"It's a String Thing" #32 Tiles

This week's challenge again brings together tanglers from all over the world.   Along with many regions of the United States, tiles were submitted from Canada, Australia, South Africa, England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and thanks to our first tangler - Hungary!

A very warm welcome to Lily who writes that she is self taught in English and is a beginner at tangling.  Both come as a surprise after reading her note and seeing her gorgeous tile -

Lily managed to use all six of the suggested tangles in her piece.  She used shading and white highlights to add depth, especially with Warangaie.
She posted her tile on her blog as well.  Click here to see more of her talent on display.

I have Joyce Evans to thank for correcting my spelling on Warangaie in my initial post last Tuesday.  I appreciate the heads up!

Joyce said that Warangaie is an "ambiguous pattern" to shade.  She gave it an almost tile like look by shading in the dotted X squares -

Joyce said that the yellow color in Worms was done with a Stabilo pen.  She achieved such a wonderful look with this placement and combination of tangles.

Catherine Wells said that her tile "ended up looking completely different" to how she thought it was going to look.  And that serves as a timely reminder that in Zentangle, a tile is begun without a preconceived notion of what it will look like.  So she did well to "go with the flow", as she said, and finish with something she was pleased with - 

Catherine used just two tangles and added her touches to them.  Note the dotted circles on Wired and line work on Warangaie.

Another warm welcome goes to first time participant, Chrissie Murphy.  She said she had fun with this -

She not only has very pretty renditions of the tangles here, her shading gives them great life.
You can see more of Chrissie's beautiful work here on her blog.

Angela Carstenson said something we can all identify with when viewing the variety in each week's challenge results.  She wrote,"It is still fascinating to me how what seems to be an obvious choice to me is not what other do."

And what she did with this is fascinating!  She used one large tangle of Warped Eggs, then added her own touches to it with dots and darkened, sparkled lines.  What a nice touch of whimsy to have Wirly Bird peek out from behind.

Vicky Brison said that she loved these tangles and the movement she was able to achieve with them - 

They do dance, don't they?  And they seem to catch the energy from the large and lovely Wirly Bird churning in the center!

Colette Horsburgh used a variety of tangles on her string line -

See how she used a negative/positive take on her tangle in the middle?  That is a great idea.  Colette also posted her tile here on her blog.

Rosanne Cannito said that these challenges are " stretching" her brain!  We can all relate to that, and perhaps that's what keeps us coming back!

Her Warble is neat and graphic.

Claudia (ka beewatch aka busyTanglebee) said that these tangles were "quite a challenge."

She added, "I like the renaissance tiles because of the highlighting with the white charcoal pencil. It gives them a special look."

She did achieve a very special look.  Note how she considered the space created by Wired as a new area and filled it in with white - great idea.

Cheryl-Anne Day Swallow returns with her signature, colorful variation on the theme.  She calls this one Hootie with a Heart.

Her particulars:

the upper tree was made using Warts & Wobbles
the tree trunk was made using Worms
the flowers were made using Wirly Bird
the flower stalks were made using Wired and adding leaf edges
the stars were made using Wirly Bird
the ground/grass area was made using warped eggs.

These are wonderful ideas, especially for tanglers who love Zentangle® Inspired Art.  Thank you, Cheryl-Anne.

Kylie said that she used Worms, Warangaie, and Wired for this string -

She added her own special details to Warangaie.  Especially nice is the reverse, dark background and white dots.  Shading here is fabulous!

Juul Gendreau sent in this striking tile -

The dark, dark background lends stark contrast the the white spaces as well as the lined areas.  Just beautiful!  Thank you, too, Juul for I'm learning a bit of French with your notes :)

Ragged Ray said that she is "learning to love the unexpected outcomes" when she is tangling.

She added:

I liked Worms so used a lot. My Wirly Birds were decorated with little nods to Warangaie and Warts & Wobbles and all mounted on a couple of Wired spears! It all looks a bit static, but I think if the wind got up it could be quite lively!

Oh!  There is a lot of tangle goodness here.  Every thing that Ragged Ray noted, and then some.  Can't you just picture it coming to life in the wind?  It's just so lovely.

Annemarie said that I made the challenge "quite difficult" for her, but she still wanted to send in her attempt -

Another great moral for our Zentangle story - some tangles are a bit difficult to get to know, some strings are more challenging than others - yet in the end we have a finished work of art.
Annemarie faced the challenges and has a very pretty piece to show for her efforts.
She also posted it here on her blog.

Joan Delony said that she had so much fun with this challenge that she ended up doing six different tiles - "all different."  She sent this one first - 

Using Warble in the corners was a great idea and see how she used a single line of Warangaie down the middle?  It seems to be held in place with Wired and Wirly Bird swirls from the tips.  What fun!

She sent her second tile with just one word - "Minimalist"

It's pure tangle happiness.  Minimalist, yes, yet it has great details!


Brenda Urbanik said that the names of this week's tangles "just crack" her up.  (Me too!)
This week she "decided to bypass the string and use Wirly Bird as the string for the other two tangles."

Wow!  This this turned out to be such a pretty combination of tangles - and a great idea for the rest of us to use - Wirly Bird lends itself to be decorated beautifully with other tangles.  

