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In these troubled and challenging times, it's my deepest hope that all of us are supported by a network of unconditionally loving people in our lives. I'm defining these "beloveds" as very dear friends, mentors, and special family. Unfortunately, we are not all lucky enough to be born into families with members who end up becoming beloved. But in my family there were three people who fit this category. Today I took some time to re-frame the first of them, my beloved maternal grandmother, or Nana as I called her. She died over 50 years ago, but I think of her and send her my love and thanks to her every single day. She is never far from my mind. Oh, how I loved that woman. She taught me every good thing I have become, or hope to become. Here she is.  Tangles: Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh with Bales and Orbs. Brown Micron 01 and graphite. The photo was taken in 1937 when she was about 60. I have only two photographs of her because she absolutely hated having her picture taken. As a young adult I was shocked to discover that she'd gone through our family photographs and cut her own face out of every one of them. I never had the chance to ask her why she did this, and it puzzles me to this day. My understanding is that she was forced to quit school around age 12 in order to go to work, and later on she raised a large family single-handedly after her husband became extremely ill and was hospitalized for decades. She had a lot of shame about her lack of formal schooling. And yet, she was the kindest, funniest, most loving and smartest person in my childhood, and created a strong family foundation for me. She lived with us until her death when I was about 16. Lucky me! I got to spend every day with her for sixteen years. I never stop asking myself how I was fortunate enough to have her in my life. Rest well, Nana. And thank you.
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I have managed to grab a few minutes here and there for some creative work, which feels wonderful. Not enough, however! Here are some of the things that have been accumulating.  This is the result of a short voice-guided meditation class with Molly Hollibaugh of Zentangle®. She took us through three voice-guided tiles last Saturday in a two-hour workshop. This tile was the first one that we did. All of us heard the exact same verbal instructions, yet look at the mosaic below--it's always so interesting to see how people interpret things on their own.  ...and this is only part of the total mosaic. You can see my tile in the 2nd row from the bottom. But again, we all were paying close attention to her voice-guided instructions, and look at the differences. So very interesting!  Same class, second voice-guided tile. We were encouraged to use a colored pen and a black pen for this one. It was fun to hear how Molly guided us to create this design using only her voice, no visuals. The resulting mosaic is below.  ...once again proving how different we all are. I think this is utterly fascinating. Drawing really is like handwriting. There will always be differences, and vive la difference!  On a totally other track, I am doing some punch needle embroidery and here is the progress on the piece so far. The entire piece is about 9"x9" and you can see the start of it in my previous post. It is very different than the one I did exactly a year ago (same piece, different colors and I did it in cotton last time; this is wool). It feels so good to sneak in some creative work. Makes all the difference to me... My kind friend (and fellow Zentangle® enthusiast), Susie Ng from Thailand (check out her fabulous, imaginative artwork HERE), just sent me this photo below. She took my single 3-Z tile from my February 22nd post, multiplied it, and manipulated it into this hexagonal mandala. Thank you, Susie! I'm assuming you used Photoshop, which I don't have. Though I keep meaning to look into it. What fun!  My 3-Z triangular tile from my Feb. 22nd post, duplicated and arranged into a hexagon by Susie Ng. What a nice thing to do for a fellow tangler, Susie. You gave me a big chuckle on an otherwise crazy day. Now...I have to look into software that will allow me to do this.
In the style of one of my idols, Mori Yuzan, a Japanese artist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th century:  Gold gellyroll on a black tile.  Gold gellyroll pen and blue chalk pencil on a black tile. Yuzan's work has always been irresistible to me because of the linework. Wave after wave. and so many tangles (not that he would have thought of them that way). Both of the above tiles are nearly copies - if not outright copies - of his spectacular work, which fortunately is now int he public domain. So relaxing to draw these and hopefully learn a bit from him.
Both were done for Zenuari2019 day 14, "idol tangle." I think I'll be doing a lot more idol tangles!  Laminated and with the "spinner works" installed. See yesterday's photo details of how this was tangled. 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 hole in the center is explained below. Done with General's Watercolor Pencils, water, General's White Chalk Pencil, blue Micron 01 pen, brown Micron 01 pen, Prismacolor Pencils, and graphite. 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... Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear? --Jack London I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.
