The top of the 6-sided box I've been working on is finally tangled, and I've sprayed the entire thing with fixative.  All that's left is to add a button for closure.  Here's the top.

I went outdoors after dark last night and was mesmerized by the bountiful fireflies everywhere in my front yard.  Although I hadn't meant to, I stayed for over half an hour watching them as they danced in the dark.  So very lovely.  In their honor I added some white dots in the background on the top of the box, and also some dark dots on the right side of the top which is lighter in color.

To view a quick, lovely video on fireflies dancing, go HERE.  Don't miss it.

The box, which really isn't that big (perhaps 8" x 1"?) took forever to tangle as I worked my way along all 6 sides.  The paper actively resisted the ink, and it was awkward to tangle because of the shape.  But I think it will be quite functional as soon as I add that button.  I won't be making another one soon, however.

                                                                               ***
Yesterday must have been a good day for me as I also finished a Bitty BookZ™ version for Zendalas (see the last few posts for the link to more information on Bitty BookZ).  Here is the final result on that.  I'm quite pleased.

THE FIRST THING:         
To the left you'll see a Bag of Boobs.  Yes, boobs.  Breast prostheses, that is.  I knit them for the Knitted Knockers organization and supply them to my local hospital's mammography and medical oncology unit.  They emailed Friday to ask for another batch because "women love them." 

I was so happy to hear it.

I knit in the evenings while I watch the news or a tv program.  I cannot watch tv without doing something with my hands, and this has forever solved that problem.  Because breast cancer is so common, there's an unending need for these prostheses for women who've had a mastectomy.

This is one side of the box (both sides are the same).

So now only the front of the box is left to tangle.  Surprisingly, I am not enjoying tangling on this box one bit.  The underlying structure is probably chipboard or something equally hard, and the brown paper covering is not porous at all.  The combo makes it very challenging to tangle on--it's as if the paper wants to reject the pens entirely.  Hard to get the ink out!

Plus tangling on tiny narrow surfaces that don't support one's hand is a real challenge.  The combination of pen-rejecting paper and no hand control is making this a difficult project.  When I'm done I think I'll love the box, but I sure don't want to tangle another one.  Live and learn!

This mandala started 8 months ago.  I did the outer border (you can see that HERE) last October and was flummoxed about what to do next. You know how these things sometimes have to marinate.  I've had the filter itself (yes, a used coffee filter from the amazing Cheryl Cianci CZT, who drinks lots of coffee) since 2014.  So this one marinated a very long time as a total blank, then again as a partially done piece, and finally it's finished.

"Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper, sprinkle cool patience."
(William Shakespeare)

"If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life."
(Oscar Wilde)

I managed to avoid all the other things I was supposed to be doing today when I heard that my friend Cheryl Cianci, CZT, was offering her coffee-filter class again.  I only discovered this at the very last minute and raced out the door hoping to make it on time.  I had taken the class about 4-5 years ago but my experience of Cheryl is that there's always something new and it was utterly relaxing as usual.  She is the soul of kindness, and hugely talented.

Much gratitude to all who teach.

A compilation of random thoughts this fine spring morning.

1.  Aren't these buttons fun?  I found them online and loved them, probably because they remind me of various patterns used in Zentangle® and also of patterns used in Oriental Rugs.  I'm hoping to use them in some tangling projects.  And maybe one or two will inspire a rug.

They are a collection of tiny mandalas.

2.  I spotted this beauty yesterday on a walk.  Yowza!  A "button"/mandala created by Mother Nature herself, and what a beauty.  There has to be a tangle design (or a rug) in there somewhere.

The plant goes by the unglamorous name of Osteospermum, also known as "Flower Power White."  It stopped me in my tracks on my walk.  Just an amazing flower; it positively glowed.

3. This is a partially-done panel on the bottom (yes, the bottom) of a tan paper box.  I've been working on this for two weeks and the going has been slow because I don't have all that much time to tangle right now.  Below you can see the completed design.  It will probably take me another month to finish.

Alas, I couldn't quite get that photo above to come out straight-on, but you get the idea.

The same box, vertical photo.  I still couldn't get a straight-on image.

I don't have the box in front of me but I'm guessing that the dimensions are about 9" long, about 2" wide, and perhaps and inch-and-a-half tall, with a cover that flips open.  I have a button to sew on when I'm done with the tangling and will use that for a closure (not one of the buttons shown at the top of this post).


4. Spring has fully sprung here and today we're having stunningly beautiful weather; up until today there have been very few sunny days and plenty of soggy ones.

May all the lovely colors, sounds, and scents of spring fill your senses today. 

