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!

Waiting

Waiting takes up a lot of time, doesn't it? I know this year we are all waiting to see when the pandemic will end. We're waiting for things to get back to "normal". We're waiting for the year to be over. (Remember how we all wanted 2020 to be over?)

I've been waiting to get over a virus this week, and waiting to be tested tomorrow, to be sure it's not COVID-19. Then, there will be some more waiting for the results. I'm not anxious, thankfully. And I've used this waiting time to do some tangling.

After our Christmas gathering on Sunday,I revisited the 12 Days of Zentangle. I did these in my journal, and wished I had done them on tiles! (I don't enjoy drawing in my journal and find it awkward.) 

Day 1

Day 2

I decided to get some color and large nibs back onto my drawing table! I watched a fun lesson from 7F5R Studio on youtube using the Flameflower tangle, by Debbie Bowyer. I enjoyed it so much that I did two tiles.

After seeing a post on the Zentangle Mosaic app today, I tried a lesson from the #toyoutangle classes on June 19, 2021, called "Nature's Light". This was very relaxing, too!

I like the stained glass look.

Wishing you patience in your time spent waiting....

Look, Ma! No drawing!

Have you seen the Zentangle 12 Days of Christmas videos? We're up to day 8, and the projects all involve creating dimension in one's tile to make it 3D! Not just through extreme shading and highlighting, but dry embossing, folding and more!

I haven't been able to follow along as faithfully as I usually would, and that's okay. But I did want to share a few of my creations, and hope that they, in turn, might inspire you.

First, a dry embossed card for my sweetie. (This was day 3 of the 12 Days of Zentangle.) I followed the basic idea, and then added some color. The texture that you see was created with an embossing tool, by "carving" the design into the paper. I would love to do more of these. If you don't have the tool, you can use a ball point pen that is out of ink, or a mechanical pencil with no lead.

We have a new Christmas tree that is quite a bit smaller than what we usually have. I needed some more decorations, so I decided to make a garland with folded tiles. (I had seen this years ago on the Zentangle blog.) I used some distress ink and pigment dyed papers for most of the 2-inch tiles. I made a template with Flux on a regular sheet of copy paper so I didn't need to draw the individual patterned tiles. I

cut them out, and folded all these 2-inch squares. (Parallel folds spaced 1/2 inch apart.) Then I glued two sides to make the triangular prism shape. Tips: I used a scoring tool before folding, and double-sided tape to assemble them. I strung them together on some 1/8 inch satin ribbon that I had. I think it would be interesting to put them on a wider ribbon, too.

My other project was an ornament that Rick made on day 8, using 4 Bijou tiles. I chose to use more dyed paper for these.

Even though I haven't been able to draw along with the ZT crew, I have enjoyed finding inspiration to create decorations for our little tree.

My New Year's cards for Meals on Wheels featured a quote about new beginnings.

May you find magic in every new beginning!

The 3 R's of Resilience

Do you remember the 3 R's of education? Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic. This week, I finally made a tile that was taught in a Tangle for Solidarity lesson from June 2021. (This is a free class offered by 7F5R in Singapore. I highly recommend it.) As I drew along during this meditation, I realized that we are heading into our third year of the pandemic. What a sobering thought. I began to think about how we've all changed, and how, hopefully, that includes some positive personal growth. (Yes, it's drawn on the back of a Zentangle tile.)

Later in the week, I read an article about coping skills that West Point cadets learn that can help us deal with the pandemic. I had to find a way to summarize this important lesson, and create a "note to self"! I call this "The 3 Rs of Resilience".

Other goings on...

Sand Swirl Tree, on youtube

Blattwerk, Dealys and Yerba

What resilience skills have you learned during the pandemic?

Time to Slow Down

In this morning's meditation, I read a blog post from The Tapping Solution: 10 Mantras to Bring Intention and Positive Purpose to Your Day. I chose to focus on "I have time to slow down." 

Sometimes I forget that I'm retired. I chose to retire early in 2015 so that I could have time to be. To read, study, write, draw, serve, and generally take time to create the life that I felt was meaningful for me. In that mix, the latter sometimes gets pushed to the side, so I was glad to see this reminder.  I have time to slow down. That can seem like a luxury in our hurried world, but I believe that you don't have to be retired to slow down. Being mindful, of our breathing, of our food, our coffee (see last post!), of those around us, of the sky--involves  s l o w i n g     d o w n.  In the Zentangle Method, we slow down to practice gratitude and appreciation in step 1. 

Here's my "slow down" tile from this morning:

The tangles are Patakon and Bluster.

And an act of relaxation last night:

Dirdam was so relaxing to draw.

How do you take time to slow down?

Don't Miss It!

My last post, Inviting Inspiration, seems to have gone unheeded in my creative life!

Maybe I forgot to invite her. Maybe she was busy. Maybe I was too busy to answer the door....

Whatever the reason, I've been through something of a dry stretch in the past few weeks. This morning, I had an "aha" moment. I realized I had drunk more than half of my coffee without really enjoying it. (NB: My morning coffee is one of the many highlights of my day!) Worse yet, I realized I had less than half of it left to enjoy. I had been scrolling on my phone, and fallen into a rabbit hole, albeit a lovely Zentangle one.