--Susan B. Anthony A few days ago, I shared a post called "Inspired By Others," in which I showed some work done a la Ernst Haeckel at our recent zenAgain2018 conference. We didn't stop there, however, and today's post shows two very different artists whom we also explored. Talk about crazy fun--this was a highlight of the conference for me. KEITH HARING Indeed, Keith Haring, one of Molly Hollibaugh's favorite artists when she was a child. After wondering what, if anything, we could do with tangles and his work, Molly experimented and came up with this instruction at zenAgain2018, and below you see the tile I did as a result. I was SO surprised - and delighted - by this choice of artists!
 My own version of a Keith Haring-style tile. Was this ever fun to do! Done on a black Zendala tile with White Gellyroll pen #10. Permission to break all the rules here, and just have a good time. And if that alone wasn't enough, have a gander at the mosaic below. Bear in mind that this is only a partial photo of the whole mosaic. Prepare to drool.  But wait--that's not all we did. The next tile couldn't be more different. (As is true for the "Ernst Haeckel-style" tile we did which I presented a few days ago) GUSTAV KLIMT Yes indeed, Master Klimt himself. I couldn't do him justice--none of us could, really, but we all gave it our best shot and my tile's below, along with a partial picture of the group mosaic.  This was my tile. Yes, that is some Gold Gellyroll in there, along with black and brown micron 01s, and Generals Colored Chalk Pencils. This is truly only a very small portion of the class mosaic, enlarged so that you can see the detail and the contrasts.  "What inspires me to paint? ...revisiting some old greats like Sargent, Homer, Whistler or local masters... thinking hard about a new approach or idea; or seeing a new painting on a friend's lounge room wall."
(Amanda Hyatt) ERNST HAECKEL was the inspiration for this:  At ZenAgain this week we experimented with tangling that was inspired by other people's work. This sea creature above is inspired by the work of Ernst Haeckel, and was it ever fun to draw. Below is a mosaic of the class's work with this assignment. We were each given some General's Chalk Pencils to use--we each received different colors and were required to work with whatever colors we got. Once again, you can see that all of them were similar, and yet, each is distinctly different. This was only one small portion of a much larger table with these tiles displayed.  Maria Thomas, one of the founders of Zentangle®, has a remarkable poster with her own version of Haeckel's sea creature on a portion of it. See her poster below. I believe this is for sale but am not certain. (UPDATE: Yup, it's for sale at the Zentangle® website.)  This is only a small portion of Maria Thomas's larger work. With apologies for capturing the chandelier light reflection on the glass...no matter how I tried, I couldn't avoid it. And finally, below, is a photo of a book about Haeckel's beautiful work (the master himself). There are many books available about him.  "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)  My first attempt at drawing the tangle: Ratoon. Done with a black Micron 01, graphite, Rainbow Lead Pencil, a small amount of General's White Chalk Pencil, on a white Zendala tile. Yes, this makes three blog posts in one day. It's true. Deal with it! <g> Ratoon is a new tangle from Molly Hollibaugh CZT (one of Maria Thomas's talented daughters) released earlier this week. The title of the tangle actually comes from some research that Maria was doing to prepare for ZenAgain this week. A "ratoon" is described thus: "a new shoot or sprout springing from the base of a crop plant." The theme of workshop was SEEDS--all the seeds from our art-ancestors that we use in creating art today, and all the seeds we are sowing as we do our own art and as we teach others. You can see the seeds represented in the tangle above. Just as those seeds have and will continue to sprout, so all art stands on the shoulders of all previous artists. In making our art--even if it's bad art!--we honor them. One of the many things I love about tangling is that I never know where something is going to go, how it will develop, and the highly calming effect of the process. We all get the same instructions, and yet all our pieces, while obviously related, are so delightfully different. I will put a partial mosaic of this tangle as an example of that below (partial because there were so many of us that I couldn't get the entire view).  A partial mosaic of Ratoon tangles done for the first time at the workshop.  A closer view of a few of the tiles. Bear in mind that we all had the same instructions...and look at the different interpretations.  