Tips for Tangling Fassett

Since this week's "It's a String Thing" employs the fabulous tangle Fassett by CZT Lynn Mead,
 here is a revisit of my Tips for Tangling first posted last February ~

Lynn Mead's new tangle pattern FASSETT continues to captivate me.  

I used it in last week's challenge and taught it to a large class this past weekend. 

There is one fine point about tangling this intriguing pattern that keeps cropping up when people first use it - namely, why a 'star' or 'flower' effect is achieved when drawing the tangle and at other times it seems to go askew.

Let's take a look...

Here are the first basic steps for Fassett:

Adele Bruno, CZT

Note that the pattern begins with a triangle.  Each additional triangle shares a line and two points with the one before.
The key to this step out is that lines of neighboring triangles intersect at the same points.  
In the above example, five lines intersect at each of the two middle points -very much like five pointed stars.  When the finished lines are drawn from the center of each aura-ed triangle, the end result looks like this -

Now, if we drew Fassett and began with the same simple triangle, but drew additional ones that intersected lines as well as points - it would look something like this:

Fassett Step Out,   Adele Bruno, CZT

Note the red arrow.   The triangle below the arrow intersects the bottom line of the triangle above it, not at a point.

The step out continues in the same fashion - aura each triangle - but when the lines are drawn from the center of each of these triangles, the result is slightly different:

You can see where the 'star' effect is achieved when the triangles intersect at the same point as well as the really interesting effect that occurs when the triangles intersect at lines.

Now that you can detect the differences- just for fun, go back and look over the tiles from this week's challenge.  (click here to view)  You'll be able to see where the pattern was drawn in the two different variations.

Keep tangling!  Enjoy!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Zendala by Adele Bruno, CZT - A monotangle of Phroz by CZT Lynn Mead

"One kind word can warm three winter months."
                                                                                                                            Japanese Proverb

"It's a String Thing" #81

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

It is our really good news day to be exact!

CZT Lynn Mead developed a new pattern she calls Phroz. It is as captivating as its sister pattern Fassett.

The object of this week's challenge is to use both tangles in a tile.

TanglePatterns String 082 by Judi Palumbo seems to lend itself to the triangular grids of Fassett and Phroz so I have included it here.   However, if creating your own string, using another, or none at all suits your style with these tangles, please feel free to do so.

Copyrighted image used with permission by TanglePatterns.com 

Last February, I wrote Tips for Tangling Fassett  and
the pattern was also featured in "It's a String Thing" #25 - both are good references for ideas.

Step outs for CZT Lynn Mead's
Fassett and
Phroz
can be found by clicking their names above, or directly on TanglePatterns.

Simply pencil the string line onto your tile and tangle away!  
Keep in mind that the string line is merely a suggestion, let the tangles lead you.

Here are the (Not so) Official Guidelines: 
* Challenges are posted on Tuesdays.
*Use the string posted for the week and patterns that begin or contain the letter(s) indicated
* Submit a photo of your tile saved as jpg or scan your tile (300 dpi or higher) and save as a jpg
*Email your jpg file as an attachment to - brunoadelem@gmail.com
*Entries are to be submitted by Saturday evenings.
*Photos and 'Best of Show' are posted on Mondays. 

Send in your photos - you will encourage and inspire fellow Zentangle® enthusiasts all over the world.

PLEASE NOTE: It is not necessary for you to have a blog or website to participate.

If you do have a blog or website, I will add a link upon request.  
Please include the site specific URL. 

I look forward to your emails.
HAVE FUN!

"It's a String Thing" #80 Tiles

This week's challenge proved to be quite a bit of fun.  There were just two tangles to get to know and a string that reminded one participant of a cup of coffee.

Let's take a look ~

This first tile arrived from Lori Byerly who wrote ~

Both these tangle patterns were new to me and in playing with them I wound up with tangleations. A square became a rectangle, a circle became an arc, and the jumble of cozy spun out into individual "shells." It's funny how a drawing can take on a life of its own as you develop it. Great fun.
You can see my tile here also.

Tangled Tidbits -
*large and lovely sections of the tangles
*beautiful shading
*Kozy dots


A very warm welcome to Marie Tvrdíková from the Czech Republic.  She wrote, "I am sending my tile. I have named it "Hard disc“ – it reminds me of a hard disc inside that I have seen sometime."