To the drawing table for another "Note to Self" tile! Luckily, the "note" was already on my desk. "Be happy in this moment. This moment is your life."

I used my new gray Micron pens. I had an unexpected

opportunity when the pen picked up some pigment and

made a pink mark. I added more colored

 strokes to the background to make it blend in :)

Other goings on:

Some notes on Mucha elements

A journal page that began with some 

slow painting and ended up with tangling.

Inspired by 7F5R. I wanted to explore personalized 

tiles for Christmas gifts. The green and blue tile

 was too dark, so I tried another one in white.

 When I came to the center square, I made

 it a window that looks into the sky.

 (I love looking out the window 

in my studio to see the sky. 

It's right up there with my morning coffee!)

Life is moments. I hope that we'll all be more mindful. Have you missed any today?

Inviting inspiration to come and play

 Where do you find inspiration? Maybe it's in nature, in biographical work, in science, in math, in language... There's so much to be found in the most unexpected places!

This morning my meditation included a phrase that resounded with me: Invite inspiration to play. Several things struck me. First, the idea of making time and space to welcome inspiration, just as you would a guest in your home. I clear a space--physical and mental!-- for inspiration, for gratitude, for creativity. Second, the idea of play, and how it opens our imagination to endless possibilities. I remember as a child, how the neighborhood kids would invite each other over to play. Once I had another kid around, there were twice as many ways of imagining what to do!

Often, I find inspiration in seeing other Zentangle artists' work on the Mosaic App or through a challenge, such as InkTober. 

Fluxecho, inspired by the Art Raffle app

Very often, I find it in nature, during a walk or working in the garden.

Fluxecho, with autumn colors

Nehphi tangle, inspired by a magnolia seed pod

Sometimes, I venture out to a museum, as I did yesterday to see the Alphonse Mucha exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art. I came home and started drawing some notes and sketches of things I wanted to play with.

Where will I find inspiration next? I will clear some space, and see what happens!

Flip It!

I've been wanting to draw with no text, just draw for the pleasure of drawing. Today, after my morning walk, when I admired some scrollwork on a neighbor's fence, I came home, picked up a tile, and tried to recreate the design I had seen. Then, I modified it a bit in each of the four corners. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Then I remembered seeing a post on the Mosaic app about using Instagram Layout to create mosaics with your tiles. You can flip and mirror! And in just a few seconds, I have 4 times as much art :) (There are different layouts with many more possibilities, too!)

Here are some more examples. I used the letter "J" from a lesson in Project Pack 15.

My original

If you haven't already, give it a try! I think you'll be entertained!

Note(s) to self

Our Meals on Wheels clients will soon receive their Thanksgiving cards--gasp! Given my continued "micro-bursts" of creativity and joy, I designed these six models for the 60 cards I wanted to contribute. Ever since Project Pack 15 and its focus on letters, I've enjoyed using more text in my art. 

With InkTober behind us, I was thinking about a new project and remembered that I had another mini-journal to work in. I had made the background for the cover, and pulled out my Moonlight pens. (Uh-oh. She's pulling out colored pens again!) I had recently seen the newly published step-outs for Vipson, and had a fun 30 minutes of tangling. After a break, I came back and pulled out my colored pencils and maybe some other pens to finish up. When I opened the journal to inaugurate it, I saw I had already used about half of it for notes on Mindful Art Studio's Slow Drawing and Painting class! No mistakes, only surprises!!!

I took advantage of my "misstart" to review LunarFlux, from the first day of InkTober. I had misunderstood the step-out, and wanted to get this lovely tangle under my belt.

As I drew this soothing LunarFlux tile, a favorite quote from Kurt Vonnegut came to mind:

"When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, 'If this isn't nice, what is?'"

This morning's meditation focused on gratitude for the mundane, and this phrase rang out:

Savor the preciousness of life.

InkTober!

Happy November! We are having a glorious fall here in North Carolina, and the gratitude for the beauty of the sky, the leaves, the birdsong, is palpable!

This unassuming seedling stops me in my tracks every morning, as I admire the light passing through its leaves.

I finished my InkTober pages in my journal. As I mentioned earlier, knowing how to choose colors and then shade appropriately, was a challenge in itself. Several days, I thought, "I totally understand why we use black ink on a white background." I had a full bag of pens, pencils, and markers on my table. The color palette kept growing, as the tools cried out, "Pick me! Pick me!" Whew! Such a challenge:)

Ta-da!

My overflowing tool bag, with its "cast of thousands"

I made a "note to self" relating to last week's post on gratitude. I enjoy making and then seeing these around me as I wake up in the morning, enjoy my coffee, and think about the day ahead.

My beloved Lar and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary on November 1. Our plans--seeing the Mucha exhibition at the NCMA and the documentary on Jacques Cousteau--had to change. In typical JL fashion, we adapted and simply enjoyed the time we had together. I believe, like our initials, we are a good fit.