Tangle: Oybay by CZT Antonine Koval. Micron 01, Rainbow Lead Pencil. Another Inktober2018 inspiration. I had totally forgotten this one, and now I remember how much I loved it! That's been a big benefit of this challenge--recalling and enjoying tangles I'd only ever done once. This picture will serve to represent Inktober Day 28, but it's actually a picture I drew in 2015 and blogged about previously HERE. The creator of this tangle says she named it Oybay because the orbs looked like pearls in an oy-ster and oysters live in the bay. Just looking at this 2015 first try makes me itch to try it again today, and perhaps I will. Inktober was very productive for me and even though I was so ill for so long in the middle of the month, it was easy and fun to keep up or do a few tangles in one day to catch up. By now, coming off this intense illness, I had a fair amount of catching up to do. I decided to work in my pre-strung journal, as I noted yesterday. So far I'm not thrilled with working directly on the journal pages because it's hard to turn the entire journal (versus the ease of turning a tile and then pasting the tile into the journal). So although I had a GREAT time doing these tangles, the page itself looks busier than I would like and some of these would have been nicer if I had been able to turn the journal more as I worked. Nevertheless, I am done with Inktober2018 and just loved the experience.  Whoops, one of the tangles isn't labeled, probably because I'm not quite done with it yet. Another oddity was the Yuma tangle (lower left thru the upper half of the rectangle), which I did with a Micron PN. I will have to take another look at that pen. It looks so blue. I used another PN in places on this page and it appears totally black. A mystery. I wonder if I have a blue Micron PN? Below is my version of a tangle called Pais, which is the Day 6 tangle in the Inktober2018 challenge. I'm curious as to why I seem to be keeping up with this challenge when I rarely can with others. Maybe because I'll be teaching a class soon and want to practice as much as I can, or maybe just because these tangles are "monotangles" (only one tangle requested per day, although there's no rule saying you cannot use as many as you wish). At any rate, I'm having fun.  Pais (the tangle name) used as a string with many other tangles inside--some Wud, Crescent Moon, Tipple, Striping, a hint of Diva Dance, Meer, and others. Done on a tan Zentangle® tile with a brown Micron 01, blue and white colored pencil, some chalk pencil. I had fun with the background on this one also. Yesterday was an odd day. It's been a tough week politically (to say the least) and then I had a few additional major concerns about friends. I just couldn't settle myself, no matter what I tried. Finally I dragged myself out of the house and went to see this wonderful art exhibit by Jen Luck Hale, below. I had seen the publicity and knew that colors would help me cheer up. And they did. If you are anywhere near Western MA in the next month or so, don't miss this one. It's not just "snowflake-y" cut paper, it's cut paper in great colors with nature as the theme. Plants, birds, fish, insects...it's all there. And oh, the colors! What a talented artist she is. From what I have read, she does NOT draw on the paper, but just "cuts by eyeing it." Wow. Read about her process HERE. Details and a couple of photos below. Don't you feel better just looking at those colors?  This (below) is only a small portion of what is on display.   © 2018 to Jen Luck Hale, all rights reserved. I fell in love with and bought this one, titled "Four Bugs." I can only find three but perhaps what looks like a lizard to me is actually a bug? I love it. I've left it there for the duration of the show and then will claim it.  © 2018 to Jen Luck Hale, all rights reserved. An unfortunately wonky photo but I also thought this one was gorgeous. I love her work. This is titled, "Natural Order." I wish I could have bought both!  © 2018 to Jen Luck Hale, all rights reserved. This one's called "Night Shift." It may just be my favorite. I had to content myself with buying it as a card, though, as I didn't see the actual piece on display. Darn... Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I bought three t-shirts, each with a different design I absolutely adored. Each one was like a mandala to me. [Ok, so it was actually only 2 1/2 hours' drive from here and only about 20 years ago. But I do love these t-shirts.] Slowly but surely they are all starting to wear out. I got the idea to use the designs for a series of 3 punchneedle embroidery pieces (see the other two designs below), and have just completed the last of the trio. The designer, Rob McLellan, gave his t-shirt designs titles, and the title of this one is "Elksong." Many thanks to the folks at University Silkscreen for giving me permission to interpret these designs in my needlework. I'm really happy to finally be able to share what I've been working on all summer.
Below are the two previous works in my series, Midnight Pony and Redwing Blackbird. Rob McClellan was an artist who lived in Ohio in the late 20th century. He died in a car accident around 2005. A fascinating man, he was adopted by the Cheyenne Tribe and much of his art reflects that.
