Soothing

I figured out why I love Zentangle so much...it has a soothing effect on me.  I did this just before bedtime; I felt good doing it, shading it, and looking at it.  Better than a sleeping pill!  Good night!

Plaid

This tile started with Jane Monk's Plaid, featured in Tangled Patterns this week. I would like to work with this one again, now that I am a little more comfortable with it. I have no idea what that black line is down the middle...it is a zig zag thing that went quite wrong, but there it is.  

My Zentangle Kit Arrived !

. . . and I am delighted with it! :-)

Playing with Ixorus

Ixorus is stuck in my brain, I keep playing with it, and now I am chasing it!

Ixorus Challenge

The Diva's challenge this week is Ixorus, the newest Zentangle® pattern.  Read her blog and check out how others did this challenge.  My lines are always unsteady but I enjoyed this pattern and will work more with it.

Tangle Your Name Challenge

Since I began to tangle (sounds like a dance doesn't it?)  a little while ago (I'm a newbie to Zentangle® ) two people have been special mentor/teachers and my main resource for learning.  Kit Murdoch, introduced me to Zentangle and became my tangle mother, (I know I am older than she is!) encouraging, supporting, teaching, and showing the way.  I am thankful to this special lady, far away, on the opposite-underneath-side of the world for her friendship and encouragement--in many ways!  

My other mentor doesn't even know she has been influential and a great help. I have been one of  Linda Farmer's lurkers at TanglePatterns.com , happy just to sit in the shadows and learn.  Not only does Linda  create her own tangle patterns, she has created a central place with one huge organized listing of patterns. What a great resource!   I joined the site and look forward to email updates a few times a week.  Her site is THE place to find every tangle pattern on the internet...if she has missed a few it won't be long before she finds them!  

Recently, I have been coming out of the shadows and joining in...here and there.   The Diva has a weekly challenge that has been fun.  Then I saw Linda put one out a while ago...she asked us to tangle our names using patterns that begin with each letter of our name.  I was a little daunted, there are 13 letters in my online name, 7 in my first name...didn't think I could do it.  I decided to have a go at it and here is the tangle.

I decided to begin with a sort of string that are the letters in my name.  I liked the look of it and had great expectations for this tangle.

I looked up patterns with the letters I needed (thank you Linda) and made some choices.  Once the first h and t were tangled, I realized I could have made a better choice, hindsight is so clear...the h and t almost blend, there is little difference in tone...sigh!  I liked the letters empty but once tangled, the white spaces looked strange but I didn't want to add other patterns, maybe I should have repeated some but I decided to try to unify everything with the lines in the background.  I think I got in a fuddle. ;-)  Breathe in, breath out slowly!

I was going to redo it but decided to post it and move forward!  I am still learning and this has been fun, a fine lesson and another step.  Smiling, breathing and learning here!

Orbs Challenge

Laura Harms, aka The Diva, challenge this week is orbs or circles or hopefully anything roundish. This is what happened when I tangled.  I could not, for the life of me, draw a steady line this evening...but as they say, there are no mistakes in Zentangle. :-|

Starry Eyed Surprise

Laura Harms' 4th weekly challenge was a surprise!   I tried a few stars free-hand but couldn't continue, I needed a more repetitive way so I used my own version of a star, one I learned as a child, and then it was easy to do them quickly and use them as fill.  This was fun and whimsical.  I finally did a tangle in record time!  The shading here is done with a silver pencil but it doesn't show very well in the photo--I think it is quite pretty on the paper.  Thank you Laura or another fun challenge!

Grace's Tangle

Grace, my daughter-in-law, tangles when she visits! She was looking through some tangle patterns tonight and liked this one named Drupe. I think she might be hooked on tangling! ;-)

Eyes Wide Shut

Laura Harms aka I am the Diva's challenge this week was to draw the tangle string with our eyes closed.  I think I like my string better than I like the strings I draw with my eyes open! ;-)  The patterns used in this tangle are Bales and Baton.

My string drawn with eyes closed but the tile is drawn with eyes open.  I don't have a Zentangle kit yet so mostly use my moleskin book for tangles.