Welcome to BLOG Zentangle. To learn about Zentangle, visit our website, read our free newsletters, take a class with a local Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT), and best of all . . . create your own!


Friday, April 30, 2010

GEL

We gave a Zentangle class yesterday at the New York Times center in New York City as part of the Good Experience Living (GEL) Conference.

An expected 30 people in our class quickly doubled and continued to grow. We had brought lapboards for 50 just in case. Pretty soon we were cutting those in half. We also proved in practice that you can create a Zentangle just holding your tile in your hand. If there were no more chairs to sit on, then the floor was just fine - Zentangle's version of standing room only on Broadway!

We met some amazing people and have made some wonderful new friends. Here are some quick shots to give you an idea.











We are so grateful to Mark Hurst and everyone at GEL for this wonderful opportunity.

And . . .

We're grateful for the Flying Karamazov Brothers who taught us to juggle three balls! Seriously. It was part of the conference and both Maria and I who never juggled, can now juggle three balls! Too much fun.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Too Cute

OK, we couldn't not share this email from "C."

Hi,

Just thought I would share this photo.

I wasn't feeling well this afternoon so I printed up a few design patterns from your newsletters, grabbed my pens, paper and a clipboard and headed off to bed to relax.

Minnie decided that mommy should not go to bed alone and soon had swiped my pencil and was studying the patterns!

The photo is not the greatest because I had to snap it with my phone....this girl rarely sits still!

Finally got around to ordering my kit a couple days ago and am eagerly awaiting it's arrival! :-)


Thank you, C (and Minnie). We look forward to seeing what you create!

Click image for larger view

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Marbles . . .

Loosing and and finding them can be fun.

It was time to replace our front hall table. We combined a treadle sewing machine base and an antique marble table top.


This table top had a deep stain that we could not remove.


So (you do know what's coming next, right?), out came some Sakura® Pigma Microns. We're using black and brown to match this stain.


We coated it with Minwax® semi-gloss polyurethane.


Here's a detail shot. The old marble's porous surface gives the pen edges a nice velvety feel.


We'll show you how it looks when we do some more.

Click images for larger view.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Newsletter Discussion - April 27, 2010

We just emailed our April 27, 2010 newsletter and we're looking forward to your questions and comments.




If you don't already receive our free newsletter, you can sign up for it here. At that link you can also read all of our earlier newsletters.

NeedlePointed

Lee discovered Zentangle and now he uses Zentangle tangles and creations as needlepoint pattern inspirations.

Take a look at some of the fun he is having!










If you have questions for Lee you can post them here or email him at the email he asked us to provide, lee.tougas[at]gmail[dot]com.

Beautiful work! Thanks Lee.

Click images for larger view

Monday, April 26, 2010

Well aPointed

Molly created these Zentangles with just dots following and flowing from her string. With this you can easily appreciate her strings and the impact of shading.




Looks like anything is possible one "point" at a time, too!

Click image for larger view

Saturday, April 24, 2010

In Stitches

Many quilters use Zentangle as a source for design inspirations. Jane Monk is a longarm quilter from Northern Tasmania. She has some wonderful examples on her dedicated Zentangle blog that we thought you'd enjoy. We've added her blog to our blogroll on the right.

Jane sent us a link to an image of this journal cover she created using Sakura's Pigma Micron on white fabric and then stitching over it. Beautiful!



Here's a detail shot. Beautiful!



Enjoy everyone. And thanks, Jane.

Click images for larger view

Friday, April 23, 2010

Growing on the Edge

This Zentangle is more at home growing outside on the edge of our garlic garden than in a frame.


After Maria drew her string and, feeling "edgy," she tangled outside. It did the trick.


Click images for larger view

Thursday, April 22, 2010

How High?

We'll find out!

We were playing on our kitchen table to see how high we could build a Zentangle tile tower, but that table's surface was too smooth.

Out came one of Maria's earlier desk blotters. Its suede matting has a nice "tooth." Looks like this will be a good foundation to build on.


Here's a closer look at that blotter:


Click images for larger view

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Alphonse

We're not really sure his name is Alphonse. But then again, we're not sure it isn't. We only know a few things about him. We know he's grateful to have been rescued from an acquaintance's attic, busted and covered in bat poo. We also know he loves hats. (He has quite a collection.)

We just discovered he enjoys Zentangle!


Here's a closer image . . .


And closer still . . .



