Common Consciousness, Diva Challenge #235 - Stripe String, TNTM #37 "T" and Sandra Strait, SQ1 Opus and more...

Gentle Readers,  (I just love that old form of introduction - it sets such a nice mood!)

It is always strange to me how when a lot of people are focused on something, their thinking and awareness seems to merge.  It's not exactly a psychic thing.  My husband has that.  He doesn't know things ahead of time, but he has an awareness when something has just happened.  It is spooky and unnerving, and quite real.  But in the Zentangle community, it seems to flourish in a good way.

Several times at the CZT training, we would all be standing around the table looking at the mosaic of all the tiles we had produced at the last session.  Someone would say, "Oh look at that one!  I love it!"  Sure enough, it would be mine.   Then I would immediately say "Oh, this one is my favorite!" and the person would identify themselves as the very artist who produced it.  It was really uncanny.  But it really struck me how we definitely have a connection through our shared passion.

Last week I was sitting at the dentist and started a tile with a "stacked tangle" format, which is basically a striped string.  I don't think I have done one like that before, although I have seen many. So I was startled to see the topic for the Diva Challenge on Monday! This one has my tangle Oybay at the bottom, for which I really need to post the steps.  Watch for that next week.

Then I thought, no cheating, you already had this started, so do another one.  I made diagonal stripes and filled in.  I added gold ink to the stripes, and it shows up pretty well on the screen.  My pearl shading is getting better, and I'm starting to think in terms of 3D a little bit.  I like it!

 

 

That's New To Me featured the letter "T" and artist Sandra Strait.  I chose Ta-Da, by the lovely Margaret McKerihan, and Sandra's Planateen.   I have not used Ta-Da before, as I found it intimidating at first.  Now that I have tried it, I will probably use it more.  Maybe I'll even do more than one square!  Ha!  Since I live where everybody's - I mean EVERYBODY's roof looks like Planateen, I decided to color it.  I used Inktense pencils and had fun with this one!

Square One: Purely Zentangle focused on Opus this week, which is another one I rarely use because I just never seemed to get it.  Now that I did this one, Opus may appear more often in my work.  I saw many lovely interpretations on Facebook, which does inspire me.

Beyond that, I just had a little fun with a few tiles just because.  The wobbly Tour is a Bijou tile, Mooka shares space with some leftover Zenith... and I did a deep ocean Narwal.  It's very dark down there!

So, another tangled week!  I will attempt to view and comment on everyone else's work, but I may not make more than a few this week.  My husband and I will be busy taking a "staycation" this week, hitting as many restaurants and fun spots in our local area as we can.  We had a vacation planned to Sonoma County, but the place is, sadly, on fire.  This is the second year we have had to cancel a trip there because of the terrible drought and the resulting fires.  Keep those people in your thoughts and prayers as the brave firefighters battle to keep them safe.  Here in Arizona, we are still grieving over the nineteen firefighters we lost in a similar fire a couple years ago.  We humans are a puny nothing in the face of nature's fury. 

Be safe, count your blessing, and tangle!

Namaste
Antonine

Diva Challenge #234 - CanT, That's New To Me "Y", Square One: Purely Zentangle - Inapod

Ah, school days! 

Our Diva, Laura, reports that she now has both boys in school, one in second grade and the other in kindergarten.  All around the world, mothers take a deep breath on that first day with a mixture of relief and foreboding.  Relief that they will have some blessed quiet time at home, but foreboding for all the parental duties that go along with having a child in the school system - schedules, homework, conferences, supply lists, after school activities, the morning hunt for matching shoes and socks...on and on.  Somehow you never think of these things when you bring home your little newborn bundle of joy!  But watching your children grow and flourish is one of the most satisfying things in life.  No goal you ever reach will compare with seeing your child take that first step, learning to tie his shoe, or sending him off to that first school day.  So to all the parents out there, enjoy every day with them, because one day it will all be just memories, both the best of times and the regrets.  Although I wouldn't want to start again, I do miss that baby powder smell, the glitter Mary Jane shoes with ruffled anklets, the Hello Kitty backpacks, and the sticky hugs and kisses. 

This week our Diva challenge was postponed one day in honor of the Labor (she says Labour) Day holiday.  Thank you to all the courageous workers who fought (some died) for decent and safe working conditions, holiday time off and the five-day work week. Without their struggles, we would be living in a very different world. 

For the weekly challenge, Laura challenges us to use the tangle "CanT", which came out of the Canadian CanTangle event.  I'm so jealous!  Such a group of superstar tanglers, and I know they had fun!