Tangled Tidbits -
*sensational spirals of Kozy
*a swath of Inaura that changes as it moves from top to bottom
*a very pleasing balance of white and black spaces

From Germany Sandra wrote ~

thank you so much for another nice challenge! Both of the patterns were new to me. I drew the string on my tile and just started to tangle and I found that Inaura is a really great pattern! In the end it is difficult to recognize the string in my tile but I used it ;-)
It was again a nice challenge!
You find the tile on my blog too:

Tangled Tidbits -
*use of the string while not being confined to it
*wonderful variations of the patterns
*depth added with shading

Carmela wrote ~

Indeed is Tuesday for me the good news day and I love your challenges.
At the first site i didn’t like the string, but that's the challenge.
Kozy is a very beautiful , but also difficult pattern, but i love it.
Inaura is also nice to draw.
I made 2 variations of each pattern end was happy surprised of my end result.
On my blog 

Tangled Tidbits -
*two very pretty contrasting variations of Inaura
*corners of curling Kozy

Terri Young wrote, "I posted my challenge on my blog and attaching the picture."

Tangled Tidbits -
* lovey lines and curves of Kozy
*a billowing backdrop of Inaura


Kristen Kostelnik Killips wrote ~

This week's challenge was good fun, both tangles were new to me. I ended up with a Kozy monotangle and believe it or not, the string is under there. Once I started, I just couldn't stop!

Tangled Tidbits -
*Kristen describes the best of tangling experiences - a disappearing string while being carried away by a tangle
*added curls to Kozy


From Neena ~

Here's my contribution for this week.
It was great fun to draw this tile, especially because both patterns were new for me.
My site: Favorite Passtime

Tangled Tidbits -
*three colors of Kozy
*shaded background for Inaura



With hugs from LilyMoon ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*a perfect blend of brown, black, and white tangles
*an elegant variation of Kozy



CZT Laura Elmer wrote ~

...I want to thank you so much for your weekly challenges. I learn so much each
week. This week I learned to work with my graphic pen in a lighter way and/or
just use my micron to finish filling in dark areas and skip the graphic pen. I really
liked working with these two tangles and hope to develop "Kozy" more to use in
a class about shading. [blog link]

Tangled Tidbits -
*cascading tangles
*dramatic dark spaces


Emily Shelton wrote ~

You certainly pushed me on this one. I would never put these 2 patterns together in a million years. I just couldn't think how the organic and the geometric could coexist peacefully on the page. It was a wonderful exercise for me.
I used one “4-legged” Kozy and two 1-legged. When I filled in only one side of a 1-legged Kozy, it looked like a beautiful wing.
I enjoyed getting lost in the repetition in both of these auras – very relaxing.

Tangled Tidbits -
*many beautiful looks achieved for Kozy
*a dramatic dark edged banner of Inaura



Joanne  Faherty lamented, "Here's this weeks one I struggled with it all the week the tangles and the string! :( it all came out a bit strange."

Tangled Tidbits -
*Joanne expressed a struggle with this tile, but persevered and has a beautiful tile to show for it
*great takes on Inaura
*a shaded background accents the tangles


A very warm welcome to Jackie J!  She wrote ~

This is my first time participating in your "It's a String Thing" weekly challenge. I've been been a spectator for months, and finally found the time to participate. I really enjoyed drawing Kozy, but I couldn't it and Inaura to flow to my liking. So, I decided to do second tile, a monotangle with Inaura. I attached both, and here is my blog .
Thank you for putting such a fun and inspiring Zentangle challenge together. I look forward to learning a lot from the "It's a String Thing" community.

Tangled Tidbits -
*in the first tile, the dark and light spaces of Inaura change at the string lines
*the second tile features a very pretty overlapping of Kozy



Susan Theron said ~

This challenge was really zen for me - no thinking, just tangling and enjoying. Thanks again for your challenges. Also on my blog:

Tangled Tidbits -
*black, highlighted pearlz of Kozy
*Inaura poking in and around Kozy



Ilse Lukken said, "Thanks for another inspiring challenge! I'm curious to see what the other tanglers did."   (That is always the fun part of the challenge!)

Tangled Tidbits -
*alternating black and white spaces of the string
*beautiful swirls of Kozy

Cindy Straight wrote, "Thanks again for an awesome challenge. The pairing of these two designs was great fun! [My blog]"

Tangled Tidbits -
*wonderful shading on all sides of Kozy makes the tangle seem to rise off the paper
*alternating dark and light aura of Inaura


From Heidi ~

This week's challenge surprised me! After looking at the string and the tangles, I thought, "wow, how is this going to work together?" But it actually came together rather quickly and easily. I liked how the darker arches echoed and mirrored each other. I also like how Inaura could be used randomly or in a more organized fashion. Kozy was fun to flip rotate and skew to create different effects. Thanks again for sponsoring the challenges.

