"It's a String Thing" #288 Tiles

My husband and I are settling in after a blessed Easter time with our family and friends.  Most of our children and all of our grandchildren were home (sigh!).
The weather was picture perfect for dinners on the back porch, plenty of swimming, and playing games in the yard. 
My brother Matt and family visited from Pennsylvania and my parents were able to keep up with the celebrations, too - no small task!

Our back porch dinner for 17 -  with every available chair in the house!

We followed up all of the festivities with a trip to Miami to help our daughter Catherine and her husband Oswald move into their new home.  It was a jam packed, joyous time.

  

Now, back home, I am catching up with our IAST tiles.  I think you will agree that they keep getting more intricate and fascinating as the weeks go by.  Today we welcome two new tanglers as our community keeps growing and growing.  

Speaking of catching up, tomorrow's post will feature the tiles from the last month that were sent in later than their particular postings.  Be sure to check back to view them.

Now onto this week's tiles ~

This challenge featured flowery tangles from two of our faithful contributors, CZTs Ria Mathuessen and Simone Menzel along with Maria Thomas' Mooka.  The oh so lovely tiles celebrate spring and many are bursting with the colors of the season.  

The first arrived from Angie Gittles (Maryland) ~

I found it challenging to use the suggested tangles with this week’s string. I managed to use Tulipa and Javik. The prismacolor pencils helped enhance the end result.

From Marjan Heemskerk (The Netherlands) ~

What a lovely challenge this is. I added Florz and Divadance. The tulip is a typical Dutch flower but.......I don't like it. As a flower, that is, as a tangle......it was very nice to do;)
Vrolijk Pasen! (Happy Easter)

From Laurel Davis, CZT #28 (New York) ~

Thanks for this wonderful challenge using these very pretty organic tangles! I loved Simone Manzel’s example of using Tulipa, so I just had to try it! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? And, the very talented Romi Borax Marks recently showcased her technique of TransZending and Wallpaper in a You Tube video and I was inspired to use that, too! Such fun!

From Jane Goddard (Surrey, United Kingdom) ~

I think I have missed a couple of these and then noticed you’ve given us more time with this one! I’m pleased with how Mooka turned out as it’s not one I do very often. The other two are new to me, and as predicted I did add colour!

From Lynn G (Florida) ~

Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter.
Thanks for another great challenge.

From Susie (Thailand) ~

I presently feel a bit edgy and my IAST 288 tile very much reflects that. Maybe a bit too 'avant-garde' than I expected.
Thanks for this wonderful challenge. I love all 3 tangles and I already know I will not be able to resist drawing a 2nd tile.
Hot greeting from a very hot Thailand

From Gabi (Germany) ~

Wishing you a happy and sunny Easter Week!
What an interesting string again. Just used the beautiful pattern TULIPA and JAVIC with a little FLUX and turned the tile.
Enjoy the days with family

From Ria Matheussen, the creator of Javik (Belgium) ~

Thank you very much for adding Javik on this challenge. I am glad and
honoured that Javik makes a part of this lovely trio.
I turned my tile upside down before drawing and formed a frame around
the result, just as Molly showed us on the video of day 3 of the
Project Pack 5. I liked that way of framing very much: it's easy and
very relaxing to draw.
We enjoy a beautiful sunny Eastern weekend in Belgium. In the gardens
and in nature, especially the colours pink and yellow are popping up.
This is real springtime, a new start...with new experiences.
I wish you and your beloved ones also a wonderful day and I am
gratefully to be a little part of the big Zentangle family where
I.A.S.T. brings lots of joy for us tanglers!
Warm regards from Belgium

From Aileen (United Kingdom) ~

From T. ~

It took me a few days to figure out where within the string to start.
However, once I had a general idea of how I wanted the patterns to work together, the lines flowed easily.
Mooka is a pattern I use often when I draw. I had no prior experience with Javik or Tulipa, but I was glad to add them to my pattern sketchbook.
The floral theme of this challenge definitely called for colour; and in light of spring being in progress, I made sure they are bright.
I hope you’re seeing lots of bright blooms where you are.

A very warm welcome to Jennifer (San Francisco, California) ~

This is my first official challenge entry! I had a lot of fun with this week’s prompt! I started last week’s Easter egg, but I wasn’t able to get it done in time. I used my Apple Pencil with iPad and digital art program, Procreate. I had a lot of fun shading my flowers :) Thanks for putting together such a fun challenge!

Welcome to our IAST Map and our tangling community, Jennifer!

I looked for a large enough space on the map and it wasn't until now that I noticed that five tangling Jennifers are on the same section.  You are in very good company!


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

this week you have chosen a very beautiful combination of patterns. I draw two variations. The other you can find under the link
Have a nice week!
Best wishes from Germany

From Baafke (The Netherlands) ~

Quite a difficult iast this time.
But I just started and this is what I made of it

From JoAnne (Ontario, Canada) ~

You chose a couple of lovely tangles that were new to me. I just found the string to be too confining...... so, I let the tangles lead the way!

From Renee W. (Austin, Texas) ~

As always, thank you for a lovely challenge! Seemed like the perfect combination of patterns to help celebrate Easter and Passover.

