Whatever possessed me to start and finish this 6"-in-diameter Zendala in one day?  I am truly ready to fall of my perch.  Tired...

This was another class from The Tangled Yogi, whose wonderful videos and fine classes you can find by clicking on her link in this sentence.  She has a unique and incredibly helpful way of teaching.  I wish you could have seen the mosaic (collection of student work) on this one.  No two looked anything alike--coloring was wildly different.  Similar, yes, but still, vastly different.  The magic of Zentangle® for sure.

I advise students on the subject of color as follows:
If it looks good enough to eat, use it.
(Abe Ajay)

Teaching myself the tangle All-Stars by Tomàs Padros.  I'll be doing this one again soon, so this one was just for practice.

Here is the little:

Another insanely busy week but blessed with absolutely gorgeous autumn foliage.  It has been spectacular around here for days now. 

Day 16 of Inktober was Trentwith, a tangle entirely new to me (it looks like art nouveau roses in the tile above) and day 17 was Dreamdex, also entirely new.  I didn't have much time so tried them out on a tiny Bijou tile and was quite interested in both tiles; I will try them again, for sure.  Next time I'll make both of them bigger.

I'm not going to get Inktober done in October, but I don't really care.  As usual, this project is enormous fun.

10/29/19, Tuesday
Fast forward a coupe of days and I've finally gotten to sit down and do a few more tangles, below.

All I can say is, wow did it ever feel good to practice today.  It ain't the outcome, it's the experience that is so relaxing and that makes me so joyful.

Oh boy!  New gray-toned paper to play with.

I'm beginning to think I do my easiest tangling late at night.  Both the previous work and the work below were done very late.  It was after midnight when I finished each of them.  I'm thinking that being tired slows down the critic in my head, plus at that time of day my goal is really relaxation, and I don't care much about what comes out of the pen.  The result is usually better than the more self-conscious efforts when I'm more alert.

I take note that in meditation, focusing on the current moment and not worrying about the "results" is prime.  And so is acknowledging that there is an inner critical voice; realizing that the voice is "just thoughts," and that thoughts are not the same as facts.  We do not have to believe or pay attention to thoughts that pass through our heads, and that goes for the critical voice as well.

It's difficult to have fun or to achieve concentration when your ego is engaged in what it thinks is a life-and-death struggle.
(W. Timothy Gallwey)

I did the above tile late last night just before sleep.  It's two of the Inktober 2019 days together, days 4 and 5.  I have quite a bit of catching up to do.

But of course this isn't a race.  After yesterday's spectacular foliage display, I decided that I wanted to shade the tile above in all the colors I had seen in the leaves on my trip.  And there were a LOT of colors.  I pulled out my General's Pastel Chalk pencils and set to work, with this result below.  The blue represents the intense blue sky behind the leaves.

And here they are side by side:

“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile."
― John Howard Bryant

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Next Sunday afternoon is the full moon, in the corner of the universe where I live.  It's supposed to be unusually large.  And orange.  I chose to ignore the orange for this Zendala tile, which I did for Hanny Nura's monthly celebratory Full Moon Mosaic.  If you google "Full Moon Mosaic" on Facebook or Instagram you'll see some amazing entries.

Meanwhile, I've been asked to do a Zentangle® demo at a local organization and in thinking about which tangle to ask participants to do, I'm going to use this one, Fassett by Lynne Meade.  Which means I need to practice it myself, having only ever done it once or twice--and of course I'm falling in love with it.  This was my first try at it, done on a Renaissance Bijou tile (2" square).

...because this was all I had time to do.  (Nevertheless, I'm thinking it took me closer to 15 minutes)

"Listening is where love begins."
--Mr. Rogers

Still in love with and working on learning to draw this tangle, which isn't coming easy for me.  Today, though, I think I got it.  Finally.  There are a million ways to draw a Triquetra Celtic Knot, but I've been wanting to learn it via the easy steps of Zentangle®.  Which turned out not to be so easy for me.  But in fact, with a bit of practice, it is both easy and obvious.  Other people got this one immediately, but I needed to ponder it a while.

