"It's a String Thing" #35 Tiles

In this week's challenge the string line was somewhat egg shaped and the tangle patterns were lacy and light and so we have some early Easter-y treats - delivered even before the bunny hops down the trail!

Lucy Banta has two firsts this week - her tile was the first to arrive and this is her first time participating in a challenge.

Her details are lovely - Cadent in Crescent Moon, perf border, aura, and great depth with shading. Congratulations and welcome!

Lily Moon achieved a dainty look - 

She used Crescent Moon and Cayke along the string line and aura-ed outward.  Look at how she used Crescent Moon in the inner loop - that is  pretty!  A single moon, aura, many moons and aura again - wonderful idea.  She posted this here on her blog as well.


Joyce Evans' tile is a happy one -

Curved Chillon makes her center loop rise from the tile, sparkle on the aura of Crescent Moon is so light and so pretty.  Cayke compliments beautifully and Cadent is adorned with aura and shading - so much happiness for one tile!

Cheryl Rotnem wrote, "This was surprisingly fun! I like how I combined cakye within chillon. Fun to do."

What a great idea - and so simple and fun, as she said.  Another idea from Cheryl here, are the added dots in Cadent where she added sparkle.  Thank you!


A very warm welcome to Kia Richardson.  This is her "very first submitted tangle!"

Kia wrote:

The tangles I used are Cadent, Chillon, Crescent Moon, and Coil. This is my very first submitted Tangle!. I couldn't help but see an easter egg there in the string (or at least in the way I drew it) and couldn't resist colouring it with Easter/spring pastels. 

The colors are beautiful and so are her tangles - lovely variation of Crescent Moon and Coil weaves a pretty border.

Charlotte Carpentier's comments about her journey to this tile are sure to bring a smile to your face, as they did to mine -

HI Adele,
sooo....this was not my favorite string. I don't like things this roundish. So I decided to get a bit, odd. I watercolored my string in with Niji Pearlesent Watercolors (and it looks all shiny, but not in the scan...) and went for it. As I was tangling, watching baseball, as usual, I kept thinking how odd this looked. It has now been dubbed "the holy hand grenade of Antioch" (insert Monty Python joke here.) I was going for Easter egg, got a hand grenade (maybe its a tribute to my military service...I dunno.) 

She said it was growing on her as she sent it in - what a treat it is to read the stories behind the tangles!

Charlotte does have an 'explosion' of tangles and the aura of Crescent Moon carries the movement right off the tile.  Of note, her tanglation of Cadent and Chillon is amazing.



Finishing up her vacation, Brenda Urbanik wrote:

As you can see, I am still very much in the “light & airy” mood, it must be all the fresh air and lovely sea breeze!
I sort of tweaked Crescent Moon a little and put part of Cayke inside the “moons”. Cadent also went and did it’s own thing, bug hooray….I did stay with the string this time!

It is a very light and lovely tile with all of the touches she spoke of and the touch of pink is perfect!

Chrissie Murphy said that this tile gave her a challenge -

She explains:

This string and the tangle choices this week, were interesting. I turned and turned and turned my tile, hoping to get a feel for the string. It took some time, but finally something came together. This week more than any other I'm looking forward to seeing what my fellow zentanglers have created from this string. Your challenges continue to push my boundaries, making me step out of my comfort zone, and as difficult as I find it at times, I'm loving it!

This did come together!  Chrissie used Cadent on her string line - a fabulous idea and filled in the areas with Chillon and Cayke.  And we are reminded again that pushing through challenges and persevering is rewarding - in Zentangle as in life!

Chrissie also posted her tile here on her blog.

The next tile was sent in by Ragged Ray whose tangle pattern Snag was used in last week's challenge.

As her words are as elegant as her artwork, here is her note in full:

So wonderful to look through last week's challenge tiles. As you can imagine I was poring over each and every one - admiring all the usual beauty but with a look out for my Snag. It was great to see it used in different ways. And to hear people say that although they found it challenging they look forward to working with it more. And I smiled at someone saying it was Christmassy - quite a few of my test tiles looked very festive so I know it will come in handy at the end of the year!
And so to this week. I've attached a tile for you. Cayke seemed a great tangle following last week's Sanibelle. And whether this was your intention or pure accident the tangles gelled well with each other. Those gentle arcs appearing in each tangle. I had all sorts of wonderful intentions of what I might do, but in fact just got so lost in the tile that what came out came out! Including that dark hungry mouth of Crescent Moon in the middle.
I've also posted a second tile on my blog, along with some talks about how the Zentangle process feeds my other creativity. (Click here to view)

There are so many nuggets here, most especially the words "the dark hungry mouth of Crescent Moon" - what imagery!   Be sure to visit her blog for more of the same.


