Monday, July 15, 2019

"It's a String Thing" #297 Tiles

Wednesday marks the FIFTEENTH anniversary of the first public class that Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas taught in their now worldwide Zentangle® Method.

To celebrate, our prompt included a string inspired by the Roman numeral XV along with Zenith and our pick of favorite zentangle patterns.

Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Robin Steinbeck (Painesville, Ohio) ~
I love zenith! My 2 go to’s are Crescent Moon and Farcas
Tangled Tidbits -
*crosshatching in Zenith
*auras add great depth


From Sara BK (Australia) ~
The last challenge I completed was #150. Life got a little busy and my tangling fell by the wayside...
Just the other day I realised I needed an artistic outlet to de-stress and so picked up my pens again. Lucky for me you are still running these awesome challenges!
I have used Zenith and teamed it up with Marasu and Florz.
Welcome back, Sara!
*shining sparkles
*shading adds depth and sense of layering


From Ria Matheussen, CZT (Belgium) ~
As you can see, I have drawn Zenith in the center. I added Hurry in the
background and Mooka in the right corner below.
The cheerful pattern Jetties is also a fave of me that I use a lot to
cheer up my tiles.
I have used a black and brown pen and finished with ordinary colourpencils.
It was a pleasant challenge that I enjoyed very much.
Thank you Adele. I'm always curious to see your wonderful presentation
of all the entries,
Warm regards from Belgium
Tangled Tidbits -
*elegant Mooka
*Hurry adds contrast to the other curvy tangles


From Marjan Heemskerk (The Netherlands) ~
What a celebration this is. Every time I tangle I am grateful for discovering Zentangle. It brings me so much Zen.
Love Zenith, Tipple and auraing ( is this a word?:)
Yes, we will say that it is!
Tangled Tidbits -
*Zenith in four wonderful variations along the string lines
*Tipple sections shaded along the perimeters


From Lisette, CZT 32 (Switzerland) ~
I hat a lot of fun playing with the “old” patterns by Rick and Maria. Beside Zenith is Rain, Springkle and Florz. The background in pencil with Bales. I love the simplicity of the original Zentangle-patterns. Thank you for this challenge, Adele.

Tangled Tidbits -
Yes, they are simplistic and nostalgic, too.
*lovely layering of tangles
*checkered detail in Zenith


From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~
Happy 15th to Zentangle! A big thank you to them for years of tangling fun and challenges.
Patterns used: Zenith, Floo, Chillon, Huggins (more or less crazy version), Fracas. And, I managed to stick to the string which was important for this XV birthday. Zenith got a bit lost but that is my least favourite tangle. I don't like the version with all the points and balls at all, so I did the more plain version. Maybe with more practice the points and balls would become more appealing. Susie Ng has done a loosened up version which I like but then she has such talent for making just a small change to make a pattern look wonderful. I am looking forward to seeing what everybody else makes of this pattern.
Kudos to Susie!
Tangled Tidbits -
*sparkle and highlights add great shine
*simple and elegant Zenith


From Nor'dzin (Wales, United Kingdom) ~
Delighted to join in with this week’s challenge. I hope all is well with you. The tangles I have used are pokeroot and pokeleaf, fescu, hibred and umble, as well as zenith. Thank you and best wishes to you and the tangling community.

Tangled Tidbits - 
*colorful variation of Umble
*tangled string lines tipped with tangles - how fun!


From Jane (Indiana) ~
What wonderful news about your new little grandson and your memorable sounding trip! Thank you for sharing! Thanks for coming up with this fun challenge as well. I fiddled with this tile quite a bit, but was finally satisfied with the outcome. The tangles used are: zenith (variation), mooka, tipple, printemps and flux.
Sending blessings and smiles to you!
Tangled Tidbits -
*marvelous Mooka covered string lines with a Zenith border
*dark background accents the tangles and their beautiful details


From Margarete (Germany) and here on her blog ~
your current challenge I drew twice. The version I send to you is a more floral one with the patterns Icantis, Flux, Toodles, Pokeroot and -leaf and Verdigogh. The other more grafical version you can see on my blog under the link.
Thank you for this interesting challenge.
Best wishes from Germany
Tangled Tidbits -
*gorgeous mix of organic tangles
*blend of color and contrast


From Gabi (Germany) ~
15 years of zentangle, wow!
So ZENITH changed to be a little more flowery and I also used the more or less classical patterns ORLIQUE, SNAIL and PRINTEMPS.
Tangled Tidbits -
*fancy Zenith variation
*sparkly Printemps, doubled border shaded to the outside


From Laurel Davis, CZT #28 (New York) ~
Wow! Almost to 300! What an amazing gift you have provided to the Zentangling community, Adele! Thank you so much! Along with Zenith, I used Fracas and Printemps for this challenge.
And I thank you as you are close to 100 contributions by now.
Tangled Tidbits -
*shading and sparkle on Printemps gives them movement
*colorfully cheerful Zenith


