This week's challenge #10

I am so happy that Laura from Iamthediva creates these weekly challenges. It gets me thinking outside of my box. This week is "The space between." It took me a bit to learn to say no. No more tangling. Enough. Keep it simple. So the first attempt was to just use a simple pattern to ooze across the tile, leaving big gaps. I wasn't really thrilled. Okay. Leave it alone.

The next day I had to go to our school's annual budget meeting. It was a long night and I'm happy that I had my tiles and pens with me. My "annual meeting tile" was created trying not to overdo my tangles. There's not a lot of white space in there but there's a lot more than I would've left if the challenge wasn't in my head.

This is also the coming out party to my own tangle pattern: sundoo.

Today after work I created my final (I think) challenge #10 tile. Simple. Ta da.

Past designs

These are some of my late attempts to the Diva's challenges and other assorted tangles. Just having fun. I'm also trying to see if it's better to scan or take pictures of the tiles. So far I'm thinking scanning (it's also so much easier!) but individually scanned is much clearer.

This is one of my favorites so far. I love making the square within a square and filling them in with tangles, and I like the look.

In the beginning....

I was interviewed last month by the Kearsarge Mountain magazineabout my winning entry in Wingdoodle's holiday coloring contest last December. Laura Jean (editor) asked me questions that got me thinking. How did it all start? What was it that tickled my fancy?

Last summer I took a class at Fletcher Farm School in Ludlow, VT in Penwork Boxes. This is an old craft (1800's) to create a look of ebony inlays in ivory, but using pen & ink. I enjoyed the class and was very happy with the box I made.

Somewhere along the line I ran across Zentangles and saw a very nice connection to what I was just working on. It was very similar, but more individualized in the designs. A lot of thoughts and ideas flooded my mind and I was creating tangles from what I was reading online. Oh what fun! I then found some books - even more fun! (See Jane have fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!) I was tangling at home, in waiting rooms, in my kayak, anywhere! I was hooked. I shared Zentangles with my friends. The joy spreads. Now I am teaching a class next weekend at Fletcher Farm and in May I'm going to go to the CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) workshop. It's all so very exciting. I'm also finding that the people involved in Zentangles are some of the nicest people on earth. What a wonderful group of artists.

Response to Challenge #9

Here is my Artoo (Challenge #9 from I am the diva) for the little guy. I hope he continues to get better. Such a cute little one. Thanks for the challenges, they are wonderful. Fun, fun, fun!

My entry for Challenge #8

Here is my challenge entry for I am the Diva's Challenge #8. My heart goes out to little Artoo; I hope he heals quickly and well. I used the Two Pencil String & Orbs. Hope you like it.

A new chapter in the Life of Jane

Yet another snow day and I finally have time to do some creating and start a blog so I can share my creations. Phew! It might take me time to figure all of this out, but here I go.

I wanted to join in on the Zentangle challenges and really felt that I should get a blog going. Today I created the "Breathe" challenge. I had nice music from Pandora going (zen garden radio), had to get my handy dandy magnifier ready since my eyes tend to get angry if I don't, got out a new tile, and began. Breathe. It was easy to concentrate on my breathing since the magnifier moved with my breath. I started with a string of a nose and moved the air in and out of it. The breath in circles the heart then down to the belly. In and out. In and out. I got so relaxed that I was beginning to fall asleep by the end of it. Perhaps I get too relaxed.