String Challenge #168 and Travelling Tangles on the Other Hand

String Challenge #168

String: overlapping Candy Corn

Patterns: Fang, Florz and Tira

It's a String Thing#168 presented us with a Halloween theme.  I felt quite challenged by this one as I wanted to detour from spiders and webs.  I couldn't make these patterns play well together. I had the same problem last week and let that one go because I was in a time crunch and in vacation mode. I didn't want to drop the ball again. I'm glad I pushed through.  These string challenges, more often than not, push me out of my comfort zone more than any other challenge and more often than not, result in greater reward. I really enjoyed playing with Tira, a new-to-me pattern by Ragged Ray. It seems to want to be a random pattern, but once I tamed it into a ribbon, the whole thing came together. Yaayy!

I love rain days! I decided to try to get caught up on some Travelling Tangles. Each month we're given a choice of two themes for our group swap. This month it was to either send out tiles with starter art using our non-dominant hand or Breast Cancer Awareness Pink. 

I really liked the idea of the non-dominant hand. The purpose was to diminish being intimidated by perceived perfection. After several frustrating attempts at warming-up in my sketchbook, I gave up. I could barely hold the pen and felt like I was causing serious damage to my pen tips. There was no Zen happening.

In the meantime, the Diva challenge which required us to use Daniel Lamothe's pattern Dreamcatcher, had me completely absorbed so I got out the pink tissue, colored a sheet of watercolor paper, made a bunch of tiles and went all Dreamcatcher on them.  I do have to say they came out brilliantly. I'll share some of the results of those next week.

As non-dominant hand tiles began arriving in the mail, I used my vacation as an excuse to ignore them for a bit. Yesterday, I decided to bust-a-move.

My finish...

...to Anja Schaffeld's amazing start, travelling all the way from Germany. 

I was and still am seriously impressed with her precision. Once I drew the first circle of "Cuke", I realized it was so much easier working on the tiles as opposed to my sketchbook because I could easily rotate the tile and as long as I kept my patterns small, I could practically hold my hand still and move the tile.

My finish...

...to Anita Westin's start, travelling from Sweden.

my finish...

 

to Sabrina Kirjavainen's start, travelling from Finland

As soon as I ventured into larger patterns, that's when I got in trouble. Anyhoo, this was a great challenge. I went really, really slow and focused, focused, focused and you know what? It was totally Zen;-)

oh... and here's another pic from the wedding weekend:

Me, my nephew (the groom) and my sis

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Diva Challenge #290 and Made by Joey #136

a travelling two-fer

Diva Challenge #290: a Duo-tangle using Flux and 'Nzeppel

&

Made by Joey #136: Finish my Tangle Series-Fracas

On Monday morning, reading the challenges, I was in a hotel lobby with my sketchbook  waiting for my sister to get up. We were wrapping up a wonderful week of wedding events in Seattle, celebrating the marriage of my nephew.
I wasn't able to complete any travelling tangles this week and didn't get much drawing done at all. With my few essential tools and a 4 hour flight delay, I got down to business. I worked back and forth between the two.
This was the wedding present:

Me and my handsome nephew J.R. on the big day.

The adorable couple:

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Diva Challenge #289 and Made by Joey#135

Diva Challenge #289

Leafy Goodness

This is gonna be a quicky. I 'm travelling for a family wedding and there's not much time to draw.

I started this before I left. The tile was colored a while back. I painted watercolor on a dried leaf and pressed it onto the tile.

Made by Joey Challenge #135

Overlapping circles String

Patterns: Drogon, Dicso and Msst

I managed to squeak in a little tangling time this morning while the fam sleeps in after a wild night of post -reception karaoke.

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String Challenge #166 and some Travelling Tangles

String Challenge #166

Pumpkin string 

patterns: Iza, Knightsbridge, 'Nzeppel and Antidots

Adele prefaced this weeks challenge by calling this a ZIA because the string was representational. Left to my own devices, I prefer the abstract and I maybe I'm a bit of a curmudgeon, but I really don't care for holiday inspired art. I enjoy it when others do it but it's just not how I roll. 

Oddly enough, this was the first tile I completed this week, even before the Diva and Joey tiles. I wanted to see how well I could mask the Halloween theme;-P

I had so much fun with the Travelling Tangles this week. This first group is a collaboration with recently minted CZT Annette Plaga-Lodde, the mastermind behind the blog CreA(R)Tives. I can't remember who reached out to who first, but this collaboration happened outside the Travelling Tangles Project. 

Annette's style and artistry takes Zentangle abstraction to a whole new and wonderful level. I'm always fascinated by her work. She also hosts a Mosaic Project on her blog that is super cool. If you're not familiar with it you need to check this out because it'll blow your mind. I haven't participated yet, but hope to someday soon.

