"It's a String Thing" #61 Tiles

This week's string by CZT Margaret Bremner provided four rounded spaces in which to tangle, along with some wonderful nooks and crannies.  The tangles to choose from included:  Moonpie, Aquafleur, River, and Gutz.    Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Carmela.  She said ~

This week much linework which I like.
I have used 3 patterns and I tried to spend different thicknesses of the pens and shadows with some grey to create little accents.
U can see it on my blog. 

All of her details come together beautifully here, especially her shading.

Sarah Hluchy said that she "really enjoyed this one..."

Sarah mixed Aquafluer and River using black and white to create bold and airy spaces. 

Lori Byerly said that she "ended up doing a monotangle with moonpie because I couldn't get the tangle patterns to play nicely together..."

If she was disappointed, we are not because this is a treat to see - a Moonpie monotangle.  Joan Delony (Moonpie's creator) will be happy too.  Note how Lori managed to create a sense of movement by angling her initial crossed lines, elongating the orbs, and shading for depth.  That black, deep sea looking backdrop further accents the tangle.



Along with wishes for a "brilliant day" Cheryl Stocks wrote ~

Attached should be my response to your challenge this week. I think it ended up looking a little bit like a mummy. It's also on my blog.

That is great imagery!  Note her double River on either side of her 'mummy' - that is a wonderful idea.

Kristen Kostelnik Killips said ~

...This week's challenge was tough, but great, as always. It turned out a little busy, but I am still happy with it. I can't wait to see what others have done.

So many fun things going on here - see how Kristen used the detail lines of Moonpie on her Aquafluer.  Her River mid line is dark and thick - a great compliment to the neighboring dark spaces. She posted it here on her blog.

Next is my contribution ~

It is a bit of a departure for me because when I sat down to tangle this, my intention was to tangle the entire tile.  I began with Aquafluer, then the River mid line followed by a single Moonpie.  Once a few Gutz broke away from the 'pack' I stopped, aura-ed in either direction of River, and was suddenly satisfied with the look - a total surprise!

Sue said, "Thought i'd give this one a try. I'm still working on shading and getting many inspirations online."

This is inspiring - a Moonpie center aura-ed with River and wrapped in Aqufluer - fabulous!

Kathryn White said that she "merged Moonpie and Gutz through their overlapping space" adding that "Aquafluer is a new favorite!" ~

What fun to have Gutz ooze between and through Aquafluer (sounds so Halloween!).  River wrapping around is lovely, too.
Kathryn also posted it here on her website.


Juul wrote ~

Bonjour chère Adèle!
Here is my very modeste contribution to this weeks challenge....found the string "trés difficile"!

But she makes it look easy with lovely lines of Aquafluer, gobs of Gutz, and  magnifique shading!


Ilse Lukken said she was curious as well, to see what others did with this challenge ~

She highlighted each of the four tangles in each of the loops of the string line.  She left the other spaces white and that really made the tangles shine.

Joya wrote, "Here's my tile for this weeks' challenge. I also posted it on my blog.

Joya tangled along the border and string line with Gutz - a wonderful idea.  Her curvy Aquafluer and Moonpie spaces are bold and compliment River so well.



Joan Delony wrote ~

What a surprise to see Moonpie in the challenge this week! Thanks. Of course I used it. I did two tiles. The first one, I used Moonpie drawn in a grid as it is shown on TanglePatterns.com.

The second tile, I made Moonpie as a floating pattern. The second tile looks like a day at the beach to me with striped umbrellas and the ocean shore. I can't wait to see all the tiles. Every week, I marvel at the incredible creativity in the Zentangle world.

How fun to have Joan use her own pattern in two different ways.  And how fun to see Moonpie break out of a grid like that - lovely!  See more of Joan's work here on her blog.


Ragged Ray returns (yay!) with this note ~

... I wrapped the sort-of-Aquafleur around the string line. Popped in some Gutz leaving some white space around them. And a couple of large Moonpies - I've loved the way other tanglers use this enlargement approach in your challenges and wanted to try it myself.

A string line of Aquafluer - very clever.  It is true that the single, large tangle idea is something other wonderful tanglers have inspired us with through these challenges.  Moonpie is the string loop, especially with all the detail lines, really shines.

Annemarie wrote ~

In the attachment my entry for your last challenge. I love every second I worked on it. Thanks for giving me some very pleasant zen hours.

She aura-ed her string line and in so doing created well defined areas to tangle.  Note her thick dark line of River and the dark intersection of her string lines.
She also posted her tile here on her blog.


Ingrid Coventon tile was accompanied by this delightful note ~

In the attachment my ST #61. As soon as I saw the challenge I knew I wanted to use Aquafleur for sure. In aquafleur some River and the black worms are supposted to be Gutz. But because I blackened them in, they transformed into some creature-like wormthingies. Well haha, that's the way Zentangle goes. I loved to draw this tile.

Every week I look at the submitted tiles, I'm amazed about everyone's creativity and the load of possibilities to draw the challenge as well. Especially when a challenge is a real challenge to me and I can not come up with something else than what I have drawn and see no other possibilities. Zentangle opens and broadens my horizons. That is a great gift of Zentangle.