Some things are like that.

Being overambitious and then frustrated when I couldn't get the painting to work taught me persistence.
(Marion Boddy-Evans)

This was my first attempt with this tangle.  I actually finished this over 2 weeks ago but am just posting it now.  I found the instructions (the stepouts) so hard to follow that I tried it out on a 2" square tile in pencil first, using an eraser.  Normally, with Zentangle®, we do not "sketch out" tiles in pencil first, and we don't use erasers.  The general idea is that there are no do-overs; if we screw up in life, we don't get to do whatever-it-was over.  Instead, we have to figure out what to do about it and we often learn the most through dealing with our mistakes.  And so it is in art as well.

However, sometimes if we can't even envision how to approach something, a draft (ie, using pencil to try to sketch something out) is helpful as we try to map the thing in our minds.  That was my approach here.  And occasionally in life, too, if I'm finding a life task overwhelming.

Speaking of overwhelm, I have hopelessly over-committed myself and am not pleased that I barely have time to turn around in my schedule.  At my age, I should know better.  This is a mistake I make frequently in life, and I have learned a lot from it...but apparently I still haven't learned how to avoid doing it.

Consequently I have done no tangling since my last post--too busy with textile work which I'm not ready to show yet.  And with several other projects, including creating a new website for a group.  I love everything I'm doing but I really miss tangling.

As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes. (Mel Brooks)

Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack? (George Carlin)

This is a day traditionally held sacred to all women, honoring the sacred feminine and the Great Goddess in earlier times.  For an excellent article with good information on its celebratory aspects (as well as superstitions and misogyny that have accrued around it), click HERE. 

Art!
Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this Great Goddess?
--Ludwig van Beethoven

Woke up early today and used the extra time to do this tangle.  I had watched a Romi Marks (Tangled Yogi) video and used most but not all of her tangles for this. 

She uses colored pencils, as have I when I've used her paper tiles, made from cardstock so they are very smooth and handle colored pencils beautifully. 

I was using a regular Zentangle® tile today, though.  That's made from printmaking paper and has a lot of tooth.  So I went with General's Chalk Pencils for the color. 

Today all I knew when I sat down to draw was that I wanted to work on something blue, invoking the quiet calm of that color.  When more than a day passes with no drawing, I get tangle-deprivation syndrome.  So, waking early was a pleasure; meditation is easier for me at that time of day, and I've noticed that any drawing I do at dawn or after dusk tends to be less self-conscious than when I draw during the day. 

Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.
--John Ruskin

This is a 2nd version of the same tile I did a week or two ago.  I made it today for a friend and will be sending it off to her tomorrow, hoping she likes it.

There is no harm in repeating a good thing.
--Plato

With thanks to Romi Marks, TheTangledYogi, for her design--drawing and coloring by me.

A good friend who is also a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) was here this week and stayed long enough for both of us to take the same online class via the TangledYogi--aka Romi Marks, a very good teacher.  I'd encourage you to check out her work, including her YouTube videos.

Below you will see our results.  The first two are mine--think of them as Draft 1 and Final.  Here is the draft:

Romi refers to this as the "Aloha Waves" piece.  The design is hers, but drawn by me, and then the color choices are mine.  In a moment you can see the final result below, once I'd had time to mull this one over.  I hope you can see what I added. 
The piece was done on one of Romi's hexagonal tiles, which are available on her website (see the link at the top of this email).  She has them made from high-quality card stock and they are very smooth and accept colored pencil well.  They are also larger than the standard Zentangle® tiles (made from Fabriano Tiepolo printmaking paper, softer and tooth-ier).  The two most recognizable tangles here are Pokeleaf and Crest, along with a Zengem.

My finished piece is below, and then below that one you can see the gorgeous result of my friend's work.  Two identical tiles, drawn by two different people, with two completely different coloways.

