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I hereby declare an official end to my "Broken Wrist Series" of tangles. YAY! My wrist (and my hand, which was the real worry) is coming back to life and acting more and more normal with every passing day. Finally. I've been out of commission for nearly four whole months, but I'm returning to more normal life now! To celebrate, I tangled with a friend today.  Journal page. This is a pre-strung journal from Zentangle® Headquarters, and it runs off of the page, which is why this looks like a partial mandala. Tangles: BeeBug, Let's Get Frunky, 'Dillo, Paradox as a border, Pokeleaf, and some Tipple or Perfs. At the moment I'm in upstate New York, and it's been quite a few days with no art, so the above was a warmup. After which I did this:  Tangles: Mooka (mooka-gone-mad), which is of course one of the original tangles, and Septembre by Hanny Nura W., CZT. I stuck that tile into the pre-strung journal on one of the "not-strung" pages, with another tangle I tried recently:  The tile on the left shows the Sunspots tangle by Rosemary Turpin. Recently I'd bought some transparent photo corners and am happy I did--I like them better than the opaque corners. I'm enjoying using this journal, which allows me the choice to draw directly on a page or to paste in a tile. Some of the pages have strings pre-drawn, and others are blank; I appreciate having both options.
My buddy and I are both taking an online sketching course that begins tomorrow. We'll see if either of us has the guts to post some of what we do. Wow, does it feel good to be drawing again. Well, before I get to the story of the dreaded putty, let me start with some tangles. Here are two entries for this week's Diva Challenge # 332, a square within a square. Every tangle in each tile is brand-new to me, and it shows. I consider both tiles "first tries" and drafts. Not bad, but of course they'd get better with practice. In the first tile, three totally new patterns:  Diva Challenge #332 Tile 1: Micron 01 and Graphite. On the lower right corner: Kinnggo by Susie Ngamsuwan. Don't blame her--this is my first attempt! I like it though, and will use it in future. Center/right-ish: Andromeda by Lily Moon. Upper left: Bealis, by Aurora's Artwork. My square-within-a-square for the challenge was formed by the Andromeda tangle. This was a fun exercise, even though not very meditative since I was in learning mode. I would need to practice a lot more with each of these, and I intend to. I thought I would try them in this challenge since I'd been wanting to try each of them for a couple of weeks now.  Diva Challenge #332, Tile 2. MICRON 01 AND RAINBOW LEAD PENCIL FOR A TINT. Another brand-new (to me) tangle called Sunspots, by Rosemary Turpin. This is one repeat of the pattern; it's simple and meditative to draw. I figured it qualified for this challenge because there are 4 squares, visually, inside the one repeat. It would make a great quilt, don't you think? Hmmm. Lastly, here is the Dreaded Putty--the hand therapy material that is making my hand go crazy with pain, but it's also really helping. The two culprits are Red Putty (softer), and now my wonderful OT has added the dreaded Blue Putty (scarily harder). I have to squeeze the red one and do various torture-y exercises with the blue one. Ack. Ouch. But I know it's helping.  JEEZ, DO I HAVE TO...???
I want my hand back so I can end this "Broken Wrist Series" of tangles and get on with my life.
Impatience has taken over! We've all heard of Sylvia Plath, famous for her extraordinary poetry, fascinating life, and tragic suicide. But who knew she was also a visual artist? I certainly didn't. Check out this fascinating article from one of my favorite websites called Brain Pickings. Plath was a visual artist as well as a phenomenal poet. I wish I could post some of those photographs here, but I haven't asked permission, so instead I will direct you to the site of the article where you can see them in all their glory. Meanwhile, my damaged hand is continuing to respond to intense exercise. It hurts like hell most of the time but it's finally beginning to act like a hand again. (At least it isn't my dominant hand--and for that piece of luck, I am eternally grateful.) I've been able to tangle a bit more. Here's a recent piece and how it evolved. The first stage, lines in progress:  Micron 01 on a pre-strung journal page Next, here is the piece with the line work done, but without any shading:  And below is the finished piece on the actual journal page, after shading:  AT THE END, I ADDED THE TANGLE "COTON" TO THE EDGES (Sadelle Wiltshire, CZT) This was so much fun to draw, as it was simply line after line after line, each one drawn slowly and deliberately. A meditation in motion.
