Challenge #36 - Assunta, Happy Birthday Maria

This weeks Diva challenges features the new tangle from Zentangle "Assunta". It's a tangle that originated from the influence of some woodwork that Rick and Maria saw and photographed at the Cloister's in New York. I really enjoyed seeing  the original napkin sketch they had done after seeing the Cloisters. And I was very taken with the photograph Rick posted. It definitely echoed back to Oak Hurst and our CZT seminar this past May. So I concentrated more on the photograph and that wonderful woodwork.

I really enjoy Rick's descriptions as he shares this new tangle, he references taking off and landing and comes from the numbers point of view. That's one of the things that fascinates me about the Zentangle process. We all come from totally different places to get to our creative process. I find his descriptions very helpful but not always a familiar way for me to look at tangling. It's very fun and I appreciate being able to meet and share the experience of both Rick and Maria teaching this spring and getting to experience their beautiful creations in person.

So Happy Birthday Maria, this tangle is orbiting it's way to you, sending you good thoughts and tangles on your B-Day. Better late than never, no?

I went a little more organic, loosey goosey with this tangle. It's a very fun tangle especially when the pattern begins to build.




Version 2 - A little Tipple, Printemp and Pais,

plus some stiches to tie it all together

 



Version 3 - Lot's of auras



Zentangle Copper Etching

Our copper pieces with Sharpie Zentangle drawings
done directly on the copper pieces

My first copper Zentangle piece mounted on rough wood using the
wonderful tiny screws I found at the local Ace Hardware store.

This copper piece is in the showcase at the Saline Library
with some of my Zentangle pieces until October.

Vicky's lovely piece!

Copper trilogy created by me, Nancy, and Sandy

I went up north a couple of weeks ago to teach a Zentangle class to kids at the Ausable Artisan's Village Art Gallery in Grayling. It's a great space that was once a Benjamin Franklin 5 and 10 store and has been tranformed into a wonderful art gallery. There are many talented volunteers helping to create and maintain this gallery and my sister and brother-in-law are volunteering there.

My trip was two-fold, one, to teach the class, and two, to take some vacation time with my sister and her hubby. A fabulous time was had by all and we spent a jam packed few days doing lot's of fun artsy fartsy, family visiting stuff, my favorite!

My sister Nancy helped me teach the Zentangle class on Wednesday, and on Saturday I got to help her do a wire jewelry demonstration of making aluminum wire Christmas ornaments at the Ausable River Art Gallery. By "help her" I mean carrying stuff, sitting next to her and doing my Zentangling and being a general helping sister. We had a great time.

She's a wonderful wire jewelry artist. Check out her fabulous jewelry designs on etsy at ausabledesigns.etsy.com

On Thursday, she and I did some copper engraving using sharpie pens, tangling directly on the copper pieces, and then etching our designs into the copper using the Sharpies as the resist.

It was sooooo kool. A very labor intensive process but the results were AMAZING! The top photo shows the copper pieces once we completed our Zentangles drawing directly on the copper. The copper pieces are shown mounted on foam using double-sided carpet tape. The foam allows the pieces to float in the etching solution so the acid can do its job and eat away the copper that isn't covered by the Sharpie ink. We had to wait for the etching solution to work its magic, and in an hour we pulled out our copper pieces. We neutralize the acid solution with ammonia water bath (stinkies!), then a baking soda water bath., scrubbed the Sharpie residue off the copper with scotch scouring pads. Once cleaned the copper was antiqued to bring out the depth, and then cleaned, and cleaned, and shined, and waxed and viola, lovely copper pieces of Zentangle art emerged. You don't really know what your going to get until the acid does its work and they are all cleaned up and antiqued.  

Once they were completed we stood there admiring them, and giggling and ooowing and ahhhing. It was wonderful. We even took the pieces to dinner with us that night!

Nancy and I spent all day Thursday playing with the etching and then had friends come over to continue the etching fun on Friday. My sister has a jewelry studio in her home, a perfect place to do our projects. 

Sandy and Vicky, the two women who joined us on Friday are friends who were in the first Zentangle class that I taught last fall. They are both Zentangle Zealots now and were into our new copper etching Zentangle undertaking.

The results of our art days were AMAZING, take a look at all the pieces we created. Each one is beautiful. 

Thanks Nancy for all your expertise making it possible!

Challenge #35 - Tile on a Tile + Pendril

Wow, how time flies, I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've posted. I've been really busy, up North visiting my sister Nancy and her husband where I taught a Zentangle class, played with copper, and vacationed at their cabin part of the time and just busy and tired. I combined challenge #35, which is Margaret Bremmer's of Enthusiastic Artist guest challenge for the Diva's weekly challenge. She asked us to do a tile within a tile, hmmm... Very fun challenge.

It was great to get back to tangling. I've been so busy and in my head so much that it felt great to get back to that calm, meditative state created when doing a Zentangle. Letting the pen flow and the tangles build themselves, one upon the other, not worrying about the outcome, just enjoying the process. Breathe, relax, smile applies to so many aspects of life. It's nice to get off the little hamster wheel that can be my brain, as many have said, being in my head is not a safe place to be.

So, I'm back on the blog bandwagon and glad to be here enjoying the ride!

