More Pyrograpny Pendants: Icanthis, Tipple, and Ahh

I have been doing more burning lately on wood shapes.  I have done crosses and I also used round wood discs that are about 1.5".  I have a few more to do but I wanted to do an organic tangle.  I may have been a little ambitious.  I chose to do Icanthis.  It is definitely harder to burn than to draw with a pen. I am still very new to this medium.  Looking forward to trying more things. I remembered to do a short series of pictures to show how it progressed.

This last picture is the difference in the wood after I put the beeswax polish on it.

Tangles used: Icanthis,Tipple, Ah

The shading was done with a triangular shading tip.  Icanthis & Ahh was done with a tip called a spear. Don't remember the size, but it is small, The Tipple is done with  a 1.5 mm ball stylus.

Thanks for visiting.  As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Beyond the Basics class: Tangled 3-D House

Just completed a class using Dorian Eng's tangled houses concept.  Was a fun enjoyable class.  Was a challenge getting them together but learned a few things that I will use if I do the class again.  Here are pictures of the different pieces to the house.

Only a picture of the gable that is in the front of the house.  The back is similar except  there are no flowers and I did the tangle Gneiss where the window is on this one.

Here are the tiles for the roof.  I used the tangle Shing.  

Here are the front and back.  The front is on the left.

These are the two sides.  

Here are pictures of the house put together.  

  

The one on the right is one of the student's houses.  This is the front.  I took a series of all sides.  Here they are.

One student had the tangling done but did not get it all constructed. She is a big Harry Potter fan.  She did a Slithering theme.  Here is the picture I took of what she had done in the class.

She sent me a picture of the finished house after class. She has Harry Potter lego figures in front and used an electric candle for the lighting.


Here are pictures that she sent me after she had completed it.

You can see the lego figures better in this picture.

She added tissue paper behind the window cut-outs for an additional "green glow".  Said she was looking for a darker green and may put that in it.

If you are interested in classes, click on my class tab on the banner on the top of my home page. There is information about scheduled classes there.  If have other questions, you can email me.

Thanks for visiting.  As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #328: Guest Blogger, Suzanne Fluhr - Use my Tangle (UMT)

Got something done a little earlier this week as I was home a little more due to having a lithoripsy done.  Gave me something to do, although I could have probably worked on a number of other projects as well.

The firs Challenge of the month is typically a UMT Challenge, and Suzanne kept with this format choosing her tangle Aloha. You can read about it's origin on her blog here. It is a fun tangle to do and is versatile.  I chose to use it along with some other tangles to create an organic themed tile. I thought about using a grid tangle in the background. Was more an decision of convenience that anything else.  Was thinking of something like Florz.  Aloha can be used as a border. If I get it done soon, am working on a mat for a 5x7 picture. May use Aloha and some similar tangles on this as well.

 I first had contact with Suzanne on line through the Diva Challenge.  She participated in them in spite of her anxiety about her ability and then she also decided to go to Providence and attend a CZT seminar.  It is interesting to see the progression of her work over this time period and now she is a guest blogger.  Congratulations Suzanne.

Anyway, here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Aloha, Flux, Boing, Ahh,  and a few Zingers

Shading done with HB pencil.

I have not had a chance to look at all the things posted so far.  I have seen a few that have appeared on my reading list.  Would strongly encourage you to go to I am the Diva and take some time to explore all the great art that is submitted. This seems to be versatile tangle and think that may see a variety of things.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and greatly appreciated.

Go Tangle !!    

Diva Challenge #325: "Pea-nuckle"

One of the things I find interesting in the tangling community is people's reactions to different tangles. I think it illustrates the diversity of the people that enjoy this art form.  This week's Diva Challenge highlights the tangle Pea-nuckle and is again courtesy of guest blogger Jessica Davies. Interesting that in both of her challenges she chose to focus on things that initially she was not fond of but later changed her perspective. While I agreed with her the last time, we did not on this one. I have always liked Pea-nuckle.  I like the way it looks and have used it in ZIAs specifically to get the basket look.  It also is a forgiving tangle in that the lines do not have to be consistent and the "Ss" do not all have to be the same size.  I also like the "S" shape and a couple of years ago did what I called S-ploration to just play with different things that could do with this elemental stroke. Out of this came my tangleation of Pea-nuckle which I also included in this tile.  I did this in 2015. I will provide some links later if want to explore either of these.  Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Pea-nuckle (lower left) Maria's flux, Ahh, and Pea-nuckle tangleation (upper right). 

