"It's a String Thing" #226 Tiles

This post is a bit delayed, but I do have a wonderful reason for my tardiness. 
Yesterday, we celebrated my mother's 84th birthday.  Four generations of us made sure her day was very special.

My mother's motherly statistics are quite extraordinary - she and my father raised 7 of us (I have six brothers), they have 22 grandchildren, and their 9th great grandchild is due this week.  When added to her incredible artistic accomplishments, her creative and loving heart has grown exponentially with each passing year.

Our challenge proved timely as I used Maria Thomas' masterful Rumpus to create a birthday zendala for Mom~

I found that Rumpus came to life as the background was filled in.  It did take some stick-to-itiveness, especially when first drawing the many connecting lines.  I had to push through misgivings and continue "one stroke at a time", until I just fell in love with how the tangle unfolded.  I added shading, two shades of pink Prismacolor pencils, and birthday greetings.  

My tile is one of five tiles photographed on a Tickled to Tangle frame and that tickles me to no end.  Read on to find the other four. 


The first tile arrive from Lily (Hungary) ~

...here is my tile for your weekly challenge.
Zenhug:

Tangled Tidbit - 

*gorgeous perfs, wonderful depth

From Donna Matoi (Long Beach, California) ~

Here is my tile for IAST #226, Rumpus!
This was much more comfortable for me, so, I decided to push my comfort zone and added Derwent Inktense pencils, since I had used the Micron PN Blue pen and was a bit dull! This was my first time using these pencils on my Zentangle tiles! Not the best work, but was fun!
Thank you for a fun pattern this week!
I also enjoyed seeing everyone's Dewd tiles from last week!

Tangled Tidbit -

*lovely coloring and blackened in between spaces

From Dani (Indonesia) and here on her blog ~

I got headache at lunch time in office.
And I took my tile and drawing pen, played with rumpus.
Amazingly, my headache disappeared.
I love rumpus.
First attempt tangled with rumpus.
It was fun, even my rumpus still the original style.
Thank you Adele for this challenge.

Tangled Tidbits -

*darkened perf surrounds and wonderful shading

From Margarete Gilge (Germany) and here on her blog ~

this time i drew my tangle for a change on oval flipchart papers. I didn’t use Rumpus before. It is a very interesting pattern. One can play in many ways with it. I will try it more often in the future. A second version you can find on my blog...
Thank you for this new challenge!
Best wishes from Germany

Tangled Tidbit - 

*uniquely embellished elegant Rumpus arcs 

From Sandra (Germany) and here on her blog ~

many greetings from a very stormy place in germany ;-) Just a perfect day to stay at home and tangle!
I didn't tried the pattern Rumpus before and so I had fun to draw it for the first time. I used a zendala tile and painted it with watercolours.
Then I tangled with a white pen on it.

 Tangled Tidbit -
*white Rumpus glows atop a deep background


From Ulrike (Germany) ~

Here is my tile for weekly challenge #226. RUMPUS is a pretty tangle pattern. I did it for the first time, but certainly for the last time.
Many Greetings from stormy Germany

 Tangled Tidbit -
*Rumpus, pretty in pink and aura-ed around the entire tangle

From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

I summit my Tile for ‘ It’s A String Thing #226 ‘ challenge.
Although I loved the tangle, I found it to be most challenging,
Maybe because I had to remember the steps from a video, and
My old brain doesn’t remember so well these days
Thanks again Adele for all your hard work in putting up these challenges.

Tangled Tidbit - 

*fabulous, rounded Rumpus with warm brown enthantching

From Verena (Germany) ~

Thank you for this Challenge!
Rumpus is one of my favorite tangles! I do it few weeks ago in DIN A5 and fall in love.