Catherine Wells sent is this wonderful tile -

She described these as "three rather un-egg-like eggs for Easter!"  They are real enough to make me hungry for chocolate :)
Catherine incorporated very pretty details here:  dots - lots of dots!, perfs, lines, shading...lovely!


Colette Horsberg completed this tile -

She used a variety of tangles and did use a nice curvy Cadent in her larger area.  The square photo mounts are a really good idea for displaying tiles - thanks, Charlotte!.  She also posted her tile here on her blog.


A very warm welcome to Joey (Joanne) van Oort.  Joey has a lovely artsy blog - Made by Joey - and has just recently discovered the world of Zentangle.

She has been exploring tangles on brown paper and completed the challenge on a card -

Joey's tangles are lovely and her highlights glow.  She has just organized a weekly challenge as well so stop by her blog to check it out!


Cheryl-Anne Day-Swallow has done it again - taken the string and tangles and her signature bold coloring, and turned them into a masterpiece.  This time, into a delicious mouth-watering masterpiece -

She calls this one "The Georgia Peach".  By striking a line through the center of the inner loop, she could use Cayke on either side and create her 'pit'.  Crescent Moon filled in her fruit and stem - what a yummy creation!

This is Kylie Vitnell's tile -

Kylie made Chillon curve and lift as it turns and it is well balanced with the darker center and Cayke corners.  She posted her lovely tile here on here on her blog as well.


A very warm welcome to CZT Samantha Wunderlich.  This is her first submission -

and what a treat! Her shading really stands out, especially as the background for Chillon - nice touch!  She also posted this tile here on her blog.


Sharyn Penna said she "combined cayke with crescent moon..[and] added a little Mooka to cadent."

She makes that sound so effortless, doesn't she?  The result is just spectacular.  It has very old theater-like feel to it, cascading curtains and ornate balconies - my, my!

Rachel Godbee tangled a beauty -

She tangled Crescent Moon on all sides of the larger orb and as a result gave the aura an even more unique look as it meets in the middle - all wonderfully shaded.

Angela Carstensen's tile cascades with Cadent -

She wrote:

 ...I just love Cadent. It is so versatile and can be made to fit pretty much any shape and then look really elegant. The Chillon ended up nearly unrecognizable, because the overall impression of the tile was so light and bland that I had to add extra lines...

In addition to her elegant tangles, her shading is wonderful.  Angela also posted her tile here on her blog.

Juul Grendeau - artist behind the gorgeous goose eggs of last Friday's post (click here to view) - said this was "great fun."

She darkened the string line along with the arcs in Cayke and Chillon.  This contrasts so nicely with the inner delicate lines.  Juul's tangles are delightfully detailed.   She added, "Vive la créativité."

Sherrill Herron wrote, "Since Easter is upon us I thought about Easter eggs. I have been enjoying these challenges. It lets me venture out of my comfort zone."

Sherrill's tile is full of wonderful details as well - the aura and sparkle on Crescent Moon and many variations of Cadent.  Take note of the line of Cadent where she added the line work - another great idea!


Anna Houston sent in this pretty tile -

She used Crescent Moon along the string lines and notice the look she achieved by adding just a row of dots in the first aura - that's a delicious detail!

Another warm welcome to tangler Jocelyne Pigeon-Bernier from Quebec -

It is quite a fancy tile for a new tangler!  She's created a vortex of Crescent Moon and Cack and added nice compliments to Cadent.

Audrie Weisenfelder wrote:

This pretty much fell into place without much prodding. Sepia, Brown, and Burgundy Microns on Butterscotch colored paper, but felt a little unfinished. Added Cadent as a background, using Prismacolor Sepia pencil for a softer look so it wouldn't fight with the rest of the tile.

That is a great tip - to tangle the background with a colored pencil for a softer look.  Her tangles grow from the middle and reach as they curve - a lovely composition.

Audrie also posted this tile here on her pretty purple blog.


Annemarie added tangles to her personally colored paper -

She swirled Cadent and auras of Crescent Moon and darkened string lines for a lovely effect.  She also posted it here on her blog.

Henrike Bratz chose two tangles for her tile -

While she was well acquainted with Crescent Moon, Cayke was new to her.  It is her shading that makes this stand out  - around her white space, in the aura lines and around Cayke.  Well done!