Click images for larger view

P.S.
Thanks, Sandy, for the hand (both of them actually) when we visited!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

"Hole in One"

Here's part of our "Hole in One" presentation:


Materials and Costs
  • Set of bowling pins bought at local antique store - $5
  • One 1-1/2" Forstner drill bit wielded by our furntiure making friend - $0
  • One Sakura Pigma Micron #1 - $2.69
Click image for larger view

Monday, April 19, 2010

Scrunch!

Maria was working on a large Zentangle and decided she didn't like it. She scrunched it up and tossed it in the trash.

Then she looked at it.

"Now I like it!"

She took it out, varnished it (MinWax polyurethane) and now it's in our gallery.



Click for larger view

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Newsletter Discussion - April 18, 2010


We just emailed our April 18, 2010 newsletter and we're looking forward to your questions and comments.

If you don't already receive our free newsletter, you can sign up for it here. At that link you can also read all of our earlier newsletters.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Tacks Day

After Maria finished this Zentangle yesterday . . .


. . . and began to sign and date the back, she asked, "What day is it today?"

"April 15, tax day," I replied.


Click images for larger view

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Two Tiles

Last night Maria and I each did a Zentangle. It's interesting what we both did with that large semi-circle string. We hadn't seen each other's either. Even more fascinating (at least to me!) is that my tile's string came from a misprinted Ensemble set.





I wanted to use just one tangle, but ended up using Cresent Moon as a "primary color" mixed with Hollibaugh, Strircles, Shattuck and Meer.

Click images for larger view

P.S.
We added a comment to our vocabulary discussion here.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Treats

People send us beautiful examples of what they are creating with Zentangle.

Here are some treats to add to this growing visual feast.

Dear Rick and Maria. Thank you for your world of Zentangles. I have been a doodler all my life and Zentangle has put a name to what I do. I live in New Zealand so attending a leadership course is not possible. I am sending you a pic of my bathroom wall. You will see some familiar marks and hopefully lots of my own. Beez in the Belfry has been a source of inspiration and many others too. I enjoy your blog. Arohanui. Joan.



Check out how she incorporated that door stop into her creation. Thanks, Joan!

Maria and Rick,

I'm looking forward to the seminar next month. I thought I would share with you a couple of zentangles that I have completed. [ . . . ] Zentangle 4 is a 10"x10" zentangle which I put in a scrapbooking frame (onto black scrapbook paper). I'm working on my second 10"x10" one now.

In any case, I look forward to seeing you on May 18th! I'm counting the days!

Best wishes,

Sharon


Thanks, Sharon. See you soon!

Rick and Maria, I'm sure you get deluged with things people do, but here is yet another. This is a 16x20 Zentangle created by ten people. We have a small group that meets once a month in Dayton OH, so some of them tangled on it, as well as some new zentangling beader freinds. The piece is being raffled for a community service organization that is throwing their first fundraiser called: Doors of Discovery, Windows of Peace. The design was done by one person and also shaded by one, but the Zentangle was created by the group.

Thanks, Carole

Awesome, thank you for sending that!

Click images for larger view

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

CZT Addendum

We received this comment from revbyrd on our Certified Zentangle Teacher blog entry:
I understand why you are doing the training the way you are doing it. I don't even quarrel with it. But I am disappointed because I am disabled and cannot travel.

I am a minister (as my name might suggest) who is semi retired. Currently I do counseling and work with folks on a variety of issues, including self-esteem. Zentangle would fit perfectly and really help many folks, but I am somewhat reluctant to do much because of the ethical issues (copywrite, not being certified, etc.). It's a shame, because I think it would really make a difference.

As you expand your training programs, please keep people like me in mind.
Thanks for asking that, revbyrd. Let us know if this answers your comment. We'll use it as inspiration to add to our FAQ:

I'm concerned with legal and ethical issues of copyright and certification. Do I need to be a CZT to share Zentangle with others?
We've discovered that people inevitably want to share Zentangle with others. After teaching Zentangle to our grandson's second grade class, by the next day children throughout the school were creating their own Zentangles!

If you want to share your Zentangle creations or use our Zentangle method with others, we ask that you
  1. Use our name (Zentangle).
  2. Use our vocabulary (String, tile, tangle, etc.).
  3. Mention our website (zentangle.com).
  4. Stay close to our teaching method. We understand this is an odd request, because the background concepts and insights necessary to do that are what we teach in our CZT training. For now, please understand that all those materials and techniques, steps and names in Zentangle, as playful and frivolous (or unnecessary and limiting) as they may seem, are deliberately that way for specific and studied reasons.
  5.  . . . and never use the "D" word!  :-)
As long as you do this, we are comfortable with you sharing your Zentangles and the Zentangle method with others.