(At least in the Northern Hemisphere)

If you read the previous post, you'll know that I accidentally left one of these triangular tiles behind (so only had five of them as of yesterday) after a wonderful weekend of tangling.  I re-drew it today and put together this pizza-like mosaic. It's the bottom one with the pinky-lavender color.  Pizza-pizza!  Speaking of which, I think I'll go have some (non-pizza) dinner.

Curses...I just got back from a long-awaited weekend of tangling, only to realize that because of a  miscommunication I left this tile behind by accident.  I may or may not get it back, so I'll have to wait and see if it turns up in my mailbox soon.  If not, I am hoping I can re-draw it.  It was one of my favorites.  Thank goodness I took a photo of it before it got lost in the shuffle. 

More to come once I have a chance to take pictures of the other work we did.

What I've noticed:

The later in the day I tangle and the more exhausted I am, the better.  Or so it seems as I observe over time.

That critical inner voice, sometimes quite loud during the day, apparently develops laryngitis by late at night when I'm tired.  And so I frequently love not only the process, but also the results. 

I like this one, done at midnight last night.

“The good news is that opportunities for love enter our lives unpredictably, whether or not we’ve perfected self-compassion or befriended our inner critic.”
--Sharon Salzburg

Before I retired, I often wore pins as a decoration when I went to my office.  But now that I spend my time in jeans and t-shirts, the pins are languishing.  Here is a pin I never wore, a cameo.  I love it (and used to have a much larger one which was far more lovely, but it was stolen during a break-in at my former residence) but I never wore it.  Not once.  I simply had it because it reminded me of some positive things from my childhood.  Since it was just languishing away, I re-purposed it onto a card with some tangling.  I may put it into a shadow-box frame.

This may or may not be a genuine cameo (there are plenty of plastic fakes out there) but it doesn't matter to me.  It has sentimental value.

Trees are in bud, the buds looking bigger each passing day.  There is a small maple on my front lawn with large tight red buds.  I worry about this tree as it was mistreated in the past, but despite all that, it's resilient and looking pretty darned good.  I'm guessing I'll see leaves within a week or so.  I think of this tree as courageous and persistent.  May it have a peaceful and ease-filled summer growth season this year.

A few days ago I begin work on this tile below.  Because I'm so busy it took days to finish, even though it's a very small piece.  It's clearly Spring-inspired.

This morning I snuck in one more tile when I should have been working on something else.  I am a world-class procrastinator, especially when whatever I am supposed to be doing is preventing me from making art.

And now, back to the big projects.  Sigh.

 ZenLinea posted a wonderful video on Instagram on how to draw this knot, so two nights ago I decided to try it at about 2 a.m. when sleep was eluding me.

This was my first effort and I'd like to play with it a lot more, if I can ever find the time.  I started off thinking it would be black and gray on the white tile, but somehow I began adding other lines and colors to the outside of the knot (the gold gellyroll, the yellow Prismacolor) and then the colors also crept slightly inside the knot as well.  I think I finished around 3 or 3.30 a.m. and was able to go right to sleep afterwards.

Of course this afternoon I was looking at it again and wondered what it would look like if I ran it thru an iPhone app, so I gave that a try using the same photo:

Rather reptilian, don't you think?  And soooooo different.  But interesting for sure.

I hadn't intended to draw today as I had too much else to do, but I just couldn't help myself.

It's been that kind of week--labyrinthine.  So many twists and turns.  We keep walking and we trust we will find our way in to the center and then out again on this challenging journey. 

I hope we are in the center now and will soon find our way out to resume our lives. 

I am still far from home, helping out my friend who is receiving daily treatments.  She is close to the end, however--only three more and she will be done and we will return to our respective homes.  A huge complicating factor has been the sudden illness of someone in her family; it certainly has increased the pressure on her to finish here and go home.  There is much uncertainty.

And yet, we know we just need to keep walking along on the path before us, and trust we will get where we need to be.  In fact, we are already where we need to be, and we just need to remember that.

It took me a few days to do this piece as it's so large.  I learned a lot in the doing and will try again for better results.

My friend also tangles and finds it therapeutic as she waits for appointments.  She is talented and here is one of her latest efforts, a Zendala done on a tile which she had pre-treated with a Fine-Tec paint gold wash.  Isn't this spectacular?  (I have her permission to publish this photo)

Those metallic Fine-Tec watercolors are so inspiring.

...we aren't having any where I am temporarily living in order to help out a friend.  It's winter here but the ground is bare, although in my actual town, 400 miles north, there's plenty of snow.

Nevertheless, the Zenuary2019 project on day 18 had a prompt to tangle something based on a snowflake shape.  Since I am way behind on this January challenge (I'll be working on it all thru February), I've just arrived at day 18.  I cut out the following shape on some previously-used paper:

...traced around it on a Strathmore tile, and here's the end result:

And here they are side by side.

