My Newest Tangle: 8's

I found a pattern similar to this one day when I was surfing the web. It appeared to have some other shape than a circle in the dark spots, and it took me a while to get it deconstructed. A long while. Eventually,  I found it much, much easier to make this similar design using dots instead.  Then I had to figure out if it was really different than Mi2 by Mimi Lempart, a fellow CZT. After looking closely and about ruining my eyesight in the process, I realized that Mi2 has 4 black ovalish spots that are the "bones" of her tangle, and this one has 8 round spots, thus the name, 8's. I started the stepouts all by hand, but I will admit that after I drew step 3, I made copies of it on my printer, so my stepouts would be conisistent, but for the tile at the bottom, I went back to doing it freehand. I want to try out a lot more things with it like making tangleations, both by altering the space between dots and adding more details to it as it is in. Right now, my eyes need some rest, and I am anxious to share it. Enjoy!

Update 5.5.13

Today I woke up determined to get some tangleations done for this 8's tangle and not let me get sidetracked on anything else. These are the results.  For anyone reading this for the first time, there are now 3 more tangles: 8's Parte Dos and 8's Parte Tres and 8's Parte Quatro.

UPDATE 11.25.15 : IF you would like to join a facebook group where we share our love of tangling in journals, here is a link:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/761892257271670/
A couple of weeks ago, I started a new tangling group on facebook and everyone is welcome to come take a peek and see what is going on. As of today, almost 500 people are there looking at the art of the members, leaving comments, and posting their art. There are weekly ideas for participation, but they are optional,.

Starting Dec. 1 and running all the way through Dec. 25, 2015, there will be one or more tangle artists with one or more of their tangles every single day, ones that have never appeared on tanglepatterns.com. They will be providing the stepouts for these tangles, so if you are a tangler, you won't want to miss this.
Besides all that fun, members post their work when they like, whatever tangling they have in their journals, so that is always fun, too.

Zendala Dare #55

I am always amazed at how fabulous the zentangles and zias are on the sites that host challenges. I just wish I could manage to participate more often. Today I did two, but this is the one I like best, so here it is. This is my response to The Bright Owl's Dare #55, using her template of the week. I can't wait to see what others come up with using the same template.

Tangle Blocked: Block'd

 

or for larger areas:

Ok, I confess. I have been trying to come up with a tangle pattern. One I could claim.  I have come up with several, worked away on them, and then discovered that I wasn't the first one out there who found, deconstructed, or simply drew it when working away on this sort thing. Just guessing this has happened to at least a few other people, too. : )    Well, the other day as I was drawing, it morphed into this, so I pursued some tangleations. This can be done with or without shading, as shown in step 4. Based on the ones I have played with so far, I think there could be limitless tangleations.  This could be a good tangle to use for "Tangle in a Tangle" tiles and creations, depending on how big you want to start out. And the great thing is that you don't have to be able to draw perfectly uniform blocks or rows to have it turn out looking good, I think. An important thing to keep in mind on step 1 is that if you leave a larger space between the first and next square that the size of the square itself, either going across or down, step 2 is much easier and it makes way for everything else to fall into place. If you use it on an edge, you can add an extra line as well to sort of frame it, too.  I think Block'd is a good name for a variety of reasons including the fact that I seem to recall seeing a concrete block wall before that was made out of decorative blocks that were laid with a see through pattern, and it is a design using blocks. After thinking of the name, I also realized that myabe my head is no longer blocked when it comes to finding something unique. We shall see.
If you try it out on one of your creations, and would like to share it, please give me a link with a comment below so others can see!

Framed!!!

 

This is a photo of the project for the next class at The Occasional Artist. We will cover 10 tangles, 9 never done before in my classes at this store, including the newest tangle in Zentangleland: Schway, just introduced last week. 

Zentangle Class 5: Framed! Students will tangle on a white mat with a black core to fit a 8x10 frame. The mat can be used with a favorite photo, quote, etc. Additional mats will be available for purchase during class.
There is no prerequisite for this class.         Beginners are welcome. 

Saturday May 18, 2013 10:30am-1:30pm and repeating
Thursday May 30, 2013 $30.

For ALL Zentangle classes:
Students should bring: Students should bring: 1 or more Black Micron pens size 01 or preferred size(s), a tortillion or paper stump, and a #2 or softer pencil  * I used an 05 size pen on my  mat above. Items are available at the store or from me at classtime.
Materials Provided by Teacher: Zentangle tiles or a white mat with a black core as shown above (students' choice), paper, takehome handouts with directions for each tangle

SO EXCITED!!!

SO EXCITED!!! I just got word today that two of my art journals will be published in an upcoming edition of ART QUILTING STUDIO! I have wanted to have my work and an article in here ever since the first time I laid eyes on the magazine. The first time I submitted, the magazine was folding, and my work was sent on to be published in a sister magazine, but the magazine came back due to popular demand, and now a dream has come true!

An Artful Journey

A few weeks ago, I went to An Artful Journey, a retreat in CA. Each participant selected a 3 day class with the same instructor. I chose a bookmaking class with DJ Pettitt. There was lots of fun not just in class but in the evenings as well.  The shopping night was a big success for me, and the things the artists had to sell were amazing. We were all given a journal, handmade and sewn by Cindy Woods, the organizer of the event and DJ Pettitt. One night there was journal playtime with lots more goodies to take and add to our books. The surroundings were amazing with tall trees, peace and quiet unlike the big cities I run between in daily life, and lots of nature. We actually saw a small deer in the woods the first day.  The thing about being around DJ Pettitt is how inspiring her work is. Most of the 20ish of us in class went back at night after hours and just kept working. Some stayed an hour or two, and some stayed way into the wee hours. Going back allowed me the extra time I wanted to hand embroider many of my pages. It was fun to see how even though we all got the same direction, how different each book was. Most of the students used the painting techniques she demonstrated for the covers, but another book she had for eye candy caught my attention, and I took that route as my inspiration. The book is so thick, I decided to just take a few photos, and here they are. Hard to believe they were all taken with the same camera within minutes of each other in the same light. Maybe there is a button on there I am accidentally pushing to make them look so different, but it is what it is.

Hi, My name is Jane, and I

am a fabriholic! Or something like that. In the world of inanimate objects, what I love best of all is fabric, thread, paper, and writing utensil. Just sayin. I can go a long time without buying any fabric, especially when my life seems to thrive on making things out of scraps, but when the bug bites, well you will see. It started when we had a few hours to kill on the way back from the Artful Journey retreat in California. More about that next, but we went to Danville, CA to visit the studio of Traci Bautista first. We had a great time visiting, seeing her work space, got to see her work and got a sneak peek of some of her new digital print collection while doing some serious shopping there, and then set out on foot for a shopping adventure around one of the cutest downtowns. One of those shop 'til you drop days. One of the places Traci pointed out for us to see was a quilt shop. Danger, danger. I got out of there without too much trouble, but I picked up a magazine that has a new line of fabric called Type by Julia Rothman. As soon as I could catch my breath, I was online determined to find it. Well, find it I did, and one thing led to another because I couldn't find all the pieces in the collection I wanted, in stock, at the same place. Seems like this collection is selling like hotcakes pretty much everywhere. The Type collection pieces are in the first photo. After all that, this is the result, well most of it. I am not gonna apologize. This sort of thing keeps me out of other sorts of trouble. For real.