Quick Zen Gems

I've been playing with a technique for making Zen Gems that I learned at a recent workshop with Beth Malley, CZT.  I'm enjoying adding a little bit of color to my black and white tiles.  I'm not aiming for verisimilitude here, just stylized color.

My Zen Gem mandala from Malley's workshop.

A rainbow of Zen Gems, with bezels surrounding the colors.

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I'll demonstrate the techniqe using a Zendala I'd already drawn.  It's easiest to start with a large space, between the size of a nickel and quarter.  This tile was just begging for some color in the center.

Step 1:  Choose three shades of the same color.  Here, I've gone with pink--the lightest color is actually peach.  I use Prismacolors, though any map colors (how I grew up referring to colored pencils!) would do as long as there are three shades of the same color.

Step 2:  Draw a small "window" with the darkest or lightest color.  Leave the interior blank.  I used the darkest here.  The workshop actually had us using a pencil, but we found that it smeared, so I've switched to using one of the shades.

Step 3:  Using your darkest shade, color around the edges of the shape.

Step 4:  Using your middle shade, color around the edges of the first color, overlapping and blending.

Step 5:  Using your lightest shade, color around the rest of the space--except the "window"--and blend the entire Zen Gem.  Blend with colors until the gem is shiny and there are no clear distinctions between colors.

Step 6:  Using a white gel pen, fill in the blank "window."

Step 7:  With the same white gel pen, make a "smile" opposite the window

Step 8:  Using 01 micron, lightly draw "cracks" in the surface.  Do not color over the ink--it will smear.

The finished product.

For more on Zen Gems, I highly recommend Eni Oken's comprehensive ebook 3DTangle: Shading Smooth Gems.