Where I Tangle

Featuring Marjan Heemskerk from The Netherlands 

Marjan wrote to say that it is "wonderful to read where everybody is tangling..."
Below, she shares photographs of the space where she tangles along with "kind regards from a very wet Netherland."  

Marjan writes:

I am tangling for over a year now and my favorite place is a very old desk. It belonged to my father and grandfather. They were both farmers and did all their administration at this desk. I use it for fun now but I like the idea that it is still in the family and that I really use it.

On top of the desk Bijou is watching over me.

When I look to the left, sitting at my desk, I am overlooking the beautiful garden which all the apartments share. When the weather is good I tangle there. A very quiet place with the sound of running water. Very relaxing.

All photographs courtesy of Marjan Heemserk

Thank you, Marjan, for sharing your beautiful and very serene tangling space with us. 

"It's a String Thing" #257 Tiles

Welcome to the results of IAST #257.
We tangled on an angular string line using CZT Jody Genovese's lovely new Twilight.

Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Debbie Raaen (Trondheim, Norway) ~

I found your string rather entriguing for this challenge, so although I'm not a straight line sort of gal, I thought I'd give it a go. Here is Twilight with perfs, striping, printemps and sandswirl. Had to put some curvy lines in you know! So thank you for this challenge - not something I would have tried otherwise and it turns out I quite enjoyed it.
Thanks also to Jody for her well deconstructed tangle. A lot of fun!

From Sally Whiteman (New Zealand) ~

Loved this challenge. I will certainly be using Twilight again. Very relaxing and effective.
I have used cadent and flipdown-L with the highlight being twilight.
Many thanks

From JoAnne (Ontario, Canada) ~

Here is my contribution to IAST#257. It’s nice to have a focus when you sit down to tangle. (One less thing to have to think about... and that can be a GOOD thing!)

From Ria Matheussen, CZT (Belgium) ~

Here is my entry for the 257 th challenge.
Twilight is a special interesting tangle and I have made a combination with Crescent Moon (Maria's way)
I finished the tile with ordinary colourpencils to became a bit an "autumnlook". Because we had such a dry and hot summer, it looks already like we are in the fall.
I enjoyed this challenge very much, thank you Adele and thank your Jody!!!
Warm regards from Belgium

From Lin H, CZT (Florida) ~

Loved Jody Genovese’s tangle Twilight. I added some Inktense watercolors and shading to my monotangled tile. Thanks for the challenge, Adele! Glad to see you had such a great summer with your family.

From Marjan Heemskerk (The Netherlands) ~

Twilight is really a Zen-tangle. When you finish and wake up, the result is a surprise:)

From Hilary (Chicago) ~

Here’s my Twilight tile. I’m not sure I followed the pattern correctly, my lines seem to be a bit confused about which direction to follow. But it’s a great pattern that really puts you in the zen mood.
As always I’m fascinated with how everyone’s tiles turn out. It’s a tribute to the great creativity in this group!

From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

Attached is my tile for ‘ It’s A String Thing #257 ‘ challenge.

From Angie Gittles, CZT 29 (Maryland) ~

Twilight intertwined with Verve.

From Lisette (Switzerland) ~

Thank you for this new challenge! Twilight was new to me and we became friends immediately. But I must admit that I didn't like the angled string. Usually I try following the string but decided to let the patterns find their own way. And look what came out - Twilight cuddled up into the string perfectly! Arukas makes a good match with Twilight and I'm really happy with my tile!
Zen Hugs

From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

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

A lovely challenge, thanks again! :-)
I hope you’ve had a good Summer so far.

From Gudrun S. (Germany, BW) ~

many thanks for your great challenge

From Jane (Dorking, United Kingdom) ~

I had meant to try Jody’s new tangle soon so welcomed the opportunity to use it, thank you for including it here. I had to stop myself covering the entire tile in the one tangle it was such a good one to do! I added a dramatic Knightsbridge along with a little watercolour brush pen.

From Anselm (Germany) and here on his blog ~

this is my tile for your challenge #257. After looking at the string for a while i decided to make a monotangle with Twilight. The string was encouriging a monotangle in my opinion. I added the border with a pen instead of a pencil. This gives a nice border where Twilight fits into.
Thank you for this challenge and best regards from Berlin (Germany)

From Jutta Gladnigg, CZT (Germany) ~

This time I felt Jody’s fantastic new pattern needed a delicate rendering and so I took a grey pen and a tile I had watercoloured. Adele’s string invited me to insert an 'Impossible Hexagon' and making it the center of the radiating 'Twilight' rays.
Wonderful challenge! Thank you, Adele and Jody!

