 This rather odd looking tangle is a mixture of three tangles: Fuse, Finery, and a new one introduced today on TanglePatterns.com called "Gnarly." But that's not what this post is about. If anything in this photo looks pink, I can assure you it's not; it's an artifact of my very old camera. There is no pink on this tangle, and here is why: Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and since I am a breast cancer survivor, I was happy to see this week's Diva Challenge #190 was in honor of her grandmother Ardath (wonderful name!), who passed away last winter from breast cancer. The name of the challenge is "Pink for Ardath." With utmost respect for both Ardath's memory (she sounds like a sweetie-pie) and the Diva herself, I cannot bring myself to use pink, as I have always been offended by the co-option of the Breast Cancer Reseach cause by cosmetic companies. Before you roll your eyes at me, please take the time to read this very short piece on the TRUE CREATOR of the breast cancer awareness ribbon, Charlotte Haley--whose ribbon, as you will find out, was originally PEACH, not pink. She was a heroine in my book. When the cosmetic companies decided to muscle in on the popularity of her peach-colored ribbon, they were told by their lawyers (yes, really) that they couldn't use peach without violating Charlotte's copyright, but they could change it to another color in order to use the idea for their own ends. And what other color did the cosmetic companies associate with women? Bubblegum Pink. So they took Charlotte's idea and did not give her any credit, and now we have the pink ribbon we see today, and the sales of thousands of cosmetics, many of which (in the United States) actually contain cancer-causing chemicals. Truly. Don't get me wrong: I love cosmetics and makeup. But I don't want to have to make a corporation wealthier when it is implying that my purchase will fund breast cancer awareness, when in fact only a tiny amount goes to the cause. The rest just enriches the company. Ok, enough, or I'll go on even more of a rant here, and I don't want to do that. If you don't believe me, view the documentary Pink Ribbons. PLEASE. You will change your mind.
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After drawing on the front page of my new journal in the last post, I was left thinking just how FLIMSY the paper cover felt. It wouldn't take much to have it bend and crease. And, I noticed that it was absorbing oils from my fingers, as I mentioned in that post. I kept thinking I needed to use some kind of fixative on the cover. Putting out a call to my fellow CZTs for suggestions, I happily got quite a bit of input on what to do, the most interesting of which was to laminate the cover. Yes! It would solve three problems at once: Preserve the drawing, stiffen the flimsy paper, and prevent oils and spills from damaging the cover. But lamination takes a machine and heat, right? That's when I happily discovered self-adhesive laminating sheets. It took me a while to locate some, but I've now ordered more. I can see all kinds of uses for these handy dandy things. To test them out, I took another old-but-similar journal and drew on its cover, then tried my first-ever lamination on it, figuring that if it was a disaster, I would not have wrecked my other new journal. This old journal (below) is one I've been using for random workshop notes and it's a mishmash of a lot of my random interests. And the handwritten notes inside are m-e-s-s-y. Really messy. But I love the cover! My amateur attempt at lamination came out great. After laminating the cover on this journal for practice, I immediately did the cover on my new journal. I could not be happier with the results. What a great idea! Thanks, fellow CZTs.  Except... I like the cover drawing on my old, half-filled, messy journal (picture to the left) so much that I'm feeling very sorry it's so m-e-s-s-y inside.
Doesn't THAT sound familiar...as in, the way we labor over our outer appearance to others, and often forget to pay attention to our own inner presence? I hope this isn't a reflection of my life at the moment, LOL. Doing this has got me all excited about drawing, all over again. Doesn't take much... I bought about ten of these journals in a batch about thirty years ago, thinking I would love them, but the plain covers and the inside strangely textured blue paper meant that after filling up the first one I let the rest languish. Now, suddenly, I am full of ideas about what to do with them and am glad I have a few left.  I drove up to Lowell this morning to attend a fundraiser for cancer research at Lowell General Hospital. Lowell is such an interesting town now, with its emerging converted mills, the wonderful canals, and its rich textile and manufacturing history. Beautiful old buildings are everywhere you look, and most of them have just been or are in the process of being rehabbed. The Quilt Museum is fabulous. There was no time to explore the town, though, as I needed to get to the fundraiser. I was only able to stay for two hours. The last ten days or so have been non-stop guests and working, so art and creativity has had to take a back seat for awhile. Am hoping that now I can focus on this again, and today was a start. The fundraiser was basically a long tangle workshop; since I could only stay two hours I brought a project to work on: I wanted to tangle my new meditation journal. I envisioned a mandala with its center entirely tangled. However, when I finished doing the above work, I realized it was finished, to me. Perhaps I'll add more later but I don't think so. Now I have to figure out how to protect the cover from the oils on my hands, which you can see are already darkening the lower left corner. Some kind of fixative? Need to investigate this. One of the other CZTs led us in doing the tangle "Stella," by someone we think is named Janna Pharmer. A couple of us saw the instructions for this one last year (I even used it then and then promptly forgot about it). I did it on a regular tile and used colored pencil on it as well as graphite.  It just felt so damn good to be drawing a bit again. Before my life ramped up several days back, I was working on my tarot rug too, and was at least able to get the letters drawn onto it. That took me much longer than I had thought. Then I began seriously designing the main part of the rug; I was at that stage when I had to stop working on everything creative and tend to the rest of my (wonderful!) life. Finally I think I am ready to get back to designing...scary stuff for me but I need to apply myself, or just "show up" as the quote in my last blog entry suggested.
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ABOUT ME I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), a long-time meditator, a certified meditation teacher and coach, and focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 
Certified, 2021
Certified Unified Mindfulness Coach
Certified Zentangle® Teacher, 2013
Certified by AmyOxford.com at The Oxford Rug Hooking School, 2016
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SITES TO WATCH:
Insight Meditation Society Oxford Rug Hooking School Zentangle: The Official Site Green Mountain Rug Hooking Massachusetts Tarot Society 
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