Personal Mosaic

One of my favorite parts of a Zentangle class is the class mosaic, a gathering of all the various tiles made by students.  Both similar and widely divergent at the same time, the class tiles together demonstrate the breadth of creativity--and give me some great ideas!

So this morning, with sun beaming in the windows on this otherwise cold day, I made a few of my own personal mosaics, from the tiles I keep in a box.  They aren't really in any order, though I can see similarities in groups I must have put in the box at the same time--comfort tangles, new techniques, similar strings.

And Eris helped . . . .

Tangles in a TWYSTY: Experiments in Freestyle Zendalas

I love Zendalas, a circular, symmetrical mandala drawn using the Zentangle method of mindfulness and simple, repetitive patterns.

I especially like free-style Zendalas, not ones that require precise measuring, pre-printed strings, or a stencil.  I want to draw them free-hand, freestyle.   For me it encapsulates the meditative aspect of Zentangle and the focus on "no mistakes."  Using compasses, stencils, or pre-strung tiles, takes some of the creativity out of it for me.  Precisely-measured Zendalas also entice me to stress the perfection of the product over the process.  I find that free-style Zendalas are all about process--slowly drawing the center and working out from there.  True, it's never perfectly symmetrical or balanced; my tangles are usually somewhat off-center.  But I love practicing freestyle Zendalas. So I've been experimenting with central patterns that can easily be expanded symmetrically.  I fiddled with various tangles, as you can see here (and earlier, here).  All were drawn freestyle.

Gneiss

Fengle

Geo-Flower

Arukas

Auraknot

And then I happened upon a new one to me.  I'm calling it TWYSTY.  It's a combo between a four-petal flower, a labyrinth, and a celtic knot. Or two figure-8s or infinity signs intertwined.  Completed, it looks like this (with the addition of some tangles):

1.  Draw "rice" or "petal" shape.  May be pointed or rounded.

2.  Add as many rice shapes as desired, odd or even number.

3.  "Hug" two rice shapes together with a curved line.
 (Or you can make the line come to a point, see example #9 below.)

4.  "Aura" the hug, connecting the tips of the rice.
The first part of the TWYSTY is completed.

5.  Draw behind or "hollibaugh" to create more hugs.

6.  Repeat until all pairs are connected.

7.  Complete as desired.

8.  Here is another TWYSTY Zendala.

9.  Another TWYSTY, this time with more orb-like "rice" shapes and slightly pointed circles.

10.  Another TWYSTY variation:  for this one, after completing steps 1-6 above, add a "rice" shape between the existing ones (adding, essentially, NE, SE, NW, and NE to the compass) and repeat the aura-ing and hollibaugh-ing of the TWYSTY circles.

Tangling with Grandma

My mother recently visited us, traveling from Texas to Connecticut for a week.  We did many of the usual summer things--swimming, movies, sailing--but we also tangled in the cool indoors.  My mom loves to tangle, spending a few hours most days learning new tangles and creating beautiful tiles; she also attended the Zentangle retreat at Kripalu with me in the spring.  While she was here, she poured over my Zentangle books, picking up a few new tangles and techniques.  She especially liked "lace," seen at the bottom of the bottom tile.

She also encouraged us to create a single family mosaic, made up of four different tiles with a connecting string tangled by each of us.  I think they came out pretty well.

I think she plans to frame and display them at home.

One of the last things we did was decorate some of the new official Zentangle pouches I'd gotten for us (look for these on zentangle.com soon; I believe they are currently available only to CZTs.)  I prepped the nude canvas with Mod Podge Fabric and we each tangled our own with an Identi-Pen.    

See, hers has the lace again!  My daughter tried it, too.  And I'm still playing with floatfest and Rubenesque.  It was a memorable souvenir for a great visit.

Happy tangling!

Recent Tiles

Some of my recent creations.  I see some patterns--lots of orbs, cabbage roses, florz, and floatfest.

Playing with Prisms

I haven't really introduced color into my Zentangle tiles or ZIAs yet--at least not by coloring them myself.  I did, however, have a good time photographing my tiles by placing them where my prisms cast rainbows in the morning with my son.  It's an amazing effect.

I might just have to try coloring them myself!

My son's tile commemorating our cat

My son's tile

Another of my son's tiles

Tile-a-Day: Practice, Practice

I've spent the last week or so learning several new tangles.  But instead of practicing the step outs in my sketchbook the way I usually do, I've been working directly on tiles.  I found many of the tangles on Pinterest and some from my friend and fellow CZT#22 Katrina Starkey Thiebaut.   I've discovered that working several new tangles together, I can better determine my favorites.

Below you see the back and front of one tile.  I think the string was too tight for all those tangles, especially for practice.  But since the process is the most important part for me, I'm sharing it anyway--even without shading, even with "mistakes."  On the back, you'll see that I noted the names of the tangles, if I had them.  I think I like the middle swirly line of Eddy and the canyon-like Taxi, plus the interwoven Gotcha, and especially the black-and-white zig zag.

*Rotate this 90 degrees to match up with tile above

For this tile, I borrowed the ribbon-across-four-tiles idea of Ellen Bruce CZT and again filled the string with tangles I was learning.  

Starting in the upper left tile and moving clockwise, approximately (completing each tile before moving on):  Fassett, Cheesecloth, Quandry, (a version of Waves?), Enyshou, (something with dots and strings), Frames, (a rose), Huggy Bear, Kunstler (waves), Flitter, Amoeba, Voly, Spoon Flowers, Stribations.