Combining tangling and Pyrography: Burned cross

 Trying to get a little more regular about posting things, but since I am out of the habit do not always think about it. I am working on inventory for a Winter Market that I will be participating in later this year. Here is an item that I recently finished. It combines two things that I like to do, tangling and wood burning. I do not do typical pyrography as I do not try do pictures. I would like to have more time to work on that but that will have to wait. I am also digressing.  I purchased the blank from a craft store. It is approximately 8" x 5". 

I use a Razer tip SS-D10 burner. I used a F9S pen for the words. It is listed as a pen for writing. This is the small size.  I used  an F14D Blunt Heel Knife to do the pattern. The small shading was done with a a F5S small spear. 

I thought about doing a little shading with the spear or another shader, on the Shattuck pattern but opted not to. 

I have a calligraphy pen that I have not tried yet. Before I try that will probably practice on some scrap wood to get the feel of it. 

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

Go Tangle !! 

Pyrography: Using the Zentangle® method with other mediums

I enjoy tangling and I also enjoy trying new ways to use them.  I have experimented mostly with adding color and pyrography. I enjoy the latter but it is more of a challenge and takes more time to complete the work.  Recently, in preparation for an event, I have done a few more wood cuffs.  All the ones that I have done before have been grid tangles or variations of them.  I had wanted to try more organic tangles but was more apprehensive about it.  Was difficult to get away from that inner critic that would whisper, "what if you make a mistake?". It was not that I was uncomfortable with the tangle but using the burning pen is a lot different than using a Micron. To borrow a phrase from a well known athletic apparel firm, I had to tell my self just do it. Here is the result.

It is not the easiest piece to photograph.  I was pleased with the results.  I used the smallest pen I had which really did help with the control of the curves.  The shading is done with a shading tool.  I do not know that this tangle has a name. It is just one that I have come up with as a way to draw a flower. Sandy Stein Bartholomew I think has a similar one in one of her books. I do not think she named them either.  I think she referred to them as embellishments. 

I have a number of  these cuffs so hope I can get some more done. I also have some basswood plaques that I have not decided exactly what I want to do with them.  This gives me some flexibility, and confidence as will probably do some organic tangles with a phrase of something. Lettering is still something that I am working on.

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

Go Tangle !!

Back after a lengthy hiatus: Some things that have been working on.

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything.  Life sometimes has a way of forcing you to deal with things.  Besides dealing with the death of a sibling also rotator cuff surgery and the rehab for that and working full time. The rehab will go on for a while but am doing well with it.  Just working on the range of motion behind my back now, and strength. Hopefully I will not be AWOL for a while.

I did get some things entered in our local art show this year.  received 2nd and 3rd place ribbons for my Paradox Turtle and Whale Tail. Sure that I posted pictures of these earlier but here they are again so you won't have to scroll through old posts.

I have continued to do some wood burning.  Would like to do a little more. Have done some as pendants an others as key fobs.  Here is one the is a pendant.  I have also done a few more crosses. Here are some examples of those.  Some have probably been posted before.  

Don't have pictures of some of the rectangle key fobs that have done, but you get the idea.

Most of my time recently was on preparing things for a class.  Have a group of ladies that have taken a number of classes from me and am always looking for new things to do.  Wanted to do some things with string theory so began looking at different ways to do strings. Was looking for some color.  Borrowed some things from my days in elementary school as well as from some of the postings on acrylic pours.  I used string and acrylic paint in different ways. On some I put the paint on the string and on others I put the paint on the paper.  Here are some of the examples where I put the paint on the string. 

These were both done on 9 x 12 paper.  I had the paint in a small paint bowl that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  Cut a long length of string and put in the paint. I did not thin the paint but this is something that could do.  On the second one it was still one string, but I had two bowls next to each other and put part of the string in each bowl.  After folding the paper in half, I unfolded it and randomly put the string on half of the paper.  I left two ends sticking out on different sides, refolded the paper and alternately pulled the strings until it was all out.  On the top one I used a piece of cardboard from an old sketch pad to press down on the paper as I pulled the strings. Think that is why there is so much coverage.  On the second one I just used my hand. 

One the next one I did similar process but instead of putting the paint on the string, I put it on the paper.  Here is the end result and I will explain the process after the picture.

There are separate pictures as I cut the paper apart before I took the picture.  On these I drizzled the paint on the paper directly from the squeeze bottle that they were in. I only put paint on half of the paper. It was the same size as the other.  before refolding I randomly placed string on the side with the paint and after refolding it, alternately pulled the string until it was all out.  

The last one I only used half of the sheet so is  9 x 6.  Here is how that turned out. 