From Simone Menzel, CZT, creator of Tulipa! (Germany) ~

What a surprise!
Even if I didn’t participate to the IAST during the last time, I’ve been watching your blog and the tiles weekly, and so I found last week this challenge with my Tulipa, combined with the beautiful tangles Mooka and Javik!
Thank you so much for the chance to see lots of tulips next week .
I am in holidays in the Bretagne, an outstanding region in the western part of France. The region we are is called “Finistère”, what means “end of the world”... I must say it is the most beautiful end you could imagine . I am sitting in our cottage with view on the Atlantic and have time to tangle and to relax after a day of walking at the beach and having a gigantic bowl of Mussels with a glass of wine... Sounds good, doesn’t it? (YES!)
Attached please find my tile - I must admit that I left the suggested string a little bit, but who cares?
I thank you again for giving my tangle a chance in your challenge and I am looking forward to seeing all the tiles next week.
I send you some hugs, with my best wishes

From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

Attached is my Tile for ‘It’s A String Thing #288’ Challenge

From Moblue (Bremen, Germany) ~

I hope, your Easter days passed by nice and cosy.
Enclosed please find my tile for IAST # 288. It was real fun drawing these patterns all unknown to me.
My Mooka seemes to need some further practice, but Tulipa and Javic were pleasant to draw.
Thank you, for the lovely opportunity.

From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

I decided to use a tile that I put some blue colour on a long time ago. The daffodils are just starting to open up in my part of Ontario, so the patterns this week were a great opportunity to put some colour in my life.

From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~

Hope you had a lovely Easter!
Here is my tile for #288. When you mentioned grid in your instructions, I thought of orienting Tulipa as a grid (or I guess it’s really a row), which was fun to play with. I’ve never “bonded” with Mooka, I think because of the M.C. Escher-like ambiguity of it, so I just used a couple of Mooka stems for the Javic flowers. As I played with the horizontal lines on your string, I thought of a watercolor painting I bought when I first moved to Tucson in the early 1990s, so I added some of her effects to the horizontal layers. I’ll attach a photo of the painting. (The artist’s name is Wanda Hein. I googled her, and discovered that she passed away in 2017 … at the age of 98!)
Happy spring to you! (ours is too rapidly rushing into summer!)

Watercolor by Wanda Hein

From Ingrid (The Netherlands) ~

Hope everyone had some Happy Easter days.
Here in The Netherlands we had some warm and sunny Easter days.
Here is my Tile# 288 for this week.
It was so much fun making this tile with all the organic tangles. Love them all.
It was also great to have more time to play around in a relaxed way with the challenge.
Thank Adele you for this Zen time.
With much love and have a blessed week ahead.

From Lynn F. (Florida) ~

Here’s my tile for the challenge.

From Mariam G. (Port Hueneme, California) ~

Hoping everyone had a lovely holiday and a chance to celebrate with family and friends. I have been so busy watching our Junko babies play in our atrium that I almost forgot to create a tile for IAST288 - this one is in honor of the flurry of little wings , dodging in and out of the plants and leaves, blessing us with their presence.

A very warm welcome to Cheryl (Missouri) ~

I love your website! I am a self taught Zentanglist. I discovered the art while recovering for months from surgery. Being a perfectionist, and missing out on a lot of life because of it, I knew it was for me when I read "There are no mistakes in Zentangle".
Attached, please find my first IAST Tangle #288. Doing a challenge string sure make my brain work! It definitely puts a different, thought provoking, spin on designing. I had a blast!!

Welcome to our IAST community and to our Tangled Map, Cheryl.  Cheers to a speedy recovery with lots of tangling time.

From Amy L. (Connecticut) ~

I did this one last week and was planning to do a second, but never got around to it, so here it is. I just LOVED Javik, so I went kind of crazy. Then it got busy looking so I filled some of the background in black for contrast and here it is. Thanks so much—what great fun! And happy holidays to all.

From Allison A. (California) ~

I thought with more time I would get this done earlier, but alas here it is on the last day. I had so much fun with these tangles and the soft pastel colors I used on them.
Thank you so much for doing this.

From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

The tangle choices for this prompt were fun, fun, and fun. So many direction to go ... can’t wait for the tile show! I’m still exploring the cartouche wave right now with a Mooka border. Tulipa and Javic came as a spring to the rescue in what has been a very blustery, chilly, overcast, rainy month.
Cheers to spring!

From Felicity Strohfeldt (Veldriff, South Africa) ~

Hope you are doing well. I apologise for the late entries. Unbelievably, we are still being paralysed by intermitted internet reception So it’s hurry, hurry it might disappear any second. My Tile 288 is inspired by my son and daughter -in- law’s tour of the Netherlands and France at present. They visited the magnificent tulip fields as part of their tour and sent beautiful photos last week. I thoroughly enjoyed challenge 288...Thank you again for your enthusiasm each week and thank you too for challenging us to new heights with every IAST.
Wishing all participants a wonderful week.

Thank you one and all for spreading the tangling joy and for all of the happy Easter wishes.

Many thanks to the creative minds behind the tangles we used this week ~

Tulipa by Simone Manzel, CZT

Javic by Ria Matheussen, CZT

Mooka by Maria Thomas


Click here for all of the delightful details of IAST #289 and join in the fun.

Tomorrow's "Catching Up" post will feature tiles from the last few challenges - see you then!