From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*wonderful curves, sizes, and variations of Zenith
*shading adds dimension


From Moblue (Bremen, Germany) ~
Here comes my contribution to this week‘s theme. As one tile was to small for all the fantastic pattern plus “zenith” I have outlined a tile on a larger sheet and used “zenith” as a border. This time again was real fun and so instructive to me. I’m really eager to see the other results. Thank you for your awesome job.
Happy tangling from Moblue, Bremen, Germany
Tangled Tidbits -
*detailed Zenith border
*marvelous mix of tangles, shading, and sparkle


From Susan (United Kingdom) ~
Zenith is a great tangle. I love all the variations including borders and standalone elements.
Tangled Tidbits -
*clever use of Zenith fragments
*happy variations of Zenith



From Lynn G. (Florida) ~
I used Zenith colored with chalk pencils, Icantoo, Poke Root, & Nzeppel. Thank you for the challenge.

Tangled Tidbits -
*gloriously detailed Zenith variation
*shading adds softness to the tangles and border


From Tina Kaul, CZT (Germany) ~
Thank you Adele, for the anniversary task, a great idea ...
I have used the following tangles:
Festune, Crescent Moon, Meer, Hollibaugh.
Tangled Tidbits -
*rounded and pointed Zenith details
*depth achieved in layering of tangles and with lovely shading


From Karen Aicken (Alberta, Canada) and here on her blog ~
So exciting that you had such an amazing trip to Israel!! Hope the jet lag is over now … that ‘walking underwater’ feeling is never fun. While I didn’t get you my finished tile last week, this week I’m squeaking in under the wire.
I was so happy to finally get a chance to tangle last night, I didn’t read the entire description of the challenge. I got as far as ‘use two or more of your favourite tangles’ and I got to work, not realizing the rest of the sentence was ‘by Rick and Maria’. OOPS! But I’m finished and sending it to you with the promise to read the full description of the challenge next time.
Tangles used:
Zenith, Diva Dance, Joki and Maryhill.
I traced a Zentangle tile into my sketchbook and that is where I did the tangling with a blue/black PN pen. It is on my blog...
Thank you, Karen, that is an apt description of jet lag :)
Tangled Tidbits -
*fanned Zenith details, Printemps and Diva Dance fills, too
*pleasing balance of rounded and straight lined tangles


From Sue Leslie (New Mexico) ~
Happy 15th anniversary Zentangle Tea. Oh my how Zentangle has changed so many lives in 15 short years, mine included. Our power went out for a few hours yesterday and in the dark of my craft room I decided to grab a pen and do IAST 297 with what natural light was left of the day. And because the black and the purple microns looked the same in the dark of my drawer, I grabbed the purple by mistake and started a line, but as there are no mistakes in Zentangle, I just went with it and this was the result when I finally finished it this morning and using some black too. Besides zenith, I used Punzel, molygon and rain. What fun the surprise of picking up a pen I didn’t intend to can lead to! Thanks for keeping us going in such fun directions.
Tangled Tidbits -
*pretty purple Zenith like hanging wisteria vines
* tangles share dots and aura


From Angie Gittles (Maryland) ~
Cheers to 15 years of Zentangle classes! Here Zenith is celebrating with Hollibaugh and Crazy ‘Nzeppel.
Tangled Tidbits -
*rounded corners, beautiful shading
*elegant enthatching and sparkle


From Lin H. (Florida) ~
Happy 15th year of tangling to tanglers everywhere! I used Zenith and Mooka to celebrate the occasion. Thanks for a great challenge, Adele.
Tangled Tidbits - 
*plump, Tipple filled Mooka
*three wonderful Zenith variations


From JoAnne (Ontario, Canada) ~
Great idea to celebrate 15 years of Zentangle! I chose Striping, Hibred and Florz along with Zenith!
Tangled Tidbits -
*delicate string lines of Zenith
*great movement with curved tangles


From Beth Gaughan (North Carolina) ~
Here’s my tile for IAST 297. In addition to Zenith, I used Bales, Cadent, Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge, Paradox and Printemps. These are my “standby” tangles that I use on most of my tiles.
Tangled Tidbits -
*lovely, light touch of highlight and shading for depth
*contrast in Zenith mirrored in Knightsbridge


From  Lynn F. (Florida) ~
I became obsessed with Zenith so it’s the only pattern I used. It’s new to me so I enjoyed trying different versions.
Thinking of the folks in the path of the hurricane and hoping the levees hold up.
Here’s my tile.  Thanks for another great challenge.

