Zen Mandalas 101**

Tangling meets symmetry/asymmetry!  Come learn fun ways to create Mandala ‘strings’ and ways to tangle in the round.  The Zen Mandala 101 class focuses on using symmetrical mandala templates and asymmetrical strings, plus a few new tangles!
**Previous experience with Zentangle strongly encouraged.

Pin found with examples of Kuba Cloth patterns. See the top right..

I was especially intrigued with the patterning on the top right, and started working on deconstructing the pattern into simple steps. I love patterns that are tesselations, and can be turned upside down and still have the same effect. This pattern is pretty easy to draw if you start drawing from the bottom up, first with a row of zig zags. From this foundational row, you simply draw “V”s in the ‘valleys’, then little boxes at the inside ends of the V’s. Then pay attention at the next step, and only connect the boxes “over the mountains”, then rinse and repeat steps 2-4. You could also add a new zigzag row by repeating steps 1-4.

‘Kooba’ tangle – stepouts by Sadelle Wiltshire, CZT

Lots of ways to play with this pattern, fill alternate rows, dark, then white; fill sections with other patterns. The other day I was showing a CZT friend in Georgia the pattern and after taking the time to explain connecting the boxes over the ‘mountains’, I made an ‘oopsie’ and connected the next round ‘over the valley’s'! Remember that an ‘oops’ is usually an opportunity to make something NEW! Here’s a version that connects every other round over the mountains, then valleys.. and you get these neat diamonds….

Kooba tangleation by connecting alternate rounds ‘over the valleys’

So have fun with this tangle… I’d love to see what you do with it.. bend it, shape it, break it…

Saturday, May 4:

For more information and please contact Ann Coakley, CZT, MSW.  To register, use the PayPal link at right or contact Ann.

Sunday, May 12  - Mother’s Day Special Workshops:
Intro to Zentangle  12:30-2pm
Gardening with Pen: A Tangled Garden*,  2pm to 4:30pm

Treat yourself, Mom, your kids, Dad, or a friend with a fun Zentangle art class for Mother’s Day!
At the Putney Cares Barn, 54 Kimball Hill Road, Putney, VT.
Treat yourself or mom to an afternoon learning flowy and organic tangles to build a beautiful tangled garden art piece.  A wonderful way to break beyond the tile into Zentangle Inspired Art.   Relax, release expectations and grow your garden art!
$35 for a single workshop includes materials.
*Best for folks with previous Zentangle experience. Pre-registration required.
Need an Intro class? Come for the first class and get both workshop for $60!

Sat. May 18: Zentangle 201: Beyond Basics**, at Gallery at the VAULT,  Springfield, VT, 9:30am – 12pm

Come learn some of the ‘magical’ tangle patterns,  as well as those that require more focus.  Play with strings as well as shading and other tangle enhancements.
Please pre-register directly with Gallery at the VAULT at the link above,

$5 additional materials fee collected in class directly by the instructors.
** Prior Zentangle class with a CZT expected unless pre-arranged with the instructors.

I created a very simple black tile earlier in the week using the squares as string,  but added sparkle by using a combination of metallic gel pens, moonlight gel pens, stardust pens and white pencil for highlights.   This was one of those ‘quickie’ jobs,  but I LOVE LOVE LOVE  metallic on black!

Metallic and Color on Black

Later in the week, when I could give myself more time,  I let the ‘square’ idea settle in my subconscious, and out came this crazy cacophony of squares,  interlocked frames, peppered with the tangles Verdigogh, Fengle and Mooka,  among others.    Here I’m using one of the silk sari covered imported journals I offer to students,  this particular journal’s pages are all a saffron yellow color.   Looking at the finished tangles,  I felt that pencil shading this would be too dull,  and opted for more color.  I took out my distress markers and Tombow markers,  plus the Stardust pen again.   I think I’m hooked at throwing some extra sparkly bits in now!

‘Dancing with Frames’ ZIA

Thinking about offering a Tangled Garden and Tangling in Color class in May and June… contact us for more info, as we haven’t set our dates yet.

