Diva Challenge #335: "UMT - Tint by Henrika Bratz. CZT"

This week's challenge is a Use my Tangle (UMT) challenge.  It uses the Tangle Tint by Henrika Bratz.  I was not famillar with this tangle but I like it because it uses simple strokes and you can do a lot to embellish it.  I needed some simple tangling so it fit really well for me.  Won't go into a lot of detail but life has been a little more stressful lately for a variety of reasons.  I started the last two challenges and never completed the tiles.  One all I got done was the string. Another, I got about a third done and never got back to it. I finished this tile in a relatively short time.  Did not try to do a lot and kept everything simple. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Tint, Florz

Shading done with graphite pencil

I have not looked at anything other than the Diva's example on her blog.  I would encourage you, if you have not all ready, to go and look at the pieces submitted. There are numerous pieces of astounding art.

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

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge # 323: "Home"

This week's Diva Challenge is to create a tile that reflects your home. The Diva talked about her Canadian heritage and the fact that they are celebrating their 150th birthday.  I have had a few homes in my life. They all have their unique characteristics and traits as well as memories. Was not sure what I was going to do for this challenge, or if I was going to do anything at all.  As I was thinking about it, when I think of home it usually involves the place that I grew up. I have not lived there for over 40 years but that is where a lot of my relatives live and if someone asks me, "Where's home?", that is the place that I will mention. Won't go into to details, but there are probably some recent and ongoing life events that also makes me think of that as home. Even after I decided on the place, was still not sure what I was going to do.

I grew up in a small town in Northwest Ohio. In the early years we lived on a street that only had one other house. Across the street was a farmer's field which usually rotated between corn and soybeans. There were two sections of town. The old section that mostly bordered the state road that went through town, and the newer section, where there were mostly ranch style homes. Were only a couple hundred people in the town. One of the things I remember about our house was the large maple tree that was/is in the front yard. I always wanted to climb it, but someone trimmed the lower limbs so the lowest branch was about 8' off the ground. By the time I was tall enough to jump up and grab it I was past the tree climbing stage. While I did not climb it I spend many hours underneath it playing with my cars and trucks. The roots made for some interesting "roads" around it's base. It also served as base for some of our hide & seek games. For some reason the grass under the tree was the best in the yard. Sometimes I would just lay in it "contemplating what ever seemed important at the time".

Hopefully, if you managed to read this, I have not totally bored you. I wanted to somehow depict all that in the tile that I did. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used:

 For the tree it is Sea Wave and Antidot, The ground is Diva Dance and the road behind it is Nipa, I used various tangles on the houses. Cadent, Florz and on the roof, I used Flukes, Shing, Tagh, and Cubine.  The funny looking things behind the tree are my best attempt at trying to put in corn. 

One of the extras of this challenge is that it gave me an opportunity to play with Margaret Bremner's tangled houses. It was a learning experience. I am going to experiment more and will try some color. I also am going to try a little less structured houses.  I was pleased with the result for a first try. Trying to do the shading on this was a real challenge. I kept it to a minimum.

I have not had a chance to look at things that have been posted on I am the Diva. Based on the prompt for this challenge I am looking forward to seeing a lot of unique and creative pieces. If you have not done so would strongly recommend that you click on the link above and enjoy all the great art.

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

Go Tangle !!    

Diva Challenge #226: Guest Blogger - Katie Crommett - Simplicity

This week's Diva Challenge guest blogger is, I think, one of the more recent CZTs Katie Crommett. I guess by newer, she was after my CZT training. I remember seeing her post things though before she went to the training. Any way, her challenge to us is Simplicity. Not sure what things I will see as that can mean different things to different people. She also indicated to use only 2 - 3 tangles at the most. I think I was successful in this challenge. I only used 3 tangles and none of them are particularly complicated. I tried to keep the shading simple also. Here is what I came up with. I hope yolu enjoy it.

Tangles used: Abundies (which mine looks a lot like Narwal), Springkle, & Florz

Shading done with 4B & 2B pencils. 

 I have not looked at many of the things posted so far. A few have shown up in my blog reader. Hoping to get to look at as many of possible over the rest of the week. Would encourage you to check out I am the Diva. Take a risk and try it yourself and post your results on the Diva's blog.

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

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #220: "All Boxed Up by Alice Hedon, CZT"

This being the first of the month, the Diva Challenge is a UMT, use my tangle, challenge. This time it is a tangle by Alice Hendon, CZT called All Boxed Up. The uniqueness of this tangle comes out with the shading. This is true even though what it was based on did not have any shading it was wall art. There is a picture, along with the step outs and some great tiles using the tangle on her blog, The Creator's Leaf. I did not get to this as early as I had wished. It is late Thursday night and I am just getting it posted. Correction it is early Friday morning. The only reason I am still up is that I do not have to go into the office tomorrow.

Was not really sure what I wanted to do with this tangle. I decided to go with true Zentangle® method and just start with no planning and let this build on its own. Maybe that is why it took me longer to do. One thing that was a little more purposeful is that I wanted to try Narwal, a tangle that I had not tried yet. Enough rambling about things. This is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: All Boxed Up, Cadent, Florz(variation), Narwal, and Genoa.

There was a discussion on one of the groups about what the definition of a tangle is. Someone suggested that Narwal was not a tangle because it used a pencil string and tangles are not suppose to use grids or things to complete them. Not sure about that but wanted to see if I could do Narwal without the pencil string. I was able to accomplish it. I have to admit I did have to watch the video as I was doing it. I do not think it turned out too bad for a first attempt.