This tangle is so basic, so easy to draw and so versatile, that I really look forward to browsing through all the entries and seeing the multitude of interpretations that everyone produces.  For my tile, I used a Renaissance tile and a very straightforward layout of the pattern.  I do like the way it turned out.  It somehow reminds me of a fancy compact.

 

 

That's New To Me #36 focused on tangles beginning with "Y".  I chose Margaret Bremner's Yoga and Yuu by Mai Hua Teng.  I was already working on that when the Diva Challenge was published, but I have to say the Yuu pattern shares similarities with the CanT pattern.  My tile is completely different, though!  When I saw the little fish shapes in Yuu, I was immediately reminded of my pattern Fichy, which I also included in my tile.  The shapes in Yoga also echo the fish shapes somehow, so I thought that would work well with the other tangles.   Additionally, even though I usually shy away from color, I knew from the start that I would be coloring this one.  I used Prismacolor pencils and Tombow markers.  I think it turned out well for someone who doesn't do color!

The Square One focus on Facebook this week was Inapod.  Was there ever a more fun tangle?  It can look elegant, or silly or creepy or organic.  It is always fun to draw and always dramatic looking.  This is what I did with it.

So there you have it!  I am grateful for the challenges that encourage me to step out of my comfort zone, try something new, improve my skills, and have fun sharing the results with other tanglers.

Thank you for visiting today, and know that I appreciate and cherish all your insights and comments.  I encourage you to take a look at the beautiful work submitted by all the wonderful tanglers who participate in these challenges.  I promise you will be impressed and you will learn something new!

Namaste
Antonine

She's Baa-aa-aack! Diva Challenge #233: Zenith, TNTM #35 "X" and Judy Murphy, and SQ1 Yincut

Welcome back to our Diva Laura Harms!  One of my personal ZH's for her amazing weekly challenge that has so many Tanglers coming back week after week to share their responses to whatever challenge Ms. Harms dreams up for her followers.  From her photos, it appears she and her family had a lovely fun vacation.  Ya gotta love kids in water wings!

I just want to give a little credit to some of the other inspirational and helpful Tanglers, including Suzy Mosh for her weekly "That's New To Me Challenge", Adele Bruno, for "It's a String Thing", Chris Titus for Square One on Facebook, Genevieve Crabe and Linda Farmer for their tangle catalog and website, and excellent superstar Tanglers like Michelle Beauchamp, Lily Moon, Margaret Bremner, Sandy Hsaio, Helen Williams, Cris Letourneau, and many more (sorry to those I forgot to mention, but whom I love just the same) who share their wonderful Zentangle work with all of us through the magic of the internet.  For those of you who are not yet collecting pensions, you may not know the internet was not always around!  Without these connections, I know I would never have found Zentangle at all.  It would be my great loss, to say the least.

That said, I now move on to say that for most of the northern hemisphere, summer is on the wane and things are cooling down, but here in Arizona, it is still just HOT!  We may have seen the last of the 110+ degree days, but that is the best I can say now.  Still, this is better than frozen windshields, digging my car out from a snowbank, heart-stopping temperatures of -25 degrees, and endless dirty slush in the spring. (Chicago, you know who you are!)  I know which evil I choose! So to all the rest of you, enjoy those last warm days and also enjoy my old favorite season, Autumn!  Apples and pumpkins and crispy mornings, cozy sweaters and fond memories of burning leaves (all against municipal code now in most places, sad to say) and that first night the heat kicks on.  Chicago, I miss you for that!

OK, enough chatter.  Down to the business of the week.  It was a pretty fun week in the Zentangle community.  The Diva challenges us to use the newest official tangle, Zenith.  I was privileged to encounter this at CZT 19, the second class to receive this one.  It is one of those that looks like not much until you start playing around with it  Wow, I have seen some great interpretations out there!  Here is my take of the day on it.

 

 

For That's New To Me, Suzy Mosh asks us to use tangles starting with the letter "X" and add something from artist Judy Murphy.  A couple of weeks ago, we had letter "J", and I used Judy's Jumu tangle, so nice to revisit her stable of tangle patterns.  I chose Cindy Angiel's Xerexez and Xtracto.  The Xerexez reminds me of a flipped version of the Basque cross design that we encountered on our vacation when we stopped in Boise.  Here is a tattoo that looks VERY much like Cindy's tangle, and a green and red traditional version of the emblem, said to represent the unity of the four Basque regions.