 Black Micron 01 and Prismacolor watercolor and regular colored pencils, Gellyroll in white, size 08, white General's Chalk Pencil. I spent the day today in Elaine Huffman's studio, learning to make these button-like zendalas from the wonderful Chris Titus. (Yes, Chris is the originator of the Zondom, the clear plastic sleeve to protect Zentangle® tiles. I use these all the time.) We spent most of the day making the backgrounds; I had to leave a tad early so I only got to tangle this one, but others were able to get a second one done. Full disclosure: Chris herself had made the backgrounds for all of these to make it easier for us, and we each did the same tangles on them. Here is the group mosaic, with one wonderful exception:  They matched so well with Elaine's pink flamingo tablecloth, don't you think?
Definitely a hugely fun day. Thanks to Chris and Elaine. Wow, stunningly beautiful weather this last little while--sunny, warm (but not hot), and no humidity! Today was lovely. I drove to a friend's house for a rug hooking event, and we were able to work outside in her gorgeous backyard. Perfect weather and no bugs! We hooked on her patio while viewing her colorful garden and listening to the din from hungry baby birds and their parents in a birdhouse not more than 4 feet over our heads. The birdy-parents came and went ceaselessly, trying to stuff food into the mouths of the kids. And were those kids noisy and demanding! Parenthood is never easy no matter who the parents are... Here are some of the rugs I saw (of course I got permission for these pictures--thank you all!):  Kathy is almost finished with this beautiful rug--I believe she said it's an Emma Lou Lais pattern. Or was it Edyth McNeil?  This is a beautiful old McGown pattern being hooked by Marge. Rumor has it that she hasn't been hooking that long, but you'd never know it by the looks of this lovely piece.  Lynda is making excellent progress on her very large rug of her own design, dedicated to/portraying the Peace Pagoda, with its prayer flags flying everywhere. This is going to be a stunner. I love what she has done with the whites on the Pagoda.  Joanne is working on her own design of a cemetery at sunset. The border will create the illusion of looking through woods into the scene. There is something so peaceful about this.  Diana is working on this rug to commemorate a 25th anniversary of a marriage (of one of her kids, perhaps?). Such an elegant design and I'm loving the colors. I remember her saying she'll be doing the same pattern (one of her originals, I believe) in different colors for a sibling as well. And now for something completely different... Diana had just gotten back from babysitting for four days while family members took a short vacation to Aruba (something they had won! What luck!). They brought back this amazing object for her. Even more amazing is the description of the artistic process that was used to create it--it may look painted, but it isn't. See the photograph right underneath it describing how it was done. I have never heard of this art before, but I love this little critter. Isn't he (or she) a beauty?   Truly impressive. I will have to google "mopa mopa," which I've never heard of before now.
I capped off the day by 1) treating myself to a wonderful documentary on David Hockney's 2012 and 2016 exhibitions of landscapes and portraits. More visual delight! And then came home and finished a tense and good WWII-themed novel. All in all, a delightful summer day. I am feeling fortunate indeed. This is a quick post that falls squarely in my "Other People's Work" category. Remember my blog post from 5/23/18 with the phenomenal mosaic that resulted when the entire class put its tiles together? Review the picture here. It's at the bottom of that post. Well, my internet buddy Susie Ng from Thailand saw that photo and "couldn't resist" giving it a try herself. (Thank heavens.) So she recreated the original tile--putting her own unique spin on it--and then used Photoshop to create a mosaic, using her single tile as its basis. Check out this result. Fantastic! I'm so thrilled that she couldn't resist. We all benefit.  Copyright 2018 to Susie Ng of Fleeting Time Zentangle, all rights reserved. Tangles used: Pokeroot, Crescent Moon. And--hold onto your hats--here is the mosaic she created from the above tile, using Photoshop. I absolutely love this!  