It's raining cats and dogs this morning and I'm feeling very fortunate to have the day off and the opportunity to catch up on a few Travellers and enjoy my coffee.

My finish...

...to Annette's start

That gap in Kollide was really a stumper. I can't tell you how long I stared at this to figure out how to begin. I had no intention of including gems either, yet there they are;-P

Here's what I sent to Annette

Annette's amazing finish. Isn't this cool1?!

...and the other. This makes me so happy

This set of ATC's were sent out to a handful of swappers

Susanna Redaelli of Milan, Italy finished off her two delightfully;-)

Pat Mathes in Colorado finished this one...

...and this one.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I would love to hear your comments and questions. I'm always curious how you all find these posts that aren't linked to the Diva or Joey challenge.

Happy Tangling!

Diva Challenge #288, Made by Joey #134 and Travelling Tangles

Diva Challenge #288: "Gourdgeous"

Gourdgeous is an original pattern from Zentangle HQ that came out last year. I attempted it once back then. I have to admit that this is not a fave, but I'm giving it the old college try.  My sketchbook is loaded with clumsy attempts at this, but I  think it actually paid off;-)

Made by Joey Challenge #134

Torn Paper

Joey prompted this weeks challenge with a torn paper "string".  I found an ATC that I'd created using torn pieces of colored art tissue and adapted the string to fit the colored segments.

Here are the Travelling Tangles I finished this week:

This is my finish to one of the tiles sent to me by Anita Westin...

...travelling from Sweden.

I think "Tripoli" and I are finally becoming friends;-)

Anita challenged me with a black tile as well

Anita's start

The black tiles still prove to be problematic but I'm working toward a deeper bond. It's the white pen  that's really the problem, they either go all skippy or the coverage is too thin. I'd found a solution, the Signo Uniball broad tip, but then the store was out of stock last time I went in for them. Anyhoo, this turned out pretty well.

My finish to a super fun start by Beth Bentz

Beth sent me this jewel studded gem from Saskatchewan

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Diva Challenge #287, Made by Joey #133 & a Few Travelling Tangles

Diva Challenge #287: Use My Tangle
"Dreamcatcher" by Daniel Lamothe

The first Monday of the month is a UMT challenge where the Diva selects a focus pattern submitted by one of her faithful followers. I fell in love with "Dreamcatcher" right from the get-go. It can be elegantly simple or amazingly complex...dealers choice;-) I decided on a tan tile for this one, starting with the simple web, rounded at the corners. I could have just added a little shading and stopped there, but I felt compelled to add a few gems and, well...this is just how I roll;-)

I like the simpler version I did later even better;-)

I dug out my smaller pocket sketchbook I started last year for Inktober. I'm trying to keep up this year now that I have a better cell phone and camera. 31 drawings in 31 days!

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Made by Joey Challenge #133: Finish My Tile Series

Joey's start: "Relly-Telly-One"

Joey's challenge this week, introduced a new-to-me pattern. It's a Cadent based pattern with a little Crazy Huggins (my new fave).  Joey started hers in the bottom right corner of her tile and I adapted it to my ATC and tweaked the angle a little. I used an ATC with tissue paper color transfer.

Here are some Travelling Tangles I sent out into the world (my finishes from last week were posted here), beautifully finished in far away lands...

I sent this to Lin Laidler in Massachusetts

...and she finished it beautifully.

I sent this to Marguerite Samama in the Netherlands

This was colored with re-used colored tissue. The colors become more muted and they blend together the second and even third time. I get a lot of mileage from that pack of tissue;-)

I absolutely loved how she finished this.

This was a bonus ATC I sent to Marguerite using the tissue paper transfer coloring technique

Here's her gorgeous embellishment

I sent this ATC to Christin Wagner in Pennsylvania

...and here's her fantastic finish!

I sent this tile to Christin as well...

She did this super-cool transparent layering effect.

and finally this tile was completed by the lovely Margaret Bremner

If you're not familiar with The Travelling Tangles Project check out the Facebook page and join the fun. It's incredibly fun, a bit addictive and most of all one, of the best ways to improve your art.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

String Challenge#164 and Some Travelling Tangles

String Challenge #164: "W2" Monotangle

with a little B'tweed & Mooka

A pleasurable turn around after last weeks stumper...which, after all of my frustration and perseverence, I forgot to send in:-P
This is a, thankfully, loose monotangle (the use of only one pattern and it's variations) with some freedom to embellish within the pattern. I love W2 and its woven cousins.

And what post would be complete without my recent round of Travelling Tangles:

This was my finish to...

...this lovely ATC started by Pat Mathes in Colorado

My finish to another fun ATC...

...started by Pat as well;-)

My finish to...

...this fun tile started by Christin Wagner in Pennsylvania

This was my finish to...

...this luscious start from Beth Bentz in Saskatchewan

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.