Shading done with HB pencil. Not sure that it shows up that well in the picture but also used a white charcoal pencil and white gel pen to add a some highlights in both of the Pea-nuckle tangles. Trust me, it's there. 

With the larger area in between the two Pea-nuckle sections wanted something that was not as much dense line work. Thought about Betweed but did not want it quite that thin and did not want to do sections across. I chose to try using Maria's Flux in a Betweed fashion. Not sure that I completely pulled it off the way I would have liked but it is okay.  As indicated above, said that I would give a few links for things. This first is for the Pea-nuckle tangleation. There is a step out .  Just click on the link here. 

Is not a link for my S- ploration work. When I went to find it, realized had posted it on the My tangles page. You can go to the top and scroll down to find that.

Hoping to have more time to look at the different pieces submitted this week. Will see how that works out. If you have not been there, would strongly encourage you to explore the unique pieces of art that others have created. Just click on this link to go there directly.

Thanks for visiting.  As always comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #324: "Tangled Heart"

I was not sure about this challenge. I am not a heart type of person. I decided to do something because I really needed to tangle. This week's challenge is a guest post by Jessica Davies. During the summer, the Diva will have some guest posts to give her a little break and allow her some time with her family. Jessica chose this prompt due to some recent health problems and she used tangling as a way to help deal with the stress associated with it. There is a lot of anecdotal information of how tangling has helped a variety of people with a myriad of challenges.

I did decide that I would participate. I am not sure about what I came up with but the process was definitely relaxing. It is not that I do not like this tile, it is that it does not have the flow that I sometimes imagine in my head.  Usually the more I look at it, the more comfortable I become.  Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Tipple, Mooka, Zinger, Ahh, Zenith

Shading done with HB pencil

I chose a Zendala tile as I had not done one in a while and it is also a little bigger. I have not done a zendala for quite some time. May have to revisit that again soon. 

If you have not visited I am the Diva to look at the other pieces submitted, I would strongly encourage you to do so. You can use the above link to go there directly.  I usually do not look at what others have posted until I get mine done. Will try to look at as many as I can in the next few days.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Some New Years work and musing: Tangling for fun

I have been so busy doing things lately for the market that I participated in that have not done a whole lot for fun, When the new tangles were introduced at Zen Again, I played with them a bit but did not spend a lot of time with them. One that I liked looking at, but did not seem to get the hang of was Drawings. I think maybe I was trying too hard. Recently tried it again after seeing some of the work that Shelley Beauchamp did. It was better but still I did not fee like it was flowing that well. One of the reasons I wanted to work on it is that I am doing a class in January where I will be teaching the four new tangles. If I was not pleased with them, could not imagine trying to teach them to others.

I had told my granddaughters that after the market I would let them pick out a bookmark from the ones I had. I realized, I did not have that many and I did not have enough for all 6 of them to pick one. (The youngest who will be one I am not worrying about.) So I have been slowly trying to get a few more done. Although this is a project, I usually do enjoy doing bookmarks. A lot of times I will make them a mono-tangle, or do more free form. What better time to try Drawings again. I really did not have in mind to make a post of it but I was pleased with the result. Figured that maybe my struggles might encourage someone else to not give up when they were struggling.  Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Drawings, Heart vine, Ahh

Shading done with 2B pencil

What really seemed to bring this together for me was that I went to the newsletter where the tangles were introduced and just looked at the examples, I did not look at the step outs. Mine now have more of an organic look. Did not thing that I could quite get the feather look yet. Will work on that in the New Year. But these really seemed to flow easily.

