"It's a String Thing" #143 Tiles

Happy Monday!

We are just after Mother's Day and I trust your celebrations were grand.

And speaking of celebrations, Friday's opening reception for the "Tickled to Tangle Art Show" was very special.  Thank you all for your good wishes, I am very grateful.

To mark the occasion, we used a string that mimicked the mosaic lines by the door of the Casselberry Art House where the exhibit is held ~

IAST #143

The first tile arrived from Sarah (Michigan) ~

Here is the door. I just got carried away by Sand Swirl once I put some color down. I imagine it like etched glass as you enter and see all the wonderful works of art inside! Congratulations! Do share pictures!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*string sections are distinguished by changes in light and darkness of Sandswirl


From Joan Delony, CZT (Florida) and participant in the show ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*N'Zeppel shaded at intersections


From smgg (Taiwan) and on her Instagram ~

Have a nice day!!!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*in the smaller grid of N'Zeppel, one section is darkened and sparkled


From Joke Leussenkamp (The Netherlands) ~

This time I made 2 tiles. Not satisfied with the first one I decided to make a second one making the door space in your string an entrance to your exhibition.
Hope you like it and again lots of success with the exhibition!!
Tangle love and greetings from The Netherlands,

 Tangled Tidbits -
*variation in size of Tipple
*detailed shading


From Lily Moon (Hungary) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*dark and aura-ed background for Sand Swirl
*Tipple in N'Zeppel and Swarm


From Hilary Merola (Illinois) ~

I would be exaggerating if I said I spent all day yesterday on this, but let's just say it took up a good deal of time! My biggest challenge was trying to blend the patterns together.
I'm looking forward to seeing your photos of the Casselberry Art show. Have a wonderful time!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Swarm filled Sand Swirl
*Tipple and Swarm filled N'Zeppel


From Heidi Sue (Utah) and here on her blog ~

Cool string! I want to play with it some more.
When I got done with my tile for this challenge, I thought it would be fun to make a couple more, but turning the tiles so "up" was a different direction each time.
Same string, but I turned them. I figured I'd break right out of the box and put tangles in different places, but when it came right down to it, Sand Swirl just SIMPLY would not go anywhere but the large rectangle, and N'zeppel liked the narrow rectangle, while swarm liked corners and curves. Though the second one, N'zeppel is quite different...I like that version of N'zeppel. But swarm...tut. Too bad about that one.
at any rate, I had a grand time with this week's challenge. thanks!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Three lovely variations of Sand Swirl
*shading, shadows, and fine lines to accent N'Zeppel


From Aloyna Pakhomova (Toronto, Canada) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*N'Zeppel shaded around the outer sides lends roundness
*Tippled Swarm burst


From Miriam G (California) ~ 

I had a little trouble with this one - it just came out too busy for me. Guess I got carried away with the tangles. I do like the way Tipple came out, however. The colorized version looks a bit better - paying a little homage to that lovely red door! Thanks for another fun challenge. Wish I could visit the art show, but hope you'll be able to share a few photos.

Tangled Tidbits -

*aura-ed N'Zeppel

*wonderful variation in Tipple size

From Talia Maynard (London, United Kingdom) ~

I love the string this week. It reminds me of stained glass windows. Originally I wanted to so a minimalist piece with colour but I kind of got carried away!
I also got sandswirl completely wrong at first! It took me over half the tile to realise I wasn't doing it right! Oh well.
Hope you're having a lovely week. Best of luck with your art show.

...and that would be considered your very own version of Sand Swirl :)
Tangled Tidbits -
*variation in density of Tipple
*weighted string lines


From Ilse Lukken (The Netherlands) and here on her blog ~

Here's my entry for this week's challenge. I wish you a very successful Art Show!

Tangled Tidbits -
*Large N'Zepple, wonderfully shaded
*Tipple pops with the larger black spacing

From Joanne Faherty (Bedfordshire, United Kingdom) ~

Here's my one for this week no new to me patterns, but there's a reason I don't use swarm its kind of tricky, so in the bigger string section of it is my own liney version ie it didn't really end up in a hexagon shape so I just kept adding the triangle lines of the tangle . Hadn't used sand swirl in a whip so thanks for the reminder .