From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

I really struggled with this one. Just couldn't make the patterns fit the string. In the end I abandoned the string. Twilight is a lovely tangle but I found it hard to get until I had practiced it several times. I added Fleavy by Hanny Waldburger another lovely pattern. Jodie's tangling space looks beautiful and peaceful.

From Maria B (Canada) and on Instagram ~

Nice simple lines on this one, and of course I thought this begged me to play with a bit of colour. Admittedly this is mostly because my black pen is dying so I start using the others more haha. I have more pens, but I get attached to the one I am using. Drawing these goes through about one pen a month for me and that is the only thing I use them for.

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

I hope, your busy week was nice and all your family enjoyed the wedding of your daughter and all the other celebrations.
Again you gave us a wonderful challenge. The pattern Twilight is very versatile and fits perfectly in your given string. I enjoyed tangling very much and drew first a version in black and white in combination with Obad and Babcubz, which you can see on my blog under the link
I send you my second version, a Monotangle on a round coloured background.
Thank you very much for this interesting challenge!
I wish you a wonderful weekend!
Best wishes from Germany

From Gabi (Germany) ~

Here my tile for the actual string thing. Sending you the first tile I did with TWILIGHT. Tried without any colour and not to shade too much. But next days I’m going to play with it... use colours or add some gems. Think Twilight is a pattern with lots of possibilities!

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

Thank´s Adele for one more wonderful challenge! I did like your string a lot! And the pattern Twilight from Jody Genovese is so nice to draw.

From Judy Wanner, CZT (Pennsylvania) ~

Being away from tangling for too long, I did not “risk”a tile and decided to just practice. I do love Jody’s Twilight and will use it often. Sorry for no string/ tile but it sure was rewarding to work through this new tangle.
If I am correct, I believe I attended the same CZT Seminar as Jody. I so admire her talent.

From Lynn G (Florida) ~

With Twilight I used Flores, and 10 E fragment.

From Mariam G (Port Hueneme, CA) ~

Thank you for featuring 'Twilight' in this challenge. This was the most mesmerizing tangle to work with, even though I'm not quite sure I got it 'right'. It was a pleasure to get lost in all the various strings! (Doesn't it take you back to the string-art days? Much more relaxing than hammering in all those nails - HA!)

From Karen Buse (California) ~

This was one of those challenges that when I looked at the string and the pattern, I could immediately picture the finished tile in my mind and knew which additional patterns I'd use. No futzing around with which patterns to use or figuring our which pattern should go where. I just sat down and did it—which was good because I haven't had a lot of time for futzing recently!. The thing I need to remember in the future is that when I blacken the background I need to go over it at least twice to minimize the streakiness.
In addition to Twilight I used new pattern Paradox Reversed by Anselm Peter (fun to draw when done as a continuous line) and a Zentangle original, 'Nzeppel.
Thanks for your continued efforts on these challenges! I look forward to seeing everyone's creative endeavors even though I don't always have time to participate.

From Jutta Gladnigg, CZT (Germany) ~

This time I felt Jody’s fantastic new pattern needed a delicate rendering and so I took a grey pen and a tile I had watercoloured. Adele’s string invited me to insert an 'Impossible Pentagon' and make it the center of the radiating 'Twilight' rays.
Wonderful challenge! Thank you, Adele and Jody!

From Nova Belle (Texas) ~

Thank you for your hard work this week. You definitely seem to have been busy, but I appreciate it!
I don't know that I like the way this tile turned out, but I did have a lot of fun making it. This was one of those were I just didn't know when to stop.

From Lynn F (Florida) ~

I love Twilight! In the center I just added an aura.

From Nor'dzin (Wales, United Kingdom) ~

I hope you have had a lovely time with your family.
Here is my contribution for challenge #257. It got a bit wild, and I’m not sure what I think of it! I lost track of the shape of the original string completely. Maria’s advice was 'Take chances' so I did with this one.

From Trudi Taylor (Woodview, Ontario, Canada) ~

Greetings Adele! You certainly had your work cut out for you last week! Thank you for being there for us. I used Twilight with Gem-brace and a bit of shading this week.

