"It's a String Thing" #71 Tiles

It's Christmas week and finding time to tangle in the midst of the festivities has proven to be very relaxing, especially for the participants of this week's challenge.
We used Arukas by Molly Hollibaugh and a lovely string by Carolyn Koesters.   Let's take a look ~


The first tile arrived from Carmela who wrote ~

Arukas is a very beautiful pattern and I tried it 2 weeks ago at the Diva Challenge, but without a string.
Now I placed Arukas in the spaces of the string. i made different sizes and variations...
At my blog.

Carmela tangled beautiful variations and sizes of Arukas and in so doing, defined the string line - how fun.

Lori Byerly said ~

This was a challenging challenge. :) I was tempted to go simple and use only a couple of the lines from the string, but instead I decided to go all out and use them all. It took me a couple of tries to make it work, but that was nice too because it gave me the chance to work with akuras. I like it more each time I play with it.
You can also see my tile here.

The finished tile is very dramatic.  Gorgeous shading and a deep dark center play well with the lines of the pattern.  But to think that Lori included the string line in her piece while managing to create one large Arukas is truly a fabulous feat.

Lucy Banta sent Christmas greetings along with her note ~

LOVE Arukas! So happy you featured it as a monotangle this week. I did add in some tipple, so mine isn't truly a monotangle, but in the spirit of Christmas, I thought it would be OK to stretch the boundaries.
Here's the link to my website.

Yes, it is more than OK :)  Lucy added Tipple along the border, as filler, and popping through the center of her tangles.  Note all of those overlapping and intersecting lines - wonderful!

Portia Hyde wrote, "This is very busy but I think it might look good colored. Kind of Steam Punk? "

Perhaps she was reminded of such because of the angular finish to some of her sections and certainly her wonderful shading adds a metal type look to some of the sections.  However one would classify it, it must come under the category of "wonderful" !


A very warm Christmastime welcome to Beverly who sent in her first tile ~

While Beverly used her own assortment of patterns, she did include the string line.  It in turn, stands out so well in conjunction with the tangles.


Natasja Rijsbergen sent Christmas wishes with her note - 

Here is my monotangle Arukas.
At first I thought what to do with this string... So I just started drawing and this is my finished tangle. It was fun to make!!

That describes a true Zentangle experience - letting go and being pleasantly surprised - and pleased - by the outcome.  Look at the variety she added and notice how her lines along the string curve under just a bit giving a sense of depth.  That is fabulous.

Sandra also sent merry Christmas wishes - 

I was so happy about your new string challenge, because I
used Arukas for several christmas cards and I really love that pattern :-)

When I saw the string I had the idea to draw arukas a bit different as before and so I used the string as the arukas-basic in the middle :-)

To tangle the tile was great and though the days before christmas are so stressful I felt calm and confident.
Thank you so much for this :-)

I posted my tile on my blog too.

Just looking at Sandra's tile, a calm can be felt.  Notice how she made the string line dark and complimented it with darker spaces in her background.  By adding shading and sparkle, she gave great dimension to her tangles.

Jenna Wheatmann returns this week!  She said, "Loved the string line and I had lots of fun playing with arukas. Not sure it follows the pattern strictly, but I just let it flow and this is what I came up with."

She "just let it flow" in true Zentangle style and the result is stunning.  

Then she added ~

"Not sure if you are putting a challenge on next week or if you do whether I will have time so I have attached a Happy Christmas "

Tomorrow will feature "It's a String Thing" #72 - yay! - and it is wonderful to receive such a festive Happy Christmas.  Thank you, Jenna.

Heike Mosebach wrote,"...Arukas is a versatile pattern. It's fun to play with the variant. I wish you a merry christmas."

The tangle looks beautiful on a Renaissance tile.  Notice how the string peeks out from behind.  Heike ended the tangle while the arcs were quite large, leaving wonderful spaces.  It is very dramatic.

Sue Jacobs, CZT, said ~

I snuck in a little time between festivities to do the string challenge this week. I really enjoy doing Arukas. I started with a dark blue colored tile and used a white jelly roll pen for the Arukas, I then added some highlights with the white charcoal pencil and a few shading areas with a blue colored pencil.
It [is] on my blog.

Sue has an enviable touch with the Gelly Roll pen - the tangle is just beautiful in blue.

Annemarie sent wishes for a "great Holiday" ~  "I created two tiles this week, it was relaxing and after finishing I did a Bijou tile extra."

She also posted them here on her blog.

Annmarie created two totally different looks for Arukas by mixing up her paper and color.   The first brings a Christmas tree star to mind, doesn't it?



Ilse Lukken said ~

I decided to use all of the lines the string offers. I like monotangling! Once finished, I realised I should have left some white space in the top right as well to get a tile that is better balanced, but I'm still happy with the result.
Happy Holidays!

Ilse darkened the string line and created a new Arukas in each section.  Notice how she tangled some 'arms' of the pattern to a point and others not.  Her shading in fabulous.