I appreciate all of those folks that have followed my blog and I really appreciate those of you who have made comments and asked questions. I know particularly in the later part of the year I was not posting much because most of my posts were for the Diva Challenges and I had not been doing them very often. I hope to be a little more consistent next year and I hope to add a little more about what I am doing and not just the challenges. I have a couple of projects lined up. There is a  possibility that some of the posts will not be about tangling but one of the other areas that I enjoy.

Thanks for visiting, I hope the New Year brings many blessings to you and the people around you. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Some other new things: Ornaments using chalkmarkers

Here is something that I have been working on for the Winter Market that I am participating in. These are a couple of chalkboard style balls. I used Uchida Chalk Markers to do these. Working in the round is always a challenge but am pleased with the way that these turned out. Have one more ball and a couple of the rectangular ornaments to do. Hopefully I will get them done next week. If not there is always next year. I did not do any new ceramic ones this year. Figured that I had  enough. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy them.

The white is a Sampson-based snow flake with Msst and Ahh.  The purple is Stella with a little 

Indy-rella.

One thing about these chalk markers is that if you do not like what you have done you can wipe it off with a wet cloth and start over. I did use a Krylon matte  spray finish to seal it so it would not rub off or smear later.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Square One Focus Tangle: Flux

This week's focus tangle is Flux. I have not done a focus tangle for a while. Have too many other things demanding my time. When I saw that it was Flux figured that I could get something done before I need to focus on prepping for my class on Saturday. I enjoy doing this tangle. I also use it regularly in my Basic class as it is a good tangle to demonstrate the flexibility of Zentangle®, and that there are no mistakes and no hard and fast rules. Rick and Maria have very different ways of doing this tangle. I liken it to the different fonts on a computer. Commas, apostrophes and quotation marks look different in different fonts but we still see them as the same thing. Both ways of doing this are recognized as the same tangle. Here is what I came up with I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Flux- both versions, Scroll Feather, Ahh, Antidots, & Featherfall. I do not know if the vine with Antidot has a name or not.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go Tangle !!  

Diva Challenge #218: "White on Black on Found"

This week's Diva Challenge is a choice. Can do white on black or tangle on something found.  I have some rocks that I want to get to but they were not found, they were bought. I ended up using a Zendala tile as that is the black tile that I had in my bag that I carry. It worked out well. I did not use a template for this and just started. I did the dividing tangle and then just added others. Cadent is a favorite so I wanted to include that and I wanted to include some organic tiles. I did try a new tangle/pattern from Helen Williams. Guess I have to add to the challenge. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Cadent, Heartrope, Zander, Flux, Zinger,Tumbleweed, and Ahh

Shading done with Prismacolor White pencil with a blender.
I used both a Sakura White Gelly Roll pen and a Signo Uni-ball Angelic White pen for the tangles. Can you tell which tangles I used which pen on?

The new pattern that I tried is Tumbleweed by Helen Williams. It is okay for the first attempt, but not as flowing as I would like or even close to what Helen accomplishes. I will keep trying. 

I have not had a chance to look at many of the other posts but hope to do so during the rest of the week. Would encourage you to go to I am the Diva and look at the great art that is posted.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Square One Focus Tangle: Mooka - Gone Wild

This week's focus tangle on Square One FB is Mooka. This seems to be a tangle that people either really like or they really dislike it. I do not have a great relationship with it, but it is getting stronger. I think it is one that is a little more difficult to play with but that is exactly what I tried to do. I had done it before on a black tile. But that would not be an acceptable post on Square One. I have seen some very nice renditions of this tangle. Some have been in the traditional style. Meredith Yuhas is one of those. She just has a flair for this tangle. Have not seen one done by Shelly Beauchamp yet. She does some great looking things with this tangle also. If I have time, I may try to get a more traditional Mooka done later. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used as embellishment: Crescent Moon, Stripes. Phicops, Hibred, Tipple, Meer, Ahh, Gneiss, & Diva Dance

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Square One : Bunzo

The focus tile for this week at Square One is Bunzo. Have not used this one for a while. When it first came out, I did it a lot and used it as the centerpiece of a couple of cards. It is fun to see how you  can vary the size of it. Do not do a lot of other variations. This ended up being a tile with an organic nature. Was totally intended, but I did want to use Scroll Feather. This is another tangle that I enjoy using and have not used it for a while. That is really the only reason that I used it. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Bunzo, Featherfall, Scroll Feather, Tipple, & Ahh

Did something that I have not really done in a while. I did not do any shading on this tile. I thought about doing some for just a brief moment and decided against it. I was okay without it. May change my mind later and add some, but do not think so. 

