The Exhibit is Up!!

Wow - it was a monumental task, but with a lot of help we were able to display all the wonderful zentangle art at the Ludington library.  This exhibit is sponsored by the Philadelphia Calligraphers' Society. 

In the first image you'll see the display cases on the right and the framed pieces hanging on the left.  There are seven display cases and I don't have images of all of them.  If you are in the Philadelphia area please stop by to see the exhibit open now through Nov. 30th. 

Thanks so much to Rose, Colette, and Bonnie for stopping by to help and to everyone who submitted work for the exhibit!!

Ludington Library           Hours Mon.-Thurs 9am-9pm; Fri. 9am-6pm Sat. 9am-5pm; Sun 12-5pm
5 South Bryn Mawr Ave
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

Spreading Joy!

Have you ever made something and then left it in a public space for a stranger to find?  That is the premise behind the random acts of zentangle facebook page that you can find here.  I also just met Bonnie Neubauer who paints rocks using zentangle patterns, names them, and then releases them into the world. As her tag line of her website says "spreading joy one art rock at a time".  I love this idea and plan to work on some of these to "release" soon.  They make me happy and I hope they can indeed spread some joy.

Gel Monoprinting - I'm in love!

Oh boy.  There is nothing better than new art supplies.  Today a Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate arrived at my door and my daughter and I had a good time experimenting.  I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this one!

First you add some acrylic paint to the gel plate

 

then you use a brayer to spread it out

                                 then you draw on it using anything you can find that isn't sharp

              Then you press a piece of cardstock down onto the image and Viola!  A monoprint!

 Here is one I was had to do quickly because Mia wanted to make more.....this is addictive!

More lettering (and some good reminders)

I've been playing around with lettering and enjoying it more than I thought I would!  This one evolved into a much needed reminder to myself.  I find that the patterns can be simpler or only a portion of the full pattern.  These letters started out as my own handwriting in pencil, then I outlined the letters in pen to make them chunky and started tangling.  I went back and erased my original letters.

Block Letters!

I'm working on some lettering examples for my next Beyond the Basics class and played with block letters today.  You could use stencils or chip board letters to trace around if you need uniform sized letters. I tried tangling within some letters and tried just a tangled background for some.   Which one do you like best??

More creative fun

I made this fun bird and can't wait to try more:).  My soldering skills need some refreshing, but it will be worth it for the smiles they bring!

Zentangle Beads??

I'm in Rochester, NY taking a class at the International Society of Glass Beadmakers annual conference.  Here is a quick pic of the beads I made yesterday.  Holly Cooper is teaching us how to make intricate designs and I am hoping to translate her technique into some Zentangle beads!

Patterns for vacation

I ran into a student this weekend who was telling me about how she was trying to tangle while on vacation.  But, she had trouble figuring out some patterns.  Let's face it, some pattern step-outs are just missing a crucial bit of information!  I told her I would send her some patterns I think are helpful to do when you don't want to be challenged by difficult patterns (yes I have those days too!!). Here are a couple I would suggest that I think are beautiful and helpful to do when you want to focus on the meditative part of zentangle.  They are not on tangle patterns so I've put the step-outs below.

Static (and try close cousin - Nipa)

Nekton

Other favorites are florz, rain, indy-rella, and mooka. Enjoy!

Video "How To" of Diva Dance

I always tell you about the videos by Rick and Maria, but just found this one I think you'll like too by CZT Laura Harms!  Check out Diva Dance!

Mindful Postcard Swap

I organized a MINDFUL swap for Certified Zentangle Teachers and had 50 teachers participate!  We could only use tangles that started with the letters M-I-N-D-F-U-L.  For some reason, I was feeling the love for mooka and tried a few different versions.  I used mooka as a string for some and I created a fractal mooka when I put mooka inside of a larger mooka!  The very last postcard was an extra one so I tried some other patterns than those that start with mindful.  Enjoy!

Silence on the verge of extinction

I really enjoyed the On Being show today about the need for Silence.  You can listen to the podcast The Last Quiet Places here.  One of the things I enjoy the most about teaching Zentangle is the quiet that falls over a class once people start tangling.  It's a beautiful and safe sound.  As Acoustic Ecologist Gordon Hempton says real quite is "presence" not just the absence of noise.  One suggestion is to listen to nature in order to improve one's ability to listen to people.  He goes on to state that "Quiet is Quieting", meaning that spending some time being silent calms the mind and soul.  For adults, being silent can be frightening because we are trained to fill voids.  The podcast includes some lovely nature sounds.  Enjoy:)  

Sandy Bartholomew's new tangle cards

Well known author, Sandy Bartholomew, was in Providence while her son joined the CZT ranks.  It was a wonderful pleasure to sit with her, Bette Abdu, and Amy Brody (and me left to right). 