Tangled Tidbits -
*small Inaura circles between larger circles and squares
*alternating black and white aura that changes mid tile
*beautiful Kozy

Cathy Cusson wrote of her colorful tile ~

Ooooo, this was a tough one, Adele! The string and the two tangles did not seem to want to be friends at least in my brain. I can't wait to see what all the other folks do. I enjoyed playing with two new tangles, though. I decided a tiny bit of color might make this look a bit less ordinary. 

Tangled Tidbits -
*triangular dark edges of Kozy
*Inaura pushing passed the string line

Michele Wynne said ~

Both of these patterns were new to me. I loved the string because it reminded me of a cup of coffee radiating auras of warmth. It immediately gelled with me because my blog is called Coffee & Creativity. I had high expectations of myself (as usual). Things did not go as planned (does it ever?) Kozy was just not cooperating and it was one hot mess after another. I gave up a couple of times.
This started out as yet another practice piece in my "throwaway" sketchbook and it began to take shape this morning. I just kept going with it and realized that I probably won't have time to commit this to a real tile.
I'm calling this a work-in-progress and a tiny triumph.

Tangled Tidbits -
*a major key to tangling is just that - to "keep going" - so hat's off to Michele!
*swirls and wonderful curves of Kozy


Amrita Chaudhary said, "Kozy is an elegant tangle and it was fun doing it and the simplicity of Inaura makes it a fun tangle. Nice picks."

Tangled Tidbits -
*shaded and sparkled Inaura
*very elegant Kozy

Colette Horsburgh said,"I've been playing with silver pens a lot recently and had to continue that for this."

Tangled Tidbits -
*silver on black - a pretty combination
*varied sizes of the tangles adds great interest


Portia Hyde quipped, "Kozy reminds me of fabric on old sofas and somebody sure messed up the tile on that Inaura floor."

Tangled Tidbits -
*superb shading- the circles of Kozy and edges of Inaura
*delightful balance of light and dark

Cat Trask wrote -

Thanks again for all you do to keep this wonderful challenge going each week.
When I am able to participate, I always enjoy it so much, and learn so much.
Here is my submission to this weeks challenge.

Tangled Tidbits -
*shaded edges of each loop of Kozy
*three variations of Inaura

From Magdalene Lee ~

Thank you for this week's challenge. I really enjoyed having just two tangles to explore. When I first put pen to paper I didn't see how the two of them would fill up the whole tile, but the more I drew the more ways I could see to explore them, and I intend to continue exploring Kozy after this. We should do this two-tangle thing more often, it's fun to just study the tangles in detail!
I've posted the tile on my blog as well. Thanks for compiling all the tiles week after week!

Check out Magdalene's second tile on her blog (click the link above)

Tangled Tidbits - (just a few of the many delightful details)
*offset aura in Inaura circles
*stacked squares of Inaura
*Kozy spinning from Inaura


Natasja Rijsbergen said, "Thank you for this weeks challenge.
Both tangles were new to me and I loved drawing them. I loved the the string as well."

Tangled Tidbits -
*bold black spaces
*a tipple surround of Inaura
*a graceful flow to Kozy


From Efie van Rekum-Derksen and on her blog ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*floating bits of Inaura
*a lacy Kozy without dark edges


Ingrid Coventon said ~

Loved to do this one. The tangle patterns are absolutely worth it to play with more often. They both were new to me and I like them.
Thank you for your step out about Inaura. Fun to start in different ways as you showed.

Tangled Tidbits -
*dark centers of Inaura
*detail lines and dark edges of Kozy
*shaded background



Joan Delony said ~

I like Inaura. I love your post about it. There is so much you can do with it. I tried out a couple different versions but ended up with the simplest version when I used Kozy with it. I found Kozy to be difficult to draw even though the step outs looked really simple. I have posted this tile on my blog.

Tangled Tidbits -
*thick outlines of Kozy
*wonderful inside and outside shading of Inaura


Jane Glotzer said ~

So...string thing #80...just two cool tangles to play with...I loved everything you did with Inaura...I had gotten to mine before your post, and I kept it pretty simple, just filling in the centers, but I did try to vary the scale of the shapes in the three sections of my piece--small on the right, medium on the left, and large on the top...at first I thought I was going to add some colors to the lines of the "frames" but in the end, I really loved all those lines, so I stuck with the traditional B&W. As you said, shading adds so much to these layered type of tangles. I'm not sure I quite got the hang of Kozy, but since there are no mistakes in Zentangle--how convenient and wonderful--:)--I still like how it came out...a couple of spaces with the many armed version and then a couple of variations with just a piece...This tile gave me the opportunity to see how far my linework has come...only a couple of blips and bloops--new pen, too--:)

Tangled Tidbits -
*elegant lines of Kozy and varying sizes to boot!
*dark centers and background for Inaura

Christina Luis said ~

Here is my entry for this week. [Kozy] was a bit of a challenge for me. I am still working on it. I really like Inuara. Thanks for another great challenge.
It is also posted on my blog.

