"It's a String Thing" #55 Tiles

Happy Labor Day!

 In the States, the first Monday in September is set aside to honor the achievements of the American worker. It is a Federal Holiday and many people enjoy the day off - but thankfully that doesn't apply to tangling!

This week's string by Sue Agnew was a lovely loopy one and we used a single pattern by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts called Striping, along with the tangle enhancer called sparkle.  Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Sara Belmont-Kleingeld.  She wrote, "I hope my tangling counts as "Striping"... since it ended up looking just like barberpole."

Yes, it does "count" and yes, it does look like Barberpole.  Sara tangled along the string line, leaving a narrow space to alternate her pattern.  The two patterns must be close cousins :)

Deanna Spence sent the next tile ~

Thick lines and beautiful shading give this marvelous movement.

Joan Delony wrote ~

This was a fun String Thing. I love working with stripes and have really been into coloring this week. Therefore, I really enjoyed working on this tile. It is also posted on my website .

Joan used a mix of thick and thin lines, pretty sparkle, and even lined her white spaces for a tremendous result.

Cheryl Stocks wrote ~

Thank you for the opportunity to "sparkle." I am mighty grateful for the chance to focus on just one pattern. I applied the sparkle liberally and with boldness; my thoughts are etched at my blog...
Have a brilliant day!

Wishes for a brilliant day - and a brilliantly sparkled tile, too!  Cheryl used a variety of line widths to define her string sections.

CZT Charlotte Carpentier said ~

I simply couldn't pass up doing some Stripes. I have never tried to sparkle, so I hope I did it justice. I am on a bit of a tan tile bender these days, playing with single tones on it seeing how they look. 

Yes, she did sparkle justice - note how she used a jagged edge type of sparkle and used a pale shade of her red in the lighter stripes to follow through.

From Lily Moon ~

Lily tangled along her string line and then added colorful stripes in some, but not all sections.  Note how she added white highlights to create delightful depth.

K. Bish called this "Zebra Dreams" as she has been "playing with color lately" ~

That is a very colorful piece indeed!

Janice Johnson wrote ~

Attached is my submission for this week's challenge. I had to really leave my comfort zone and do this tile. I have only attempted Striping once and did not even include it in my book of tangles. You can see my blog for this tile.

Look what Janice did to the edges of her striping.  By curving the lines around her spaces she added dimension and added to a fabulous feel of layering.  

From Ragged Ray ~

So here's where I usually ramble on about how I found the challenge and the tangles, and what I've done with them. But this week I found I had even more than usually to say, so I popped it all in a blog post ...
Suffice to say I had a great time, love the tangle, the string, and am learning to love Sparkle!

She added a pop of color, various ways of darkening in her alternating lines,  sparkle, shading, highlights, and a bit of whimsy.  That is delightful.

From CZT Sue Jacobs ~

A study in blue...her curved lines, sparkle, and shading, give Striping the look of being folded and tucked and bulging.  It brings to mind pulled taffy - just delicious!

Carmela wrote, "This one was a bit difficult to me and i don’t know if I did it right??

I made sparkle in [the] curvy lines and stripes between it. You can see it on my blog."

Carmela completed her tile in her own way and therefore it is "right".  That is one of the wonderful things about zentangle® - there is no wrong way to do anything! 

Carmela used a thick pen to make her strokes for Striping and the string sections really pop because of that.  She used the actual tangle pattern named Sparkle in her loops and the whole thing turned out just right!

Lori Byerly said ~

What an interesting challenge. With a string and one tangle pattern, it really forced me to think creatively.
My tile is also shown here... 

Lori used very wide and very narrow lines, alternated the darkened spaces from her loops to her other spaces, she added shading and sparkle.   That is extremely creative.

Christine Forrester wrote ~

The black and white one was my first real attempt at sparkles, I liked it better in the gold colour and then looked at the rain running down my living room window and produced the blue one, which I think looks like sparkles on water and rain on my window.

She also added that she didn't expect to have all three posted, but after that lovely description, how could one, or two, be omitted?