 experiments with Mooka & Betweed Another insomniac night produced this in my Zentangle® Pre-Strung Journal that's near the bed. I was too lazy to get up and find my colored pencils so used only the Rainbow Lead Pencil. Many of the pre-drawn strings in this journal slide right off the page, as this one does. I love the way Zentangle regularly breaks all the rules. I am currently reading Tara Brach's extraordinary book, Radical Acceptance, and have been thinking about acceptance in relationships. Note that "acceptance" does not necessarily indicate "agreement with," but rather is an acknowledgement of exactly what is happening--before any action is chosen. In other words, not blindly reacting, but instead seeing the situation clearly and then perhaps being able to choose a wise action rather than going with the first impulse. I've been bringing these ideas into meditation and learning from them. In a world gone mad with angry, hostile relationships, full of trolls and bullies, there has never been more need for being able to see clearly and choose one's reaction wisely. This carried over into my tangling, as I found myself starting with the tangle Betweed and then thinking about similarities between Betweed and Mooka, which is what I was playing with here. ...after which I slept quite well, even if not long! Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.
--Katherine Mansfield Accept - then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. --Eckhart Tolle i heard the sound of crickets last evening for the first time since last year. to be more specific, i heard one lone cricket, and then about a block or so later, a second lone cricket. there is something about their sound that makes me so happy. today i experimented with drawing a cricket (thus, the "hope" part of the title, as it was only the second day since i broke my wrist (mid-june) that i began to feel i was getting better. more about that later... here is the very silly result--the first sketch is a cartoon cricket (from the jiminy cricket species), and the second one only a tad more realistic. both were done from youtube videos that i found when i typed in "how to draw a cricket."   OF COURSE, NO REAL CRICKET IS COLORED LIKE THIS. I WAS USING MY RAINBOW LEAD PENCIL TO DRAW IT, AND THEN WENT OVER IT WITH A BLACK MICRON 01. below is my contribution to IAST 209 (the "it's a string thing" challenge). i was so happy to feel well enough to try this tonight. this makes two days of less swelling and pain, i'm almost afraid to feel hopeful, but i'm going with it tonight!  Tangle: Spoken. Gold Gelly Roll Metallic pen on black tile, with white prismacolor highlights. my last post was about in-somnia, but last night before bed i did a pre-somnia tangle and, for the first time, didn't wake up in the middle of the night. i'd been wanting to try the tangle "kandysnake," which was new to me. once i put that one on the tile, it cried out to be joined by "footlites," (one of my favorite tangles) and then i connected them with "beadlines."  THE HAND UPDATE:  a page from my journal. i still have to wear the splint at least 80% time, but last week it was 100%. it's still incredibly painful but it's less painful than last week when i was beside-myself-uncomfortable.
i think things are heading in the right direction, even though it could still be weeks before i am fully functional again. two months ago today was the break.  after an evening and night of bad wrist pain, i woke at 3.45 a.m. today and did this for the next hour. -->
on reflection, i'm amused at how perfectly it captures what was going on with me and why i couldn't sleep. sometimes tangling is almost too revealing! and yes, that was it for total sleep last night. i'm suddenly seeing slow progress in the wrist/arm/hand, with less pain. i was able to tangle a bit longer today. hurrah! at first, i did a monotangle:  i did this in a pre-strung zentangle journal so i was following their string, which ran off the upper left-hand corner of the journal page. after finishing--i thought--i headed out to a yoga class. when i got home i looked again and wanted to fill in the rest of the string lines, which can be seen faintly on the page above. so i did, with this result:  tangles: bysomnus and ambler (ambler around the edge). broken wrist series. done on a journal page, micron 01 and 03. I like this better. it's not great, but it IS great to be able to tangle again. in fact, I am thrilled. I just hope not to "overdo," and set myself back. in a word: NO. the last ten days, since the cast came off, have been outrageously painful as i work hard to get my hand/wrist/arm back in shape. i've been too discouraged and too tired to draw. but today i managed a few minutes and produced this "half-assed" result. it's from a journal with some pre-strung tiles in it. this was literally all i could manage today.  certainly not my best work but at least i did something. micron 01 and 05, graphite, in a zentangle journal. i am keeping this short because, let's face it, i'm whining. and no one wants to read a post by a whiner.