Copyright 2018 to Susie Ng of Fleeting Time Zentangle, all rights reserved. Susie is one of the most original and creative tanglers I've ever run across. I read her blog avidly (find it here) and always learn something. I frequently go back and study her tangles to see how she has handled things I would like to learn. We've struck up a bit of a penpal relationship too, and she's just the nicest person. Don't miss her frequent postings in support of animals and animal rescues, often found at the very end of her blog posts. They are alternately funny and incredibly compelling. Enjoy. Thanks to Susie for allowing me to post this. "Resistance is futile." My last two posts have been on the Zentangle® workshop I attended last weekend with Martha Huggins and Molly Hollibaugh leading. All in all, we had over ten hours of drawing time. That's a lot of tangling! And oh, was it lovely. In the previous posts, I've showed our first drawings and talked about why I liked the workshop. Yet another thing I liked was that we worked with "oldies but goodies," some of the most familiar tangles. Or early tangles that haven't had much attention recently. I love to revisit older tangles and see them in new ways. So to continue with my own results from the workshop, plus the fabulous "mosaics" (everyone's tiles collected and displayed together), here are some more things we worked on. Today's post is not the end--there is at least one, if not two more posts about the weekend coming over the next couple of days. Let's start with an old favorite, Bales, done on a Bijou tile (tiny tile) as a warmup:  Just plain fun. Done on a Renaissance (tan) Bijou tile with a Micron 01, graphite, and white chalk pencil. And of course, once we had these done, we made a mosaic of them. Have a look at the cool similarities and differences:  Next we did another Bijou tile with the tangle Well, which many people have trouble doing. Frankly, I had forgotten all about this tangle and hadn't tried it in years. Loved the reminder and doing it after all this time.  The tangle Well, done with a black and a brown Micron 01, graphite and white chalk pencil on a Renaissance Bijou tile. ...and of course, we made our mosaic of that also:  I could look at these for hours, viewing the different styles and the way people interpreted the directions. But of course we couldn't leave it there. Next we combined the two tangles onto one tile (Bales + Well = "Wales"). Oh, this was even more fun:  "Wales" on a Renaissance tile, using a 3-cornered Well rather than the standard 4 corners. Done with black & brown Micron 01s plus graphite and white chalk pencil. I think we used a white #10 Gellyroll pen also for highlights. ...and then of course the class mosaic:  Every collaboration helps you grow.  Done on a Renaissance 3-Z tile (tan, triangular) with black and brown Micron 01s, graphite, white chalk pencil, and a white Gellyroll 10. Tangles: Pokeroot, Pokeleaf, Perfs. And the string is a large Printemps tangle. This was the final tile we did at the workshop that ended yesterday. I've referred to the Perfs (the official Tangle name) as "Pearls" in the title of today's post because they look that way to me. Because the venue needed to ready the room for the next workshop, there was no time to do a class mosaic so I don't have a picture to show of what would undoubtedly have been a really magnificent collection of tiles. I really enjoyed creating this one, and would like to play more with this particular string. Thanks to Martha & Molly for a truly amazing experience.  When I got home last night it was smotheringly humid here, really unpleasant. But overnight the weather shifted. Here was Dave Hayes the Weather Nut's forecast this morning. It cracked me up! "THE 411 FOR THE 413: SUNNY, WARM, SWEET, NICE, AWESOME, PLEASANT, KILLER, GREAT, LOVELY, FABULOUS, MORE PLEASE, AND THANK YOU..." He turned out to be 110% accurate. Love him--so helpful. It is absolutely exquisite out there. I just took a long walk and spotted these phlox broadcasting their extraordinary color along the sidewalk. Most phlox here are shriveling up now, but because these are in shade for much of the day they're still going. In person, the color is nearly psychedelic, almost too much for the eyes.  This little beauty is a much smaller mosaic that the one I posted yesterday, but it is the same pattern I posted yesterday. I took this shot of "3-Z tiles" placed into a tiny four-person mosaic before everyone else at the workshop added their own tiles. Even though it's small, I had trouble remembering which was mine, but I finally determined it's at the lower left. This is an even better illustration than yesterday's of how we all heard the same instructions, and we all used the same materials, and yet each person produced a unique result. Life is like art - it is all about interpretation. Just back from a workshop led by Martha Huggins and Molly Hollibaugh of the Zentangle® family. (If you are unfamiliar with Zentangle, click on that link and prepare to enjoy their well-done website loaded with art eye candy.) I was very fortunate to attend with a good friend, and we got to spend the whole weekend doing art. Such luxury! I have many more photos to post but to start, here are examples of two tiles we did this morning. After both my own tiles, I'll post the mosaic from the group. Not familiar with this terminology? Not to worry, here's what I mean: "tile" = a small piece of paper that we draw on, and "mosaic" = the collection created when a class puts all their tiles together. The fun of the mosaic is that everyone has heard the same instructions, but look at the assembled collections of tiles below (mosaic) to see how individual each tile is. And yet they go together wonderfully. Here are my own two tiles, and the class mosaics follow.