The process on this was a little different. I again drizzled the paint on the paper.  Instead of using a long length of string, I used a shorter one.  I used a method that I had seen someone use on an acrylic pour to spread the paint.  I used my thumb to place one end of the string on the paper.  This became a pivot point and I moved a length of the string over the paint. I did not thin the paint but even if I had, need to watch how much paint is building up on the string and if it is too much, you just raise the string a little.  This created a little more texture but I also used a braided string. As you can see I did not spread the paint all over. You could.  As I was experimenting for a class I did not.  The advantage of this method is that you can see what is occurring and you can either change what you do with the string or add a little more paint.  This is the only one that I used white and I did add a little more in a few spots. 

Couple of things that I should mention.  Pulling the strings out can get messy so put down newspaper of a drop cloth under you paper so you do not have a lot of paint to clean off your table. You can also wear disposable latex gloves so it helps with clean up.  With the first two methods you are not sure what you are going to end up with.  I was not sure what I was going to tangle on them.  I started out just putting Tipple in some of the negative space. I stopped and kept looking at it and it finally apparent to me.  Of course now I cannot unsee it.  I have only had a chance to work on one. but here is what I did with the yellow one.

I am not aware of anyway I could have planned this.  It was a happy occurrence. Kind of reinforces the Zentangle® tenet that there are no mistakes just unplanned opportunities.  

If you got all the way through this lengthy post, I appreciate it.  Don't think that posts in the future will be this long. Unless I have another long AWOL, then it could happen.

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

Go Tangle !! 

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. 

More pyrography: Tangled crosses

I picked these up a couple of months ago but as often happens, life got in the way of doing anything with them.  I have done some before and enjoy doing them.  Some smaller ones I actually used a micron to draw patterns on them.  Did not want to do this this time.

 Some times the simplest patterns make for satisfying results.  These are wooden crosses that I got at a craft store. They are about 1.75" x 2.75"x ¼ ".  Not sure what the wood is. It does not say on the package.  Will explain a little more after the picture.

Cannot always do tangles in the way that would with a pen.  The tangle is like perf and used mostly as an embellishment. Some would say it is Tipple, but that tends to be larger. Ends up being a stippling effect.  I used a small stylus ball to do.  My burner is a Razertip.  I use a beeswax polish to finish.  It does darken the wood a little but I do not mind the effect of this.  I like the opposite effect. 

When finished will attach bales to the back and use a black waxed cotton cord  attached to that.  

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

Go Tangle !!  

Adventures in Pyrography: Tangled Turtle Cutting board

Have been working on this for some time and was finally able to finish it.  It sat idle for a long time as was working on completing a few other projects.  The tangles that I used also took a while to do. Bought the cutting board from Michael's a while back.  Some of you may have seen the cow that did earlier.  Used a Razertip  D-10 burner with medium fixed regular skew for the line work. The tipple and border outline was done with a 2.3 mm stylus ball and the shading in Gneiss was done with a triangular shader.

Here is the finished project. Sorry I did not take lot of pictures of the proceess.  Took this one early on so you can see what I started with.

Here is the way it ended.

Tangles used: Gneiss, Paradox, Tipple

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

Go Tamgle !!

Completed cutting board: Burned tangled cow

After 20+ hours I finally finished the cutting board.  Most of the time was spent doing the shading/burning.  Did not realize would take that long.  Probably could have made the striping a little bigger.  That would have cut down on the number that I needed to shade.  Here are the pictures as it progressed.

I am not going to repost all the pictures from the original post but this is what it looked like in the begining. 

Here is the next step of tangling the hooves and creating the legs. Used the tangle Paradox for the hooves.  Only one more step but it was a large one. 

And here is the finished cutting board.  Thought about adding a bell to the collar but opted not to add this.  I am still a "newbie" when it comes to pyrography.   I still have a lot to learn. I could have spend a little more time preparing the wood. I thought I had it pretty smooth, but as was burning, there were a few rough spots.  Think it lead to some feathering, or over burns.  This was also probably due to not having the heat setting quite right. Have the same problem with water colors.  Get impatient.  Try to do things too quickly.  

Tangles used in this are: Tail-Shattuck: Horns-Fassett; Collar-Hybrid variation; Hooves-Paradox; Spot-Striping.  The end of the tail is just line work.  

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

Go Tangle !!  

Another pyrography project: Cutting board - Cow shaped

Now that I finished the wood cuff, have moved on to the next project.  I bought a couple of wood forms at Michael's a while ago. One is shaped like a turtle and the other is shaped like a cow.  Not sure why I chose to do the cow first.  Maybe is was because I did not know what I wanted to do on the turtle.  Of course I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with the cow either.  This will be combination of tangles and just some shading.  Have a lot to do yet but here is what I have so far.

Wanted to take a picture of the blank form.  Almost forgot as I started on the tail a little  before I took the picture. 

I started with the tail.  The bottom is just line work and the tail uses the tangle Shattuck

Next I moved up to the ears and horn.  I used Fassett for he horns and some shading for the ears.

