White on Black Workshop

This week I had the privilege of teaching a Zentangle workshop featuring white on black to 18 teachers and community members at Chariho Middle School. 
I am such a fan of the striking look of white on black, and this was the first time I had a group this large for this variation.  We used official Zentangle black tiles, white Sakura gelly roll pens and white charcoal pencils.
Rick's CD Sounds made for beautiful and mesmerizing background flute music and 2 hours zipped by while the class created 2 tiles.  I just love the resulting gorgeous mosaics.

Tile 1: Flukes, Pais, Keenees, Fife

 

 

Tile 2: Vega, Tagh, Keeko, "geo-mix"*

*I am calling the grid tangle with the circles and squares inside "geo-mix" until I locate the correct name:)

CHALLENGE - Fife Tangle

The Diva challenge offered up this week is to use the new tangle, Fife, created by Molly Hollibaugh.  Its a good one, for sure, so if you haven't had a chance to try it out, the directions are here in the recent Zentangle newsletter. Fife is  a tangle that quickly gets you into the "Zentangle Zone". 

Fife and Knightsbridge

Red Thread Challenge

This week's Diva Challenge is guest-hosted by Cris Letourneau, CZT, challenging us to create a Zentangle using a single RED STRING.  This idea ties in with THE RED THREAD PROMISE, an organization dedicated to helping those in need of medical assistance.  Check out  Cris's blog if you would like to help by sending in your own tile from this challenge.  They will all be made into a poster and proceeds donated to the organization.  Cool idea.
After missing last week's challenge, I was glad to be able to jump back in and had a great time with my simple red spiral string.  Even had a chance to play with FIFE, a brand new official Zentangle pattern/tangle.
Thanks Chris and Diva for this great challenge and for generating awareness for another great cause. And Happy Thanksgiving to all in the US.

Poppies Remembrance Challenge - Lest we Forget

The Diva challenge this week is about poppies and remembrance.  I started thinking about my father.  My father served in WWII, but also sacrificed for his family every day. He's been gone a long time, but I miss his "one sentence" advice like, "Do the hardest thing first, and then everything will be easy after that."

I relied on some favorite standby tangles for this challenge like tripoli, a crescent moon variation, dex variation, and pendrills.  For the poppy I used a dual brush marker. I tried to keep it simple, like my father did.

Spooky Tangle Challenge

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, this week's Diva Challenge is about a spooky or haunting Zentangle or ZIA.  My two offerings are kinda spooky for different reasons.  The first one is haunting because the weird colors clash so much! The second one, which I tangled on Halloween, made me imagine some sort of hole in the night sky. 

Punzel Challenge

"Punzel" is a new Zentangle pattern introduced in the latest newsletter (subscribe here) from Rick and Maria, AND its the Diva's choice  for this week's challenge.  This was my first attempt  and  I was not going to use the tile for the challenge because I was not too pleased with it.  Then my son told me he liked it and it looked like it was floating so I decided to add  color using a simple splash background technique from Marie Browning's book Time to Tangle with Color.  

For the next two I tried out Punzel on black tiles with a metallic gelly roll.  I still need practice on this tangle, but as I was going along, I found myself relaxing into a wonderful Zentangle meditation and that is such a benefit in today's stressful world! I am so grateful to have this art form and process.

 

"String Theory v. VI: Tangled on the Inside"

The Diva Challenge for this week was based on an idea from Jo in NZ to use a tangle as your string and tangle within a tangle, so to speak!  After  pondering about the best tangle to use, I settled on classic Shattuck and tangled a large version on my tile.  I didn't think to take a picture of just the string, but here is the end result in all its tangled glory.  It is kind of busy so I am not sure if you can even tell that Shattuck made up the string!  This was a creative challenge idea, for sure.