After sitting with this tangle's possible names for a couple weeks, the name Tuftid appeared, and when it did, it just sounded right.
When starting Step 2, start the fan shape in the center, working outward. You can start each line at the cross, or at the outside of the stringed section. I like to start at the edge of the string section and make my line toward the cross edge. Experiment with the rhythm of the lines and see what feels best to you. Make the lines straight or curvy! It's also fun, especially if you have an intricate string, to connect the ends of one section's tufts with the ends of the tufts in the adjoining section.
This tangle is really fun on the new black Zentangle tiles (available from your favorite CZT!). I love the feel of these tiles. I used the Sakura white Jelly Roll pen. Because of the way the ink flows, it's good to go nice and slow and deliberate. This was a good exercise for me, as I realized I am getting faster with my regular Micron. Going slow felt really nice and I need to remember to do that more often.
Many of you may have seen this already, but it bears sharing again. The way the artist, Jim Denevan, describes his experience with his art is the process of Zentangle feels to me. Enjoy...
I've seen a ghost, but not sure I've ever seen a fairy. I think that once in a while my cats see them as they quietly fix their attention on something moving along the ceiling. There is something comforting about knowing there are, perhaps, little "sparklies" all around us, adding to our lives in ways we can't fathom. Life is a mystery and I like it that way! When you know you don't know about something, you can allow for all kinds of possibilities. There is no "End-of-Story", so the story can contain all kinds of elements yet to be discovered. (Much like the process of Zentangle®, yes?) Fairies remind me that this is always so. Thanks, Carol Bailey Floyd, for adding your spritely spirit to the Diva Zentangle Challenge this week. What a light-hearted way to start the week! Fairies + Zentangle = wonderful possibilities! And that is something to celebrate! (See Carol's blog about THAT!)
Thank goodness for Laura Harms and her guest challengers. Things have been so busy round here, that about the only time I get to tangle lately is for the weekly challenge. This is something I wouldn't miss. It's always a fun opportunity to 1) tangle, and 2) be part of a really fun community. This week's Diva Challenge (Number 30!!) is brought to us by Christina Vanderlist (aka online as stART). Christina challenged us to use our initials as our string. It's a cool idea, and a fun way to start a Zentangle tile when stumped by a string idea. I like that the initials don't always keep their identity, which is kind of ironically cool. It's fun to see the letters dissolve into the tangles. Seeing the letter as a shape rather than a part of a word, it's not surprising that it seems to disappear. I noticed that when I concentrated on the letter as an initial of my name, there was a whole different feeling when doing it, and a whole different outcome. I like the ones where the letters get lost the best. I also didn't realize until I scanned them to post, that I didn't sign them. I guess I felt like I already had put my 'chop' on it in the string. The first two started as block initials, and the third was a cursive rendition. Thanks, Christina, for a really fun challenge. And a special thanks to Shelly Beauch, whose Tripoli tangleation really inspired tile #2. And of course, thanks to miss Diva, who started all this hoorrraah.
A while back on Facebook, there were a few posts about tangled shoes. It's an irresistible project, so when I found these shoes at Meijer, I had to try it. (Here is an online source for the same shoe, although the ones at Meijer we much less expensive). They are made for people who stand on their feet a lot, so they are really comfortable and kind of cute when they're all tangled up! I see online that there is tan and black. That might look really cool, too. The shoes are a manmade, molded material. I tried the Micron and it took forever to dry, so I sprayed it with some Klear Kote, and that did the trick. Once I realized that little snafu, I did the rest in enamel markers. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the strap, as it bends and cracks the marker. Maybe a shoe dye. Will have to work on that.
This week's Diva challenge is brought to us by guest tangler and CZT, Sue Jacobs. Sue presented a genius idea for creating a string. Read about it here. I love this idea and will no doubt keep have my handy dandy string-maker nearby for those days when I need a jump start string-wise. The string is often the first 'hang-up' if I'm not feeling very "let-it-go-ish". I used a very thin beading thread, that had some curl to it, so most of my string lines were very roundish. I'm going to try something flimsier next try to see what happens. As I am often tangling at my computer desk, I had been looking up seed pod images on the internet. I came across a desert rose seed pod photo that immediately sparked a tangle, so that is the first tile. I don't know what to call it, so anyone with any ideas, please feel free to make a suggestion.
Diva's Challenge week #28: Tripoli... I've been waiting for Tripoli. We could see it brewing for weeks in Maria Thomas' Zentangle blog offerings... a little here and there. Now it's time for us to trip the pen fantastic to create our own tangleations of this versatile (and addictive) tangle. I could not stop. I don't know if I even could say I finished one. The longer they sat around, the more I wanted to add and play. It's been a week of nothing but 'what ifs'. This is the joy of Zentangle for me. When the flood of 'what ifs' comes, I listen. That is my intuitive muse that whispers in my ear. And if I don't do what she says, she sometimes keeps at me : "add black" or "add dots". Sometimes I argue and sometimes I ignore her. But I am learning to get out of the way and let her be. When the intuition is rolling, there is no such thing as judgement or perfectionism. She doesn't really care if I finish a tile or not. She doesn't care if it looks pleasing or not. She just nudges each movement I make, allowing for one foot in front of the other... one stroke after the other. When I first began playing with Tripoli, I was worrying too much about something, and now I don't remember what it was. I think it was that my triangles weren't lining up into a very nice circle. After doing so many, it didn't matter. The more triangles I made, the less I worried (that is the magic of just making the lines). Once I let go, it was like knowing a song by heart... the pen just went. As you can see, there are lots of renegade triangles on my tiles, but these are the ones that feel like little kids who just can't stand in that single file line. It's ok. They just are like that. I also felt compelled to connect the spaces inbetween the triangles... and add a little Puf to one of the tiles. I just had so much fun, I didn't know how to choose which ones to post. There are quite a few here (and more I've started) , all of them feeling unfinished in the most appropriate way. Thanks, Maria, for birthing the Tripoli, thanks Laura, for adding it to the challenge, and thank you, Intuition for being so relentless.
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