This was the hardest section so far.  Most is just shading and making it as dark as I could.  Had to go over it a lot.  The nose was not too hard to do.  The real problem was with the eyes.  I usually do not try to pencil in something but I had to with the eyes.  Tried a couple of things before I finally settled on this style.  I looked at a lot of pictures and tried a couple of different things.  This is the only thing that looked half way decent.  Made me realize why I do not like doing realistic art.  The collar is probably a little too high on the bottom but since I burned it, it has to stay.  Maybe will add something to it.

Will probably work on the feet next.  Have an idea of what I want to do on this. Then will work on the body.  Will probably be a lot of negative space.  Not sure how often I will post the progress on this.  May just do a series  to the end.  

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

Go Tangle !! 

Update on the tangled cuff

Brief post just to show the progress so far. Decided to do the shading with the burner.  This is what I have so far, which is about ¼ of the cuff.  Takes a little time as will put down a little shading, then outline it, and then finish the shading.  The wood does get warm. Only slipped off the wood one time when I was working on the edge and caught my finger.  The first picture is from the original post and the second is with the shading that I have done so far.  Will post again when is completed.

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

Go Tangle !! 

Finally able to get in a little time on pyrography and a new adventure with henna tattoos

This will be a brief post. It has been some time since I have posted anything. Will try to be more diligent. The only new thing is that I have been doing some henna tattoos.  The other is that I finally had a chance to do some burning.  This is the only thing that I have gotten to so far. Have more things to work on.

Here are a couple pictures of some of the henna tattoos that I did.

Here is the pyrography project that am working on. Have the basic pattern. Not sure what else that I am going to with it.

  This is just a couple of pictures of the same piece.  

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

Go Tangle !!  

Getting some things ready for the holidays and events: Zentangle Inspired Art using different mediums

Seems like forever since I did a blog post. I do not even want to think about how long it has been since I participated in a Diva Challenge. I do look at what they are and occasionally will look at a few but have been busy with a number of other things. Some of the things I have been doing have been preparing for classes and some are to have some new things at some events that I participated in. I have not even started doing anything for the holidays, other than what I have done for a class.  Here is a little bit of what I have been up to.

Here are some wooden cuffs that I used a wood burning tool to put the patterns on them. The one on the far right is drawn with a pen.

This is the only full bracelet that I have worked on. Took a while to do this one as it is about 2" wide.

This one I used one of my favorite, go-to tangles, Shattuck.  Also tried a lighter shading. Pleased with the way that this turned out.

On all these I used a combination bees wax that I found at Menard's. It does not give a high gloss but it does help preserve the wood and would be easier for most people to use if they wanted to buff later or it dries out a little. Everything that I have tried darkens the wood a little. This is not too bad so does not change the original work that much. 

Here are some pictures of things that I have been preparing for classes. They are made from paper and make unique ornaments. One is a combination origami and ZIA project. It is called Jump. Here is the link to a video that shows how to do them. They are labor intensive.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0Eou-Ive8&app=desktop

The other is done by CZT Dorian Eng. Here is the link for her video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81_W8wx2DGI&feature=youtu.be

 The video shows how to make this using the original Zentangle® square tiles. When I posted this on a FB page she made a comment about trying it on Zendala® tiles. She did not give any suggestions but decided I would follow the same procedure. Have to admit that making the folds were a little more difficult. Not so much quartering the tile, but the folding in the edges was trickier. Fortunately, did not have to be exacting to complete. I also tried something a little different as I used two different colored tiles.  Here is what I came up with. Will make a few more comments after the pictures. 

The white tiles were done using microns to draw the tangles. The color was done with colored pencils. To achieve some of the effects, I did a couple of layers with some until I had the intensity of color that I wanted. On the black tiles, the tangles were done with Sakura Moonlight gel pens. I also used Staedler colored pencils to add some of the fill. This did no show up as well in the pictures. These are definitely easier to make, but can get labor intensive depending on what tangles you use and if you decide to use color. 

If you got this far, thanks for staying with me through this longer than usual post.

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

Go Tangle

Another adventure with Pyrography and tangling: Wood bracelet

Finally got enough courage to try a 3D item. I finished all the crosses not ready to tackle the candle plates yet. Wanted a little more practice before I attempted those. Overall I was pleased with the way this turned out. Here is the item that I finished. Will make a few comments after the pictures.

Kept it pretty simple using Paradox as the primary pattern. I like the contrast but did have some difficulty getting a consistent burn on the triangle sections. Could say that it had something to do with the wood but am guessing that it had more to do with me. On the other hand I kind of like the "marbled effect" with the uneven burn. These pictures are before I have done anything to seal or finish them. Will have to see what I will do. I like the Tung oil but it also darkens the wood. Will contact some of the other people I know and see what options there are.

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

Go Tangle !!