Tangled Tidbit - 

*two amazing renditions feature slender highlighted arcs

From Victoria (St. Petersburg, Russia) and here on her blog ~

Thank you for the interesting task! The first time I tried to draw RUMPUS. And it was exciting :)

 Tangled Tidbit -
*elegant variations add flair and depth to Rumpus



From Ria Mathuessen (Belgium) ~

Rumpus is a wonderful tangle and I'm glad to send you my entry.
This drawing is made on grey paper and finished with ordinary colourpencils and a white gellypen.
It was my first attempt to draw Rumpus but I'm sure I'm gonna use this pattern more in the future.
Thank you for this lovely challenge.
Warm regards from Belgium

 Tangled Tidbit -
*brightly colored center strokes and lighter, thinner accent ones - all beautifully highlighted


From Hilary (Chicago, Illinois) ~

I'm so impressed with your neighborhood project! Lots of hard work and dedication, but such splendid results. It must be a real joy seeing it all come together!
I went a little crazy with Rumpus. I mean the past few days have been a blur, all I remember is thinking what colors can I use, what variations can I use, how can I make it better.

 Tangled Tidbits -
How fun to be so totally absorbed in a tangle!
*beautiful and unique Rumpus variations


From Jody Genovese, CZT (New York) ~

I was absolutely blown away by your ‘Christmas Story’. What an amazing community you live in.
You were already very high up on a pedestal, but it grew even higher after this. I got chills as I read through the scrolls.
Here is my rumpus entry. I love this tangle. It’s so versatile I decided to beckon Spring with a tile I colored using Koi WaterBrush pens.
Oh..and 3 for 3! Go me!! :o)

Tangled Tidbit - 

*glorious layers of color, shading, and highlights, and wonderful wispy finishes

From Susan (United Kingdom) ~

I’ve a created a rumpus!

Tangled Tidbits - 

Indeed you have!

*Rumpus reaches off the circular string 

From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York)~

Still trying to make friends with rumpus..It is coming slowly..
Here is my entry for this week's challenge done in red and black

 Tangled Tidbit -
*wonderful red perfs and enthatching


From Sra (India) ~

When I was practising Rumpus yesterday, I ended up putting one small Rumpus over a big one. It reminded me of one of those cut glass perfume bottles with several facets and I knew I had my entry. The Dewd I put in the practice tile - I missed IAST last week and wanted to include it this week - didn't look half as good and neither did the enthatchment with the brown pen, so I spent a couple of very Zen hours this afternoon doing this tile, and did the shading with black colour pencil. I don't want to do anything more with it - I think it's great as it is and I've left it well alone. It's not often that I'm pleased with my tiles, this is one such occasion.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*absolutely beautiful grouping of Rumpus



From Lin H., CZT (Florida) ~

Thanks for your challenge with Rumpus, Adele. It was very relaxing just taking one stroke at a time with this tangle pattern. I really enjoyed the photo journey of your Neighborhood Christmas Project. I’m looking forward to driving through your neighborhood next December!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*awesome aura to accent Rumpus and single perfs to fill the dark spaces



From Judy Wanner, CZT (Pennsylvania) ~

...I had this done before your challenge! I bet you will have numerous one just like this too. Meant to do another one but it was another wicked crazy week! At least I got to show off your wonderful Zendala frame....love all three sizes of your frames.Oh my....WOW....Your neighborhood Christmas story is beautiful...

 Tangled Tidbits -
*large and lovely perfs make the negative spaces of Rumpus as important as the tangle itself


From Karin (Germany) ~

thank you for another wonderful challenge!
Rumpus is absolutely amazing. I tried it a few times and every time -in the middle of progress while connecting the orbs- I thought that I will not like the result… too busy! But I didn´t want to give up and started to add the circles… and wow: the whole tile calmed and looked very regular and structured in the end.
Greetings from Germany

Tangled Tidbit - 

Yes, the whole tangle does "calm" when the background is added, that is well said.
*dark, sparkled orbs anchor the tangle

From Lynn G (Florida) ~

I like Rumpus as a frame, too bad this was a mono challenge.
Loved your neighborhood decorations. What a JOB!

 Tangled Tidbit -
*fabulous frame of Rumpus, brown enthatching and perfs


From Aileen (Singapore) ~

Thanks for the challenge! My first IAST this year!