Tangled Tidbits -
*filled in spaces of N'Zeppel
*field of Tipple blends from shaded to black


From Michele (California) and here on her blog ~

Thanks for another great challenge and for choosing many of my favorite patterns. I loved the Art Deco lines of the string, so I chose to showcase it rather than try to let it disappear.

Tangled Tidbits -
*dark string lines rimmed in white
*beautiful blend of shading, highlights, sparkle


From Sabine (Germany) and here on her blog ~

first I will wish you and the other artists good luck and many success for "Tickled To Tangle Art Show"!
What a lovely idea to use the Art House Door as string, so we can feel to take a little part of this show, thank you so much! Here is my contribution.
With many greetings from a warm and sunny Germany.

Tangled Tidbits -
*Tipple filled Sand Swirl
*elegant Swarm in the half circle string section

From Anita A Westin (Dalarna, Sweden) and here on her blog ~

Here is my entry! What a lovely string! I want to try it more and I will further on because I can see so many possibilities in it.
Thank´s Adele for a great challenge!

Tangled Tidbits -
*light and dark lines of N'Zeppel
*tangles pop against the black string spaces
*shading adds depth


From Jean Beckstrom (Alabama) ~

Swarm and Sand Swirl were new to me, and I have only done N'Zeppel once before. Since time was an issue I went ahead without practice. Either I am brave or very nutty. Anyway your table was a fabulous achievement. Thanks for all your tangles and challenges.

Tangled Tidbits -
*dark, light, and shaded Tipple
*rounded grid lines and shading give N'Zeppel a curved look


From Beth Gaughan (North Carolina) ~

Here is my tile for this week. I enjoyed using these patterns.
Congratulations and best wishes on your art show!

Tangled Tidbits -
*Tipple filled background of Sand Swirl
*neat rows of N'Zeppel


From Marla Mendenhall (California) ~

Another terrific challenge! (The standard of excellence measurement is not based on how creative a challenge is, because they are all fabulous, but on how difficult it is for me to stop ideas for tangling!)
Tile #1. When I first saw the string, for me it was reminiscent of a F.L. Wright stained glass window, so ...For the Sand Swirl glass, I drew the swirls in gray and over-painted them with white. For the Swarm "glass" I used a white under-painting, gray pen, and white-over for highlights. The bubble glass Tipple sections were drawn black over white over gray. The N'Zeppel areas are simply "leaded" pieces. While I like the overall outcome, if I'd taken this design to my friend who produces stained glass windows, he would have thrown me from his studio.

 Tile #2 is for my "Why-Don't-You-Ever-Use-Color" Husband. As the concept turned out, it is also for Green Month, of which we are in the midst, for not only did I use the backside of a tile that had long ago gone awry, but it also developed in a nature-like theme. Pretty fun.

 And Tile #3 turned out to be all about curves. Why, even Swarm became a bit swirly!
And how much more do I admire your stamina, Adele, for all the Tipple work you did on your lovely table. Oh my, yowza!

My dear Marla, your stamina clearly out does mine.  I am in awe once again.
Tangled Tidbits -
*flower-like N'Zeppel
*Auraknot layerd Sand Swirl
*Tipple filled lines of N'Zeppel


From Ingrid (The Netherlands) ~

In the attachment my tile # 143. Very nice string to tangle away with.
The mosaic tiles from your latest Tangling Flowers Class are such beauties! Lov[ing] them all!!
Good luck with your exhibition!!!

Tangled Tidbits -

*white center of Sand Swirl and shading add great depth

*N'Zeppel and Swarm mimic each other in size 

From Karin (Germany) ~

this is my entry to no. 143.
I thought I would have more time for tangling this week because of the holiday, but the weather became so gorgeous that I spend my time outside…
Anyway… I finished the tile and hope that you also had sunny days!
Greetings from Germany

 Tangled Tidbits -
*multiple sizes of Tipple - the largest one features wide sparkles
*random grid lines of N'Zeppel

From Kate (United Kingdom) ~

My contribution to this week's challenge. I used a very 'relaxed' grid
for N'Zeppel which I love but I always seem to have such problems with
Swarm!
Hope you're enjoying the Art Show and that it's being a resounding
success.