Anna Houston said that some of her tangles "insisted on playing outside of the lines. So this tile ended up with a mind of its own."  Now, that is a happy tangle thought and this is happy tangled tile!

Anna achieves great dimension here, a layered, overlapping of the patterns.  Wirly Bird seems to float over the stippled surface.  She uses such a lovely balanced blend of black, brown, and white.  Yum.



Cathy Cusson said that she never really used Warped Eggs before, but really liked "how it began to flow" for her...

It is fun to see it warp and wriggle behind Warts and Wobbles and come out the other side!

LonettA wrote:

A new week ... another wonderful new It´s a String Thing Challenge.
I enjoyed to learn all the seven tangles. Especially I love Warped Eggs, Warble and Wirly Bird.
And I look forward to the other tanglers´ tiles! It´s so inspiring!

Her tangles are beautiful and see how they come to life with her shading?
Worms tucked into Warts and Wobbles, all sprouting Wired is just fascinating.

Lonett posts her lovely work here on her blog as well.  

Cheryl Rotnem was a fan of this string line and the tangles, too - 

What a pretty piece - especially with the shading she added.


Charlotte Carpentier said that she likes the "idea of learning a few tangles every week."  She learned these very well!

Warped Eggs and Warts and Wobbles look so fine drawn in brown Micron.  Charlotte added just the right touch of black, shading, and white highlights.  

Celeste Hickey said that her tile started off "plain Jane" - she wanted to keep it delicate.  Adding that she is "usually scared to add color" she took pictures of the process.  Here are the before and after photos - great fun!

Annie Taylor sent this a bit reluctantly, it seems, but added that she "loves seeing what everyone has done with the challenge and the more the merrier!"

Yes, the more the merrier!  Among her many details, she used large sections of Warangaie, varying directions of Warble trimmed with Warts and Wobbles...in all a treat to see.
Annie posted it here on her blog as well.

Amy Curtis used white on black for her tile -

She adds great interest here by giving just a glimpse of Wirly Bird - love it!  She said that she had fun with last week's challenge as well but was too late to submit it.  You can visit her blog here to see it.


Sherrill Herron submitted this lovely tile framed in the prettiest blue - 

Sherrill's details are delightful - the folding back of Warangaie, Wirly Bird inside Warts and Wobbles just to name a few.

Rhonda Koplin added pink to her tile in honor of this week's Cherry Blossom Festival in her town of Macon, Georgia.  It must be a sight to see because her tile is -

She added that Warped Eggs was her challenge this week.  She must have mastered it because it sits very pretty in pink here - as do the rest of her happy tangles.

Sue Agnew said that the top half of her tile "uses a mashup of Warangaie, Wired, and Wirlybird, which I was kinda proud of :-)"  ....as well she should be!

That is a wonderful "mashup" and it shines with her added sparkle.  Another great idea to store and use again!

Jenna Wheatman sent an understated note -

Here is this weeks entry. The string gave me a great starting point for wirley bird which I got a bit carried away with but I manged to combine it with warangate, wired, warts and wobbles, and warped eggs.

I think that if there were super powers associated with combining tangle patterns, Jenna would have the "corner market" on them.  What a feast for tangled eyes this is!  Take time to study this because it is a rare treat.

Sue Jacobs said that is was fun "to play with new tangles and glad to go back to some old friends!"

And it is fun to look at as well!  Sue's lines are so neat and crisp and the shading, especially around Warts and Wobbles and Worms 'lifts' the tangles off the tile.

Ingrid Coventon wrote:

What fun to work with these patterns this week. I love Warped Eggs which I knew already before. The other patterns were new to me but I also had fun with them. On my tile spring is in the air, spring is everywhere. This tile seem to have no up or downside. Every side looks good.

And that is a true mark of a tangled tile - it is meant to be viewed from all sides.  And Igrid's is equally pleasing from any angle as she said. Warped Eggs is wonderful with shaded, darkened centers.
Ingrid's tile is a happy spring celebration!

A N D now the tiles set aside for honors this week 
were submitted by Sharyn Penna.

The first showed just a few of the variations of Warped Eggs she came up with -

This could be called a "Study in Warped Eggs."  Her takes on the tangle are fascinating - both in line and in shading...


Of this she said, "The second gave me a chance to try shadowing a string. I've seen it done by others but haven't tried it till now."

Sharyn used a large format of Warts and Wobbles in the spaces of the string line and then added Warped Eggs.  That is a lot of tangle delight to digest...amazing!  

Congratulations Sharyn!  I have a little something coming in the mail for you to commemorate the day.


Many thanks to the talented tanglers who sent in their work for the rest of us to enjoy.

Special thanks to Jadie Wright for String 024 from TanglePatterns.com and used with Linda Farmer's kind permission and to the creators of the patterns used this week that include:

Warangaie - Sandra Strait
Warble - a Zentangle® pattern
Warped Eggs - Livia Chua
Warts and Wobbles - Cindy Straight
Wired - Suzanne McNeill, CZT
Wirly Bird - Cathy Clifford
Worms - Carolyn

In closing, here is a ZIA piece that Charlotte Carpentier sent along with her tile.  It was International Happiness Day last week and this is her celebration.  Thank you for sharing Charlotte!

Do stop back tomorrow for "It's a String Thing" #33!