From Laurel Davis, CZT (New York) ~

Wasn’t sure I’d finish this in time, but here’s Twilight with friends Crescent Moon and Ennies, along with Melinda Barlow’s Field of Flowers and Tomàs Padrós’s Tektonik. Thanks for another great challenge, Adele!

From Jody Genovese, CZT (New York) ~

First, congratulations on all of the celebrations in your family. What fun. There must be something going on all the time.
Second, thank you for allowing me to participate in your ‘Where I Tangle’ segment. It was truly an honor along with getting to use Twilight in this week’s challenge.
So funny that I actually struggled a little creating a tile. I ended up doing two..
I think I may need to rename the pattern Tweyelight after you see the second one!
As always thank you for ALL you do for this amazing community. You are a gift.

From Sra (India) ~

Here’s my entry for the week! Have a good weekend!

From Pat (Washington State) ~

Thanks for a great challenge!

From Sharon Fite (California) ~

Hubby and I spent a lovely couple of days at the coast this week, but I didn't forget about this challenge. A bit of a quickie on a 2.5" tile. Here's Twilight, which I'll use in the future, along with Paradox, Fassett, and Hollibaugh on a Kraft paper square. Not a curved line in the bunch!

From Cyndee Pelley (Oklahoma) and here on her blog ~

What an awesome challenge this week! I'd been wanting to try Jody's Twilight tangle but hadn't had time yet. How perfectly the challenge fit me this week. I loved twilight and I can't wait to use it again. Particularly in the round, big surprise! (Awesome Tangle Jody!) I very much enjoyed her "where I Tangle" post, though I'm completely green over that closet!!

From Susie ("from the exotic country of Siam") ~

Your ever late tangler sends you her contribution to your IAST 257 challenge (if I am too late to make the listing, at least you know now I am still with you). This time my excuse is that I had forgotten all about it until late Saturday night when I notice I had no IAST tile to park in my regular weekly blog post.
I like Twilight. It is simple but so effective and it gave me tremendous joy practicing straight lines.
Thanks so much for this challenge and I wish you a wonderful weekend.

From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

Jody’s Twilight tangle had me stumped for a while ... I couldn’t find a comfort zone making the contrasting points ... Then I realized it’s more an illusion than a deliberate shape ... DUH! I Love this tangle now.
Cheers to Jody’s tangles and to your dedication to IAST posts through all your life events! Amazing!!

From Susan Theron (Velddrif, South Africa) ~

From Felicity Strohfeldt (Velddrif, South Africa) ~

Hope you are well and that you have recuperated from your children’s exciting events over the last weeks.
Here is my effort with Twilight. Thanks to Jody Genovese. Twilight grew on me as I proceeded.

From Dolly Bolen, CZT (Canada) ~

...I started tangling Twilight within the tile and Heart Thread Border (my tangle, step out found on the Zentangle Mosaic App) towards the edge of the tile with a dark brown Sakura Micron PN Pen then added some browns with Graphitints. It was way too dark so I rinsed the Strathmore watercolour tile (4” x 4”) under the tap which made it kind of distressed. I liked it so I decided to crumple it up into a ball a couple times which gave the tile a very nice texture so I kind of smoothed it out as flat as possible then let it dry. I added Inktense pencils in lighter tones of browns, added sparkles with different watercolours and finally added Sakura Stardust Gelly Roll Pen in Clear Star. I loved creating this tile so much I coloured the back and plan to tangle it soon!
This is probably my all time favourite tile because it really “reflects” my style, shiny with a lot of bling! It looks like metal and what I imagined Twilight would be. I enjoyed tangling Jody’s new tangle Twilight very much, there are so many ways to vary this tangle, it is fantastic! Note: The tile shrunk by almost 1/4” after it dried. The centre to me kind of resembled a bird house.
I enjoy looking at your challenges every week even if I do not submit or participate, everyone’s tiles are so inspiring and I do enjoy the “Where I tangle” series!

From Tina K (Germany) ~

Thank you for this interesting challenge. Here is my tile für IAST #257.

Thank you one and all for the continued good wishes for our family's joyful celebrations over the last few weeks.  I appreciate your patience as it has taken longer than usual to post IAST results.

Many thanks to Jody Genovese, CZT, for her new Twilight. - or Tweyelight as she wrote😉

Tomorrow's "Where I Tangle" will feature Marjan Heemskerk from the Netherlands.
See you then!