Tangled Tidbits-
* 'relaxed grid' lines look similar to Karin's above - remarkable when that happens
*N'Zeppel spills into Tipple
*graceful curves of Sand Swirl

From Jane Glotzer (Boulder, Colorado) ~

...I was happily able to get something done for this week's challenge, especially since the string is inspired by the oh so lovely Casselberry Art House...
Swarm is not really my type of tangle, but with three other great choices, I decided to let that one slip by unnoticed--:) Started with the smallest 'Nzeppel in the half circle shape; then a bit of Sand Swirl next to it. Did the Tipple in the small top right rectangle before I decided to continue in the background of Sand Swirl... Large, varied grid 'Nzeppel filled the right side, and lower left with some more--lots of opportunities for me to practice that one for sure--:) More Sand Swirl in the last bottom space and then I Tippled away...shading added some cool dimension.
I do feel like the right side probably needs some dark to balance things out, and I tried a couple ideas in pencil, but as you can see, in the end I decided to leave it as it was...

Tangled Tidbits -
*shading ties the light and dark areas together
*cascading Sand Swirl and bold outline of Tipple


From Adri van Wyk (South Africa) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*elongated Tipple filled Sand Swirl
*globular N'Zeppel
*deeply shaded spaces and sparkle too


From Allison Durno (Richmond Hill, Ontario) ~

Such a fun unusual tangle to work with this week! I especially enjoyed the stone-looking texture of N'Zeppel- that was fun to do. I thought my Swarm looked a bit plain, so I added a silhouetted gold sun to make the door more welcoming. I also added a small tribute to your Art Show by adding "Casselberry" framed in Tipple in the corner!

Tangled Tidbits -
*tangles are as inviting as the Art House itself
*Tipple string lines and thoughtful shading


From Jackie Becker (Seattle, Washington) ~

I really love this string! I plan on saving it to try some other ideas.

Tangled Tidbits -
*aura and shading of N'Zeppel
*Tipple varies and size, direction, and style
*horizontal Sand Swirls


From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~

First of all, congratulations on your art show! I hope the reception was a smashing success and that lots of people view the show and become inspired.
When experimenting with Sandswirl I got "buried in the sand" (funny, my book group just read The Alchemist, which is an allegorical journey story sort of a la The Little Prince, and part of it takes place in the Egyptian desert) so I looked back at your previous challenge that used Sandswirl (#69). Several people had joined up their background lines to create an almost doily-like effect. I couldn't wrap my head around joining up more than one line, but I wanted a border tangle anyway, so I went with it. While playing with N'zeppel I remembered Margaret Bremner's Cockles & Mussels and how that came about from doing N'zeppel on a non-regular grid, so I decided to try that. Since I was being non-regular with N'zeppel I decided to try being extremely regular with Tipple. Every time I made a neat row of Tipples I was reminded of one of my favorites, Inapod, so I put Tipple inside pea pods. Swarm's randomness really flummoxed me. I kept ending up with 6-and-a-half-agons instead of 7 neat sections. So I tried inserting it in a 60-degree-triangle grid. I was hoping for a 3-D effect sort of like with Puf, but it didn't happen (till I applied shading). I felt guilty about forcing a random triangle into a rigid space, and I remembered a CZT teaching the tangle Nekton by having us put one motif randomly, then turn the tile and add another motif randomly, and continue until the area was filled. So I tried creating Swarm using that "organized randomness" method.

Tangled Tidbits -
*Sue's note is a class in itself - wonderful to read the process and see the results
*singular Sand Swirl string lines
*Tipple in sparkled pods ;)


From Audrie Weisenfelder (Arizona) and here on her blog ~

...As I mention in my blog, I don't usually do N'Zeppel very well, and I'm finding that I don't do Swarm so well either. But I did do them, and the other two, which are not so problematic for me. Tipple is a go-to filler, and I like Sand Swirl well enough.
So, without further ado:

Tangled Tidbits -
*varied line weight, shading, and sparkle
*shaded fill in N'Zeppel
*single, star-like Swarm


From Becky Welty (North Carolina) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*shading adds to the layers of Sand Swirl
*neatly lined and shaded N'Zeppel


From Robin (Nevada) ~

This was a fun one for me. I had not done any of the tangles before… maybe a little Tipple, but not much. That’s what I love so much about your challenges! Thank you! I think Sand Swirl is destined to become a favorite. It was the most fun to shade.

