Zentomology Today

I spent a rainy, chilly day in the glorious mansion, Ochre Court, in Newport with Zentangle founders Maria and Rick Thomas and daughters Molly and Martha and about 40 of my fellow Zentanglers.  We were there to learn about classifying and deconstructing various tangles--"Zentomology"--along with an exploration of the mansion looking at all the craftsmanship--and patterns--in wood, ironwork, gold, stone, plaster, cement, and paint.  It was a wonderful afternoon with great people and inspirational practice.

Because Zentangle HQ has asked us not to share certain details, I'll focus on the patterns I found.  I believe they will be publishing aspects of Zentomology soon, as well as some of the patterns they deconstructed.

Look at the inside--gorgeous materials, intricate patterns, huge space; it's the second-largest mansion in Newport, just behind the Breakers.  It's now the administrative center of Salve Regina University, which has preserved it beautifully.

The grand staircase at the entrance

The main foyer

So many patterns to work with! This is the fireplace in the room where we worked.

A variation of Florz, with squares at the intersections and auras.

The braided beard of a figure on a mantelpiece--looks like Ragz.

The dragon in this medallion seems to be sitting on Spoolies!

I liked the tri-partite medallion in the balcony. I think those are the windows into the room where we were.

I liked that the entwined strands in the upholstry are different.

Looks like a Bales variant!

This ceiling decoration looks like the current Dingbatz Doors trend, with its subdivisions.

Florz with fire and a wonderful slinky-esque design.

Can you see Cadent?

This grate with its Green Man and multiple patterns covers a heating vent!

And these are just some of the photos I snapped.  Literally every surface was decorated, the exact opposite of our modern love of minimalism.  And that doesn't even include all of the housewares and decorations long gone, much less the clothing!  Quite the horror vacui.    I can't imagine living in such luxury, much less this just being the beach house for summers; I wonder if the occupants, used to such extravagance, even noticed the details.  As we wandered around--looking closely, even touching! so much better than your average docent tour--and I had a chance to sit by myself, I could take it all in.

As much as I can admire the craftsmanship and luxury and be intrigued by the history, another part of me is fair disgusted by the excess and equality gap. (And politically and economically, I think we are returning to this time of robber barons and poverty.)  But I put some of that aside in my study of the patterns, which I have been playing with.  We'll see what it amounts to, besides lovely memories.

Tangles from Ochre Court: Beaucourt, Alexem, Romo, and Magong

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!

Tangle Names

I will endeavor to include the names of the tangles, or patterns, I use in the labels of each post.  While no pattern can be copyrighted--and so the names aren't "official"--they are commonly used among tanglers to make it easier to talk about tangles.   Instead of descriptions such as origami-like triangles, floating triangles, twirling triangle, or connect-the-triangles, we can use ING, tripoli, paradox, or munchin.  I find it easier both to discuss the patterns with others and to conceptualize my own work.  I rely on Tangle Patterns by Linda Farmer CZT for most of my names and then Pinterest or some of my books if I can't find them on the former.  The site is especially wonderful because it provides "step-outs," or instructions, for many of the tangles and also publishes a handy annual reference guide to put in your toolkit.

There is a bit of an obsession with "inventing" and then naming a tangle, which seems odd to me because so many of the patterns have been in use all over the world for millennia.  Also, some of the published patterns don't seem to utilize the guidelines of Zentangle, which suggests easily repeatable patterns based on a few strokes combined from I, S, C, and O.  So I don't plan to get too much into a muddle about names, "official," or the like.  But I will use the names I find for easy reference.