Zentangle Challenge #124 - Calgary in my heart

This week's Zentangle Challenge from Laura at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca is very open to interpretation. The news about the flooding in Alberta, particularly Calgary and immediate area is really overwhelming. I was born in Calgary and lived there until I was 13, and have been back to visit a number of times over the years. The two districts I had lived in were both evacuated - Sunnyside and Roxborough - both located near either the Bow or Elbow river. We also spent a lot of time with close friends in Bowness... My father and grandparents are buried in Calgary. I don't keep in touch with anyone in Calgary any more, but my best childhood friend from Sunnyside now lives in Bragg Creek - also evacuated. And my husband's cousin was evacuated from Canmore. The devastation is beyond what I can imagine. So it was hard for me to even start a tile or ZIA that showed what this meant to me. I had traced out the outline for a Zendala (Dare #16) that I had never done and decided I'd work on that while I thought about it. One thing I wanted to try was to use MI2, Huggins, Summer Sitter, and 8's flowing into each other and this template was perfect. Once I got going and while I was working on it, I thought of my time in Calgary and remembered things I hadn't thought of in many many years. When this ZIA was done I could see, perhaps, that each of the four sections might represent those areas I'm most connected to: Sunnyside, Roxborough, Bowness and Bragg Creek, and the Charz could be the mountains and foothills. EEZ could represent the circle of life, and/or the people affected and helping. It's a stretch, I know, but there was a sort of blank spot that was just the perfect place to write in "Calgary" and add a couple of hearts. It is all about the Zen!

Zendala Dare #62

This is my contribution for the Zendala Dare of the week from Erin at www.thebrightowl.blogspot.com. Another good template, thanks Erin! I had fun with this one and it turned out way different than I had envisioned it - mainly because I had trouble with the bottoms of Tracery getting all muddled - hence so much black and the use of white gel pen, but I like it better this way. This sort of reminds me of a passion fruit flower. Thanks for viewing, and have a good week.

Zentangle Challenge #123 - Is it a Zentangle?

This is my response for this week's guest challenge at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com. Hummmpfff.... I like "pretty", and that's not what this is. This was a real challenge for me because I haven't set out to create new tangles - I'm much more comfortable with working with what already exists. However, as you all know, once you start working with patterns or tangles, you see them everywhere and it's hard not to try to deconstruct a pattern. Thanks to CZT Maria Vennekens (and Laura), for again nudging me out of my comfort zone and encouraging me to stretch. These are all individual patterns that I've named, though I'm not at all sure they qualify as tangles or if they already exist somewhere. The stacked squares is something I've "doodled" as long as I can remember; the rest are based on patterns I've seen in various textiles. I called the flowery squares (from a wild Caribbean skirt) 'Matis because they remind me of my double clematis, and Jester was from a fabulous coat pattern I saw on the subway one day - very dynamic. Stickles is a tiny band pattern on one of my husbands shirts. Shielded is part of a pattern I saw on a chair in a store window. (I have worked out step-outs for all of these except Stax.)

Zendala Dare #61

Another wonderful Zendala template from Erin at www.thebrightowl.blogspot.ca. I really enjoyed this one, and the tangles just seemed to flow. I started with Archer, then added Snugz. At that point it looked like a starfish, so then I put in Waves. A couple more touches and some shading... and here it is. I'm quite happy with this one.

Zentangle Challenge #122 - Grid (Un) Locked

I went through a lot of conflict with this week's Zentangle Challenge from Laura at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca. And I'm still not so sure I "get" it. The challenge was based on the newsletter from Rick and Maria where they used grid "seeds" to create grid patterns. Maybe it's the way I think, but I thought that's in essence what we were doing all along? The other conflict I've been mulling over is: when does a tangelation become a new tangle? Sigh.... maybe you can answer, or maybe I'll find out more when I go to the CZT seminars in the fall... What I did in the end was just let the pen go to paper and see where it went (which often works out in surprising ways). I started by using a scrap of watercolor paper that I've been saving for bookmarks. I used I1 from the grid Rick and Maria posted and when I had drawn the main stream, didn't like it at all! I had also tried their neat "trick" of doing a line of grids on the outer edge 1/2 width to emphasize curves... so I started to fill in alternate lines, shaded it, and wow, what a change! Then I added a stream of Hi-C's (because I love what this tangle does when it's flipped). The bookmark was too empty, so I added another stream of the original I1 pattern, but alternated thicker and thinner lines in each grid and filled in the triangles (diamonds) instead. Totally different look. I loved this exercise which really showed me how grid patterns can change with fills, direction etc. I'm quite happy with it. My second tile was done with a lot less worry and planning - I divided it up into 4 sections and chose 4 tangles. Crescent Moon and Ving look really neat when they are flipped from grid to grid. I've loved Moving Day since I first saw it and though I tried on scrap to flip it around, it wasn't nearly so effective, so I just did it as it's "supposed" to be. Verve wasn't quite the effect I expected either, but... So, here they are, and now I can go look at what others have done, and maybe I'll find I wasn't the only one having a bit of difficulty with this one. (But in the end, when I push myself, I always learn and am astounded by the results, so thank you Laura! and Rick and Maria!)

Zentangle Challenge #121 UMT - Birds on a Wire

Man, where does time go? Full of good intentions to get caught up with new tangles, Dares and Challenges, I only managed to update my tangle workbook and get one quick Challenge done (using all new to me tangles). My apologies that I haven't been able to view others works and make comments this week; next week should be less hectic :)