Mooka, Mooka, Mooka

Well, it's mono tangle week featuring many folks' favorite pattern: Mooka. I have a slight problem with Mooka; it just hasn't captured my creativeness as it has for others. I think it's beautiful and flowing, but mine just don't seem to do the same for me. I haven't figured out why yet, but I'll keep on trying.

Here's my line up as I tried to come up with something beautiful and flowing.

I tried again...

A little more interesting, yet odd.

Then I came up with this one. It's my favorite.

It reminds me of celtic snowdrops. I decided to leave well enough alone after this one.

Thanks to Laura Harms for giving this challenge to us this week. Some day I might get a good hold on this pattern. Some day.

Step away from the box

Going out of the box, or stepping away from the box. That's our Diva challenge this week. Hmmmm, kind of tough concept for me. I've tangled a piano, ski helmets, shoes, rocks as well as Zentangle tiles, books, different papers, etc. What to do? I decided to go with stepping out of my comfort zone. Okay, since I do mostly black and white, I'll go with color. There are some tangle patterns that I don't feel comfortable with yet or haven't tried yet, I'll go with those. So here's my tile from today (our 5th snow day of the winter - over 10" of beautiful snow).

Mooka, Flowervine, and Jeewels

Here are a couple of pictures from my snowshoe hike this morning:

First day of spring is tomorrow - I don't think the sap will be flowing.

Zentangle Quest Challenge

This week's Diva challenge was to create a tile using Maria Thomas' Zentangle Quest as she explained in her blog. Okay, that will be fun but I also have to get started on my 9 piece curvy string ensemble for next weekend's Tangle U 2013. Here's the ensemble (which will be mixed around and shared with others) using the effect of the Zentangle Quest:

Some tangles are: Whyz, Knightsbridge, Leaflet, Echoism, Henna Drum, Tipple, Shattuck, Ammon, Purk (I can't remember them all)

Sorry that its not a great picture, but I couldn't scan it due to the size. Try clicking on it to enlarge it.

I taught a Zentangle Workshop to a group of educators yesterday at the Southern Vermont Educators Symposium at Maple Street School in Manchester. I had a wonderful time and here's the group tile picture:




A couple of weeks ago I taught a newcomer to our town. She did a super job with her tangling. Great job, Lola!



I sure do love teaching and I sure do love Zentangle. Lucky me that I get to combine the two!

A Whyz Week

Wow, what a week. First of all, Laura from Iamthedivaczt.com chose my tangle for her UMT (Use My Tangle) challenge this week. I have had so much fun seeing everyone's creations using my tangle, Whyz. I was just so impressed with the creativeness and variety! I had no idea that it was so versatile.

I also was engaged in the second week of Jennifer Lee's Right Brainers  In Business Video Summit. It was  wonderful to watch the videos and learn so much from her different speakers. While listening to the speakers I tangled away along the edge of my notepad. Here are some of the tangling pages this week. As you can see, I was playing with whyz. I also love the look of the previous page's tangles showing through the thin paper. Very cool! If you click on the pictures you will get an enlarged version of it.

No Whyz here, just some sunstars. 

Here I was playing a bit with Whyz as well as others.

This one has my sundoo (top) and henna drum (within knightsbridge) with whyz along the bottom.

More playing with whyz and the money grows symbol.

Even more playing.

This is how I take notes. I really did have the right side of the sheet filled in with great ideas, sayings, tips, etc from the many speakers. It was a wonderful experience and I feel all charged, ready to create more and get our Mountain Painters and Artisans Gallery to the next level. Wooo Hoooo!

So, after playing around a bit and watching others come up with tiles/artwork of their rendition of my tangle pattern, Whyz, I finally got around to creating my own tile.

I found it interesting how different the pattern can look depending on how you orient your Y's. It is a tough tangle to learn. I would put it right up there with the challenging patterns, but once you start playing around with it, you'll find that it gets pretty addicting. How else can I change the look?

A big thanks to Laura for putting it up as a challenge and a big thanks, also, to all of the folks who took on the challenge. Your work is beautiful!!! Please go take a look at the other creations.