Diva #118 and Bright Owl # 59

It's a great thing that I love my Zentangle job, so to speak, because I have been knee deep in it for 2 straight days and will probably be doing the same today. Getting ready for classes is a lot of work and if you love your job, that means a lot of fun as well. I have been working on and off on a few classes for later this summer, and with three days with no other plans, I knew this would be a good time to make a serious dent in what is still on the TO DO list.

Here is the before and after of this week's dare, #59 with The Bright Owl. The center of this zendala has both Auraknot and Hollibaugh. Other patterns are Springkle, Cruffle, and Fescu. A little linework finished it off.

Here at the bottom is not this week's challenge, rather Diva's challenge, # 118, but better late than never, here it is. I can't say what I did here would ever be filed in the "my best work" folder. but it never was a contest, so I guess I am good, so to speak. On challenge 118, we were supposed to use Kukes, and this is what I came up with, using a stencil I had to create the string. I carry around a wallet of tiles that I have prestrung with my stencils, and this just happened to be one I was carrying when I had a break at work the week I started it.

Ebony and Ivory

This week the diva has an ebony and ivory challenge, challenge 119. The idea is to try to do half black and half white, basically. My piece kinda happened by accident, and kinda not. I started with a mandala  from the Bright Owl's challenge 56 that didn't print properly on my computer. You know how it is probably when your printer is having a bad day.  In order not to waste the paper, I decided to go over the lines which were too light, with a marker. It was a Sakura Pigma Pen 10, just like Apprentice pens that come in size 5, only broader. it was so broad that I thought continuing it with finer pens might not look right, so I just decided to do the entire zendala with the same pen, and here is the result. It might not be a total 50/50 balance, but close. I used footlites, paradox, socc, beadlines, and some detail work.

Zendala Dare #58

Have I mentioned that I love tangling zendalas? This is my version of Zendala Dare #58, courtesy of Erin at the Bright Owl; the before and the after. Enjoy.

Intermediate Zentangle Class Announcement!

Above are samples of the tangles we will be working on in my next Zentangle® class: Line Work, Dots, and Boxes. We will be doing primarily variations of Auraknot, Paradox, 8's and Block'd, the latter two being two of my own tangle designs. The pictures are representative of what we will do, but not the whole story, so to speak. We'll be playing around to see what happens when we do the tangles: Auraknot, Paradox, 8's and Block'd in different shapes and with different patterns inside some. It's gonna be fun for sure!

Place:  The Occasional Artist   7150 North 57th Dr. Glendale, AZ 85301       http://www.theoccasionalartist.com/ (623) 847-2215 Call the store to register for classes.
Saturday, June 22nd 2-5 pm and repeating
Saturday, July 13 10:30 am to 1:30 pm
Intermediate Level Tangling $30.
Photos here:
http://janeeileen.blogspot.com/2013/05/intermediate-zentangle-class.html
We will be exploring variations of tangles including official tangles: Auraknot and Paradox, as well as Jane's new tangles: Block'd and 8's.

ART QUILTING STUDIO SUMMER 2013 IS ON NEWSSTANDS NOW.

This is the cover of the magazine in which my latest article, Scrappy Chic Recycled Quilt and Doily Books, has been published. It wasn't supposed to be out until June 1, but Debbie Bick at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale, AZ let me know she got her store copies for sale today. Maybe mine will be in the mail in the next few days. I did see an online private preview before it was published, but nothing beats holding the actual magazine in your hands. Can't wait!

Zendala Dare 57 and more Tangle A Day

 

First, I want to share my work for Zendala Dare 57 from Erin at The Bright Owl. I decided to do the whole thing with just one stroke, the same strokes that Erin uses in a pattern she calls Socc. I do this so much, I am lucky there isn't a tax on it. First is the template for the week and then my take on it. I used mostly the lines from the original mandala, only needing to add a few extra lines to make some of the more rectangular shapes triangular. I believe Socc begins with all rectangles since by mathematical definition squares are a subgroup rectangles. Erin is using a guest host this week, a fellow CZT Genevieve Crabe. Genevieve has an amazing blog with  the Weekly Roundup  featuring all kinds of good links for tangles and such. She also is the creator of mandala stencils and tangle organizers.   The last photo is a page from one of the Tangle A Day calendars I am working on. I was a year behind, so to speak, when I started, so I am trying to do two in one year. I am up to May in one and March in the other. I meant to post this the other day when I posted other calendar pages but this one mysteriously got lost in the shuffle. You can find out more about Carole's calendars here. It has been a while since I completed the calendar page, but I am thinking the floating hearts may have been inspired by something someone else did. I can't remember who now. If anyone recognizes it, let me know. I like to give credit where credit is due.

Pages from my Tangle A Day Calendar

The first time I saw the Tangle A Day calendar, created by Carole Ohl, a fellow CZT and fabulous artist, I knew I had to have one. I actually got the 2012 and the 2013 both in 2013. I was thinking I would "practice on 2012 and do better "stuff" in 2013. Funny how things turn out, though. I actually like my 2012 pages better. Long story, happy ending, I guess. I have been working on the pages for months but have not posted any until this week. Here are a few.