesterday, so stay tuned!

 

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.