 Tangled Tidbit -
*large and small spaces between the initial orbs make for a beautiful tangle


From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

Maria's video was easy to follow for this pattern. I started four times, this being the fourth. I found that the random nature of the little circles made it difficult to end up with a pleasing pattern. With each tile, I placed the circles in different spots, but didn't end up with a happy result. This one I found he most pleasing. I did the enthatching with a Staedtler fineliner in a turquoise colour, but went over that with coloured pencil. It was a fun tangle and I enjoyed the process.

Tangled Tidbits - 

*wonderful white perfs, highlighting, and complimentary colors

From Ragged Ray (United Kingdom) ~

And, well, Rumpus - what a wonderful tangle. One of those that I can't get enough of - even though I'm struggling to get quite as much overlap as I'd like! A precious original tile for a precious original tangle. A single band of it stretched across the middle. Those 'petals' almost look like I could pluck them and they might make a tune! I wonder what they would play?

 Tangled Tidbit -
*colorful thoughts, fabulous swath of light and dark



From Ingrid Coventon (The Netherlands) ~

Wow, this tangle is so nice to do!
It's a pity I ran out of time, so I couldn't explore more possibilities.
This tangle asks to play with more often!
Which I certainly will do.

 Tangled Tidbit -
*Tippled fill, deep enthatching and heavenly highlights


From Susie (Thailand) ~

Here my contribution to your IAST Challenge #226 with tangle Rumpus.
Thanks for yet a great challenge.

 Tangled Tidbit -
*sensational stack of Rumpus, intertwining colors, lovely filler tangles, all topped with a beautiful butterfly


From Jane (Boulder, Colorado) ~

I guess, there's a huge Rumpus right about now in your inbox--:)
How can anyone not love this new pattern from Maria? Her work is simply mind-blowing...I'm always amazed!
I took another simple approach to my IAST this week...there's so much going on with just the most basic ideas in this tangle. So, I only added the "highlight" line to the middle petals, and although I practiced some enthatching in my journal, I decided to go with graphite shading...and kept the background simple too, just adding some colored pencil...and I love this light, airy, green Rumpus!
Have a great week...thanks for all you do for the Zentangle world!

 Tangled Tidbit -
*lovely, lovely, "light and airy green Rumpus"


From Kate (United Kingdom) ~

My contribution to your challenge - a bit of a panic when my brown pen seemed to be dying but fortunately it lasted just long enough for me to finish!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*beautifully bulbous Rumpus variation



From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

Love this new tangle from Maria Thomas.

Tangled Tidbits - 

*dashed accent lines, star-like centers, pretty purple colorings

From lovelygiraffe (Japan) and on Instagram ~

...here is my tile for your weekly challenge.
This tangle was very difficult for me. I am still practicing.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*delicately detailed, light to dark variations of Rumpus


From Sharon Fite (California) ~

Rumpus -- a fun word and a fun zentangle! After several explorations in my sketchbook, I wanted to go with a light and airy version. I chose a slightly larger format (6"x6") and used an 01 black micron, a Staedtler triplus fineliner for the wispy blue lines, and blue colored pencil for the shading. So much fun! Sending warm wishes to everyone suffering through a cold winter!!

 Tangled Tidbit -
*beautiful blue touches to a wispy Rumpus variation



From Karen Herstowski (Atlanta, Georgia) ~

Here is # 226, which I enjoyed working on so much. Somehow I saw a black background for this one (it is a white tile). Once complete, I was going to go in with a white marker to do the perfs. However, when I saw the striking contrast, I just couldn’t complicate the focus. So, I took some artistic license on the perfs: minimized them and put them mostly on the outside, with just a smattering in between the petals. The enthatching was done with HB pencil - the only color is in the center vain on each petal: Terra Cotta Prismacolor.
It’s all in the artist’s eye…….
Thanks again to Maria for providing another captivating tangle and to you for the format and getting us all together!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Rumpus floats above a sensational starry, deep black background



From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~

Thanks for sharing the story of your neighborhood Christmas project. An undertaking like that, where everyone joins in, means so much more than the finished project, even ... the lives that are touched by the project itself. We experienced that at my church with the Icons in Transformation installation I told you about last fall.
This week's tangle was another fun and relaxing one! I was skeptical ... first about the "enthatching" ... it looks so easy when Maria does it ... but sure enough it worked! This is the first time I've ever used color in combination with black ink. I went through a phase of tangling in other colors, but it was one other color at a time (I even bought Prismacolor pencils to shade with instead of graphite ... maybe just an excuse to buy Prismacolor pencils?). Enthatching has so much more impact when color is used (although I found it "works" when using black ink too). So I got to use some of my colored Micron pens! The second thing I was skeptical about was filling in the negative space. Again it looks so easy when Maria does it ... I didn't think my negative spaces were big enough but I decided to just try it, and really liked the effect.
So here you go ... thank you for another fun week!

