Twing Fling

Here's one of my latest tiles. It is inspired not just by Diva Challenge #180, "UMT - MacDee by Anneke Van Dam" but also by one of my favorite Zentangle groups on Facebook: Square One: Purely Zentangle. This new group, established by two CZTs, is devoted to the original format brought to us by Zentangle^®: the 3.5-inch square tile, tangled with black ink and shaded with a graphite pencil. 

cadent, twing, and MacDee

I deeply appreciate the vision of founders Chris Titus and Jenny Perruzzi for having the vision to establish Square One: Purely Zentangle. I love seeing all of the innovative compositions all done with the very basics. I look forward to the weekly focus on one particular tangle. The current tangle focus is verdigogh, so I'll be working that into a tile soon.

I encourage you to check out Square One: Purely Zentangle and join in. It's a great way to connect with other tanglers and strengthen your Zentangle practice.

Happy Tangling! Leave me a comment if you wish to let me know what you think!

Amy

Duotangled

This past week flew by as I unpacked, laundered all the clothes from our trip, and took the kids to various appointments. Now that we are home from our grand British vacation, it is "back to school" season here! School starts August 11, which I know sounds early to some of you, but keep in mind that our summer break began at the end of May.

There was much to be done this week, but I managed to find time to tangle two traditional Zentangle tiles for Diva Challenge #178: "Duotangle by the Letter!" My first and last initials are A and B.

avreal & bales

aquafleur & Margaret Bremner's beadlines

I still haven't downloaded my photos from England and Wales . . . but I took loads! Some on my iPhone, a few on my iPad, and a few hundred (I think!) on my son's digital camera. It's been a few years since I'd been to Europe, but I remembered the frustrations of running out of battery life and filling up memory cards, so I was well-prepared this time. My family doesn't have a lot of patience for posing for photos, so I don't have all that many classic, posed vacation pics. I do have lots of closeups of architecture and textiles and other ornamental objects, as Zentangle has turned me into a shameless pattern hunter. Can you relate?

While we were touring around Great Britain, we spent considerable time in our rental car getting from here to there. I kept a sketchbook and pen handy, and the joy of being on vacation and surrounded by the beauty of the Welsh and English countryside inspired a few new tangles. I haven't done the step outs for them yet, though. :-) Is it odd that I use vacation to work out nonrepresentational patterns instead of drawing the beautiful scenery that surrounds me? (It doesn't bother me, even if it is a bit odd!)

While we were traveling, I did not bring any full-size Zentangle tiles to tangle. What I did bring was my tin of the new Bijou tiles! They are perfect little travel companions! I had envisioned tangling some Bijou tiles at each destination, and leaving them behind for others to enjoy, but once we reached a destination, we were so busy sightseeing, there was rarely time to sit and draw. While we were in York, in the spirit of my B.Y.O.B. challenge, I prepped a tile with some Earl Grey tea (see it here along with a greenish Bijou tile, both of which were tangled in the Newark airport on the way home) and utilized truffle to tangle a Bijou tile that I still haven't shaded (shown in this post). Not exactly enough to leave a snail-trail of darling little tangled Bijou tiles around Wales & England. So they came home with me, just as Bijou came home with Rick and Maria. 

If you have no idea what I am talking about, read all about Bijou here. :-)

As always, comments are welcome and deeply appreciated!

Happy tangling!