If you have not done so all ready, would strongly encourage you check out the tiles and ZIAs posted on I am the Diva. I have not had a chance to look at very many. Usually just ones that show up in my reader or when people have also posted them in one of the FB groups. 

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

Go Tangle !! 

Square One : Rixty

The focus tangle for this week at Square One is Rixty. This was developed by Maria as a birthday present for Rick when he turned sixty. I have used this before, but have tended to use it on Renaissance tiles. Not sure but this may have been the first time that I did it in black and white. I wanted to try something different with it also. One thing I did was to biggify it a little. I also tried to do a "tango". I think I used that word correctly. It is combining two tangles. The shading was a big thing on this. It is okay but I have to admit the idea that I had in my head looked a whole lot better. This is something that I have to work on continuously. Some day I hope to be able to shade like some of the other artists I see. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Rixty, Tierso, Florz

The shading was done with 2B, 4B & 6B pencils 

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

Go Tangle !!

Square One : Crescent Moon

This is one of those tiles where if I had evaluated it before I was done doing all the tangles, I would have discarded the tile. Not that I would really do that, as I have discarded very few tiles. I started out with the circle in the middle as a string and did the rounds of Crescent Moon. The last tangle I did was Florz. This is a fairly simple tangle, but when I was even partially done with it, my whole perspective on the tile changed dramatically. It went from it is okay to I really like this. When this happens even questions about shading don't exist much. That is saying a lot for me as shading is an area I struggle with still after about 3 ½ years of tangling. Cannot explain it, but it is one of the things that I like about Zentangle®.  I cannot count the number times this has happened with tiles and Zendalas. Well enough rambling. You did not visit to hear my ramblings. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used : Crescent Moon, Gneiss, Inapod, & Florz

Shading was done with HB and 4B pencils.

Am experimenting with my chop. May see a couple of different variations. If you have any thoughts, either way, about any of them, feel free to let me know. Some of what I have come up with lately reminds me too much of a bug.

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

Go Tangle !!

Square One: Just for Fun

I like Square One because it does make me deal with the basics. They do not issue a challenge but a prompt. Every once in a while I like to go totally off on my own just to see what happens. That is what happened with this tile. I started with a random string and just went from there. As I was doing it, I was a little surprised by the different variety of tangles/styles involved in this tile. There are grid based, organic and just a tad of basic paisley pattern. It took me longer to finish than I anticipated, but it was fun to do it. Not sure why but I think because it was not a challenge or I was not doing something that I was looking at including in a sale. Maybe I should try this more even with the challenges. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Frondous, Scena, Scena with Diva Dance, Florz (variation), Curly Bracket Feather, and Scrolled Feather. The quasi paisley is just a tear drop shape filled with different tangles. 

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

Go  Tangle !!

Diva Challenge # 176: " B.Y.O.B" - # 2

Won't go into any of the background on the challenge as this is my second tile. I decided to do another one as I was less than satisfied with my first. While I was not any more enthusiastic about the challenge, I was more pleased with the result. I chose to do the second one on a zendala tile and I made a much larger stain. I think this helped with deciding what I wanted to do, but it still took some time. Here is what the stain looked like before I started tangling.

Here is what I came up with. I kept it simple. I hope you enjoy it.

I usually take a couple of different pictures, using different setting of my completed tile.  I could not decide which one I liked the best so I put them both on here.

Tangles used: Phicops, Florz

I used a sepia marker to do Phicops. The shading was done with both Derwent  and Irotijen pencils. The Derwent was Baked Earth and I used Bamboo and Maple Syrup Irojiten pencils. I was pleased with the results of the shading. I thought about shading Florz but decided not to. Some of this was based on time, but also I liked the contrast that the simple black/white tangle provided.

Thanks for visiting. I know this one was submitted at the very end of the time. I appreciate any views on this one.  As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !! 

Diva Challenge #156: "Curvy Gridlock"

This week's challenge came from a comment the Diva received about doing grid based tangles. The person indicated that they were not very good at grid based tangles because she could not draw a straight line. The Diva's response was, who says grids have to be straight. I agree. It is fun to vary them and see what variations you can come up with. Some are probably easier to do than others. So she challenged people to come up with uneven or curvy grids. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Florz(variation), Puf, and 'Nzeppel

When I was doing this I thought the grid where I did Puf was a little more curvy. Doing the other two curvy was easier. I chose to use tangles that I enjoy using. 'Nzeppel is one of my favorites. Florz is a simple tangle and I enjoy looking for different ways to vary it. Puf is fun to do and is quite a surprise at the end from the way it starts out(thanks Carol Ohl!). 

If  you have not visited I am the Diva, would encourage you to do so and look at the other great things that others have posted. 

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

Go Tangle !!    

Zendala Dare #88

I do not know that I have ever posted a submission to a dare so late in the week. I had a lot of ideas of this just not the time to get to them. Then I did one that was a little more detailed. Over all I am pleased with the results. I felt a little rushed trying to get it done before the deadline, so I am not sure I gave as much thought to the shading and finishing of the tile. Here is what I ended up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Meer(variation), Florz(variation), Antidots, Quib, S-flowers, Fescu

I hope you have checked out all the submissions at The Bright Owl. I admit, that this week I have not had the time to look at them. I am hoping I get some time this weekend.

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

Go Tangle !!