"There is no better designer than Nature."
--Alexander McQueen

Basically no time to write today.  My friend is doing well but because of other circumstances (not my story to tell), we are still on the emotional rollercoaster. 

My heart is broken by some of what I see of the other patients at the treatment center, especially the sick children.  May they all heal, including their parents and caretakers.  May all be at peace; may all be well.

This nearly qualifies as what's known as an "inchie," a tiny drawing.  But in fact, it's more like a "two-inchie," since I did it on a Bijou tile (2x2") with a gold gellyroll and shaded it with a Prismacolor yellow pencil.  It's done for the Zenuari2019 project, day 16, "tiny tangle."

I'm away from home again and thus haven't tangled in two days.  Or done anything except knit.  Starting to feel a withdrawal.  I certainly hope I can get to do some textile work or some more  Zentangle® today or tomorrow.

"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us."
--Dryden

Experimenting with Mimi Lempart's tangle Mi2, using a thin gold pen (sorry, don't know the name) a friend gave me, plus Pokeroot and Pokeleaf tangles.  Colored with Generals Chalk pencils on a black Zentangle® tile.  I hope to do more of these experiments when I have time.

Just got back from a week away and we are having our first serious storm of the winter; it's just begun.

The day is bright, sunny, and chllly but I am sleepy anyway.  I'm away from home helping a friend who truly doesn't need much help  We've been having fun tangling.  I did the tile above earlier while she was working on something much larger.  Lovely to have a companion in art.

When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy. --Anonymous

Two more tangle experiments today.  I am saving the textile work for next week when I think I will have more time to focus on it.  What I love about both Zentangle® and textile art is the deep inner silence I experience when doing either.  Both are highly meditative.

Today I went into that silence with joy and relief.  One of the wonders of Zentangle is that it doesn't matter what the outcome is, bad or good, because the process of creating is where the gift lies, and that in itself is enough.  Often the outcome is wonderful--a bonus.

 Sure enough, I had the thing laminated this afternoon (see yesterday's post for an explanation of "the thing") and then with the help of an x-acto knife and 3 minutes of work, cut a center hole and installed the works. 

Voila, a completed Zentangle® Spinner.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm thinking about wheels/mandalas, etc., of which this is only one.

The big one--the Full Moon--was shining in my bedroom window so brightly last night that I thought she was going to come right through the glass and join me.  So I'll be calling this my Full Moon Spinner.

Now if we could all just learn from the quote below...

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
― Edgar Mitchell

This week's Solstice (yesterday) caused me to start thinking about wheels, as in the Wheel of the Year and how that wheel is turning once again.  I've had wheels on the brain.  For example, the Wheel in the tarot (see my previous post on the Wheel of Fortune card HERE), plus I just finished a Zentangle® project that had me creating a wheel, below.

The above wheel is going to grow up to be a "Spinner Board," once its spinner arm is inserted thru the hole in its center.  Before I do that, I'm thinking I will need to laminate and back the piece.  There are 55 different tangles on the piece, and I'm guessing it's about 9x9".  It was fun to do and took twelve days, tangling for about a half hour each day.  It's part of Zentangle's Project Pack 04 and all the relevant how-to videos are on YouTube.

In the process of doing this, my already messy desk grew completely out of control, so today I went on a massive cleaning binge.  It should be noted that, for me, a "massive cleaning binge" is equivalent to picking up one piece of paper from the floor.  I did not get the cleaning gene.  I was happily raised in Lower Slobbovia.

But today I swept my large desk clean and forced myself to sort through things and create a semblance of order.  It's quite shocking.  More work has to be done tomorrow but here is the progress so far.  (Wish me luck with maintenance...not a strength either)

Apparently the wheel turned into a Wheel of Progress for me.  At least for the next 24 hours.

Happy Solstice to all...

Oh my, another sunny day.  They are increasingly rare, and so I treasure them.  It's downright cheerful outdoors, though cold.  Great to see the sun. 

So where's the fog?  I did this tile this morning as part of my continuing experiment with incising tiles rather than using pen on them.  So it's done only with a stylus, graphite, and after that I used some watercolor pencils to add a bit of color.  I thought it came out quite "foggy."

This was done for the final piece of the Gratitangles2018 Project (November) and is the tile for day 30.  I am officially done and really enjoyed the month.  As I was doing this tangle this morning, I was grateful for whoever invented Gratitangles, and grateful that I had a chance to participate.  I hope I can continue this practice of being-grateful-while-tangling.  It makes a big difference in mood.

I'm intrigued by experiments with the incision technique and plan to continue them a bit. These truly are experiments.  Here is one (below) that didn't work so well.  I did this on a Bijou tile (2x2") and used General's Chalk Pencils for color...in order to get the color I had to rub fairly hard and I noticed the wonderful Fabriano Tiepolo paper did NOT like the rubbing.  You can see that it was beginning to shred.