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!  

Square One: Strircles

This is actually a late post. This is the focus tangle for Square One for February 20. I have not used this tangle a lot. It is like Nipa. I know it is there, I just do not use it much. Kept this pretty simple. Mostly because I got to it later and still have some other things to do, like clear snow. Even though is not much to it, I do like it. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Strircles, Ahh

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #204 : "Valentangle"

This week's Diva Challenge is a little different than some have been. Due to Valentine's Day being this Saturday, the challenge was to use hearts in some way or use the colors red, white, or pink.  I did something that I have not done before. It has been a busy couple of weeks so I was not sure if I would be able to do anything. I had wanted to do the Square One focus tangle, Well because it is a fun tangle to play with. I have used the same piece for different tangles before but never in this way. The criteria for posting on the Square One Facebook page is that no color can be used. So I completed the tile and posted it. I then added color to it. I thought about doing some hearts but decided not to. Could not really think of a way to do it. Probably, in true Zentangle® fashion, if I had added something to the tile it would have been okay. I was comfortable leaving it as it is. Here is what I came up with to add the color. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Well, Ahh, Fescu (variation)

I have not had a chanced to look at any of the other tiles posted. I am looking forward to seeing what others have come up with. If you have not all ready done so would encourage you to go to I am the Diva and look at the great pieces of art that others have created. Would also encourage you to try it yourself, even if you do not post it.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !! 

Square One: Well

Was not sure that I was going to get anything done this week. I like this tangle and enjoy playing with it in a free form ala Helen Williams style. You can see her work at her blog a little lime. Thought about doing a monotangle but decided to add a few other things. This one was fun to do. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Well, Ahh, Fescu (variation)

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

First Pyrography Attempt

Not too long ago I received a surprise package from my sister. I had tried my hand at wood burning a couple of years ago. I had some wood boxes that I was doing for the oldest granddaughters. I do not think I had even started tangling then. I had a simple tool that I had purchased at Hobby Lobby. My sister has been burning for a while. She originally started on gourds. After she stopped doing gourds, she transferred this to her tangling work. She has done some really stunning pieces. If you want to look at some good burning, can see some examples at her blog Tinkered Art Studio. She has pictures in her Galleries. She has things in every one except her Zentangle® Gallery. Well, what was in the package was her older Razertip burner with about 5 different pens. I had been wanting to try different things but with the holidays and a couple of venues where I was selling, I did not have a chance to try them out. I finally just decided to do go ahead and do it. Although I probably should have been working on things to file my taxes. It is nothing special, but it is a start. Hope to get to some other things later. Really need to get some information/instruction on this.

Here is what I did. You cannot tell from the picture but this piece of wood is about the size of a business card. It is not very thick. I stuck to very simple tangles. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Paradox, Msst, Ahh

I guess the word is apropos since I was not sure how this was going to turn out.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go Tangle !! 

Square One: Etude in Ahh

Did not think that I would get to try another tile using Ahh so quickly. Probably just as well as things will be busy for the next few days and I probably will not have much time to do any tangling. This was a fun tile to do. I wanted to do some thing that was not a traditional use of Ahh. I wanted to somehow make Ahh the star. I decided to go bigger with the tangle and then do things inside. I called it Etude in Ahh as one definition of etude is a study. I know that it is generally used in relation to music but I figured it still fit. I also thought about doing the background all in black but decided to try something different. I aura-ed a pencil line around the different variations of Ahh and then used a blending stump. Had not done this much pencil shading before. Overall I am pleased with the results. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

I included a few other tangles with Ahh. They are Betweed, Finery, & Tipple.

