May 29, 2010 Newsletter

We just mailed our May 29, 2010 Newsletter and we're looking forward to your comments and discussion.

As we mentioned, here's an enlargeable picture (just click on it) to see it larger in a separate window.

Depending on your browser, if you click on it again, it will get still larger and you see some wonderful people even more clearly!

More Seminar Creativity and Pix

Here are some more quick peeks into some of the creativity at our recent CZT seminar.

Another table view

Ahh . . . we always knew this is what lecture notes should look like!

Freshly varnished nametags curing outside.

Sue, Nancy and Rachel made sure the store and everything else ran smoothly.

Sue and Rachel are Maria's sisters. Nancy works with us fulltime and keeps tries to keep us in line.

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More Display

Here are a few more images to give you an idea of the amazing, beautiful and varied Zentangle inspired creations that people displayed in the lobby at our recent CZT seminar.

Enjoy!

 

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More Stitching

We had a number of Zentangle inspired fabric works of art at our CZT seminar.

Pat Ferguson, CZT, brought her beautiful quilt for all to see.

Carole Ohl, CZT, brought her friend Lee Tougas' now-finished needlepoint:

Elizabeth Olivas, CZT, brought this lovely quilt she created. Here she is with her daughter and us. Unfortunately you can't appreciate her beautiful stitching in this photograph.

This next quilt is a delicious exploration of Zentangle inspired patterns and textures ("TexTur"). We don't know who did this, so please let us know so we can give you credit.

We look forward to sharing more of some amazing creations shown at our seminar.

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Clusia Rosea

After seeing what Lois Stokes did in this blog entry, and since Lois and Earl were coming to our seminar from Hawaii, we asked them to send some leaves from the Hawaiian Autograph Tree. Everyone at our seminar appreciated their kindness and generosity in making that possible.

Here's what a leaf looks like. These leaves average about 5 to 8 inches in length.

When you scratch the surface of this leaf, it leaves a contrasting mark. We all used bamboo skewers, although Lois recommends a #3 knitting needle.

Scratching these leaves released a fragrance which, combined with a bit of imagination, let you think you were in Hawaii. Here are some examples of the fun we had.

It's interesting to see how many people (us included) used the tangle flux, which is resonant of this leaf's shape!

Here's how they look when dry.

Thanks again to Lois and Earl - great fun and great memories!

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Canvas Bags

At our recent seminar, we gave each person a canvas bag. We encouraged everyone to tangle their bags and as an example, showed this one that Molly created. Here, she uses her logo (which spells her name) as a border, and then drew strings within for her tangles.

Materials used:

• Canvas bag
• Sakura® Pigma Graphic 1

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Miniature

We are still digesting and reliving our recent CZT training. We look forward to sharing with you some of the wonderful creativity and fun we experienced.

Maria Vennekens came from The Netherlands to attend CZT training. This delightful little boy came with her. He was very proud of this book that he kept in his backpack.

His book is very small, so he let us borrow it just long enough to take this picture and give you an idea of its size.

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CZT Seminar Ensemble

Words cannot describe these past few days with all our new friends (though that won't stop us from trying!). So please be patient with us as we totally overuse words like, "inspiring, fun, enthusiastic, warm and magical " in our next few blogs and newsletter to tell you about events at our recent Certified Zentangle Teacher Seminar.

Here's a community Zentangle Ensemble that everyone helped create. Maria drew the string and painted the border. Everyone did a tangle, then we framed it.

Throughout the seminar we were constantly giving out prizes and this was one of them. The winner was the person who best guessed the amount of icosahedron dice in this jar.

Our daughter, Molly (left) and her grandmother, Barbara helped select the winner. (Only Barbara knew how many dice there were!) Here they are with the lucky winner.

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Flag

We created a Zentangle flag to greet people at our seminar retreat facility. We ordered a white polyester flag online. It's about 12 feet tall. We had it on our living room floor for a few days as we tangled it with Zentangle patterns. We laid it on top of some foam core so it wouldn't stain the rug underneath and to provide a hard surface.

This picture was taken yesterday in the rain. (It's a beautiful sunny day today!) The ink held perfectly and we only had to draw on one side as the ink bled through so much that you can't tell which side we drew on.

Materials used

• Polyester flag (forgot where we got it)
• Dotta-Riffic™ pens from Paper and Ink Arts

We're off for another wonderful day with many new friends.

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Party!