I'll put that on in the "No fail, no learn" category and I'm glad I tried it.  I have some other ideas that may work better on the Fabriano Tiepolo paper.

The beginning today:  I began designing another large rug.  It's too early by far to show anything, but I am pleased with the start.
The ending today:  After endless rain and then multiple overly-early snowstorms, we finally got all the leaves cleaned up.  It took all day.  Since I'm focusing on gratitude this month, I want to say how relieved I am that I no longer have to do this myself.  Because I live in a condo, someone else does it for me, and of course they have all the right tools & equipment, saving my old bones the effort.  Thank you, thank you.

Two small tangled pieces today...

Above is a black Zentangle® 3-Z tile with White Gellyroll pen and White General's Charcoal. The tangle is called XLnt and it's by CZT Jody Genovese (you can find it on tanglepatterns.com). This is my first try at it, and wowza, it was not easy for me to figure out. I like it very much though and think I'll be using it a lot. This was done for the "It's a String Thing #271" Challenge on Adele Bruno's website.

And this one is done on a tiny Bijou tile (2"x2") using Gold Gellyroll pen and A bit of White Gellyroll, with colors by General's Chalk pencils.  The tangle in the center is Zenith, and that was our assignment for the Gratitangles Project, day 25.  I mixed in a Footlites tangle on either side (same project, day 14).  Zenith is a tangle I always mean to use, and rarely do.

While working on these tiles I could not help thinking of things I am grateful for today:  For example, safe housing, with great caretakers who moved those leaves efficiently and who also take care of the snow and ice.  I'm grateful for the snow tires I had put on my car yesterday.  I am grateful that I even HAVE a car and the money for snow tires. 

I've been feeling the itch to draw a bit again (other than tangles).  One thing I know about drawing is that if you don't use it, you lose it.  And I haven't used it in months, other than tangling. 

This morning as I lay in bed I knew I wanted to sketch something--anything--quickly.  So I got out of bed, grabbed a pencil and post-it note, and did a 4-minute sketch of the Buddha that a friend just brought me from her trip to Asia. 

This was a straight-from-the-bed-into-a-sketch moment of madness.  After all, we each have something we need to do first thing after getting out of bed, right?  And I hadn't done that yet.  So I guarantee it was very short.  And not particularly good.  But you gotta start somewhere.

Not a masterpiece, but could be worse after months and months of inactivity with drawing.  Perhaps this is the start of something.

I've been participating in the "Gratitangles2018" project, an annual November event centered around the theme of Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  I'd include a link to it, but honestly, I don't know who started this or where to find the right link.  And I've looked.  I don't even know who sent me the list this year. 

But in this time when the United States feel less "united" than at any time since the 60s (meaning, the 1860s, when we had the Civil War), I really need to focus on what I can be grateful for...and that is still a lot.

Yesterday, Day 23 of the project, one of my least favorite tangles came up:  Jonqal.  I've never liked it and never ever tried it.  However, I'd committed myself, so I put on some meditative music and gave it a try last night.  Result:

Here's the thing:  I still don't like it, but I'm glad I tried it.  And I admit I like the result better than I expected.  Even though mine is far from perfect (perfection is not what Zentangle® is about, anyway!) and doesn't look like the "classic" version.  [See the "classic" images HERE.] 

It will never be a go-to tangle, but I'm glad I gave it a try.  Lesson learned!  I'm thankful that I made the effort to attempt it, and the attempt was the major part of the lesson.  I want to try more things in life, whether I think I'll like them or not.  I also noticed that the process of doing this was just as relaxing as it is with all of the other tangles that I so strongly prefer.  It got me to the same place, even if it's not--like the sketch at the top of today's post--any type of masterpiece.

It isn't about the masterpieces.  It's all about the work.

It's now day 24 and I tried out a tangle I've only done once before.  Click HERE to see my one-and-only previous try at it.  I supersized it that time, and really like the effect.  Today, though, I did the more classic version.  It wasn't half as easy as the supersized one, and I messed up in places, but I like the result anyway:

Yesterday's post was all about the sun; ironically, today's is all about the moon.

Here we have an experiment that didn't quite work, but I like it anyway.  I cannot even put into words what I was trying to achieve--it's too hard to explain.  But I still like the ghostly, dusty fadedness of this violet-colored full moon.

Before dawn this morning I woke up and couldn't believe  how much light was in my room.  I turned my head on the pillow and was almost blinded by the nearly-full-moon beaming down directly into my eyes through the window as She sailed along in the northwest corner of the sky.  It felt as though she were tapping on my shoulder and calling to me to,  "Wake up!  WAKE UP!"

Full moon
Make this night
Love will heal the wound
The glowing light
Will make things right
It's alright
--Hird