Diva Challenge #322, Made by Joey #171 and other stuff...

Diva Challenge #322
"Aquafleur"

I managed to pop into Laura's stream Sunday night while I was on a break at work and got the gist of this. Aquafleur is one of those patterns I don't use unless I'm challenged to. I have a hard time figuring out what to do with it. I have to say that I enjoyed drawing this and I love the dimensional quality of the wrapping ribbon effect. It could so with some further exploration.

Made by Joey Challenge #171

Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: "Z"

featuring: Zonked
additionally: Zazzy

And there it is... A-Z done! What a fun series. These are bijou tiles I originally intended to use as page headers in my pattern collection binder. I've since re-organized it by pattern type so for the time being, they're a neat page in my book.

It's a String Thing Challenge #200

"C-perfs" on a C-perf string 

Adele Bruno celebrates 200 weekly challenges this week. What an accomplishment! Adele's challenges are unique in my small group of weekly blog challenges. Rather than submitting via link,  she receives the weekly submissions via e-mail and then posts the weekly gallery on her blog, so there's always that element of anticipation and reward to see how others resolve the sometimes extremely challenging challenges. Working within the confines of a string doesn't appeal to everyone and there's what I call "fitting square pegs into round holes" when the selected patterns don't seem to want to play nicely with the string at first. There's much satisfaction in making it work

Each week Adele comes up with a string/pattern combo and then generously comments on each submission. That's a lot of work and dedication! I'm guest blogging on Joey's Challenge on July 10 and I twirled around several half-baked ideas to come up with one challenge. To do it every week? Yikes! so Kudos to you Adele! And Laura! And Joey! All of you rock!

These are the Travelling Tangles I completed in the last week.

my finish to...

...the first of 3 lovely starters

by Jem Miller travelling all the way from West Sussex in the UK

my finish...

...to the 2nd of Jem's lovely starters

my finish...

...to the last of  Jem's 3 amazing beginnings

It's hard to believe I've been involved with this amazing group for a year now and it never ceases to inspire me. Between personal swaps, the random partnering for the monthly themed swaps and Jem's generosity for sending me multiple tiles with each exchange, I have completed more tiles from her than anyone. Every one of them pushes me out of my comfort zone. We have completely different styles and her line work is so precise and fluid and her backgrounds are amazing. Jem has a great blog called The Ragged Ray. Check it out if you haven't already

my finish...

...to this flowery beginning by Lin Laidler

I love it when folks send me official tiles to work on. I don't have the bandwidth or budget to get my mitts on these tiles so it's always such a treat to put my pen to them.  I always complete my travellers in the order I receive them so it was serendipitous to relax with Lin's tile in the end.

My "92 Days" project of daily drawing prompts from the Facebook group, Tangled and Journaled, Too!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!

me: hey I'm working here

aimee: I think not

Diva Challenge #321, Made by Joey Challenge #170 and other artsy stuff..

Diva Challenge # 321

Non-dominant hand & Auras

My initial reaction to these left hand challenges is always "oh crap!", but usually, fairly quickly, followed by a sigh of relief. Letting go of perceived perfection with slow, steady focus on each stroke is extremely calming. The additional emphasis on aura'd patterns was actually a natural progression from previous challenges. During the last couple of Sunday streams, Laura was drawing Opus in one and Dansk in another, mentioning the keys to successful aura-ing. Even spacing, focus and my Aha! moment: Go Slow! So, of course, I started those subsequent challenges in that vein and then veered off course from time to time.

This challenge was just the thing to rein me back into the zen. For me, this was merely an exercise. I decided to go to my pattern collection and pulled out several of my favorite aura patterns and a couple of less familiar ones. I used Margaret Bremner's "Flying Birds" string and mapped out what I'd put where. I started with my mac 'n cheese "Crescent Moon". The last thing I did was "Verve". Those longer lines were the most difficult part and wonkiest...and...I love this tile! It looked a bit like a tree so I decided to stop and leave those wedges empty. The shading helped a lot.  Great challenge!

Tile Mapping (I just made this up-I think)
trying something new

Made by Joey #170

Finish my Tile Alphabet Series: "Y"

featuring: Yuma

additionally: Yah

The next to last Alphabet challenge by Joey. I have to say my set is quite spectacular. I'll post the whole she-bang next week. These were supposed to be headers for my pattern collection pages, but a few weeks ago I decided to re-organize it by pattern type:

Re-organization...for now

Travelling Tangles I finished last week:

My finish...