 

 

 

Following that is my entry for the week.  I tried to include Cindy's Xtracto, but got some of the lines curved the wrong way, so it is more like Dragonaire, sorry to say.  Oh well, I still like how it works but the actual Xtracto might have been better.  I also included Xeni by Jacqueline Janssen and Judy Murphy's Wiffles as a background for the design.  Xeni is based on a handwriting form, and once I got going on it, I didn't want to stop!   I had fun on this one!

 

 

Finally, the Square One: Purely Zentangle was Yincut.  I really get into the sparkle thing and just went for broke on this one.  But then somehow, one little square went rogue and turned into something else.  Someone online commented that it was a portal to joy!  I love that!

Thank  you all for stopping by this week!   Know that I appreciate and cherish all your comments and insights. 

Until next time,
Namaste
Antonine

I KNEW It Would Be Bijou! - Diva Challenge #232, TNTM #34 "P", and SQ1 Windfarm

So last week I was obsessed with Black Tiles, and after experimenting and practicing for a week on that, I feel much more proficient with them.  I'd say we have become friends!  At the end of that post I speculated that my next love would be Bijoux.  Surprise!  Guest blogger Holly Atwater provided three audio meditations designed for Bijou.  How fun!  Everything else came to a screeching halt while I plugged in and tangled.  My poor husband made several attempts to "contact" me, but even he, of the legendary patience, finally gave up.  Oh dear...

Being Literal Girl means I followed directions and did not stray into unauthorized creative territory for these three meditations. So here are my results - all nicely accomplished in straight-up orthodoxy. I could have jazzed them up some, but I think they are beautiful as a little series just unadorned.  Zentangle basics!

 

 

I also had done two other Bijoux earlier.  One is an exploration of Florz  (did we sweep some stuff under that rug?)  and the other is a "mistaken" attempt at Mambo, which Margaret Bremner brought to our attention in last week's challenge.  In typical Antonine fashion, I misread the stepout and curved the fill lines in the wrong direction.  I love what happened!    See how that works?

 

 

The other half of Holly's challenge was to use Betweed.   I had this great idea that was so relaxing and fun to draw.  The result, however, looked better in my head than in execution.  It looks like my patio furniture exploded. Oh well, maybe it needs to grow on me a bit.

Betweed on Renaissance Tile

For That's New To Me, the letter was "P".  Yay!  Lots of new tangles from which to choose!  I used fellow CZT 19 pal David Hunter's Pin Bawl, Ai Ling Hung's Pand and Christine Reyes' Pax. I truly enjoyed this one!  I did have a little "oops" moment there, but in the spirit of an Amish quilter, I view it as a mark of humility and leave it in. Plus, it is in the shade, so perhaps you won't see it, right?

The Square One: Purely Zentangle focus was Windfarm. This is the first week that the focus tangle was not one of the "official" Zentangle patterns.  I got on a roll with this fun tangle from Margaret Bremner and did three tiles. I even got a Facebook comment on one of them from that exceptional Tangler Ms. Bremner herself!  She is definitely one of my all-time ZHs (Zentangle Heroes)!

Is this one too much show and not enough blow?

This could be the Goldilocks "just right" version

Windfarm at top speed!

So folks, this has been a pretty productive week!  Great fun, and tangle on, everyone!

Thank you for stopping by today, and know that I appreciate and cherish all your comments.

Namaste,
Antonine

Crossing Over To The Dark Side - with Diva Challenge #231 Undulating C's and S's, Square One Jonqal, and That's New To Me #33 "U"

"Cross over to the dark side", they said...I have become obsessed lately with black tiles, mainly because I really need to work on my techniques. I know, Zentangle is supposed to be relaxed and just "happen".  Sometimes that is true, but then there comes the urge to push past that limit.

When the Diva Challenge was announced by Sharla Hicks, I thought "Good.  All those lines work nicely on the black tiles."  I'm glad I didn't look at Sharla's links to her botanicals on black because I would have just hung it all up right then.  "Comparanoia", as one of my FB CZT friends puts it!

I plunged in on my own tiles and had some fun with highlighting and shading. I've been experimenting with a charcoal pencil as opposed to graphite because it has a matte finish. I like the look on the black tiles. It needs a judicious application, though, as it can get messy. I use a tortillion and really push it into the paper to stabilize it.  I use a Zenstone or chalk pencil to highlight or "raise up" some areas.

I did this black circle for the Diva challenge, and then just because I was having fun, I did a Renaissance tile version for good measure. I like that one even better.