We're off and running with our CZT seminar, so just some quick pix from last night. We had about 80 people in our home/studio/gallery last night for a welcoming party.

What a magical evening filled with great food and drink, conversations and the making of wonderful new friendships.

More later . . .

(Oops! Just realized I didn't post this yesterday . . . party was actually Tuesday night.)

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Zentangle Workshops

Here's an example of what happens in a Zentangle workshop. June Baty taught this workshop in Texas. June is a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT).

From a press release about her workshop:

June Baty, CZT presented an all-day Zentangle workshop at the Artist’s Showplace in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, April 24, 2010 to a diverse 18 participants. Zentangle is truly an art form that levels the playing field. It does not matter if you are an artist or not, you can use this technique to produce a beautiful, successful artform. More classes are planned, so email us to get on our list. zentangleTexas@yahoo.com or june.baty@yahoo.com

June writes:

The class was stimulating and fun. Look at the beautiful display of tangled tiles by many who had never tried to draw a Zentangle before. You cannot tell the first time from the seasoned tangler. All the students left the workshop ready for more fun and more tangling. So, a fall weekend retreat for the advanced tangler is in the works. Plus lots more Zentangle 101 classes until then.

Congratulations June. Thank you for sending that to us.

We encourage everyone to attend a Zentangle workshop even if you are an experienced tangler. When a group of people come together to create Zentangles, it is always a special experience. To find a CZT in your area, see our list of CZTs on this page.

We're busy with last minute details for this week's Certified Zentangle Training and are looking forward to adding many more names to our list of CZTs!

Ensembles

Ensembles are fun to do as a group or by yourself. These below are from one of our standard Zentangle Ensemble packs but you can make your own. You can make them in any configuration depending on how many people are participating or how large a mosaic you wish to create.

A couple suggestions:

• If you're creating your own, use pencil for your string.
• Focus on one tile at a time. Ignore what tangles might be on a neighboring tile. (Lock the others away if you have to!)

It's amazing to see how an Ensemble's tangles fit with one another.

Nine different people contributed to this next Ensemble.

Maria did this next one:

Rick did this next one: (Honest, I didn't look at any other tiles as I was doing this one, but if you look closely, it's hard to believe I didn't!)

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More Shoes

Janet sent us a link to her blog and pictures of her enhanced Danskos. We thought you would enjoy seeing them.

Thank you, Janet.

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On the other hand . . .

Try creating a Zentangle using your non-dominant hand. It's quite an experience. Here's one that Rick did:

Notice that although the strokes are uneven, they still give a consistent look to the overall result.

A quick web search on right-brain/left-brain returns all sorts of information on the benefits of using your non-dominant hand, particularly for us right-handed folks.

We think you'll enjoy playing around with this and will probably learn a lot from doing a few Zentangles this way. At a minimum you'll have a greater appreciation of what it's like as a child learning fine motor skills, or an adult recovering from an injury.

Try it . . . even if you don't show anyone your first one! But do another. It's amazing how quickly your non-dominant hand catches on - and begins to show its own style as it energizes a different part of your brain.

Have fun!

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Back to Basics

As we work through our to-do list for our conference next week, we remind ourselves . . .

Breathe
Appreciate

Dots
Border
String
Tangle
Sign

Breathe
Appreciate
Smile


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Quilting

Pat Ferguson wrote:

Dear Maria & Rick,

I entered a quilt - Zen Dahlia - in the Narragansett Bay Quilters Association show this past weekend in North Kingstown RI.

It is based on Zentangle and quilting designs , many of which are very similar. The whole cloth quilt is 85" square and was hanging reversible, showing both sides. After being judged by a professional quilt judge I received a purple ribbon (98% quilting excellence) and Viewer's Choice Ribbon- this one means so much to me because the general public is telling me that they like the quilt.. I had so many wonderful comments on the complexity and originality of the quilting designs. Many thought that I had a computerized machine that did the work but I hand guided every stitch. Even the judge commented that this was a work of art.

I have attached a photo of just a portion of the outer corner of my quilt with a quarter placed for size comparison. I will be posting more photos of the quilt on my website very soon.

I am so looking forward to the teacher training seminar in May! Zentangle has allowed me to find many more quilting designs to add to my quilting repertoire and a whole new style of quilting!

Congratulations, Pat! And thank you, ". . . a whole new style of quilting!" How cool is that!

See you soon.

See more (and larger) images on Pat's award page.

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