If you haven’t yet connected Fibonacci with Zentangle before, you must take a look at some of the wonderful patterns in nature –  there are countless forms that contain the Fibonacci sequence of numbers.   Debora shared with us that day a series of Zentangle tiles she created,  and so amazing were they that I begged her to write a small guest blog post, and share them…

Debora writes:

My name is Debora Rohly.  I am a mainframe assembler programmer of 25 years.  I was born in Hawaii but I’ve lived in Columbus/Cataula Ga for over 35 years (my father was in the army).  I found Zentangle by accident when looking at a web site for a sample of something a friend was doing for a Cricut swap.  It really caught my eye so I followed link after link and before it was over had ordered two how to books.  I also began scouring the internet for patterns.  That was in March 2010.  By October I had a beginner kit (and more books) and was driving to the CZT#4 training.

Always on the lookout for ideas for tiles, it popped into my head that the Fibonacci sequence was pretty cool and decided to do a few tiles using the sequence to determine the number of patterns I put on a tile.  I started with one pattern – Paradox [F01], which is a favorite pattern and one I learned to do well.

F01

Then I did two patterns [F02], then three [F03], then five [F05]!

F02

F03

F05

After I did eight patterns [F08] on my tile I thought hmm… I wonder how far I could go on one tile.  So, I did thirteen patterns [F13] (this one might take some looking to see the 13^th pattern).

F08

F13

Then I did twenty-one patterns [F21]!  Could I do thirty-four on one tile?  One of my “habits” used to be (okay, and sometimes still is) to pack as much as I can into the space I had, so I decided to give it a try.  The string to use was a challenge.  I finally decided to go with a spiral.  It worked!  I got 34 patterns on one tile [F34]!

F21

F34

Fifty-five was the next number.  I thought about (for maybe a second) if I wanted to do that one.  Of course I did! Why stop now?  For this one I switched to the 005 pen and dived in.  It was tough keeping count and not repeating any pattern, but I did it!! [F55]

F55

I haven’t tried 89 patterns but as I was writing this I decided to go back and do another single pattern tile [F01b].  If only because I know that Fibonacci is as easy as 1, 1, 2, 3…

F01b

Debora Rohly, CZT,  Cataula, GA

It’s one thing to see that 55 tangle tile online, and another to see it in person… an incrediblely delicate and precise job of tangling.   Thank you, Debora for allowing me to pester you to share your talented work!

And for those of you jonesing to read more about Fibonacci and Zentangle, besides the Zentangle blog article linked above, check out these articles also:

Fibonacci blog post by Margaret Bremner
Zentangle Weekly Challenge # 43 : Sunflowers and Fibonacci series
Tangle Tuesday Fibonacci by Joyce Block

sample Zentangle tile

Zentangle is an easy to learn and fun way to create beautiful, magical abstract drawings with pen, pencil and paper that jump off the page. Small, portable and fun for all ages, it’s a great re-introduction to art and creativity while at the same time a new way to get to a state of relaxed focus. Call it art, meditation, a mindfulness tool, but come join us THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 30th 2013 at Gallery at the Vault, in Springfield, VT and rock your visual world!

Please pre-register directly with Gallery at the VAULT …   limited seating left – call them today at  802-885-7111

Ann’s tile

This is my (Ann’s) results for meeting the Diva’s Challenge this week. I did not even attempt parallel straight lines, as I love playing with curves. With so many possibilities, I know I will be playing with this more. My extra challenge was using W2 here and pushing the perception of depth.

Sadelle’s first take on the Diva Challenge # 109

I love Sadelle’s tile where she uses Geneviève Crabe’s tangle Vache and it’s variations. It looks like I could just run my fingers across the parallel lines and feel the bumps. Engaging with this week’s challenge is a great opportunity to show the playfulness and magic of shading. The shading techniques used in both of these tiles transform and inform these images. Part of the fun for me is to discover how a bit of shading shifts one’s perception.

Addition from Sadelle:  ”I love the play with 3D effect using this technique (not sure it actually has a name?)…    Anyway, I couldn’t leave it alone and used it in one of my ZIA journals today.  I kept thinking how the columns would be fun in a Fan shape..   this is what I ended up with..”