 Tangled Tidbit -
*colorfully enthatched (I think I just coined a new word!), blooming, perf filled Rumpus



From Marjan Heemskerk (The Netherlands) ~

It was fun trying Rumpus. The weather is very gray over here so I needed to use some colour. I used soft pastels, brown pen and brown pencil. It brightened my day.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*sunny, shiny, simply elegant Rumpus


From Susan Theron (Velddrif, South Africa) ~

My contribution. I'm including the tile before adding the "side" curves, but after enthatching, because I think Rumpus also look stunning at this stage.

Tangled Tidbits - 

*stunning Rumpus at both stages, and so good to see the 

From Donna Symons, CZT (Pennsylvania) ~

Keeping it simple and focusing on learning the tangle prompted my return. While I'm grateful for our busy life and fun adventures, finding time to tangle remains a challenge. This wonderful community and your special contributions encourage and motivate! Thank you for all you do!!!

Tangled Tidbits - 

*hearts, hearts, and more hearts - stole my heart!

From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

First, thank you for the honors on IAST #225 ... there were so many beautiful tiles that offered so many ways to change up Dewd. I'm hoping to explore the tangle more this week.
And thank you for sharing your Neighborhood Christmas Project ... very inspirational and heart warming.
for this week's prompt I reined in Rumpus in a heart string ... I'm sending the tile to someone near and dear to my heart who recently broke their wrist.
Thank you again, and cheers for a prompt that highlights Maria's beautiful new tangle.

Tangled Tidbits - 

*sensational stippling with highlights and shading - this would cheer up anyone!

From Heather Temple (Killingworth, Connecticut) ~

Hi Adele and a belated Happy New Year!
Finally some time to submit again. Have been playing a bit with Huggins and realized with the circles as starting points maybe I could blend it with Rumpus.
As always thanks for doing this each week. I don’t send in much but I love to look at what everyone does. It still amazes me every week how we all start with the same parameters and then these beautiful creations come together from all over the world.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*dynamic thick lines, shadow shading, brown enthatching, and highlights



From Henrike Bratz, CZT (Germany) and here on her blog ~

late again here comes my RUMPUS...
I did this one on a page in my sketchbook. I felt rumpus is a pattern that needs some patience. In the beginning it feels quite chaotic. Only when the background is colored in or filled with tangles it comes to life and enfolds its depth and beauty.

Tangled Tidbits -

*filler perfs and perf filled orbs along with glorious touches and a spot description of the tangle

And now...

the tile for honors this week...

was sent in by...

From Mariam G (Port Hueneme, California)!
Mariam wrote:

I have been intrigued by this tangle since it was shown during the 12 days. I love this pattern, but it took 3 tries to create a tile that seemed to be alive (the rest were dull and non-dimensional - my hubby agreed!). Finally got with it and loved the outcome - it reminds me of a vintage illustration in a childhood book. Thank you - very cathartic after these very 'chaotic' last few months.
I look forward to seeing the rest of your neighbor hood Christmas story - what a wonderful place to live!

Tangled Tidbits - 

*random sized initial orbs and spacing

*sensational hues, shading, perfs, and Tipple

Congratulations,  Mariam.

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

Isn't it remarkable that tiles arrived from around the world?

Huge thanks to Maria Thomas for her brilliant new tangle, Rumpus.

Thank you all for your sharing your beautiful artwork.  You motivate and inspire us all.

Thank you, too, for the kind compliments on our Neighborhood Project.

Check the next post for "It's a String Thing" #227!