 Most of the class's mosaic of the tiles done with Bales. Look for the subtle and the not-so-subtle differences... So much fun!  The mosaic of most of the tiles based on Printemps. Some people used Renaissance tiles for this one; most people used white. Isn't this an amazing mosaic? Not everyone had time to contribute a tile but I think this was the majority of the class. We all heard the same instructions; note all the differences and yet they all work when put together. A lovely ride with new friends this morning to a rug hooking event at a church about an hour away. Very well organized, and 165 people in attendance. I only photographed a few rugs, but aren't these wonderful?  A lovely classic design. I'm partial to dark backgrounds.  "Panda Family" was a punched rug, one of only two punched rugs I saw there today. I found myself attracted to the animal rugs. These two were tiny and very sweet.  Love the expression on this kitty. And as a bonus, you get to see parts of a couple of additional rugs below and to the right.  The talented Lynda Faye designed and hooked this pillow to commemorate a beloved dog belonging to her grandkids (I think she said)--he'd passed away and she immortalized him in this charming pillow.  Another animal rug, but this time including a human. The caption reads: "A woman's place is on her horse; you can ride as fast as he can run, never fall off...I dismount with style."  Amazing and subtle coloring in this Green Man rug.  Drama! Love everything about this.  On the left above is a rug I designed, dyed yarn for, and hand-punched in 2016. (This was only one of two punched rugs I noticed at this exhibit today) On the right is the finished version of Phyllis Lawrence's wonderful rug--she has named it "Contemplation."  Phyllis's Contemplation rug deserves its own photo (apologies about my shadow on the bottom of this picture!). Such lovely work. Good people, good food, good vendors. What's not to love? I even won a prize, and I never win stuff at these events. All in all a very satisfying day. We started out early in very cold weather and saw plenty of snow on the ground and gorgeous snow-laden trees. Driving home, all the snow was gone. Spring is on the way...if we can only hold out long enough!
When I went to my last local rug hooking meeting, I only expected to work on my rug and have fun. I had NO IDEA what would be waiting for all of us who attended. We were treated to an incredible show of rugs from Turkey, China, and Iran by one of the members, Elizabeth Vierling. Dr. Vierling is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, but she is also a rug maker and clearly has a passion for textiles. I took a million photographs...unfortunately my memory of her very informative commentary on the origins and purposes of each piece is fading fast, but here are some of the photos. Enjoy! I believe this first piece was from Turkey. It is very large and I think Elizabeth uses it as a rug in her home. It is embroidered, using a couching stitch I think (see detail in last photo). Probably circa mid 20th-century. The color work is just sensational. After ogling the piece (above) for a good long while, we all decided we are not using enough orange in our own designs. Apologies in advance to Elizabeth for how much I have already forgotten of what she said about each textile. Her commentary on where she located each one, where and how each was created, and what each may have been used for, was fascinating. But in the week since I saw these works, all of her commentary has started to slide right out of my head. Darn! If memory serves me--which likely it doesn't--below are two clothing panels embroidered by the Miao people of China (one of China's long-suppressed minority groups, now finally beginning to emerge and be recognized for their rich history and cultural treasures).  (We'll get to the embroidered pillow behind this piece later in the pictures)  Although the lighting is very different (my poor photography), I believe this is a detail of the dragon on the piece above. Amazing work.   And if that weren't enough, there was more, and more still...click on each thumbnail to progress through the items, or just hit "Play." One of the most dramatic textiles was the one below. I loved these tiny aliens. The work is so beautiful, and the colors vibrant. Each thumbnail has a different view (or you can just hit "Play"). Elizabeth travels for academic conferences, and is occasionally able to extend the travel time in order to take in more of the culture of the countries she is in. This is why she has been able to explore and research textiles on some of her trips.