Tangled Tidbits -
*superb shading
*weighted lines of Sand Swirl
*Tipple pops out of its string section


From Susan Theron (Velddrif, South Africa) and here on her blog ~

Tangled Tidbits -

*lightly tangled Swarm

*dark lines of N'Zeppel flow from/into Tipple

*Sand Swirl curves compliment Swarm's straight lines

From sra (India) ~

I took to the new-to-me tangles pretty easily even though I couldn't execute the Nzeppel very well. It took me many tries to get my head around Swarm. Once I realised that if I curved the progressively shorter lines downward (like an embellishment for the centre of Pokeleaf) and rotated the tile, it was easy - a tip for anyone who might benefit!
I intentionally didn't practice the whole design this time, I just wanted to see how it could truly flow and be abstract as per my whim and fancy. I like the Tipple edging either side of Swarm but rue my decision to put it on the other side in an attempt to give some symmetry. I feel it looks too regulated.
I think Sand Swirl can mimic the grain in a door made of wood (or fingerprints) if it wasn't highlighted like mine - just an observation I had!

Tangled Tidbits - 

*Swarm swirls along the string line

*varied line width in Sand Swirl

*terrific Tipple

From Cathy Cusson ~

I had no idea what the building was on your site but I am captivated by it each time I visit. It looks so enchanting. Loved this challenge!

Tangled Tidbits - 

*white spaces and tangles compliment each other

*large curved Sand Swirls and smaller straight lined Swarm

From Yvette (France) ~

Tangled Tidbits - 

*Sand Swirl shading makes it shine

*Tipple bubbles up and into the middle string section

From Sharyn Penna (Massachusetts) ~

Happy Mother's Day, Adele!
I'm hoping your art show was a huge success!
This tile was such a pleasurable moment. I kept thinking the string reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass piece and the tangles fit snugly into place.
Thank you for a great string and tangles choices ... as always!

Tangled Tidbits - 

*Sharyn echoes Marla's sentiments about the "F L Wright string"

*Tipple shading and mixed sizes make it look 3-Dimensional

*elegant tangles

From Stephanie Jennifer, CZT (Singapore) ~

Thank you for hosting these weekly challenges. They give me a boost in creativity. And even though I don't submit tiles to you often, I still keep the ideas in mind and complete them on a later date. :)

Tangled Tidbits - 

*black and white Tipple string line

*a touch of Swarm and a pillar of Sand Swirl

*shading 'lifts' the tangles off the paper

From Felicity Strohfeldt (South Africa) and here on her blog ~

Congratulations on the art show in the Casselberry House. The opening looks so fabulous. All that creativity put together so tastefully. Very smart. Thank you for an interesting challenge this week. String door – great idea. Tangles – Tipple a favourite of mine, I love Sand Swirl, but find N’Zeppel and Swarm more challenging. Your mosaiced door enticed me into adding colour. I’m mostly more of a black and white tangler, but the coloured worked for me. Enjoyed Tipple immensely. Thanks to Karry Heun and Maria Thomas for their beautiful patterns.
Hope the rest of the exhibition goes of as well as the opening.

Tangled Tidbits - 

*elegant Sand Swirls

*Tipple arua

*colorful N'Zeppel

*shading adds roundness

And now...

the tile for honors...

was sent in by...

Tina Kirchhübel (Germany) 
and can be found here on her blog, too.  She wrote ~

what a great challenge this week. I love the string. And after drawing it on my tile I just started tangling. When all the patterns were tangled I thought about how I could make my tile a bit special.
I think it is a special string for you and the event that stands behind is also a very special one. So I tried to take the mosaic character of the door of the Casselberry Art House in the spaces of N'zeppel.
I wish you a lot of fun and success with the first Tickled to Tangle Art Show.
Greetings from Germany

Tangled Tidbits -
*bubbly Tipple arc spills into N'Zeppel
*colorful nod to the Art House in random sections of N'Zeppel
*layers of Sand Swirl
*wonderful shading

Congratulations, Tina.

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

Thank you all again for your good wishes and shared passion for all things tangled.

Many thanks to the creative minds behind the tangles we used this week along with my string:

Sand Swirl by Karry Heun 

Swarm 
N'Zeppel
and Tipple   by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts

Check back Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #144!