For this challenge I also incorporated the new tangle "Pendral" (challenge # 33) so I'm nearly caught up.

I talked to my sister Nancy yesterday and she mentioned she hadn't seem me post in a while, it was a good wake up call. Yes, I can get busy, but the Zentangle process is something that I enjoy and fills my creative spirit, so I'm back ON my favorite addiction... tangling and blogging. Yippee!

Challenge 31 - Fairyland

Carol Bailey Floyd is hosting the Diva's challenge this week and she asks us to create a Zentangle environment where fairies would feel at home.

Well that's right up my fairy alley! I love Zentangles and fairies and all their magical powers to influence our lives.

As a child, The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies was my favorite book. My mother read it to us almost every day. It's was a wonderful anthology of stories collected by Jane Werner and beautifully illustrated by Garth Williams. It was magical, and began my creative experience. There was a story about a mermaid that made me want to learn to swim and never cut my hair, so someday I could be a mermaid too.

My mother was not one of those "cherish the memories" sorts of moms. She didn't try to preserve our childhood clothes, toys, books, etc. She would throw out "old crap" as she so gingerly put it. She was great, and I loved her dearly, but she definitely wasn't into those soft and fuzzy types. Anyway... I remembered that book (long gone from our house) and looked for it for most of my adult life. It's one of those books that many of us baby boomers remember fondly, and I discovered that it went out of print in the 60's. I ran across old original copies online, rarely, and very expensive (minimum of $100). So I kept looking...

One day, I was helping my dear friend Shirley doing some organizing. She's one of those who does cherish and preserve family memorabilia and items from the past. We were going through her treasure of children's books and ran across an original Elves and Fairies book. It was beautiful, and I sat down and leafed through those wonderful old pages and it was just as I remembered it. She saw how enamored I was. It had been her children's book, and unbeknown to me, she called them, and they all agreed I should have it. A few days later surprised me with the book. It was one of the loveliest gifts I have ever received. I cherish it and still leaf through it often.

So, to make a long story long, fairies have always been a favorite of mine. I'm illustrating a children's book for a friend of mine. She has written a collection of fairy poems that she asked me to illustrate. What a joy and honor!

Here is my fairy garden interpretation, hope the fairies enjoy it. This seems like a perfect challenge this week since Rick and Maria's daughter Molly just had a baby girl. What more do little girls love than fairies? They are there to inspire, watch over, and bring magic to the lives of all little baby girls. Welcome Mazzy Martha Hollibaugh!

A Good Time Was Had by All!

I had a class at 212 Art Center in Saline last night, and it was great. There were only 3 people, which made for a lovely intimate group. We were able to combine a Basics and a Beyond Basics class that suited everyone. Two of the women were new to the process and the other is a Zentangle veteran. They all did a fabulous job and the time flew by.

The 212 is a wonderful site for classes, nestled in downtown Saline in a lovely old Craftsmen Bungalow with all the character and details that give it such a great feel . It lends itself beautifully to the "Zen" feeling we're all looking for in the Zentangle process; calmness, and serenity, just Breathe, Relax, Smile and, of course, Tangle!

This image shows the fruits of their labor... three beautiful little jewels created from the same basic tangles and all 3 having such different looks and feels. I always find it amazing. Great job ladies!

I brought some wonderful quilted Zentangle kits that Sandy, friend of mine from up north, had created. She is a wonderful fabric artist and quilter and the ladies purchased 3 of her pieces. I don't sew, but I do appreciate the work and the detail. She takes an idea and fabricates the perfect solution. What she creates is phenominal.

Weekly Challenge #30: "String Theory V.V :Initialize"





My Intial ZIA

My Initial String

This week's Diva challenge is hosted Christina Vanderlist and she asks us to bring a little of ourself into the artwork! We are asked to use our Initials as the string, oh, what fun! It's always fun to do something that's all about ME! Just kidding.

This does make it look like a big old party is happening. I used some of my favorites... Printemps, Knightsbridge, Crescent Moon, Lupine, Tripoli, Mooka, and of course some little bead pods! Curves gallore, that's me.  It seemed a little redundant to put my signature on my initials....

I'm going to do a few more. I have some friends wirh birthdays coming up, so I need to play with their initials. This is the perfect opportunity to work on my lettering. Letterforms are the perfect accompaniment for tangles... I do want to work on my tangled alphabet so I have my little stockpile of jewels to pick from for any occasion.

Testing 1, 2, 3

Yesterday was a long day, I was monitoring a teacher's exam all day. The process consists of sitting and watching the examinees as they participate in their testing; 12 hours of vigilance, strolling the isles, monitoring, and for concentration purposes, during my break times, tangling. The brown texture is from the paper towels I used at lunch time, the white stickers are leftover from labels we adhered to the tables, the imprints are my finger print tests on my own fingers to make sure it worked, and the touch of blue is from the leftover stickers we used. Viola, the art piece eeeze formed!

Fun to combine some multi-mediums (since no CDs were involved!) from my day into my Zentangle process. Junk is now a memory that I can put into an album and remember. People often say things like, I'll never get those xx hours back, but if  I'm mindful, and take the  time to be in the moment and be creative, it's not a mind-numbing experience or lost hours, it's just an experience, a texture, a time to be, and remember.