August 31 Newsletter & Tink

Our August 31, 2010 newsletter has been published. You can sign up for it on our website. It's free. You can view all our newsletters here.

In this newsletter we taught a guest tangle, tink, created by Carole Ohl, CZT.

Here are larger views of Zentangles we showed in our newsletter:

by Carole

by Carole

by Molly

by Maria

In this next series we see earlier versions of Rick's Zentangle. In the first and second views, notice how those small circles are the foundation for three different tangles (huggins, cadent and tink).

Have fun with tink. We think you will enjoy adding this tangle to your palette.

Indy sure did! She was watching Molly tangle tink and wanted to tangle, too. Here's Indy's first Zentangle (at fifteen months)!

Click images for larger views.

"Letter" in Our Mail

Bette Abdu, a Zentangle CZT who attended our Master Class just emailed us a picture of her letter which she's about to frame.

If anyone else has finished their projects, please send us your pix so we can share them here. I'm sure readers would love to see them.

Click image for larger view.

Just a Hint . . .

. . . of Fall.

Even though our days are still quite warm, evenings are cooling down.

Tangles used:

• Verdigogh meets Knightsbridge
• Seasonal Sampson

Click image for larger view.

Framing

We're framing our Zentangle Master Class creations. We want to show this paper's beautiful natural edges. We don't want to use adhesive or have glass touch this artwork, so we hold it in place with beads threaded with thin wire. This piece is attached to its acid free backing and is ready for framing.

Here's a close-up of a threaded bead. We like to use translucent red glass crow beads.

On the back, just fold the wire over and tape it.

In this framed illuminated letter, artwork is held in place by red crow beads on a sheet of contrasting brown lokta paper that was dry mounted to mat board.

It's fun when pieces are large enough to use those big red beads. Maria loves them.

Click images for larger view.

More Gifts

We received this gift in our email inbox recently.

I've been playing with designs ever since I got your first newsletter. Thought you might like to see pictures of my Zentangle gourd.   - Darlene

Thank you, Darlene!

Click images for larger view.

No Fear

If Zentangles look great on floors, why not walls?

When we visit people, we often leave a Zentangle. Sometimes it's a traditional paper one. Every now and then it might be like this one.

Here, Maria traced a Zentangle tile and drew her string with pencil right on the wall, added tangles with a pen and shaded with pencil. (Notice the one line of aura on this one.)

This trompe l'oeil Zentangle is "stuck" in the molding of our kitchen doorway.

Click image for larger view.

Floor Finis

Maria finished our back hall floor last night.

She left a pathway to our Backstares Gallery door on the right.

Our decades-old linoleum now looks like beautiful flecked handmade paper!

The mismatched seams, burn marks and scuff marks are all "gone."

We did this project in three stages. Our first blog about this floor describes how we began and materials used. This second blog shows interim progress.

Maria will now add three layers of semi-gloss polyurethane, sanding between coats for a nice patina.

Click images for larger view.

Behind Our Easel

Several people asked how we set up our rotating easel.

Here's a look behind our easel.

Here's a closer view.

One project on our list is to mount framed rotatable Zentangle creations along our front stairway. Then anyone can easily customize this mini gallery. We're looking forward to the constant playful surprise it will offer us.

For anyone interested in these "lazy susans," we bought them here.

August 21, 2001 Newsletter

Our August 21, 2001 newsletter has just been sent out.

We invite your comments here.

Varnish Time!

Our Master Class project, a 42 inch square Zentangle silhouetted sailboat, is ready to varnish!

This was a fun project and we look forward to creating posters with this image.

We are grateful for all the wonderful images and stories you send. Please excuse us if we don't respond right away or share everyone we receive, but each one is like a treasure to us. Thank you so much.

Click image for larger view.

Just for the Fun of it

Sometimes it's fun to do a Bronx Cheer even when there's nothing to hide. (. . . or is there?!)

If that sentence makes no sense to you, check out our instructions for Bronx Cheer in this newsletter.

Click image for larger view.