Aren't we fortunate--those of us who were there to see this show? With thanks to Elizabeth for letting me photograph and post the photos, for her lively talk and especially for lugging all the heavy, bulky textiles to the meeting. All of her hard work resulted in a fabulous experience for the rest of us.  Rug hooking pattern (NOT FOR SALE) drawn freehand on linen backing. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to go to a hook-in in Vermont and met Dana Psoinas from New York, one of the most extraordinary rug hookers and artists today. I had already been mesmerized by her "Guardian" rug in a photograph, and suddenly, there was the real thing, right in front of me on the floor in Shelburne Vermont. And there was Dana herself. A more talented and nicer person you just cannot find. She specializes in rugs that tell stories, usually stories from fairy tales or myths. I was star-struck. We hit it off and have corresponded occasionally since then. Lucky me. I am still star-struck by her work, and so will you be. Read on! She recently showed me three drawings she has done--freehand, mind you!--on linen, to sell as patterns for other rug hookers. One of them is at the top of this post, and the rest are below, along with a sketch she hasn't yet drawn on foundation. More information about Dana and her process is at the end of this post.  Rug hooking pattern (NOT FOR SALE) drawn freehand on linen.  Sketch for a rug hooking pattern (NOT FOR SALE) which will eventually be drawn onto linen freehand.  Rug hooking pattern (NOT FOR SALE) drawn freehand on linen. She sold these through her Etsy site--but please be aware that these patterns are NOT FOR SALE now. They were/are one-of-a-kind. She is busy with her own rug making and does not stock or sell patterns all the time. There is a wonderful photo of her finished Guardian Rug on her Etsy site--please have a look to see just how phenomenal her rug hooking is. She works in 2-, 3-, and 4-cuts to achieve her extraordinary rugs.
Check her site from time to time in case she does post something to sell...who knows, you may get lucky! If you wonder about her creative process and want to know a bit more about her, you can check this recently-written blog post with more photographs of her rugs. Enjoy. With thanks to Dana for letting me post this! In reading one of the Zentangle® blogs, I just spotted the most amazing photographs on--of all things--manufacturing pencils. They are in an article written for New York Times.
These amazing art photos were taken at the General Pencil Company (We who tangle love their pencils. And according to the Zentangle blog, the owner of the company is now a Certified Zentangle Teacher, which delighted me). I cannot show the photos because of course they are copyrighted, but you won't believe how beautiful they are. Check them out HERE. (Thank you to the Zentangle folks for publicizing this.) On Sunday I went to my first-ever Quabbin Rug Group meeting. It was just great. No fewer than eleven people showed up--I was impressed. Here are some of the rugs I saw. I only wish I were better at catching people's names. I'm terrible with names. therefore, I was only able to attribute a couple of these in-progress pieces. Enjoy the eye candy!  I think this may have been by Judy Jewett (altho I certainly could be wrong)? It is from a pattern she purchased. Love the colors she is using. She was at the binding stage, so it should be done very soon.  Isn't this one just the most fun? I can see the face of the wonderful woman who's making it, but I cannot for the life of me remember her name. Darn. I already want this rug and she's not even finished with it yet.  This rug is by Linda Faye of Amherst and is her own design--it's a tribute to the Peace Pagoda. You can see that she's begun by hooking the many prayer flags flying in the wind there. The Peace Pagoda has a good website here. I'll be interested to see how this rug develops. Linda also had a wonderful dog rug with her, but I was unable to get a photo of that.  Not sure whose pattern this is but I heard the woman who is making this piece say that the original designer intended for it to be done in a fine-cut. However, she is more of a wide-cut person and is successfully doing it in a 6 or an 8 (probably an 8--I didn't hear that part). She was making the point to one of the other participants that it's possible to take a fine-cut design and do it in a wider cut. It can be done with many (not all) fine-cuts. The results will look very different, but as you can see here, it still looks great.  How stunning is this??? Wowza. I believe the woman who is making this is named Sue, but I'm not certain. I do remember her saying that this is her first-ever hooked piece. Oh. My. God. I don't know if she designed it herself or if it is a pattern. (Hanging my head in shame--my first piece from years ago never looked anything like this one...) I was drawn to looking at this over and over.  Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? I think this maker's name was Rebecca. She was a guest at the meeting, I believe. What really stands out for me about her--other than this truly wonderful folk-art rug which I believe is her own design--is that we were told she is "new to rug hooking." Whaaaa-aaaaat??? I love these cats! I heard her say that she's only been hooking for 18 months. BUT...this is the 12th piece she has hooked in that short time. So she's certainly not "new" in my book. This is just great.  A talented woman named Penny (argh...I don't remember her last name either--was it Redfern?) sitting directly across from me was working on this rug, channeling Vincent himself. Talk about an ambitious project. I wish I had an off-the-frame photo of this; it's just wonderful.  Last but by NO means least is this really beautiful and striking piece inspired by Japanese rock gardens. Can I remember this woman's name? No, of course not, but I love her work. This is her own design. I get that "ahhhhhhhh" feeling simply by looking at the sinuous lines of the carefully raked sand, which she's captured beautifully here. This is striking and I am loving the subtle colors. I was definitely enchanted by all the rugs I saw. We met at the Wool & Dye Works Rug Hooking Shop in Florence, which is a treasure in itself. I'll finish off with a DRAFT of a triquetra knot, which I tried for the first-time today. This says #3 because it's only my third try. I have a lot to learn about these, that's for sure.   Following Maria's instructions and working with the small Bijou tiles from the Zentangle® folks' Project Pack 02 resulted in this tile. Yes, it's a mash of half a black Bijou tile and half a tan Bijou tile, using the tangle Mollygon. I used a black Micron PN pen, graphite, an 08 White Gellyroll pen, and a White General's Chalk Pencil. Such fun to do!  My second tile. Same type of mashup as above, same materials used. The tangle here has been named by a few people over the years but I know it as Curtinz by Kate LaMontaigne..  Of course, it was immediately obvious that one could put the 2 tiles ( = 2 Fragments) together and turn them different ways to achieve different effects. This was one way. Now, of course, I had to make a couple of additional tiles--I wanted to make 4 and I had just enough supplies to do so. Here was tile #3.  Same materials used. This tangle is a seldom-used one called Sedgling. I wonder why it has been forgotten. I like it a lot and think I'll be using it more often. The last tile I did was based on the tangle Toodles. I tried experimenting with Toodles and did 2 versions of it, one a kind of "Pokeroot-based" version and the other a kind of "Pokeleaf-based" version, mixing them together.  And now to put all four fragments together. This is where turning the four fragments created different effects. I'll spare you all the variations and limit it to just two. Here's the first mosaic with the black halves in the center:  ...And then, just by turning the tiles, here's another effect with the light halves in the center. This is the power of working with fragments. Very fun indeed.  I'm enjoying the wonky look. I'll definitely want to do a few more of these.
 Yes, I did it. I bought a hand drill. No big deal, you say? Then you don't know me well. I'm a disaster with hand tools. If you live anywhere in the northeastern United States, it might be time to consider moving away. You don't want to be around when I turn this thing on. YouTube, here I come. I'm determined to learn how to use this. More material that fits neatly into the "no-fail, no-learn" category: The Zentangle® folks put out a Project Pack recently that included lots of new goodies to try. New white Gellyroll pens from Sakura. New black apprentice tiles, new black triangular tiles (called 3-Zs). Plus a new tangle and some experimental techniques. And some very fine videos. Along with everyone else, I've been experimenting. Here are a couple of initial results.
 PLAYING WITH THE NEW PENS ON A BLACK 3-Z TILE USING THE TANGLE PARADOX. More to come from that Project Pack. Last but not least today. I am pretty chuffed about this one. It has been eluding me for well over a week. I think I tried it a good 4 times and couldn't figure it out (and it looks soooooo simple!), but I kept looking at it and thinking about it. Today I decided to tackle it again--on crappy copy paper, but I was thinking there was a good possibility I'd fail again. But no. I succeeded! I really failed my way to success with this one.  Graphite, Micron 03, Rainbow Lead Pencil, patience. Now, of course, I wish I had used better paper. But succeeding came as a total surprise! Just to make sure I got it, I tried it again on a tiny scale a couple of hours later--and once again, failed. But I know I *am* getting it and will continue to practice until I feel I've got a good handle on this. If I was able to do it once, I know I can do it again. |
ABOUT ME I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), long-time meditator and coach, focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 
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NEXT INTRO TO ZENTANGLE CLASS:
My next Beginning Zentangle® class is not yet scheduled--stay tuned. I am always happy to teach 1-1 and/or in a small group in your home.) Come and amaze yourself! 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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