Shading was done with a 2B pencil.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !! 

Square One: Ahh

Interesting prompt this week at Square One. This is a tangle that I almost see as an embellishment rather than a main tangle. Kind of like a role player on a basketball team; important but  not the star.  So this ended up being a pretty traditional use of Ahh. If I feel so inspired I may try another one. I am sure that there will be many unique ways that people will use Ahh. But, there is nothing wrong with using it for what it is. Just like there is nothing wrong with what someone does on a tile, even though it may not look like someone else's. Enjoy what you have created. Learning from others does not mean you have to compare yourself negatively to them or their work.  Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Ahh, Fescu, Antidots, & Roxi

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #184: "New Official Tangle: ING by Molly" , 2nd Post

As I indicated in the earlier post for this challenge I wanted to do another tile. Part of the reason for this is that it gave me more time to experiment with this tile. I did not try to change the lines of it that much and focused more on trying different things inside and not just shading it. Here is what I came up with. It has a Hollibaugh effect to it. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: ING, Stripes, Knightsbridge, Fasset, Ahh, Beads, Paradox, and Scrawlz

I was not sure about using Paradox as was not sure how it would turn out. I like the way it whooshes across the page. 

I have only been able to see about half of the things posted so far so hope to see the rest soon. There have been some unique and creative things that people have done. Go visit by clicking on I am the Diva. Try it your self even if you are not up to posting your work on line. That is not necessary to participate.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #165: "UMT - Camelia"

This week's Diva's challenge is an unexpected UMT (use my tangle) challenge. I do like these because like some others have posted, you will see a new pattern posted but do not always have time to try them. This gives an opportunity. This challenge's tangle is Camelia by Ann Marks. She does it as a grid pattern but it works also with out the grid. The opening strokes remind me a lot or Inapod, or at least half of it. I guess it illustrates the numerous possibilities when using the basic strokes.  I chose to use this pattern without the grid. Since I only did one line of it, it was probably easier to do. Would be more work if putting more together. When I was thinking of doing this tile, I was planning on using a Renaissance tile. This was mostly because I was planning on using the brown micron and using a tangle that I had experimented with on the cover of a moleskin journal. When I took out the materials I had with me to start, I did not have any Renaissance tiles with me. I decided to use what I had, which were the original tiles. I stuck with my original idea of using the black and sepia. Scroll feather is the tangle that I had been experimenting with. Was a little harder to get the white highlights on this. It looks okay here but I like the way it looks on the Renaissance tiles better. The rest of the tile just developed ala Zentangle® style. Here is what I came up with I hope you enjoy it. 

Tangles Used: Camelia, Scroll Feather, Ahh, Mist, and Frondous 

The white highlights are done with a White Signo UM-153 pen. I had wanted to use the Prismacolor wax white pencil but it was not showing up well. 

If you have not looked at the other postings on I am the Diva, I would strongly recommend you do so. If it is early in the week, plan on gong back often to stay up on new postings. 

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #152: New Official Tangle Aquafleur

I was able to get both the Diva  Challenge and the Zendala Dare done relatively quickly this week. The Challenge this week was to use the tangle just released to the public by Rick and Maria. The tangle is Aquafleur. It is a fun tangle and it lends itself to many variations. I remember seeing a number of great examples of this tangle when it was first released to CZTs. As usual there were a lot of amazing uses of this tangle. I have not used it a lot but did use it on a card that I made. I will post a picture of this under the tile that I did for this challenge. Since I had the time, and I do not like to only post something that I had done in the past for these Challenges, I did come up with another one. To me this usually has a somewhat organic nature. I have seen some other variations that have not. You can see some examples of this at zentangle.com and A Little Lime. Here is what I did for this challenge. I hope you like it. 

Tangles used: Bales, Aquafleur, Zinger, Fescu, 

Here is the card I made where I used Aquafleur. The other tangles that I used were Zinger, Ahh, Tipple, Joy & Indy-rella.  

If you have not been to I am the Diva to look at the other posts, I would strongly recommend you do so during the week. You will be treated to some great art.

Thanks for visiting, As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go Tangle !!