If you want to more fully understand Zentangle and learn many subtleties of how to convey that understanding to others, in other words to represent yourself as someone who has been certified to teach Zentangle, then we invite you to complete one of our Certified Zentangle Teacher seminars and become a CZT.

[The original CZT blog has been updated with this addition.]

A New Angle

We just received this lovely thank-you note from Helen.


What a great idea! It sits up so nicely on a flat surface and in this early morning sun casts such great shadows.






Right now though it is perched on our lampshade!


We call that tangle with interwoven straight lines Hurry. You can see how to do it in this newsletter. We call it Hurry because it was inspired by chair seats woven with rush fiber ( Rush . . . Hurry  :-)

Click images for larger view

Monday, April 12, 2010

North, South, East or West

Which way do I like my Zentangle best?

As you create your Zentangles, turn them this way and that. You can enjoy them in many different orientations. When you frame your Zentangle art, put hooks on all four sides and rotate it from time to time!

Here are four views of the same Zentangle. In this one Maria played in a couple new directions - large solid black areas (using a Pigma 1) and "folding" a tangle, in this case Hollibaugh, as it encountered some of the strings.










These tangles were having so much fun they "leaked" onto the back!



Next to the date is a  . . . well, I'm not sure what it is, but it started out as a typo. Since there are no erasers (and no mistakes), Maria added some tiny tangles and an aura and made it something else.

You can also see this paper's watermark on this tile. Whenever we come across one of these we'll save it because Maria and I use them for our Zentangles. So if you find one like this in your Zentangle Kit, know that it is very special.

Click images for larger view

Saturday, April 10, 2010

ParadoxRox

We recently received this great email from "S" describing her exploration of our Paradox tangle.

Hi Rick and Maria,

I can't thank you enough for Zentangle - still pretty new to this but having a ball. Just wanted to pass along a recent creation. One of the things I appreciate about Zentangle is that there are no mistakes - it's a mantra I've learned to use in a few other artistic endeavors. A few years ago the instructor in a basket weaving class said basically the same thing - there are no mistakes - all you have done is provided yourself with another creative opportunity. I always like that one! Some days and on some projects I've found myself wishing I were not so generous to myself with the number of those "opportunities" I was creating but it all works out in the end.

That little blurb above is why I decided to send along this photo - I was really struggling with the Paradox tangle - loved them from the start but was not having much success in creating them. Appreciate your continued explanations in the newsletter and blog - reading and reading them something finally clicked. I definitively saw improvement.

Back to the photo - I started out with the paradox but shortly into it I lost the zone for a moment and messed up the spacing so I had this larger gap - drat!!! What to do - not sure when/how the idea came to me but decided to just incorporate that into the rest of the design. I completed the paradox part with the odd spacing and then just put it aside. A few days later I picked it up - still a bit frustrated but then started filling in the rest of the string. It's now one of my favorites and I'm looking to experiment more with divided paradox designs.

Sorry to rattle on - thanks again.

Very cool story and great example of a Zentangle journey to a wonderful creation. Congratulations!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Certified Zentangle Teacher Training

We are often asked about our CZT (Certfied Zentangle Teacher) training. Now we get so many questions that it is difficult to answer each one individually (and promptly) so we will use this blog to answer. Feel free to comment and ask questions. We will update this blog entry to keep it current.

Some Background
Early on we wondered how to best support Zentangle's growth. We knew it would grow in different directions and was applicable in many areas of interest and expertise. We considered marketing it directly through stores and had conversations with two people with credibility and success in that field. Each had marketed products that most of you or your kids had (and may still have). They wanted to promote Zentangle. We were honored and had concerns.

We did not want our Zentangle tree's branches to get ahead of its root systems and fall over. In other words we did not want to be a "pet rock" that shot up like a bright rocket and just as quickly fell to earth (did we just date ourselves?) and no, that was not one of the products those two folks had marketed!