Diva Challenge #231

Diva Challenge #231

That's New To Me #33 asked for tangles starting with "U", plus something from artist Jane Monk.  I chose (for my black tile, of course) Upholstery, Up N Down, Unruly, plus Jane's Fern and Raindotty. That's a lot of patterns for me, but here I think they work.

That's New To Me #33 - "U" and Jane Monk

A few days earlier, the Square One focus this week was Jonqal.  I love its bold angularity. This tile was done before the Diva challenge was published, and I find it interesting that the rest of the tile is all done with "C" strokes in Bunzo and Huggins.

Square One: Purely Zentangle - Focus Jonqal

Then I did another Bunzo on black with more C's in MI2.  Must be psychic, right?  Ha! One more thing about this last tile.  I'm using a technique I call "pool and pull" with the white ink. You let the ink slowly pool into a fat liquidy dot, then quickly pull the pen out.  Like exploding perfs.
I actually turned my Bunzo into the prickly pear cactus from my front yard!



Bunzo with pool and pull enhancement, MI2, Tortuga and Tipple

Well, that's enough for now.  Maybe it's time to relax on the black tile thing.  Hey, are those Bijou tiles stuck away in my Zentangle case?... I think I hear my ADD calling... time to jump on over to something else for a minute.  Can you relate?

Thank you for stopping by today.  I enjoy and cherish all your thoughts and comments.  Until next time...

Namaste
Antonine

Diva Challenge #230 ZenDivaDala, TNTM #32 "A", SQ1 Strung Schway and more

Good morning dear friends!

Since I THINK all the vacation laundry is finished, and since we spent some happy time this weekend at Maggiano's restaurant celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday (WAY too much really yummy food, but worth every calorie... er, bite!), I am ready to settle down and get back to some sort of schedule.  Made the beds and spiffed up the bathrooms, rolled the trashcans out to the curb, had coffee, and after this post, I will spread out the yoga mat for some "Yoga Over 50".  My stuff never bends as far as that of  the 62-year-old instructor on the screen, but oh well...  After that, a little tangling, fix lunch, make a couple phone calls, computer (shopping?) time,  nap, fix dinner, a little TV and bed.  If that sounds boring to you, you haven't worked for enough years.  I love retirement!

I must say, internet shopping is my blessing and my curse, and since I retired, I spend far too much time surfing, to say nothing of how Paypal and Amazon OneClick make parting with my money so very easy! 

This week I purchased a variety of white and gold metallic pens.  A few weeks ago I got a big black paper sketchbook, so I've been having fun experimenting with how each pen works.  Some make fine lines, some are great for pooling into big fat dots, one even has a shiny finish to the ink when dry.  My sketchbooks are never anything like the beautiful journals that so many in our Zentangle community produce (see the latest news from Rick and Maria to find photos of her incredible journal!)  No, sadly, my book is a big scratch pad in which I just experiment and scribble whatever new tangle was posted online or whatever pops into my mind at the moment.  I often do some playing around with what can I connect to what and how would this tangle look in a circle or as a border.  Very therapeutic, though, and I do keep all of them handy for reference.  You understand, though, there is no structure, no order, no contents or dates in these books.  That's just not how I roll.  Hey, my underwear drawer and cabinets are all neatly organized - even plastic containers - that's enough!

This week, the Diva's guest blogger was Erin Olsen, of The Bright Owl fame.  She asked us to use her Zendala template for our entry.  I was itching to use those new pens, so I transferred the template on to a black Zendala tile.  I traced it on the back side with a white chalk pencil and then flipped it over and used an embossing tool to trace onto the black paper.  Worked like a charm!

Here is what I got.  At first, I was not warming up to all the circles, but in the end, I embraced them and had fun. I wish the gold showed up a bit better in the scan, but in "real life" it looks quite nice. I am also learning that shading with a graphite pencil on the black tiles is not exactly right.  This time I switched (mid stream, unfortunately) to a "charcoal" colored chalk pencil, and it was just right.  It works well with the texture of the black paper, and I'll file that technique away for future use!

For the That's New To Me #32 challenge, the random letter was "A", and the guest artist was Karry Heun.  I chose Arnia by Maureen Stott and Alien Crest by Gael Shepherd.  I used Karry's tangle Stitch.  This one took a bit of planning and sketchbook try-outs, but I am happy with the results. Does anyone else see sardines here?

Square One: Purely Zentangle focuses on Schway this week.  I don't often use that one because once you draw it, you have to figure out what to do with it.  If I put it in a tile with other tangles, I get stumped, so it rarely makes an appearance.  Here, I decided to see if it would work on a curve, getting progressively bigger.  Once I had it drawn , I just took it somewhere strange.  I did something similar with the tangle Whirlee a while back (November 2014), so I must have some fixation with things on a string.  I call this one "Strung Schway".