Fan ZIA (Sadelle)

Note: Apologies about the fuzziness in parts of the photos.. one of the downsides of this camera phone is that I find it hard to get clear photo across the entire width of a tile. (sw)

Back home, I was inspired to play with this pattern and created a simple step out for it. Using a rounded point zig-zag to start, and creating spirals to the right side of the peaks on one side, then flip over and draw spirals off the peaks on the opposite side. And then play with it… Stack more zig-zags and repeat for a simple fill, or add auras around the outsides of each row, or play with fills. Lots of opportunities for shading too. Of course, I had to use my grey girl’s name in some form when choosing the name
so I present to you: “Ah – Nyx”

This mandala is what resulted, with a few twists.   Maybe I was in a positive mood, but if felt like more of a Zendala “DO” for me..

I usually don’t use much large black or filled in spaces…  this time I DID.
I usually don’t even do the Zendala Dare challenges…  this time I DID.
I usually don’t mix the Zendala Dare with the Diva Challenges… this time I DID.
I usually don’t use the tangle ‘Fengle’ (the outer bits that look like pinwheels) in a Mandala… this time I DID.
I don’t often use the tangle ‘Mirasu’ (the middle spiral)… this time I DID.

Anyway,  you get the point.   Whether a Don’t or a Do…  it is fun to challenge yourself to work differently, no matter what your art.   Thanks for the prod, Erin!    And tanglers, if you haven’t tried one of her wonderful Mandala templates… check them out!

I have also gotten myself knee-deep into Pinterest,  something I swore I would never touch, but needed to check out because a couple of my web clients were using it.   I have since found Pinterest very useful to me for two specific things: 1/a visual bookmark place for art tutorials and recipes,   and 2/ finding inspiration for future art work and tangling.

The Inspiration…  currently the cover of my Inspirations & Patterns Board on Pinterest

Like most of us who have fallen deep into Zentangle practice,  it’s easy to become a pattern junkie.   I love that I can pin patterns I find appealing for possible inspiration.  And while I’m not always in the mood to do pattern deconstruction,  it’s nice to know they’re there for later.   And so it was when I found this pattern,  not long after learning the Diva Dance tangles.  It had some similiar qualities to the line auras and occasional random blips of dark,  but different too… I had to try it!

What you’re looking at is a pinned image, from The Embo Journal, “a close-up view of the calcareous radiating septa of the mushroom coral Fungia fungites”.   I loved the texture and movement in this photo as well as organic forms as pattern inspiration, and so last night I challenged myself to do some tangling with these forms, and play.

“Si’weed” a tangle or tangleation?

I took out my current (silk saree covered) tangling journal and just played with the lines.   At first, I tried to recreate the pattern as a variation (“tangleation”) of the Diva Dance tangles.   Then I tried to look more closely at the pattern construction and created a blade like line with a seed/bulb shape at the end, followed by a blank blade  or stem like shape that is an aura of the first line.   And then I just let it become independent, dangly bits that flow and flop over and under each other and outside my string.   Too much fun!   I decided to call it “Si’weed”…  kinda reminds me of seeds and seaweed!

There are lots of shading opportunities too…  these are just a few I’ve tried:  You can  shade in between the blade lines,  leave the seed shapes blank and shade parts of those.  It’s also fun to create the pattern as one continuous line (see below).  I can see that there are alot of ways to play with this pattern further, and perhaps I’ll do another piece that intertwines this pattern with the Diva Dance ones next.

“Si’weed” step outs and variations click for a larger view

It’s funny, after tangling for a while it’s easy to start blending one tangle pattern with another and morphing the shape and flow so it’s hard to know where one leaves off and another begins.    I don’t know whether to call this a true ‘tangle’ or just a ‘tangleation’, but whatever it is,  I sure liked playing with it alot…   would love to see what you do with it too!   If you use this, post a link in the comments section below, or post it on our Facebook Page.

Happy Tangling and tangle deconstructing!