We knew Zentangle had an important story and its story was best told by people who understood both Zentangle and their different audiences' languages -  not just English, French or Spanish, but languages and vocabularies of interest, perspective and expertise - something no one person could have. For instance, a nurse giving a hospital in-service in Zentangle to critical care staff will have insights and understanding for that audience that we will never have. A fifth grade teacher will bring different insights than a corporate trainer, or a girl scout troop leader, or a lacrosse coach - you get the idea. Since we didn't speak all those "languages" how could we hope to communicate Zentangle from a big-box store shelf and advertising, no matter how cleverly and beautifully we designed our packaging and ad campaign?

We also wanted to maintain our product quality and not be pressured into discounting Zentangle - both of which would be a challenge with major chains.

Thus was born our concept of CZT.

And it's working!

People of different backgrounds, cultures, ages, professions and geographies are translating Zentangle into their worlds with wonderful success. CZTs' skills and training are validated by the accredidation of that title (itself a registered mark) which assures others that they have been directly trained by us in the subtleties and nuances of Zentangle. CZTs can also buy most Zentangle products at wholesale for resale.

Let's do this next part as a Q&A and answer some email questions we've received.

How can I become a CZT?
Successfully complete a CZT seminar taught by Rick and Maria. We say "successfully complete" because we don't want people to feel that just because they paid, they are entitled to passing. However, it has been our great good fortune to attract really wonderful people from all over the world and to date, everyone was has attended has received a CZT certificate.

Can you give CZT training [on the west coast] [in Australia] [etc.]?
We feel it is important for people who will be telling Zentangle's story to see where it started - to experience the magic and hospitality and creativity of our home, studio and gallery. We try to teach by example and we invite you to ask anyone on our teachers' page their opinion of the value of the training and having it here.

Anyone who takes courses like this knows that our costs are very reasonable. We have a great relationship with a wonderful retreat center within walking distance and which we have all to ourselves. To duplicate our presentation away from here would raise the price many times what it is now - and certainly it would end up being more than the difference it costs to travel to Whitinsville, Massachusetts - by the time we transport all our materials, people and add in the much higher costs of other facilities we would have to use.

We're not saying we'll never give a CZT workshop somewhere else, but for the forseeable future we look forward to welcoming people to Whitinsville and to our home.

Will you give CZT training online?
Probably not. We are developing other offerings for our website, but we expect our CZT trainings will always be face to face.

Will you train people to train CZTs?
We have no plans to do that now. Eventually it will be the responsible thing to do, but not yet.

When is your next training?
October 12-15, 2010. We will open registration in early June and announce it in our free newsletter. We haven't scheduled our 2011 trainings yet.

Can you offer more frequent trainings?
Yes, we are planning to.

Can you offer a training in the summer for teachers?
This is a big request and we would like to do exactly that next year - we'll keep you posted.

I'm concerned with legal and ethical issues of copyright and certification. Do I need to be a CZT to share Zentangle with others?
[Added 4/13/2010]
We've discovered that people inevitably want to share Zentangle with others. After teaching Zentangle to our grandson's second grade class, by the next day children throughout the school were creating their own Zentangles!

If you want to share your Zentangle creations or use our Zentangle method with others, we ask that you
  1. Use our name (Zentangle).
  2. Use our vocabulary (String, tile, tangle, etc.).
  3. Mention our website (zentangle.com).
  4. Stay close to our teaching method. We understand this is an odd request, because the background concepts and insights necessary to do that are what we teach in our CZT training. For now, please understand that all those materials and techniques, steps and names in Zentangle, as playful and frivolous (or unnecessary and limiting) as they may seem, are deliberately that way for specific and studied reasons.
  5.  . . . and never use the "D" word!  :-)
As long as you do this, we are comfortable with you sharing your Zentangles and the Zentangle method with others.

If you want to more fully understand Zentangle and learn many subtleties of how to convey that understanding to others, in other words to represent yourself as someone who has been certified to teach Zentangle, then we invite you to complete one of our Certified Zentangle Teacher seminars and become a CZT.


You can read more in our earlier newsletters here and here. (Note that these links are to earlier dates and prices.)

Let us know if you have additional questions and we'll expand this blog entry.

3D Spin

In our "Backstares Gallery" we have some 3D shapes covered in Zentangle tangles. One is a pyramid that hangs from a high ceiling over an old plant stand.


If you wind it up, it will spin for quite a while.


At rest it's quite enjoyable, too.




Here's a closer look at that plant stand surface. Those tangles around the star were done in gold ink using an oblique pointed calligraphy pen. (In case you don't know, Maria is also a lettering artist. You can see some of her work here.)


You can see more of our Backstares Gallery here.

Click any image for a larger view.