 

Finally, I just sat down with a Renaissance tile and played around a bit.  Somehow, these tiles with their soft colors make everything look a little better.

Thank you for stopping by today, and know that I cherish all your comments and insights!

Namaste
Antonine

Vacation Fun, Diva Challenge #229 Negative Space, TNTM #31 "J" and SQ1 Focus Cirquital

Hello dear readers!

The last few weeks have taken my husband and me on a Western road trip in search of wine, food and new (cooler than Phoenix) vistas.  Our Midwestern upbringing provided us with journeys of the very flat-landed variety, and we wanted to experience some new sights in our West-of-the Mississippi territory.  We started in Phoenix and traveled up through California (saving our wine quest there for later this year), headed north to Oregon and Washington, swung around down through Idaho and Utah, then segued over to Las Vegas (oh yeah!), and then back home.  Nearly a month on the road left us happily exhausted and full of new insights about our country and its people.

Our California drive took us not along the coast, but through the vast agricultural swath of almond and walnut groves, up and down steep mountain road grades, and through the biggest pine forest clad scenery I have ever seen!  Bigfoot could happily live undetected up in "them thar hills"!

 

 

Oregon was somewhat familiar to us, as we visited the Dundee area several years ago, but this time we stopped in Salem.  Great wine with lower prices on Pinot than Willamette Valley (yes, we are having some shipped home when the weather is cool enough to make that safe), and such nice people! 

 

Washington was new to us, but was the primary target of our wine quest.  We stayed at the beautiful Willows Lodge in Woodinville and had some of the best food we have ever eaten at their on-site restaurant, the Barking Frog (don't ask - no idea...)  Their coconut curry mussels were killer, and they were kind enough to give me the recipe.  I have no illusions, however, that mine will exceed or even match what the chef prepared.  We went back a second night just to experience them again.  On the subject of negative space, how's this for some?  This is a hollowed out tree stump in front of the lodge entrance.  Cool!

 



 

After touring Chateau Ste. Michelle just next door, and sampling some of their best wines (yes, they have more than what you can buy at Safeway...), we headed over some more mountains to Walla Walla.  What a charming town!  They have row upon row of lovely little tasting rooms in their historic downtown area (all easily accessible for my hubby - nice!), and more excellent food at the Whitehouse Crawford restaurant. Yum!

 

 

 

We met numerous people who said they needed to escape the corporate urban melee (that would be Seattle with its legendary traffic), so they moved to Walla Walla and have never been happier with their gardens and laid-back lives.  Yes, folks, store that nugget of wisdom for future reference!

 

On to Boise, where I predicted our most exciting activity would be laundry.  Surprise, I got that done earlier, and we found some very interesting history in downtown Boise.  Want to learn about the Basque people and their contribution to our country?  Boise has the only Basque museum in the U.S., and it was fascinating. They come from Spain, but have their own, very unusual, language - full of X's and K's, play their own unique sports and were hired as shepherds, staying in unique Basque-established boarding houses throughout the Northwest.   Here I am in my beret, demonstrating how to drink wine like a Basque.

 

 

 

Utah was a one-night stopover, and since we are not hikers, we didn't learn much beyond the fact that Salt Lake City sits in a very beautiful valley, and St. George is very upscale and lovely.  It really is gorgeous around there!  So, next stop Vegas.  It was great, tasty, entertaining, and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as they say...  We're going back just as soon as we can!

 

FINALLY - on to this week's Zentangle activity.

 

The Diva challenge was to utilize negative space.  I kind of created an alien pod just hanging in space, peeked at through a frame.

 

That's New To Me focused on "J", so I used Jumu from Judy Murphy (with some extra fruit under the leaves) and a version of J.J. by Joy Taylor.  I left out the intermediate sets of radiating lines and tried to make it look like cut glass.  I had fun with this!



Finally, the Square One: Purely Zentangle focus this week is Cirquital.  I have never used this before, and probably with good reason,  I struggled to make this play with others.  Finally, I was looking at a platter in a magazine and drew the first one, and the other one just happened - somehow.  I haven't even posted these to Facebook, but will do that today.

 

So, enough of this long winded post that will probably slow down your computer when you try to read it (sorry!!).  I missed you all while I was on my wonderful vacation, and am glad to be back in touch with my Zentangle cyber-community.  Thank you for stopping by today, and know that I truly appreciate all your comments and insights.

 

Namaste

 

Antonine