Tangled Tidbits -
*thicker outer lines contrast nicely with the lighter inner lines
*wonderful shading


Ann K wrote ~

I really love both the tangles you chose for this weeks challenge. Both were new to me, so I have been playing around with them for a while and will certainly be using them again.
I also posted this on my blog

Tangled Tidbits -
*Kozy tangled from opposing directions with very pretty variations
*a speckled black background
*Kozy tucked into Inaura

Sharyn Penna said ~

I don't know which I liked better, this week's string or the tangles! Your prompt choices were a happy respite to the weather ... my snow woes are as deep as the 4-5 ft. deep snow banks that flank my shoveled (not plowed) driveway. Tangling my tile warmed my heart, soothed my aches, and made me smile. And as I'm ready to send this to you, the snow is falling ... once again. 

Tangled Tidbits -
*graceful pods of Kozy
*a tippled string line
*Inaura floating in its dark back drop

Sue Agnew wrote ~

Here's this week's challenge. Whew, I'm not used to using so much black ... this is probably the most I've ever used ... but "reversing" the motifs was the only way I could make sense of the horizontal dividing line.
Kozy kind of creeped me out at first ... looked too much like a cocoon or larva ... but I liked it when I put it in a circle. In my practice book I put the "flowers" closer together with less black in between ... but I was getting tired when I got to that corner. I like the way rounding the ends of the "petals" suddenly makes it change.
When I was doing Inaura the circles seemed to want to always be on top, so I let them. Reading about your experiments was very helpful. I found that if you start small and aura out it's easier to get consistently spaced auras, but if you start large and aura in it's easier to space the motifs in a planned way. If planning is your goal.

Tangled Tidbits -
*sparkled Inaura
*a light to dark progression of tangles
*creative Kozy circles



Peggy Kohrmann (who has joined us for a whole year now!) wrote ~

Here is 80 string thing! I've now been doing your challenges for a year. I love this art form and the challenge to learn new things. Kozy is different from others and I really like it! Inaura is not a fav because it does have enough structure and depends too much on shading. I'm still having trouble with shading.
Colorado is finally cold and we have received about 7 inches of snow today. We may have an additional 3-6 inches when we wake in the morning. We have had such great warm weather that it was time to get chilly. 

Tangled Tidbits -
*awesome variations of Inaura
*Kozy shaded along the five curved lines
*shaded background


From Tonya Marie and on her blog ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*beautifully edged Kozy
*dark and light contrasts
*tiny and large Inaura


A very warm welcome to Susan Szanthmary who wrote ~

I'm a fairly new zentangler ......
Here's my first attempt ..The kozy ended up looking like turmeric bulbs!
I used cross hatch instead of completely blacking out the background ...
I'll probably give this another try !
Thanks for the challenge!

Tangled Tidbits -
*alternating light and dark spaces
*beautiful 'bulbs' of Kozy
*great depth achieved in Inaura


Joya sent her tile with "lots of greetings" ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*cascading Inaura with changing variations
*large and lovely Kozy 
*scrumptious shading


Welcome back to CZT Anna Houston ~
After a long absence( during which I lurked and marveled) I decided once again to join in your challenge. It does make me stretch my wings!

Tangled Tidbits -
*cozy clusters of Kozy
*three variations of Inaura
*a chain of Inaura without the inner aura - brilliant!


Audrie Weisenfelder wrote ~

I really struggled with this one. I could not find a way to use Kozy and Inaura together; at least not in this string. And since I couldn't really get Kozy to look right; it had to be the one to go...

Tangled Tidbits ~
*what fun to recognize the string line!
*intermingled variations of Inaura


From Suzanne Moshier (and on her blog )~

Tangled Tidbits -
*a progression of shapes for Inaura
*great shading




And now, the tile for honors this week was sent in by Traci who wrote ~

What fun!
Normally, I would have never put these two together. One is so soft and flowing ... The other is very stiff. I enjoyed the contrast.

Tangled Tidbits -
*a beautiful flow to Kozy 
*butterfly semblances
*an abundance of Inaura 

CONGRATULATIONS Traci!   I have a little something coming in the mail for you.

Thank you to everyone for sending in your wonderful tiles this week.

Many thanks to the creative minds behind the string and tangles we used ~

Kozy by Marieke van Nimwegen
and
Inaura by CZT Bunny Wright
with
TanglePatterns String 080 by CZT Jane Dickinson


Check back Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #81!