Tangled Tidbits -
*wonderfully detailed Zenith variations
*highlights and golden accents


From Allison (California) ~
Here is my version of 297. I used Zenith, Frondous, Noom, Msst, Knightsbridge, Scenario, Jonqal and both Pokes; Root and Leaf. This was such a fun tangle to do.
Tangled Tidbits -
*a lovely line up of tangles
*multiple shades of gray


From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~
Here’s my tile for #297. Hard to believe we are almost to 300!
It was such fun to use “classic” Zentangle tangles. I went through my printed out step-outs and pulled my favorites, and then I had to cull them at least twice! My favorites are the ones in which “magic” happens and they become 3-D. So I was a bit at a loss as to what to do with Zenith. Then I went to my computer to check email and there was an email from Zentangle with step-outs for Doo-Dah. What a fun tangle that is!
I was gathering my stuff to go into the living room (which is cooler in the afternoon than my studio) and thought “my goodness, I have a lot of pens.” Then when I started to draw I realized I’d grabbed a sepia pen instead of a black pen. For awhile I was going through a phase of not liking to shade with graphite, so I bought Pitt pens in a range of cool greys and warm greys, and discovered the warm greys look really good with sepia Micron pens. So today, because there are no mistakes in Zentangle, here is the tile in sepia pen with warm grey Pitt pen shading (it’s only a subtle difference). Tangles include Hurry, Bucky (my absolute favorite, and I pushed myself by using a grid that curved to follow the string rather than a straight grid, which I must say makes it even more confusing) (there’s one mistake but I won’t tell you where), Zenith with Doo-Dah, Cubine, Dex (where Cubine flows into Dex marks the diagonal string line), and a touch of Zinger.
Thank you for all you do to keep this community going! Looking forward to 300. (When I was going through my file folder of printed out step-outs I found your tangle 100, which you created for challenge #100. Doesn’t seem that long ago.)
No, it doesn't seem so long ago!
I am not even going to look for that "mistake" as there are non in zentangle :)
You have clocked almost 300 yourself along this journey.  Many thanks to you, too.
Tangled tidbits -
*Doo-Dah filled Zenith
*Dex flows into Cubine


From Sra (India) ~
I meant to send this off last night but got busy doing another piece of Zentangle! I finished this on Wednesday itself when you announced the theme. I didn't stick to the string, though. Tangles used are Zenith, Mooka, Tipple, Cadent, Arukas and Fescu.
Tangled Tidbits -
*black aura accents brown Zenith border
*wonderfully intertwined Mooka, Zinger, and Fescu


A very warm welcome to Sunshine Day (Minnesota) ~
Hi Adele, I'm new.
It's nice to meet you!
Thank you for the fun challenge.
A thick line makes it look like XVI but I liked that thick line so I left it in : )
Tangles used: Zenith, Meer, Diva Dance, Avreal, Keeko
Tangled Tidbits -
*happy contrasts of bold and lighter spaces and tangles
*tangle filled Zenith

Welcome to our Tangled Map and welcome to our IAST community!



From Kathy Millard (Prince George, British Columbia, Canada) ~
Love, love, love the inspiration you give with your weekly string. I used "Icanthus" and "Onamato" as my tangles to go with "Zenith".
Thank you, Kathy!
Tangled Tidbits -
*colorful Zenith with tapered ends
*graceful Icanthus in each string space


From Gill Green (Israel) ~
This was a great challenge, and a very fitting one for Zentangle’s 15th anniversary. I enjoyed following all all the links you sent and thoroughly losing myself in a tangled rabbit hole.
As well as Zenith I used Tripoli, Florz and Purk.
If this is too late, apologies
All the best
Tangled Tidbits -
*multiple aura and sparkled orbs of Zenith along with detailed shading
*rounded shading for a delicate Tripoli


From T. ~
This week’s challenge was a bit difficult for me, not because of the pattern you chose for us, but because I had a hard time choosing additional patterns I like from among those deconstructed by the Zentangle founders.
I first used Zenith in one of your past challenges. It’s a pattern that I truly love drawing.
Unfortunately, it took a while for me to choose two more patterns to use with it.
In the end, I chose ‘NZeppel and SeZ. ‘NZeppel is a pattern that I use often either as a filler or main pattern when I draw because it can easily fit into any space.
SeZ reminds me of Pixioze that we used in a recent challenge. It’s also similar to a pattern I used to draw long before I ever heard of Zentangle to fill the margins of pages as I sat through meetings or classes that didn’t hold my attention.
Thanks again for organizing these challenges every week.
 Tangled Tidbits -
*bursts of beautiful color, tangles, bold and finer lines
*large Zenith plays beautifully with smaller Sez and N'zeppel


Wasn't it fascinating to see which tangles were chosen to be included in the tiles?

Thank you one and all for sending in your inspiring contributions!

Special thanks to Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas for the gift of Zentangle.  It has brought us all together in this wonderful world of tangling.  I continue to be amazed by it all.

Check back Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #298!




1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the appreciation and of course, for the round-up, Adele! I'm always thrilled to get a nice adjective from you! :)

    ReplyDelete