LonettA wrote:

Here is my tile for this week. I used the tangles Cayke, Crescent Moon and Chillon. Especially I like Crescent Moon and Cayke.
Both have lovely arcs which gave me the possibility to combine these tangles.
Also I love my Kraft paper (Canson XL Kraft sketch pad) very much at the moment.
Therefore I used it for this challenge. So much fun!

The paper is a beautiful color and the white highlights shine as does that perfect shade of blue. Chillon running through the background is a great idea.  Lonett's love of the tangles really shows.  She has her tile posted here on her blog as well.

Jenna Wheatman said that she was rushed a bit to finish this, but she "managed to combine all the tangles."

Week after week, she manges!  Dots, tiny accent lines, and shading are all great details.  She also sent a photograph of something she calls 'fleather', a faux leather effect on paper.  She has combined tangles with this fascinating craft.

You can read more about it here on her blog.


Melanie R, last week's honoree, returns with another jaw dropping entry -

This could be studied for a long time and still more details would be discovered.  A swirl of Crescent Moon is the focal point and the tangled goodness carries on from there.  It's full of fun touches - the single striped Crescent Moon, the stack of Cayke, to name a few.  Melanie also posted it  here on her blog.


Val Brandon said that "Crescent Crescent Moon morphed really well into Cayke."

Yes, it did!  She morphed them into each other so beautifully.  She added that, "It will be interesting to see how many others found the same thing happening."  And it does seem that many found the same to be true.

Val posted her tile here on her blog as well.

Cathy Cusson wrote, "I love Cadent, as it was one of the first tangles I ever learned."

Cathy Cadent fills in her larger oval string line and Crescent Moon hugs the smaller one.  Cathy used Chillon as her back drop, too!


Annie Taylor said she loves tangling egg shapes -

She wrote:

If I'd had more time, I'd have tried to make it a little more complex but time was against me....(eggscuses, eggscuses) but here's wishing everyone who takes part - and you too - a lovely Easter week. We have just got 8 hens so I'm enjoying some really fresh eggs and I'm planning to tangle on some of them for Easter Sunday.

Again, a lovely mix of Cadent and Cayke - and a wonderful white spaces - so pretty!
Annie also posted this here on her blog.


Sue Agnew sent this sparkling piece -

Her note read:

I think I've mentioned before how much I love the mashup of Cadent and Afterglo ... so I decided to mash up the other tangles I used too. So I used Crescent Moon mashed up with Footlites, and Chillon mashed up with Puf. I don't think the Chillon/Puf combo was successful, because you can't really tell it's Chillon and it makes the tile too busy in combo with Cadent/Afterglo ... however, I had a lot of fun doing it (all those lines!).

Many lines, much fun, and Footlite Moons are festive!

Peggy Kohrman's note made me cheer.  She said, "This one was so quick and relaxing that I let it make it's own way. First time for that to happen!!"

She went on to say -

I loved the tangles this week and crescent moon variations really made that one extra fun. Cadent was one of the first tangles I ever tried so it was very comforting to relax with it on the tile.
I don't know if the central area goes down or up with the shading but the movement is amazing. Blue metallic and Fabre-Castell Manga shading pens give a nice dimension too.

Yes to all of the above!  The diminishing size of Cayke draws your eye downward and up again - great movement as she noted.  A beautiful tile!

A very warm welcome to fellow Floridian Sue.  This is her first submission -

She said that she "did this in pencil and then photographed it in "negative" to bring zentangling and photography together."  That is very unique.  It looks very much like a white gelly pen on a black tile - great work!



A N D now, the tile selected for honors this week was created by The Netherlands'
Ingrid Coventon!

Of her tile she wrote:

Except for cadent and crescent moon were the other tangle patterns new to me. Now I love cayke as you can see in my tile. To me my string has turned into one of those little critters that you'd rather not get into your bed. I tried to make some egg like tile, but it turned out different. That is real zentangle. Hahaha.

That is quite an image and yes, real Zentangle too.

Ingrid managed to tangle Cadent and Cayke in such a way that is looks layered and full and tiered like a cake (cayke!).  Her lines of Chillon are very unique, an idea for us all to use.

She signed her note: "Have great week and nice Easter days."

Congratulations, Ingrid!
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 tiles for the rest of us to enjoy and emulate.

A special note of thanks to Linda Farmer and Cheri Hartwick for String 047
and the creative minds behind the tangles used this week:

Cadent
Crescent Moon and
Chillon - official Zentangle® patterns
Cayke by Rose Brown

Stop back tomorrow for "It's a String Thing" #36!