I was also excited to see Sandy's new Tangle Cards that will be available in September!

Here is a look at the inside of the purple box!  Way cool!

and of the back of the cards

I think my daughter and I will be fighting over these in no time flat!! 

Providence Museum of Art & RISD

I took off this morning to the Rhode Island School of Design to check out their art supply store.  Oh boy.  I spent an hour wandering around and came out with new pens, paper, and bleeding tissue paper.  Then I went over to the Rhode Island Museum of Art. 

Lots of amazing things to see and it wasn't very busy, so I could take my time to read all the info about the scupltures and paintings.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

Picasso "Seated Woman with a Book" 1910

Toots Zynsky "Lucente" 2001 (Glass- filet de verre)

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld "Zig Zag Chair" 1941

The lion's mane looked like Munchin to me!!

Zentangle Seminar 11

I'm hanging out in Providence, RI while my mom attends the latest CZT Seminar.  I've already walked around to do some shopping and found Jerry's Artarama! I wanted to post some images from one of Maria's pattern inspiration book.  So awesome!

Hammered Flowers on Tiles

I picked up a cool effect from my friend and fellow CZT Leslie Coren.   She explained how to hammer flowers into paper.  You take the blossom and place it face down on your tile.  Then place a paper towel over it and hammer it several times.  The color from the flower will transfer to the tile and then you scrape the remaining flower part off the paper.  Below is an example of some flowers I hammered and then how I tangled the tile around the violets.  Forget-me-nots did not work so well (that's what the big brown blog was from), but the violets work great!  Try it and post some images of what you are able to do!!  

More tangling at the Quadrangle

I had the pleasure of going back to the Quadrangle (a Continuing Care Retirement Community) today to see what they had been up to and boy am I impressed!  First images are of the newbies who just learned today and then the others are of the students who took my class a few weeks ago.  I so enjoy seeing what people create.  Happy, Happy, Day!

 

Times when I don't want to be mindful

I had to have some oral surgery today.  I'll be the first to admit that I am a wimp when it comes to dental work.  I consider myself a pretty rational person, but I've been having stress dreams since the appointment was made over a month ago.  I even changed it twice.  I tried not to think about it, and reminded myself to stay in the moment and not let the anxiety get the better of me. For the most part it worked.

Then I found myself reluctantly in the dentist chair this morning waiting for the Novocaine to fully numb my mouth and wishing it could numb my fears.  I didn't want to acknowledge that I was afraid of what was going to happen, what the recovery would be like.  Then I remind myself that being mindful also means acknowledging your feelings. I text my husband to say "I'm scared" and thanks to auto-correct it sent him a message saying "I'm scarfed".  Oh damn, now I have to write it and admit it again.  I feel my eyes well up with tears and my body start to shake.

So I fully felt the fear, and hoped no one would noticed me shaking and something surprising happened.  After a few moments, the fear passed and I was okay.  I knew I would be okay.  Being mindful helped me move through the emotion to hear my rational self.       

I'm not saying that I was able to relax during the procedure, so I still have work to do.  However, the procedure went smoothly.  I will heal.  I have learned a valuable lesson.

Create your own Mandala

I taught a Beyond the Basics Zentangle class tonight where we explored different ways to create DIY mandalas.  Here is the recap since we covered a lot!

1).  Lids, lids, lids.  Go into the kitchen and pull out different sized lids and use them to create nested circles. Lightly trace around the edges and then tangle.

You can see how I used four lids for the design above.

 
2).  Ruler and compass - make concentric circles then use a ruler to draw lines that bisect the circles.  Use the intersection points to create a string.

Examples of strings - not tangled yet!  The first one has three concentric circles and two lines.  The second image has four concentric circles and four ruler lines.

3).  Buy mandala stencils from Genevieve Crabe - her stencils give you the intersection points from which to create a pattern.  Go to this link to see a video showing how to use them.

4).  Use pre-strung zendala tiles from Zentangle.com in either black or white!

Diva Challenge 118 - Featuring Kuke!

 Here is a tile I completed using kuke, fengle, and colored pencils!

Wow!! Kuke Selected as Pattern of the Week by the Diva!

I can't tell you how honored I am that my original tangle "Kuke" was selected to be the weekly challenge by Laura Harms aka I am the Diva CZT.  You can find the challenge information here.  I am looking forward to seeing all the cool creations people come up with!!