...to this sweet start by June Dal

travelling from Hawaii

My finish...

...to another of June's beginnings

My "92 Days" Project-daily drawing prompts from the Facebook group Tangled and Journaled, too!
Week 3:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Kitty-pic of the week

Diva Challenge #320, Joey Challenge #196 and My Prompt Journal

Diva Challenge #320

Use My Tangle: Dansk by Margaret Bremner

additionally: Isla, Wud and Tipple

I was only able to watch a little of Laura's stream on Sunday night because I had to work. I was delighted to see Dansk. It's been on my to do list as it's similar to one of my favorite fills, Sandswirl. I love aura'd patterns but I've always been a little unsatisfied with them because I realized (after seeing  and listening to Laura work through some aura'd patterns) I've been working too fast. The key to great auras is to go slow and concentrate on even spacing between each aura. I wasn't always successful here but I'm getting better;-)

I made a bunch of wine stained tiles awhile ago using a the dregs of a bottle of corked red wine. The color dried really weirdly. It started off grey and over time it's turned brown.

" 92 Days"

Daily Drawing Prompts

for the Facebook group Tangled and Journaled, Too!

My floral day was inspired by Michele Beauchamp's stripey flowers and I tried out Dansk here first. I had some bleed through from Orange day and I was not very happy with "Chence" day. The resolve of the strings is a bit clumsy. I need to watch Helen Williams video again.

Made by Joey Challenge #196

Finish my tile Alphabet Series: X

featuring X's and Orbs

additionally: Xenso

I created this series on Bijou tiles to use as headers in my pattern library binder. Last week, I decided to reorganize my patterns by type;-P

Here are more of my journal prompts for the week:

This is my favorite!

If I fits, I sits!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Diva Challenge #319, Made by Joey #168 and other stuff...

Diva Challenge #319: BEad INSPIRED!

beaded blooming butter

I was so inspired by this weeks challenge and Laura's post. She had a super busy week/weekend so the post was a day later than usual. It was worth the wait;-) 

I really love the stories and adventures she shares every week. This one was of particular interest as she'd gone on a field trip with her son's class to a National Heritage Park near Saskatoon. I'm half Cree on my father's side and though we moved to San Francisco when I was little, I'm still Canadian (born in Vancouver BC). When I was a kid, my aunts (who I never met) lived in James Bay, Ontario, in a place called Moose Factory. They would send us handmade gifts. Much beading on butter-soft suede was involved and my memory of those gifts and Beads of Courage inspired my tile this week. Thank you Laura!!

This weeks challenge is one of Laura's annuals, inspired by her creation and involvement in Saskatoon's annual 5K Color Run which raises money for Beads of Courage, an Arts in Medicine program for children that have chronic or life threatening illnesses. I think this is my third year participating in this challenge.

Made by Joey #168

Finish My Tile Alphabet Series: "W"

featuring: "W2"

additionally: "Waves"

As the alphabet series winds to a close, we all must be wondering "What's Joey cookin' up next?" I know what's cookin' on July 10th;-) Stay tuned...

It's a String Thing Challenge #197

featuring: Tint, Bales and Antidots

These are a couple Travelling Tangles I finished last week, unfortunately my starting pics were deleted in a mad phone feng shui purge.

May Monotangle Swap

started by Kat van Rooyen

with the dark orbed Molygon near bottom left

May Monotangle or Mooka swap

started by Josephine Wu

with the narrower radiating Betweed cones

and Mooka on the bijou

"A Little Summer Project"

Facebook Group Tangled and Journaled, too!

Day 1: One Little Word

Aimee inspired

Every day, for 92 days we are given a drawing prompt, to be collected in any journal of one's choosing. At Christmas time, I made several of these little pocket journals:

For this series I started a few pages with traced bijou and ATC templates. Just as I was setting up my journal for the first week and pondering my little word, Aimee jumped in the window from a wet deck and traipsed across my page;-P

My end game is to have a few pocket journals filled with inspiration that I may later slip into my bag for spontaneous, internet-less, out-and-about drawing sessions;-)
Here's what I did this week:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!