the end. for this week's "it's a string thing" challenge #205:  tangles: pauline's pigtail (new to me), shard (new to me) and shattuck (an old favorite) there seems to be a theme going on here. my journal page from yesterday (note the rainbow lead pencil i'm determined to use until the last 1/8"):  finally, some pix from my long walk at 5.30 this morning:    fogged in (shot at the high school track)  another tangle from "the broken wrist" series. the hand is hurting, so i took this monotangle challenge from the weekly diva challenge (with a guest challenger this week) and vowed to keep things as simple as possible. here is my 'nzeppel. micron 01, graphite. period. just about all i could manage today!  <--here is the reason i can't type much. or type well. or use capital letters. but this is a vast improvement over the first cast i was in, which included a sling. that meant i was totally one-handed. with this cast, i can cheat a little. not much. in yesterday's post i discussed how i ran amok with the tangle peanuckle, which was this week's diva challenge. see that post for the details and result. well...! one of the other participants, susie ngamsuwan, also ran amok, only much more effectively. not only did she produce two gorgeous tiles, but she came up with an easier way of drawing the same tangle. so creative. see her work and her step-out here. it's so worth reading--and check out the rest of her blog! fabulous. after seeing how she did it, i had to try again. result:  on the left side of the tile i tried drawing it according to molly's original instructions (molly came up with the pattern), but did it very large. i liked it ok, but got lost near the end and had to fudge some embellishments. on the upper right of the tile i tried it again, very small, but used susie ng's instructions. easy! not only did i not get lost but i experimented with the 'join' between the peas. i liked the effect. i threw in a couple of mooka and then tried it a 3rd time, using susie's instructions, on the bottom of the tile, and this time fooled around with an inner spiral on the peas. once again, i never got lost and it was fun to draw. thanks, susie! you're so clever. i'll actually be using this tangle now.  same tile, "distressed" on my iphone prepare for a tangle gone completely amok. this was in response to this week's "i am the diva challenge #325," from guest challenger Jessica Davies. click on that link to see what this tangle is SUPPOSED to look like. note: nothing like mine. the challenge tangle is "pea-nuckle," one of my least favorites (sorry, molly!). rather than doing it in a solid block, i wondered what would happen if i 1) tried to bend it in a circle, 2) made the insides of the "peas" something other than straight lines, and 3) connected them to each other not using the usual straight lines. oh dear... which begs the question, is this even the pea-nuckle tangle anymore? or just a hot mess? i'm hoping i can use my current broken wrist as an excuse. though there's probably no excuse for this!  "what if?" version of pea-nuckle. micron 05 brown pen, rainbow lead pencil, graphite. since i broke my wrist and can't really type, i assumed there would be no blogging either. but i can't stop drawing. here's my 1-handed version of joey challenge #174. following that is a 10-minute sketch of the incredibly bulky cast and sling i'm wearing. my previous post has all the tiles i've been sneaking in 1-handed since the break.  joey challenge 174. the main tangle is "asian fans" and the rest is my embellishments on the lovely be-ribboned string created by suzanne ng. this was a "finish my tile" challenge and if you look at her original, it's lovely all by itself. i used a rainbow lead pencil and graphite for color and shading.  yikes. Well... (or should i say "UN-well" ?) I broke my wrist five days ago and am reduced to typing one-handed. Phooey! Looks as though I'll be on a 6-week blog vacation. but wait... UPDATE: It's true I can't type (much) but I can't seem to stop 1-handed drawing. Scroll down to see the series of "broken wrist tangles." Oldest ones are at the top, newer are farther down. *** July 3rd: waiting to heal. still can't type but doing some 1-handed tangles anyway.  this was the first, called "broken," done on june 26, partly inspired by my vision of what's going on at the site of the break
--playing with iphone app on "broken"--  june 27  iphone fun with that one-->  july 2nd  a page from my journal on july 3rd Can't really type but don't want to stop drawing! UPDATE, JULY 11th: Let me check...oh wait...still broken. Here's the next in the series of "broken wrist" tiles...  -pretty challenging to do 1-handed- Here is the same tangle below, run thru an iphone app:  UPDATE, July 12th:  another 1-handed wonky tile but fun to do (challenging)  same tile as above, mirrored on iphone and colored via another app
July 16th:  Tangles: Beelite and Emingle. The original tile was mirrored and distressed on my iphone. I've put the original below.  |
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 Level I, 2024
Certified Zentangle® Teacher, 2013
Certified by AmyOxford.com at The Oxford Rug Hooking School, 2016
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