A busy (and inspiring) February!

I have to say, (probably have said it before!) that Zentangle attracts the nicest people! January and February have been full of new and returning tanglers. Here are some more of the classes that have been held, along with some incredible examples of traditional Zentangle and Zentangle-Inspired-Art!

Introduction to Zentangle in Nokomis: 
February 5

Ellen, John, Lana, Kathy and Belinda!

 Introduction to Zentangle in Sarasota:

February 15

Rose, Judith, Elsa, Becky, Susan, and Leah

Sharing ideas and inspiration with the class mosaic

Zen Gems - or "You Can Never Have Too Much Bling"!

I have been swept up by the wonderful "ZenGem" craze that started with Kae Yoshiko.  She inspired tanglers across the world with her tiles, which just glow with gems! 

I joined a ZenGem swap, which gave me a good amount of practice to get that 'gemmy shine'. Fortunately, the swap was for gems created on the wonderful little Bijou tiles ~ a perfect size for a gem or two, along with some tangling!

My ZenGems, all ready to go out into the world! I can't wait to see what gems find their way to me, with this swap!

I've also bee having so much fun combining different tools and colors with markers, PrismaColor pencils, Derwent Pencils, and watercolor.  On this tile, my ZenGems started to turn into droplets, hanging from the tangle "Opus".

Last, but not least, I've been having way too much fun on my iPad with the Apple Pencil, using the Procreate app! Here's a peek at an area that I've been working on. 

More soon! Happy tangling, everyone!

Welcome to new (and continuing) tanglers in Nokomis and Sarasota, Florida!

January is off to a great start with Zentangle, with a few Introduction to Zentangle classes as well as a Renaissance tile class! I am always amazed at the variety of styles that each tile has, even though we are each doing the same tangles! I also enjoy how we can all be inspired by each other. New ideas and tanglations come out all the time!

It's such a joy to share the Zentangle process with others, *and* to make new friends at the same time!


Here's our class on January 19:

Back to front: Dale, Lynn, Tawmmie, Rita, Joyce

More friends met together on  January 13:

Leslie, Joy, Jan, and Carrie.

~ And here is our group for the Renaissance tile class! I love sharing the Renaissance techniques because of the depth that's achieved from using shading as well as highlighting. 

 . . . and last but NOT least, we had a small (but wonderful) class at Sarasota Art & Frame! We had three new tanglers. Only two gave permission to have their photos put up on the blog, so I was happy to add them!

                   

Take a look at the wonderful differences and individual styles of these three!

. . . . . . A  big "THANK YOU" to all who have joined me in classes!

A new year for tangling! Happy 2016!

Whew! The holidays are over! I hope everyone had a fantastic start to the new year, filled with peace, relaxation, and creativity!

Here at our park, the "summer camp for adults" is officially open. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of teaching 12 new tanglers at Sarasota Art & Frame. (It was also the first time that I used a digital projector, and I think that it helped immensly!)

                            

 

~Today, we had "Tangle Talk" at our park: an informal get-together of tanglers to share ideas and inspire each other. Today, we had 9 people show up: a lot of creative energy!

Tangling on seashells!

Happy Holidays, happy tangling!

Christmas is now over, but before the holidays ended, I held a "Tangled Ornament" class at sarasota Art & Frame.  It was wonderful to see previous students/friends, and to make a new tangling friend!

Carole, Angela, and Glenna Jo taking the Tangled Ornament class!

  

Our finished tangled ornaments, including one that Glenna Jo has had for 5 years!

 For Christmas, I also made some ornaments with Bijou tiles.

... and a tangled Christmas tree!

I wish for everyone a wonderful end to 2015 and beginning to 2016!

Tangle Refresher class

When we got back to Florida, I heard from a few people that they needed to have a Refresher class, to get back into the Zen of tangling. Some hadn't tangled for a few months, and some just wanted to learn some new tangles. 

We had a good turnout for the Tangle Refresher class on November 18! It was great to see friends from last year! 

Nine people took the class, and did a great job with new tangles, including Lynn Shelton Meades' Dew Drop enhancer. 

Here is the link to Lynn's tutorial for the dew drop: Dew Drops

(We all decided that we would need to practice this technique!)

The tangles that we worked on were: 

Tile 1~ Huggins, Puf, Buttercup, and Sand Swirl.

Tile 2 ~ Cubine, Cyme, Leaflet, and Tagh

from left to right: Susie, Jane, Diane, Steve, Bonni, MaryAnn, Angela, Glenna Jo, and myself.

Our class mosaic!

New Tangling Surface

I have seen people tangle on canvas shoes, tote bags, muslin, dishes, and almost anything that doesn't move! For some reason, it took me some time to get over my trepidation of putting pen to fabric. I know: silly! Then, one of my students Jan Hartlove (who became a dear friend), made this incredible tote bag for me, using only Sharpies, a bag from Michael's, and her own calligraphy magic. She even added blank "tile" spaces for me to tangle.

SO, when the Sarasota Surface Design Guild posted that they wanted members to bring in decorated work shirts or aprons, I decided to make the leap. 

For this project, I washed an apron bought at Hobby Lobby. While it was still wet, I did a watercolor wash. Then, ironed it dry, and used "Stained" fabric markers form Sharpie to draw the pen at the top, and to tangle the center and border. It was easier than I thought it would be!

I'm pretty happy with it, and am now searching the house for other surfaces to tangle!