"It's a String Thing" #258

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

As I tucked our granddaughter into bed this evening, she reached up and gave me the warmest hug. 
"What day is today?" she asked.
"It's Tuesday," I said as I pulled the covers over her little frame.
"Then it's my favorite day," she softly sighed and my heart melted into a million little pieces.

I think that every day is her favorite day, but since I was heading downstairs to post IAST #258, her words were especially sweet to hear. 

Tuesday has been our "good news day" here for five years and that warms my heart immeasurably. 

We will celebrate our fifth birthday in just two weeks with IAST #260, so mark your calendars and please plan to join in the celebration by sending in a tile.  Send one in for this one too, and for as many as you wish!

The results of IAST #257 will be posted on Thursday.

For this week, let's begin a string to honor the life of Aretha Franklin, the late singer ~

IAST String by Adele Bruno, CZT
A Tribute to Aretha Franklin

My grandmother was fond of saying that music is the universal language. 
I am sure that art, especially tangling, is a close second. 

In this challenge we will 'marry' the two as we pay tribute to Ms. Franklin. 

The string is patterned after the letter 'A' and the three tangles we will use begin with 'A' ~

Antidots by Anita Roby-Lavery, CZT
This is the first "A" tangle that comes to mind.  It is a classic and so much fun to draw.

Apacore by Lori Manoogian, CZT
This is the second appearance of Apacore on IAST.  It builds into an unexpected shapes.

Afterglo by Carole Ohl, CZT
The name of this tangle seemed to fit the challenge.  The fact that it is a beautiful tangle is a bonus.


Keep in mind that strings are merely suggestions. As with all IAST adventures, simply pencil in the string and let the tangles lead the way. 

Here are the (Not so) Official Guidelines: 
* Challenges are posted on Tuesdays.
*Use the string posted for the week and some or all of the suggested patterns
* 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 for IAST are to be submitted by Saturday evening of the week issued
*Photos, notes, and the 'Tile for Honors' are (usually) posted on the following Monday 

Send in your photos - you will encourage and inspire fellow Zentangle® enthusiasts all over the world. WHEN YOU SIGN YOUR NAME, PLEASE INCLUDE WHERE YOU LIVE. 
FOR EXAMPLE: ADELE BRUNO (FLORIDA)

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.

Enjoy!

Where I Tangle

Featuring Jody Genovese, CZT (New York)

Last year, Jody sent a few photos from her garden.  Jutta Gladnigg, CZT, (Germany) was visiting at the time and I remember how delighted Jutta was by Jody's home and surroundings.

Last week, when Jody sent these pictures of where she tangles, I immediately appreciated why Jutta was so captivated.
Here is Jody's tour for all of us to enjoy ~

I feel very blessed to have two places to tangle. My husband and I don’t do a lot of traveling so six years ago we decided to add a water feature to our backyard which is right off the patio. It is a little bit of heaven on earth. During the summer we spend most of our time here. Unfortunately, summer in Upstate NY isn’t long enough.

I have a ‘pond’ bag filled with my tangle essentials, binoculars, a camera and slippers always ready to go. Each morning this is where I start my day. Oh yes, and lot’s of coffee!

As you can see my faithful companion Sadie Bug is always on my lap, which makes it a little awkward to draw, but I happily adjust.

Here are a couple more shots from different angles around the pond and waterfall. The sound of the water is very relaxing, peaceful and inspiring as are the fish and birds. In case you were wondering the fish do have names. So do some of the birds and the frogs…

It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the large green windchime from top to bottom is almost as tall as I am (5’ 5”) and sounds just like church bells when it rings.

When I can’t be outside tangling I have a spare bedroom that I have converted into my ‘Tangle Chamber’. Last year for my birthday my husband treated me to a closet system from The Container Store to organize all of my supplies...I have a lot of them!

Right now, these walls are a little bare because I am making a pencil holder/shelf to hang on the wall using 100-year-old barn wood salvaged from my great grandfather’s farm.

Sadie Bug has a giant beanbag, so she can ‘hunt’ out the window while I tangle. Mostly she sleeps.

All photographs courtesy of Jody Genovese, CZT

The closet is always neat, but I had to straighten up the room for the ‘photoshoot’.

When I am being creative it looks more like a hurricane came through as I am usually working on more than one thing at a time. To enhance the experience, I listen to piano music by Ludovico Einaudi and for whatever time I have here I am in my own magical world.

Thank you Jody, for the wonderful tour of your tangling spaces.  I am ready to pick up a Micron and start tangling!  Thank you for the inspiration.  XO.