Swirls of Aquafluer just pull the eye in and around this fabulous tile.  Ingrid's use of River is very creative as I am sure she has returned the favor and inspired other tanglers with her work.


Susan Theron wrote ~

I've started with tile 1 (string61.1) without the floating Gutz and thought it can be a butterfly and started with tile 2 and after the butterfly was finished something was lacking, so I aura-ed it. And then I looked at the first tile again and thought it also lacked something, so it had Gutz added. I do not know which one I prefer. So I will call them "undecided".
Always looking forward to see what the other tanglers did and what the new challenge looks like.

Both!  That would be the answer - they are both favorites.  Susan's detail lines and sparkle make both tiles stand out and her shading is wonderful.


Jane Glotzer from COLORADO sent this tile.  I wrote that in capital letters because when her tile was honored last week, I mistakenly said she was from Arizona.  My apologies, Jane.

This one didn't give me as much trouble as last week's, but it is still quite satisfying to finish it! :) Although, I think it looks more like a study of the four tangles, as opposed to an integrated "piece."

I started by deciding to let the Moonpie out of its grid, and did it in a more freeform way...
And I like very much how River came out...
This is the first time I could get an Aquafleur to look like anything at all...I watched Ellen Wolter's video and it was quite helpful...she is really amazing, if you are not familiar with her...she has a channel on YouTube that other tanglers should check out if they have not already...I used a bit of Sparkle as she does in her tutorial, but I had a small problem with one of the "arms"...it's pretty obvious which one, so don't look too closely, but I'm trying to focus on the good parts...so very zentangly of me--:)
Lastly, Gutz is not the type of tangle I'm generally drawn to (pun intended) but I decided to try to use all 4 tangles this time, so there it is...I added some dots and border lines to add to the "internal" effect--makes me think of my appendectomy a few months ago!

A great sense of humor and many delightful details - Moonpie out of its grid and shaded as though bent, sparkle, dots, and pretty patterns.


Lucy Banta said ~

This was a fun one. I didn't know about Moonpie, and I think it has lots of possibilities and will become a favorite!
Here's a link to my blog post.

This is a terrific take on the tangles - four Moonpie sections, Aquafluer corners and thick lines on Gutz.


Cat Trask said ~

I don't know why, but this weeks challenge was such fun for me! I soon as I drew the string and looked up the patterns, THEY told me where they wanted to be.
River was the first to jump in, but didn't want me to draw the ripples until I was done. Aquafluer was next, but was a tile hog and wanted to take up two areas... LOL.
Moonpie and Gutz each took their place, and then river let me add a few ripples. This is the first time the patterns and string told me where they wanted to be. I think they do a better job of building tiles than I do!!!

Cat, that is such a happy, zentangle-ly thought!  And just look at the happy result.  Cat's variations of Aquafluer are awesome.



Lily Moon sent this wonderful tile ~

Moonpie wrapped in Aquafluer, accented with brown, dots, sparkle, and shading - all masterful details.  Shading of River and sparkle in Gutz lend such an elegant balance to the other sections.


Peggy Kohrmann wrote ~

This string seemed very busy and I don't always see how to make things flow. Since three of the tangles were new, it is always fun to see how it plays out at the end.
I like the River and Aquafleur because the shading makes depth. The Gutz was fun to play with as I learned it, but this single one Is a disappointment. I will be looking at how others get Moonpie to be three dimensional. I did a bit of color- pink in honor of breast cancer month and because they do color up from their diets.

That is an interesting fact!  Peggy said it well - that shading adds depth to the tangles.  Note how she alternated rows of shading in River and then along the edges of Gutz and Aquafluer.  The dark spaces make the patterns really pop.

Kelly Rickert sent two tiles.  The first is by her sister Becky ~

...This challenge was fun :) And I got my little sister to try it too! She is 16 years old and hasn't quite got the "zen" part of the tangling process yet. But she stuck with it despite her frustrations! I love her tile :) It reminds me of a field of little flowers. (Her name is Becky)

That was an ambitious first tile.  Well done, Becky!

Kelly added ~

As for my tile, it was fun to play with these strings :) I've wanted to use Gutz for a while now, but haven't until this challenge!!!
Coolest part of this one? Seeing how incredibly differently my sister and I approached the string and the selected tangles :D I love how the Gutz looks almost like bacteria through a microscope.

That is fun!  Note how Kelly used the string line for River and also left her lines light in Aquafluer - nice touches.


And now, the tile for honors this week comes to us from South Africa ~

CZT Brenda Urbanik sent this pretty piece ~

Brenda said that she "... just enjoyed playing and tangling (except for Gutz!!!)."

While not her favorite pattern to tangle, she did a fabulous job with Gutz.  She added sparkle and darkened in spaces.  Aquafluer is brilliant - curving and wrapping and shining and stretching across the tile.

Brenda also posted her tile here on her blog.

Congratulations, Brenda!  I have a little something coming in the mail for you.


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

Thank you to the creative minds behind the string and tangles used this week ~

CZT Margaret Bremner via Linda Farmer at TanglePatterns for the lovely string.

Moonpie by CZT Joan Delony

Aquafluer by Maria Thomas

River by CZT Suzanne McNeill

Gutz by Patricia Cosiano

Stop by tomorrow afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #62 !