But wait--there's more.  She also decided to take up punch hooking and got her equipment together while she was here, designed a piece, and began punching.  I can't wait to see what she produces.

The good news for me is that I think I'm about to start work on another rug and have something textile-related to show soon.  It's been too long.

 It occurs to me that this has turned into a Zentangle® blog and has not showed any of my textile work recently.  That's because there hasn't been any textile work recently.  I've temporarily lost my textile mojo.  Maybe because it's summer, and who wants to work with wool in the summer...but I am starting to get concerned.  Ok, enough of that.  Let's just hope inspiration returns.

Last night I did a quick tangle based on the Project Pack 06 Day 5, which was great fun.  It was so late when I did this that my hands were shaky but that's alright:

That version of Mooka, discovered by Julie Willand, CZT, was hugely fun, although I need more practice with it.  I think my version/attempt should be called "Black-Capped Melting Mooka" for the little caps I added to it.  I am looking forward to playing with it more.

This evening I took an online class with Romi Borax Marks, CZT, also known as The Tangled Yogi.  She is all about color and is an excellent teacher, as I've been saying an my recent posts.  Here is the result.

That was the first time I worked on a hexagonal tile--they are all the rage right now in the Zentangle world.  I enjoyed it (especially for the smooth tooth of this particular paper) but am not sure what all the fuss is about yet.  I need to experiment with them more.  Happy to have had a chance to try one, though.

I'll have to let this song speak for me, because I cannot say what is in my heart after this terrible week in my country.
Wrong.  Tragic.  And entirely preventable.

This tangle helped me to center myself, but did not take the pain away.
Credit for the composition goes to Romi Borax Marks, but I did the drawing and colors.

I am definitely--and very oddly--still off my game, but I did manage to produce this today:

I would love to take full credit for it, but the truth is that while I did indeed draw this, I was really just following along with a video on YouTube by Romi Borax Marks, CZT.  She has a lot of videos and they are all worth watching.  I needed to be totally brainless-but-focused and her video did the trick.  Don't get me wrong:  SHE'S not brainless!  I am the temporarily brainless one.  I needed to be "one of the herd" today, and not have to think about anything.

I had to vary my materials quite a bit from what she uses, and that did require some creativity.  For example, all the color on her video is applied with colored pencils.  On mine, I first applied art tissue paper in order to prep the tile before I bound it into a Bitty BookZ™ so the color was already there and thus I had to use  colors I'd chosen weeks ago; I did punch them up a bit with Prismacolor pencils.  In addition, Romi uses very smooth tiles that she produces and sells, whereas my tangle was done on traditional Fabiano Tiepolo printmaking paper (i.e., the regular 3.5" Zentangle® tile) which has a lot of tooth (not smooth).  So in the end there was a big difference between her process and mine.

Why I am feeling so creatively stymied is a big question, and I expect I'll understand it eventually but in the meantime I am just attempting to make a quiet and easy "comeback" with completely non-stressful work.  There's not much that is less stressful than working alongside an excellent video done by an excellent teacher.  I highly recommend Romi's videos.

I've lost all my mojo!  All my creative mojo, that is.  No textile work of any kind is underway.  I've barely been able to tangle at all.  I am uninspired.  This has been going on all month.  Mercury Retrograde?  The sticky weather?  A less-than-pleasant though not at all serious recent medical adventure?  All of those things?  I dunno.  But I sure hope I can find some mojo soon.

At least I managed to get this done today.

Some knots can only be resolved and undone with relaxation and patience. (Sridhar Ramasami)

The great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is. (Arnold Bennett)

Trying to get my mojo back after a long period of (puzzling) lack of interest.  We have a heat wave moving in, my most dreaded weather.  Perhaps staying home during that will enable me to get some more tangling done.  Still no interest in textile work, although hot weather often brings that on.