 It is a triple treat!
Christine used sparkle and shading in each of her tiles and in such a variety of ways.

From Joya ~

This is my contribution to this weeks' String Thing. I'm not really satisfied with how the sparkle came out, I have to practise that much more I think. But I love the String Number 55 ♥.

Bold and striking with tapered sparkle spaces, shading, and bands of black extending off the tile, this is just gorgeous.
Joya also posted it here on her blog 


Ilse Lukken also used the tangle Sparkle.  This is what she wrote:

Hmm, I'm afraid I didn't read the assignment well - and I'm not sure what a 'tangle enhancer' is... So I created this tile and had lots of fun doing it, but afterwards I'm not sure if I did it 'the right way'. Well, at least it was right for me :-) I put the challenge on my blog.

And that is the take-a-way...it was right for her and she had fun doing it. Her bold Striping lends a wonderful contrast to her white space and daintier Sparkle.

Sue Lin wrote~

...Tried #55 three different ways to practice my shading, I'm still waiting to see the "POP" overwhelm me and to see that my depth has grown! Until then, a tangling I will go, a tangling I will go, high ho the merry oh, a tangling I will go!!

What a merry way to approach tangling!

Sue delved into the tangle and came up with some creative variations, added some complimentary tangles, and explored bold lines.  

Lucy Banta said ~

Happy Labor Day weekend! I don't know about you, but this summer went by way too quickly! I was happy to end the summer with your monotangle challenge. I haven't really done much monotangling, but it's fun and the result is amazing. I may even try this one again varying the widths of the stripes.
Here's the link to my blog post...

The result is amazing, especially the way Lucy aura-ed around the border and added sparkle, not to mention shading!

Ingrid Coventon wrote, "...So nice to work with this tangle and bring in/out the sparkle.  Much love from the rainy netherlands."

The rain must have inspired Ingrid.  The curves of Striping are lovely, but it is her sparkle that absolutely steals the show.  Feathered edges between the black of the lines and the white of the highlight are striking.

A very warm welcome to Susan Theron from South Africa.  Along with "kind regard" she sent her first tile for the challenge ~

Unfortunately the photograph is a bit out of focus, but the contrast and sparkle shine through on her pretty piece.

Kathyrn Crane-Theilen noted that "the sparkle really adds to the tangle."

It really does.  And like Ingrid, Kathryn beautifully added sparkle in feathered lines.  Her scalloped edge gives a dainty look to the finished tile.

Jane Glotzer wrote ~

Hope this finds you well...what a great challenge this week...got me to finally explore this whole "sparkle" idea, which I had been resisting--:)
I reread Sue's post and checked out a lot of Margaret Bremner's work to look at her techniques for this enhancer...and it all helped a bunch...
So here is my Striping (with sparkle) all over the place!
As always, looking forward to seeing everyone's stripes!!

So many feathered sparkles in a row - how fun!  Jane created a tile within a tile and added was able to add more lovely detail.  

Links to the helpful sites that she mentioned are referenced on this past post.  

Cheryl Anne Day-Swallow said using one tangle made her think "real hard."  She created this ~

She attached the above file in the direction of the original string line.  Here it is flipped for a better view ~

She included this poem:

We were flying over head, in an airplane
We scouted the lands, and all the dry plains
What did we spot?, as we flew real slow
A Zentangle Elephant, down below

That is so sweet - Cheryl will have to keep "thinking real hard" - it is a treat to see what she comes up with!

Linda Bladen wrote~

I initially did a tile which had Striping in each of the spaces created by the string but I was showing my other half and saying that I thought it may look good with just the loops filled in and he said that my little loops reminded him of a bumble bee so this is how my second tile came about.

Bees - that is fabulous!  How fun that they appear to have made the string line in Bijou style.  

From Juul~

She also pushed her tangles passed the sting line and to the edge of her tile.  So many swirls and turns and lovely movement in one place!

