Life is like a kaleidoscope

 "Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. A slight change, and all patterns alter."

-Sharon Salzberg

It's been two weeks since my last post, and the kaleidoscope of my life has gone through major, major changes. But, thankfully, I've had this quote that opened the Zentangle Project Pack 17, to consider. 

This Project Pack includes 24 triangular (3Z) tiles. Each kaleidoscope consists of 6 tiles that all use the same string and 4 tangles.  When I started working on it, I was minimally motivated. "What am I going to do with all these tiles?" I had a LOT of trouble focusing and had to begin over several times. I was not enjoying the experience at all. It became another piece in the increasing frustration and failure that I was already feeling.

Another project, doing an interview for a documentary about Zentangle, came to the rescue. Although preparing for this project initially felt like another "thing on my plate", I realized that I was reviewing the basics of Zentangle that are so important when we practice the method. Everything begins and ends with gratitude and appreciation. Life doesn't give us an eraser. Make every stroke as beautiful and deliberate as possible, and if it comes out different from what you intended, work through it, work around it, work over it, but keep going. Silence the inner critic so that the inner creator can move the pen. Anything is possible, one stroke at a time. Breathe. Be patient.

Repeating these mantras has brought me through these 2 weeks. Although I still have 2 more kaleidoscopes to complete for the Project Pack, I share with you what I have so far. Each piece measures 7 inches across.

With gratitude and appreciation, I wish you a week of wonder and new understanding.

Potpourri Week

With gratitude and appreciation for another week, I present you with its fruits. No theme emerges. This week I drew for the sake of drawing.

I found this in my stash of watercolor tiles that I  prepared after scratching my cornea. I enjoyed just dropping paint and gold pigment. 

Even though my watercolor stash is healthy, I couldn't resist creating another background. The Signo gold pen is so comforting in my hand. I added shading with more watercolor. This tangle, by Daniel Lamothe CZT, is called Autumnal.

This week's Meals on Wheels cards.

Bales as a reticula

#tanglingforUkraine

Day 1 of Project Pack 17. We will be making a kaleidoscope with 6 3Z tiles.The quote introducing this project was compelling to me:

"Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. A slight change, and all patterns alter."--Sharon Salzberg

I look forward to sharing more of this experience with you next week.

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.