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Friday, May 31, 2013

French Ivory Encore

Had to share this image with all you tanglers.

This box (probably originally designed for a dressing table top) was in Rick's parents' basement, just waiting to be discovered. It's about 4 by 10 inches.

It just so happened that my sister Sue, (who works here with us) was having a birthday. I knew she collected "French Ivory" and that she loved the pieces I had recently tangled.

So, "Happy birthday, Sue!


And I thought I'd throw a few recent Zentangle tiles for fun. I have been playing with "bending" the rules a bit. When a tangle is made up of triangles . . . what's to stop us from bending those lines for fun and interest?

Such fun.





What do you think?

Let us know and we'll send one of these tiles to a responder.

Winner of our previous blog is Georgia Jensen. Please email your mailing address to zentangle at gmail dot com. Congrats Georgia!

Rick adds:
Maria and I are already having fun deconstructing that woven table top on which the box is sitting. We'll see what we come up with and let you know. We invite you to explore your own deconstructions, too!

Click images for larger views.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Cut it out!

"Mom!!!!! (always screamed in two syllables!) . . . He's (my older brother) teasing me again . . . CUT IT OUT!!! Mom, tell him to stop . . . knock it off or I'll tell Dad . . . I said cut it out!"

David yells back, "No! YOU cut it out!"

Some of us have had those childhood nightmares (daymares?) of a sibling making our lives intolerable (or so it seemed). In actuality, it was never so bad. It just interrupted the rhythm of whatever I was doing. I was always content playing by myself, amused with my art or tiny dolls . . . but I guess my brother wasn't so much.

Of course, today we are both in our 60's and he's a really great guy, always was, love him to bits. It must be some sort of rite of passage to go through this routine, choreographed in the heavens by well-meaning beings getting us ready for what life lies ahead.

What does this have to do with Zentangle, you wonder? Well I took this chant to heart. Perhaps it was really angels telling me what to do.

"Cut it out!"

I always listen to my guardian angels . . . albeit somewhat late.


This one is done on a blank Zendala tile, folded once to create a sort of rocking horse effect.



With this next one . . .


. . . I folded the top (white tile) and back tile (black) along the diagonals. The white one folded with the crease facing out vertically, the black one creased inward horizontally. I stitched the white tile (yes, with needle and thread!) at two corners,


then I made a small horizontal slit at the top and inserted the top corner of the back tile into the slit.


I cut these tiles with an X-Acto® knife, something I am comfortable with. But you could use some cuticle scissors or fine embroidery scissors (if you don't mind using them on paper). Then, I tangled around the cut-outs.


A fun project for sure.


On this last one, I used 2 square tiles, white on the back and black for the front. I traced a circle (using the cap of my cayenne pepper jar, about 2" diameter) and cut out the center.

Then I folded the black tile in half (with art facing out), opened it and folded in half the other way (again with the art facing out). Then opened it up flat.


This just gives you a way to form the black tile into 3-D and the circular hole ends up looking like a square!


On the white tile, I cut 2 slits in each corner, (see example) big enough to slip the corners of the back tile in the larger slit, and out the smaller one, of each corner. Voila! A 3-D "Cayenne-tile"



This last little Zendala-ette is the piece I cut out of the blank square black tile. I just couldn't toss it!



Winner of our previous blog post is Sue Zanker. Please email us your address so we can send you your tile.


Click images for larger views.


Monday, May 6, 2013

Which schway?

Shortly after we posted instructions for a new tangle schway, we received an email from Scott in Colorado.

He sent me links [here and here] of aroz, a tangle he had created over a year ago:


Look familiar?

Not only that, he wrote that he had emailed it to us, but never heard back. (I don't doubt it. I wouldn't even have been surprised to see that I had written back . . . and forgotten!)

This event is a great illustration of the charm of the Zentangle method. It's also an example of why no one can say, "This is my tangle." Zentangle's charm is in deconstructing patterns available to us all into a defined series of simple strokes that almost anyone can easily and enjoyably recreate . . . without stress, and without needing to know how it will look when you finish.

It is so exciting to become aware of patterns in your surroundings, ponder ways to deconstruct them, and then share them with others. With so many people enjoying that process, we will likely see more of this. (Of course, it will also give Linda Farmer, CZT, of tanglepatterns.com, even more work to do!  :-)
Aside:
When Maria was designing stationery, she was invited to the New York Stationery Show to receive an award. While she was there she made a point to not walk the show to see what other people were doing. She was concerned that she might see something, forget she saw it, and then months/years later, "create" the same thing, believing it was her idea.
We are pleased to acknowledge Scott's stepout of aroz. We are grateful that he, along with so many, are contributing to everyone's enjoyment of Zentangle.

Thank you, Scott!

Best,

Rick (and Maria)

Click image for larger view.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ebony and Ivory

Enjoy this wonderful duet while scrolling through a few of our latest tiles. . .







[Instructions for how to tangle schway, shown in these next two tiles, can be found in this newsletter.]





Hmm . . . what if there was a magic mirror that inverted images, white for black, black for white . . .


Winner of the tile from the RSVP blog entry is Jen Crutchfield. Congrats Jen!

We look forward to your comments.  We regularly send out a tile from the blog to randomly chosen commenters (if we can contact you!).

 Click images for larger views.