And from the string's creator and sparkle aficionado, Sue Agnew ~

 Thank you again for using this string, and for "calling me out" -- it really was a week-brightener.
When I submitted that string I was in my "tangle the string line" phase, and I liked loopy strings because once you tangled the string line it left a nice little spot to put a tangle without having to worry about finishing the edges. So I wanted to honor that by tangling the string line, but I also wanted to honor your challenge to make a monotangle. So I striped the string line -- although I guess technically I used "shine" rather than "sparkle" on the stripes of the string line. Anyway, it was great fun!
Happy Labor Day weekend!

Sue chose to line the tangle instead of darkening it in.  Her tangle curves beautifully along the edges and that sparkle is just beautiful.

From Kia Richardson ~ 

She included a variety of line width, curve, and sparkle.  She also posted her tile here on her blog.  

Audrie Weisenfelder said ~

Another week gone by, and I'm still playing catch up. I almost didn't do this week's challenge, as I didn't feel very comfortable with Striping. I've only played around with it in my sketchbook, to mixed results. And I've been a total washout at using Sparkle on a tangle like this. But a funny thing happened when I tried putting them together; it sort of worked...
So here it is. It is here on my blog.
Thanks again for setting up these challenges; they keep the brains in gear.

Yes, it really did work beautifully.  Note the way Audrie interwove the lines on the right side of her tile and how she elongated the lines in that right loop.

Marita said ~

...after struggling too long with the straightness of string #54 I thought string #56 would by easy! But with using only tangle and the challenge to create glimmers it was another exercise on my perseverance. The result I liked only after creating the shadows!
But now I love the movement and the feeling of depth!

It has a great sense of movement and depth that clearly came to life with shading.  The thicker lines in the loops lend a nice contrast.

Rachel Godbee  said she hasn't participated for awhile, so she is "back on board with this submission" ~

She traced her string line for a very defined look.

Jenna Wheatmann said that she loved the string but really did not gel very well with striping...

She created a different look for the tangle in each section of the string line - that is remarkable.  Note where the string line loops through the bands of the tangle - that is yummy.

Caroline Moore wrote ~

This is my first monotangle, and I really enjoyed it. I did a few tangelations in the small ovals, a little crescent moon version of striping on the bottom left, and a little tried & true striping for the rest. It was lots of fun. I have posted the challenge on my website.
Thanks again, and happy labor day!

Now that is a lot of fun for one tile!  While not purely a monotangle, (only one pattern would be used)  it is a lovely collection of tangles that compliment Striping very well.

Brenda Urbanik said that Striping is one of her "faves" ~

Her tangles appear to rise off the paper, curve and return only to bulge up again in another direction.  That is remarkable.  Brenda also posted it here on her blog.

Peggy Kohrmann sent this wonderful tile ~

New to Striping and to sparkle, she made both shine.  The direction of her curves along with shading and sparkle give her tangle great depth.  The cross hatched lines in the center tangle are a great touch.

And now, the tile for honors this week was submitted by

Sharyn Penna of Massachusetts!

Sharyn sent in two tiles and wrote this about her process ~

This week I'm sending two tiles--one in pencil the other in pen. I did the pencil first...and I have to confess my eraser was a very helpful tool in learning where to place my sparkles. And I can honestly say the eraser was stowed away before I started the tile completed with a micron. Sparkle is an enhancer I'm still not comfortable with just jumping in cold...finding the right spot for Sparkle is the trick...I need to practice more before I take the big plunge. This was a great exercise for me...and in the end, the two tiles look nice one above the other or side by side.

Sharyn included many of the niceties that most tanglers used this week - the lovely sparkle, shading, curves around the border, and so on.  What makes this so unique is the direction of the lines she chose for the loops in her string line.  Sparkle add tremendous depth to them as well as all the others.

CONGRATULATIONS, Sharyn.  I have a little something coming in the mail for you.

Many thanks to all the talented tanglers for sending in your treasured tiles.

Thank you to Sue Agnew, via Linda Farmer at TanglePatterns for String 055 and to Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas for the spectacular Striping.

Stop back tomorrow afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #56 !