Calendar Companion 2021

 I put together a calendar as a place to share some of my art and offer a space to react to the art and quotes on a daily basis (if you want to).

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My first entry is the tangle “Snack” by Toma’s Padres.

Tangle Cafe Updates - Thinking of Sha

It's too hard to put into words the sadness we feel in losing our friend Sha. I wish I had more time to get to know her better.

Noah's Ark Wildlife Center had a really nice memorial posted on their blog. 

Take a look here: In Memoriam of Sha

I have one of the many little gifts she gave me sitting on my desk

Salley, Jeane and I met before Christmas to tangle and remember Sha. We made a list of words that came to mind when thinking of Sha: kind, private, animal lover, cat caregiver, sweatshirts, crocs, glitter pens, Christmas Tags, rubber stamps, purple, nursing reports, cheese sticks etc..

We wrote our list of words lightly on a Zendala. Then we tangled the letters CATS coming from the Center. We wrote Sha’s name in the center.

Hug your friends and loved ones often, stay safe and hopefully we will be able to tangle together again soon.

A Zine for Tangle Cafe

I meet with a small group of friends to tangle and make Zentangle Inspired Art. Before Covid, we met monthly at a local Cafe.

This zine with quotes on patterned backgrounds was used by our group to practice/learn new tangles. I designed the zine in Photoshop and had them printed on 11" x 17" paper. It is a one sheet fold zine. 

We used the following tangles: Gommi, C-Wing, Gottago and Palrevo. 

But you can tangle anything you would like.

Download an 8.5" x 11" copy HERE

Click here for a HOW TO MAKE a one page fold ZINE.

More Upcycled Pieces on Black Zendala Tiles

 I must admit a black tile is not what I reach for typically. I've not enjoyed the drawing process anywhere near as much as I do on white or other neutral colors.

There were a number of pieces on black paper dumped into the "Work in Progress" box because I didn't like where they were and/or didn't know where they were going.

My intent with upcling these was not to make fabulous art, just take these somewhere else and to enjoy the process.

For instance this zendala became a "scrapdala" a testing area for different pens and colors. So I continued the process adding more shapes and colors.

This zendala was a testing area for using a gold gel pen. That worked. Then I tried adding colored pencil. I do like colored pencil on the black paper!

A testing ground for white gel pen and graphite for shading.

Another "scrapdala", colored pencil, gel pens

Gesso over whatever was there, rubber stamp "Grow", Pens, Identipen

There are No Mistakes Because We Can Upcycle Everything

 I have a box of tiles and other shapes of paper which I started and never finished.

Or I finished but never wanted to look at the piece again. In it goes into the "Work in Progress" box.

Here are some pieces I played with by adding colored pencil, or gel pen, or painting over the top etc.

Zedbra, Diva Dance, Jonqal, Tipple, Acrylic Glaze, Gel Pen

Tamisolo, Noodlers' Kiowa Pecan, Inktense Pencil,

I don't know what happened here!!!

A Tiling of a Tile or Tessellation of a Tangled Tile.

 Try to say that 5 times fast!

I tangled my tile then tiled my tile to make tessellations of my tile! Phew!

 I played with this tangled piece in Photoshop.

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Paradox, Tektonik, Shard, Sand Swirl

The result was some rather striking results of tiled patterns that had been digitally manipulated in Photoshop. All of the tessellations were made from the scanned image of the piece above.

Which is your favorite?

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A Few More Pages from Tangle Companion Vol. II

 The cover and a few samples of pages to tangle and/or color.

New Pages to Color or Tangle - Tangle Companion Vol. 2

Tangle Companion Vol. 2 will have calendar pages, pages of reticulae, strings and patterns to tangle and/or color.

The Companion will 8.5" x 5.5" and bound on the left side.

Here are a few sample pages:

Pattern Calendar 2021

 A few sample pages from my Pattern Calendar 2021

Just Hanging Around with Tangled Friends and Künstler

 I spent some time playing with the tangle Künstler by Margaret Bremner. You can find the step outs and read about how Margaret came to this tangle at her website by clicking on Künstler. This is one of my go to tangles, I just enjoy this worm like tangle so much!

I was messing around with using my glass dip pen and a beautiful ink by Noodlers' Ink, called "Kiowa Pecan". You can find Noodlers' Ink many places. Here is one place KIOWA PECAN.

Here is the image in my sketchbook.

After scanning I decided to play around with the image in Photoshop. 

I added some background using images from gel printing papers I made. This was fun!

I played around a little more with the image from sketchbook and tried making a wrapping paper pattern. First attempt with the largest of the three images.