Below is my version of Maria Thomas's latest "Kitchen Table Tangle."  She invited us all to give it a try, so I did.  She scored and folded hers, but I wanted to leave mine unfolded.  She used watercolors and I used chalk pencils.  Because of the nature of Zentangle®, they look very similar but are in fact very different.  It's like two people writing the same sentence on a sheet of paper with cursive script--it's the same sentence but their individual handwriting will make the two versions look very different.

Some days are better than others.  I just don't have it today.  (Whatever "it" is.)  Instead I have a very mild toothache, which I'll deal with in the morning.  Staring at this blank page in a Bitty Book™ I made a few weeks ago, all I could imagine doing was drawing some random lines.  Thank goodness for chalk pencils.
Time to go read a trashy novel, methinks!

More life-busyness means less posting.  The good news is that I'm feeling better.  I've continued to play with art tissue paper, the type of tissue paper that comes in dramatic colors and bleeds when wet.  I've been wetting it, then squeezing it above wet Zentangle® tiles to see what it does, and/or crushing it and smashing it around directly on the tiles.  This first tile was the result of the "dropping stain onto the tile from above" method:

 I still feel a bit wobbly about the Icanthis tangle, so it will probably show up here more often while I practice it.

More tiles below.  I switched tissue paper colors and both dropped color on and also mashed it on.  This was violet-colored tissue paper and it was interesting to notice how as the staining dried, some pure blue began to seep out.  There was absolutely no way I could avoid seeing these backgrounds as moon-and-sky (the first one) and evening sky.  So, I built some Moon Bridges and left the tiles as mostly background, minimal tangling.  Great fun with this art tissue, as you never know what you're going to get.

I was so surprised by those two.

Well then, of course I had to experiment some more, so I ran Moon Bridges #2 through a mirror app on my iPhone and was startled to see some figures emerge.  See the result below.

The destination cannot be described;
You will know very little until you get there;
You will journey blind.
(T. S. Eliot)

Gawd, what a week.  I needed something round and sunny today so I made the above tangle on some pages in one of my recent handmade books. 

Today is the first day I feel like myself in over a week.  I had a medical test that went wrong.  Nothing dangerous, but it's quite impressive how bad one can feel when something is seriously "off" but not dangerous.  I have had zero, and I do mean zero, motivation to do anything for days and days. 

Hurrah for feeling better!

Last week in the middle of my woes I had a bout of insomnia, and that's when I did the tile just beneath this.  I was still trying to work on grid-based tangles, which are not my preference.  The combo of "not my preference" and "feeling really crappy" added up to what you see below.

[Late last week] Oh, how my mood is matching the feeling of being "gridlocked," like the tangles I have been working on.  I've been pretty sick this week, unexpectedly.  Nothing that won't improve, but the improvement is slow.  I've discovered--no surprise--that I suck as an invalid.  I'm not good at sitting around.  There are things I want to be doing that are physical, and I'm just not up to doing them yet.  Frustrating.

Insomnia last night led to another grid-based tangle, C-Stem by Agneta Landeson.  I've never tried it before:

I'm not crazy about how it came out but at least the process did enable me to go to sleep.

Grid-based tangles are not always my favorite type to draw, so I want to practice them more to see what I think and explore that resistance.  The tangle below is called "Krokus" but I added so much to it that it's almost hard to recognize.  I'm not sure but I don't think I've drawn it before.

And now the same tangle, but presented differently below.  The grid isn't so obvious in this one.  You can see the pencil lines (the "string") if you look, however.

I was so pleased at how easy it was to tangle with the tile actually part of a book.  While I've been making books at the rate that some of us eat potato chips (you can't stop at just one), I hadn't tangled in any of them yet.

Same tangle as yesterday's post, Haf n Haf, with each square turned a different way (and a few more lines too).  Same art tissue paper used, so the colors are lighter and I didn't cover the entire tile.

I added a bit of colored pencil in spots and a bit of graphite for shading.  Yesterday's tile had neither shading nor any additional color.

Life is 'trying things to see if they work.'  --Ray Bradbury