My Zentangle Weekend at Kripalu

The "Tangle to Tangle" workshop at Kripalu with Zentangle founders Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts and their daughters Molly and Martha was amazing.  I attended the workshop with my mom, who has been tangling on her own for about a year and was excited to take a class and to experience the restful and rejuvenating atmosphere of the mountain retreat center.  This was a class to broaden our skills by exploring how tangles can connect together.  There's no way to capture the experience of taking a class with the Zentangle founders--their generosity with supplies, their funny stories, their easy rapport, their mantras and sayings to encourage and instruct us.  So here, I'll just detail some of the tiles we made--and encourage you to take a Zentangle class with Maria and Rick or your local CZT!

We started each of the four sessions with clearing our workspaces and then a meditation to center our minds and tap into our creativity.  And then we explored several ideas in a structured step-by-step way.  But even though we all essentially followed the same directions, each tile in the final class mosaic showed our individuality and creativity.

Tile #1

Tile #1:  hollibaugh, pokeroot, crescent moon variation

Our beginning tile introduced ideas of connecting tangles together.  Hollibaugh is one of the most useful tangles for this because the lines can easily morph into shattuck, mooka, and, here, pokeroot.  We also looked at varying tangles like crescent moon to create new effects.  We paid a lot of attention to shading to take our tiles to the next dimension.

Tile #2

Tile #2:  tripoli, rixty, fracas

Here, in the center, we played with morphing from one design into another with the decoration of tripoli.  It's hard to see in my tile because I only made a few tripoli.  Then we used the negative space of tripoli as the stems of rixty.  The triangular shape of rixty complements tripoli.  The rixty also weaves in and out of the fracas, a drama tangle of black and white that pulls everything together.

Tile #3

Tile #3:  knightsbridge, huggins variation, auras, peeld, and springkle

This started with the huggins variation (which looks a bit like an old-fashioned telephone handset) which we aura'd several times.  And then I learned the new tangle, peeld, where the line seems to just jump away from the pattern, here ending in springkle.  So cool!  Again, there is a black and white drama tangle, here knightsbridge.

Tile #4

Tile #4:  spiral string with nzeppel, mooka, perfs, and pokeleaf

Here we practiced intertwining mooka and pokeleafs, with perfs and the black filler to emphasize the tangles. The spiral string complements the Zendala's round shape. 

Tile #5

Tile #5:  crescent moon variation, Bronx cheer, squid, and perfs

This renaissance tile has so much going on:  dots in the crescent moon to mirror the perfs, same with the Bronx cheer; the etching technique in the squid leaves; the intricate shading in graphite and white charcoal of the whole thing.  

Bonus:  On Saturday night, as part of a fun activity, we all decorated Zentangle pencil cases that they gave us.  It's a canvas bag covered in Mod Podge Fabric, which takes ink better.  We used an Identi-pen and a Fabrico gray marker for shadows.  And you can see where I tried to connect tangles together.

Thank you, Maria, Rick, Molly, and Martha for a great weekend at Kripalu.  My mom and I loved it--and are hoping to attend if you offer it again!

Peace, Love, and Zentangle

My son's tile, after my first Zentangle class on Friday:

My First Zentangle Class

Last night, I taught my first Zentangle class to five supportive and encouraging friends.  The table was set with their mini-kits (with bag, tiles, Micron, pencil, tortillon, and bookmark), my new Yankee Tangler brochure, and some examples of my Zentangle art.  I also had an easel with Post-It flip chart set up.   And on the front door, a sign announced "Zentangle Spoken and Signed Here."


Yes, signed.  In American Sign Language (ASL.)   I had learned and practiced various relevant signs (words I don't use in usual conversation, including outline, border, string, shading, pattern, dots, line, circle, gratitude, mindfulness, etc.) in order to interpret for my Deaf friend.  There are two signs for Zentangle, which I learned from the CZT Facebook group:  a "T"-sign with the dominant hand making a "Z" in the air and also a non-dominant L-hand with a "Z" signed inside it with the dominant hand.   Unfortunately, my friend had to cancel at the last minute due to illness.  I hope to have a class for her soon.

The class was structured as an introductory session, with two tiles and ten tangles.  I used the following outline.

Zentangle 101

1.  Meditation with singing bowl

2.  Brief history of the Zen of Rick Roberts and the Tangle of Maria Thomas

3.  Introduction to Zentangle method and philosophy 

4..  First tile:  traditional "Z" string with hollibaugh, shattuck, florz, and munchin, plus drawing behind, shading, and connecting two tangles

5.  Extra:  my children teach ING and pokeroot (they were so excited about the class and wanted to be involved!)

6.  Second tile:  triangle shape on a rectangle string with xander, flux, printemps, crescent moon, with auras, sparkle, going over borders, and tangle variations

7.  Discussion of what can be next (black tiles, Renaissance tiles, Zendalas, ZIAs, etc.), resources (my favorite books for beginners include Marie Browning and Suzanne McNeill's The Joy of Zentangle, Beckah Krahula's One Zentangle a Day, and Sandy Steen Bartholomew's Yoga for Your Brain; more serious students would like the two official Zentangle books), and supplies (both official ones and cheaper substitutes.)

Here are some of the finished tiles (tile #2 is on the top row, #1 on bottom):

As you can see, they all had different interpretations of the same tangles--some made tiny patterns, some pressed harder than others; everyone shaded and colored differently.  One even added extra tangles, including piano keys--I think she did all 10 on the same tile (lower left corner)!

It was a fun night--and I'm very excited for my next class.

Favorites

Practicing before my first class in a few hours.  Here are most of my favorite tangles, altogether:

Clockwise from left corner:

1. crescent moon
2. punzel
3. florz
4. msst
5. zenith
6. nipa
7. flux
8. bales
9. purk
10. diva dance
11. bunzo
12. mooka
13. hurry
14. tresse
15. chartz
16. waves
17. coil
18. ennies
19. nekton
20. keeko
21. cadent
22. huggins
23. zenplosion folds
24. ragz
25. w2
26. printemps
27. paradox
28. ING
29. munchin
30. tripoli
31. flukes
32. pokeleaf
33. hollibaugh
34. shattuck
35. fescu
36. meer
37. bannah
38. heartrope
39. static
40. annee
41. jute
42. eke

Tile-A-Day: Here Comes the Sun

We've been enjoying all these wonderful sunny days after more than a week of rain.  The flowers and trees are blooming . . . and everyone is sniffling and sneezing.   But tomorrow there will be more rain, and the day after, so I post this to remind me of brighter days.

Tile-A-Day: Serendipity

I usually tangle first thing in the morning after the kids leave.  It centers me, a little quiet after the hubbub of the morning.  Today, the sun is shining and my prism cast this rainbow on my tile.

Tangling My Week

Today's tiles represent the activities of my week:  the star for my father-in-law becoming an American citizen; the treble clef for our piano recital; and the chalice for the Unitarian Universalist singing meditation service I attended.

These tiles are specifically Zentangle-Inspired Art, or ZIAs, because they do not technically follow the dots-border-string-tangle method and are, at least partially in this case, representative and recognizable--mainly the star, the treble clef, and the chalice as the basis or border of the tangles.

Once you have a handle on traditional Zentangle art, it's fun and interesting to explore known shapes or objects.  I have tangled bunnies and penguins for my children, cats in memory of one of our dearly departed pets, and cupcakes on birthday cards, among other things. Here, I'm using ZIAs as a form of journalling or recording my week.    In fact, both the star and treble clef below are duplicates of gifts (when framed) I gave to my father-in-law and piano teacher.