MORE Flu Fun

I've heard it said, "Tangle something, you'll feel better." It's very true. I'm guessing the reason that works is because the pressure of a projected outcome is not there. If there is no planned outcome, there can be no mistakes. There is something very comforting about that!
   So yesterday, between sneezes and (trying to) work, I would take a little moment to tangle. It took me all day to do this one, but that was the fun of it. A little at a time: pick it up, put it down, let it be, look at it again, turn it around, walk away, sneeze a few more times, tangle again. Taking all day to do this tile, it gave me a chance to be with it in a different way each time I came back to it. I'm sure it's a much different tile than if I had done it all in one sitting.
   The tangles I used: Jetties, Scena, Florz, Enyshou (variation). There has to be a tangle name for the rope part, although I couldn't find it. Anyone?

Flu Fun

I have a bit of a head cold, so last night I took a little medicine to help the cough. I don't know if it was the med or just the head... but I did that thing where I dreamed all night about the same thing! Over and over I worked on a Zentangle ('NZeppel, to be exact!). I woke up and figured I might as well do one in real life, so here it be:

Looks sort of lung-like. Dreaming in Zentangles is much better than dreaming a math problem all night long! At least I know I can do a Zentangle! A math problem, nuh uh.

Singing Out of Tune

We can go along our way, la-dee-da, content with our creative choices and interests. La-dee-da. Then one day we come upon a new interest that creeps into our daily desires. We keep singing, but the tune changes maybe to la-dee-dee. We are still singing la-dee-da, but we find more often that we resonate with the la-dee-dee. Pretty soon we are singing la-dee-dee almost all the time. And then one day we try to sing the la-dee-da, and we find that we are way out of tune!!
   This has happened to me. My la-dee-da for the past seven years has been beadweaving. I loved the beads, the colors, the textures! I loved waking up most mornings with new ways to pattern the beads to make a whole new design. It was a natural song and I loved it.
    Then one day, as the story goes, La-dee-dee, aka Zentangle, came into my sphere. The more I did it, the more I did it! (And I have to say, the world looks different to me in ways that would require a whole other blog post.) Suffice it to say, I am singing this song almost all the time. My beads look a little forlorn, the newest ones still in their baggies, not yet put away. I'm almost afraid to put them away for fear I won't remember the new ones are with me. There is a grief I feel for not having given the beads my usual attention. And as the universe works in funny little ways, amid all this lack of attention, I was surprised to see that my last design for the year in Beadwork magazine was now featured on the cover. I am really feeling honored by this, but I also am even more aware of my grief for the song I've neglected in the past few months. Having submitted a few new designs to Beadwork for the coming year, the newest design (called Ricky Rack) to get accepted is due this week. The magazine editors asked if I could make the design in a couple additional colorways. I tried and tried, but I was way out of tune!! It seemed the harder I tried, the less satisfied I was with the colors.


I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...
  I called my friend Jann to see if she would use my new design instructions to make a few color samples to send to the magazine. And wow, did she! She showed up with some beautiful finished pieces, and to top it off, she brought her "rejects." I was so stunned by how many colors she had tried! She truly saved me from my growing stress level of getting them done. But more than that, she allowed me to be ok with the break I needed AND she also inspired me to take another look. As I sat with a group of my friends, the samples and "rejects" all spread out before me, I began --- in Zentangle fashion -- to rearrange and poke around at all the what ifs... using the rejects, mind you! Pretty soon, a couple of friends were beside me, poking around with me, rearranging pieces and colors, getting into my bead stash to find additions. It was great fun!! When they left, I found myself energized and inspired to move forward... one bead at a time, one component and one stitch at a time. The stress was gone as I felt the energy of all of my friends in each stitch and in each bead. By the end of the night, a whole new bracelet was born, using all of Jann's sample bits, and all of the ideas that my freinds had offered. Collaboration is just the most fun! The new bracelet is in the middle, flanked by the original design of "Ricky Rack".

As I remember Ricky Rack's beginnings, I had almost forgotten that it had come from playing with new tangle experiments... so not only did I get a little (a LOT) of help from my friends, I think the new song and the old song might be more closely related than I was aware of. I think the new design needs a name that reflects the collaboration of all those things. Anyone have any ideas out there? It would only be fitting for another friend to name it!

Unyun Layers

Just some playin'...

Never Fear! (There's Always Bronx Cheer!)

I was tangling away last night, making up stuff and trying new things. At some point I realized that one corner of my tile was in need of a little different look, although short of coloring the whole section in black, not much would change what I had done. And then I remembered the tangle, Bronx Cheer. I had so much fun making those little wild circles, that I kept going and going and going, getting lost in the rhythm of the raspberry! Mine doesn't really look like any raspberry, but the spirit of it is there! 

Beyond the Basics Class

So what does one learn in a Zentangle: Beyond Basics class? Eight different tangles, their alternate possibilities, plus ways to shade those possibilities. Thanks, Gallery 510! There is another class with different tangles this coming Saturday.


I will now let the students' tiles speak for themselves...

And while I was at the 510 Gallery, Cathy Helmers stopped in to drop off her latest creations: The Featherheads. These are large cloth dolls that she has tangled from head to toe. Stop in and see them in person if you need to add some real delight to your day! Or better yet, buy one as a gift to delight someone you love!

Tools not Rules

Whenever a system of structure is presented, it seems the first thing many of us do is put that structure in the "rules" category of our brain. It's a safe place to put things, but not always the appropriate story to tell ourselves.
     An example that comes to mind is learning a line dance. (I'm talking regular people, not professional dancers!) There is a sequence of steps to follow so that a group of people can all do the same movements at the same time to the same music. It's a unifying and fun thing for a group of people to do the same thing at once. But do they all look the same or feel it the same way? Some put a little more wiggle in their hip, some do a little shoulder shimmy, some do a kick high, some barely do a kick, some stomp hard, others tap lightly. The structure and sequence of the dance provides a way for them to connect and experience the music and the dance. But the experience, even when done in a group, is a very personal one.
   Creating a Zentangle tile begins with a structure, and the tangles have sequential steps that make them easy to learn. Just like a line dance (and yes, our tangle lines do dance!), learning the steps is just the doorway to enjoying the dance and the music in your own special way. How you shimmy or don't shimmy is your own relationship with the dance. And if, in the middle of the song, you decide to step out of the line and whirl around the room, then thank the steps (tools) that let you do that!
   If we can challenge our "rule story", we might find that all along, the rules were just tools.