Master Class - Day 3

We'll wrap up (for now) our Master Class series with some images from Day 3. We expect more images as attendees send us photos of their completed projects. (Hint!)

One by one, people added to the large Zentangle "Beetle Cat." Since there is no up or down to a Zentangle, we asked Nick (Molly's husband) to build us an easel on which we could rotate a large frame. He used an industrial strength lazy susan. (If you want to make your own, check this source.)

It's almost complete and it's awesome! We will use it to create a fundraising poster for IYRS.

People continued to work on their large lokta sheets.

Here's a finished photo we received of that last one.

We also just received this comment from an attendee about the impact of working large.

I want to extend a heartfelt “Thank You” for creating and holding the Master Class in Newport, RI. It was a great learning experience, not only on the physical level, but on an emotional level as well.

I’m not sure if any others have expressed the emotional processing it took (at least for me) to create on such a large and elegant format? I understood intellectually the lesson you teach in the CZT training about using the best products available to create ones’ art on but, I’m not sure the true emotional meaning of this statement really registered until I was faced with such elegant products in such a large size undertaking. I’m a bit overwhelmed still as I look at the art we created just a little over a week ago and am still in awe of the outcome. Again, Thank You.

For more photos, check out Fina Man's "Day Three" portfolio here.

We are so grateful to all the wonderful folks at IRYS who made this event possible. (Here's three of them!)

We also want to thank Nancy, Sue and Lonni for all your help in a successful and smooth running event filled with great fun, food, photos and friendship.

Click images for larger view.

Master Class a-Point-ment

During our third day of Master Class we took a short excursion into a world of creating Zentangle art with pointed pen.

We used our pen nibs with white ink on black paper. With this pen's ability to alternate between thin and thick lines, everyone enjoyed exploring its Zentangle potential.

People were looking forward to this because Maria is well-known for her work with pointed pen. If you haven't seen it already, check out some of Maria's lettering here.

Click images for larger view.

Monday, Monday . . .

Although we were (wonderfully!) busy most of this morning, Maria still found time to create this Zentangle.

To get another perspective on our Master Class, here are portfolios of Day 1 and Day 2 on Picassa from Fina Man.

Day One Slideshow

Day Two Slideshow

Thank you Fina!

Ring . . .

At the start of Master Class we introduced this bell.

We explained that each time we rang this bell, it was a reminder to relax and take a few nice deep breaths. (So, from now on, whenever you hear a bell . . .  :-)

We then began with a video of a lecture that Rob Kapilow gave at this year's GEL conference in New York City where we were invited to present Zentangle.

We showed this lecture because of its relevance to Zentangle and all of life for that matter.

Enjoy!


Rob Kapilow at Gel 2010 (composer, pianist, author) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.


Ring!

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Masters Working Large

We worked on two main individual projects during our Master Class. One was the illuminated letters which you've seen. Our other project was "working large." We wanted people to move their wrists and arms as well as their fingers in creating these Zentangle works of art with a renaissance look.

For paper we used 20 x 30 inch (50 x 75 cm) sheets of Lokta. Lokta is a long fiber paper made from tree bark in Nepal. The trees (more like bushes we're told) regenerate quickly. It is also the paper that we use to cover our Zentangle Kit boxes.

For drawing tools we used regular pencils for string and shading. For tangling, we used Sakura® Pigma™ Graphic 1 and Micron 08 pens in black, brown and sepia. We used white chalk pencils for highlights.

Here's a closeup of an example Maria showed before we began:

People had their choice of green, brown or ecru paper. Here's a view from the balcony:

Getting started:

More from the balcony:

To many peoples' delight, Deb Phelps, CZT (and licensed massage therapist!) brought her massage chair.

We'll show more tomorrow how this project progressed.

Click images for larger view.

Paradox Interlude

Vicki Murray brought a beautiful Zentangle inspired fabric creation to Master Class.

Take a look at some of these edge patterns.

Here's a close-up view of Rick's Paradox tangle. (See other examples from our newsletters here and here.)

Picture sizes are large enough so if you click these images and then click them again you can appreciate some of her detailed work.

Thank you so much for bringing that, Vicki!

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