From Ingrid Coventon ~

Arukas was very new to me, but it was a pretty acquaintance. I was too much in the learning mode drawing this pattern then to discover different ways to draw this pattern. Because this time of year I colored the "stars" with a little touch of yellow and orange.

The acquaintance made for a very pretty tile and it is very festive for the Holiday.  Ingrid left just a few spaces of the string white and tangled an Arukas in each of the other spaces.  

From Jane Glotzer ~

...Arukas is totally fun...tried a variation or two, different numbers of spokes, but wasn't able to get a cool star to appear...I realized I have to follow through more with the aura-ing of the initial circle, but I still like what did appear with my choices... I kept it simple with just a touch of darkness and shading, and left lots of white space to show off the patterns...looking forward to seeing the variation everyone gets with just this one tangle!

Jane's "darkness and shading" and white space do really show off the tangle in all its beauty.  Notice the dark center of her pattern, too.

Colette Horsburgh said, "I forgot about the Arukas rule, and got carried away, so I did it twice!"

This is her first tile ~

 And her second ~

Notice how Colette used a variety of widths in her initial spokes.  This provides a lovely diversity within the same pattern.

  

From Kirsten Bish   ~

Enclosed please find my newest Tangle,
"Ode to Stary Night ".
I had a lot of fun with this challenge.
All that line work...
Thanks for all you do!


P. S. Happy Holidays to you and all my fellow Tanglers .

A gold mine of Arukas!  Kirsten tangled a variety of beginnings for the tangle and wonderful line work flows from them outward and into each other.  It is an energy filled "Starry Night".

Susan Theron who's work in the computer field can be trying at times, said it is "no wonder" she needs Zentangle in her life.  I think we can all relate to that :)  She wrote of her tile, "You will find Arukas-Akuras as well as the string there but a bit disguised." 

The alternating light and dark spaces are striking.  Notice how Susan added sparkle and shading and how both follow the curve of her tangle's lines.

Lily Moon, along with her good wishes, sent two tiles this week that are just spectacular.  She wrote,
"This week I drew two tiles. One of them on white paper and the other one on Tan paper."

Such a simple statement for simply beautiful work ~

 Both of these are 'feasts for the eyes' - so many details...shading, highlights, her signature touch of brown...

Study this one carefully.  Notice how Lily added the dark triangles to the spokes of the pattern and black lines turn to white as they run through.  She striped the arced lines, added sparkle, and tapered them into dots.  It is marvelously mesmerizing.  

A very warm welcome to Suzanne Moshier who wrote ~

Here’s my creation for the It’s a String Thing Challenge #71. I really enjoy Arukas and I’m happy with the way this turned out.
...a link to my blog too.

Suzanne began with squares, triangles, and circles - how fun!


Felicity Strohfeldt created a tile full of good tidings.  She wrote ~

This week’s challenge was a bit of a nightmare for me. When I saw the string for the first time, my mind couldn’t get past all the lines in the string and only one tangle to cover it all. The next thought was Christmas, Holy Child , angels and stars! Burnout time! First I decided against trying at all. Then the conscience took over. I also found Akuras a challenge to use. What to do with all the lines and how to do it neatly trying to control my shaking hand? Anyway I went ahead with a simplified string. Tackled the Christmassy idea and introduced slightly comical versions of the spiritual characters...

It is a wonderful thing that Felicity worked through her hesitations and set aside time to tangle this. It captures Christmas joy - the Babe sleeping peacefully as angles sing.  Merry Christmas!


From Ragged Ray - something we can all take to heart - 

I've learnt a valuable lesson this week - instead of thinking 'I've got no time, I can't tangle' I've tweaked it to be 'I've got little time, what can I tangle with what I've got'.

And this tile is the result. No time to fill all those different string sections, no time to try all sort of fancy variations and complex ideas. Just turn the string into a ribbon, pick a couple of variations I'd previously tried out in my sketchbook and pop them into a couple of the areas. And lo and behold a strange but festive harp, ready to accompany us as we tangle our way toward our celebrations, in whatever form they take.

Simple and elegant and timely - a gift in itself.  Merry Christmas.

From Sharyn Penna ~

Arukas has captured my heart and attention, but I have yet to find the star within. So, I added my lemonade remedy to the mix...I curved the straight lines and added Mooka for the rescue!
I really like this tile, but I won't rest till I can ultimately find that star! Sounds like a New Year resolution!
Wishing you and yours a warm and Merry Christmas! 

The star effect is more evident when the spokes of the tangle are straight.  Sharyn's curved and connected spokes make the star less evident but her tile shines in its own way.  Lovely lines of Mooka and carefully shaded Arukas are beautifully complimentary.


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

Christiane Plate ~

She called her tile "Stars and Holly" and sent "twinkling greetings" ~

That takes us right into Christmas, doesn't it?
Christiane created playful patterns peeking out from one another.  She varied the centers as well as the shapes and topped them all off with sparkle and shading.

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

Many thanks to everyone for sharing your work and inspiring the rest of us.

Special thanks to Carolyn Koesters via TanglePatterns for the lovely string and to
Molly Hollibaugh for the amazing Arukas.

Stop by Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #72!