Tuesday, September 3, 2019

My Heartfelt Thank You

IAST Thank You Zendala by Adele Bruno, CZT
The names of 466 IASThingers from around the world who have kindly contributed over the years.

I hope you have as much fun looking for your names as I did writing them in this sea of fellow gifted tanglers.

G.K. Chesterton wrote, "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought;
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

My heart is filled with gratitude for all of you, for making these six years of IAST possible, for keeping my enthusiasm for "all things tangled" keen, and for building up this positive and encouraging community.

While I intend to blog from time to time, I must take leave of moderating and conducting our weekly challenges.  I am as sad to say this as I was elated to begin IAST in August of 2013 - but just think of the lasting library we have collectively created.

On the pink header above you can find a wealth of quick references to past years' IASTs, so please make use of them if you need a spark to tangle.

I will be present and I welcome your comments and ongoing communication.  You can reach me through the email slot on the right side of this page or at brunoadelem@gmail.com 

Looking forward to more tangling together!




Monday, September 2, 2019

"It's a String Thing" #302 Happy Sixth Birthday Tiles

It is ironic that weather has much to do about this tardy post.

Here in Florida we are as prepared as possible for the uncertain weather that Dorian, the latest hurricane, is due to bring.  Lots and lots of prayers are needed for those already feeling its wrath.

I have been "under the weather" as the saying goes with some uncertain health challenges, but am confident that I will be back in good health very soon.

Today, though, we have a celebration of birthday tiles and greetings to share so we will stay focused on all that is positive - as we always do!

Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Jane (Surrey, United Kingdom) IASThinger since #231~
Many congratulations on reaching the six year anniversary of IAST, although I’ve only been participating for a couple of years or so your friendly regular blog and a chance to tangle these strings and tangles is a great pleasure. Here’s to many more!



From Moblue (Bremen, Germany) IASThinger since #274 ~
Happy Anniversary to you, Adele and to all of us “It’s a String Thingers”. I confess I’m a proud one! So let’s just celebrate with this nice pattern combination which I added an ADA base. To let it sparkle some lines are doubled with the golden Gellyroll.
Cheers to us and a drum roll to you Adele to keep it all together.
Happy tangling from Moblue, Bremen


From Ingrid (The Netherlands) IASThinger since #20 ~
Happy congratulations with 6 years of IAST.
It has been a pleasure to have been a member of your IAST community from challenge no 20.
Thank you for all the love and effort that you have given to this community.
With much much love and many more years with IAST.



From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) IASThinger since #204 ~
Happy Birthday to IAST! 6 years old already. Isn't it amazing how time goes by.



From T., IASThinger since #275 ~
Congratulations on reaching such a wonderful milestone!
Six years is a long time to commit to helping others connect to and grow their creativity, while receiving only our thanks in return. I’m looking forward to participating in more of your weekly challenges.
I really enjoyed this week’s challenge.
Three of the four patterns were new to me (Decoo, Firecracker, Joy), but thankfully, none of them were difficult to learn.
Jonqal was one of the earliest patterns I learned when I connected to this method of creating, so it gets used A LOT in the art I create.
I continue to use the same limited colour palette with only a small variation of colours added to the flames of the candles.
I wasn’t able to get my tiles to you for the last two challenges because I was away from home, but I thought I’d send them to you anyway in case you decide to do one of your catch up posts sometime in the near future.
As always, thank you for all you do to help so many of us explore our creativity.




From Lynn G. (Florida) IASThinger since #154 ~
A very Happy Birth of IAST! With all the candles I had to use a Apprentice tile :) Thanks for all your work.


From Ria Matheussen, CZT (Belgium) IASThinger since #178 ~

First of all congratulations for the 6 th birthday of I.A.S.T., for all
the fantastic work you do, for the wonderful presentations and for
suggesting Decoo as one of the tangles in this special challenge!
I have seen absolutely gorgeous tiles, passing on your site and I have
learned so much by joining. I hope to go on following, as much as
possible in the future, as I said before, it is always a great pleasure.
I kept it simple and used all the patterns in the candles, drawn wit a
pen and finished with ordinary colourpencils.


From Hilary (Chicago) IASThinger since #122 ~
Another week and another celebration! Congratulations once again! You have so much to be proud of, and I know I’m one of many who really appreciate all your hard work.



From Laurel Davis, CZT #28 (New York) IASThinger since #202 ~
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Adele and IAST, Happy Birthday to you!



From Margarete Gilge (Germany) IASThinger since #201 and here on her blog ~
congratulations on the 6th (not the 5th)anniversary of IAST!
Unfortunately, I lost a candle during my first drawing. It was still visible on my preliminary drawing, but there were only five left on the end result. A dear Tangle colleague pointed this out to me on my blog.
Now I have just drawn a second tile for the 6th anniversary of IAST and send it to you a little late.
Now one can find both tiles on my blog under the link...
Thanks again for your great dedication to bringing fun and joy to so many Tangle enthusiasts around the world.




From Ragged Ray (United Kingdom) IASThinger since #7 ~
Imagine a town, in a faraway kingdom, see its 6 tall towers. In one of the towers, 6 cakes with multiple tiers, drizzled with the sweetest icing. And on each cake 6 candles, dribbled with melting wax. And in their flickering candlelight, what better place to gather and celebrate another birthday of your wonderful challenge. Happy Birthday IAST! Thank you for bringing us all together, week after week.



From Ginger White (California) IASThinger since #264 ~
Happy birthday! So glad you decided to do this weekly-or-so challenge.


From Sara (Australia) IASThinger since #48 ~
Another week... another celebration! Congratulations and happy 6th birthday!



From Gale Sherman, CZT (Tucson, Arizona) IASThinger since #212 ~
I hope I’m not late with my submission! What a celebration -6 years and 302 challenges!!! I used watercolors, colored pencils, graphite, white chalk and a gold gelly roll in addition to my black pen. Why hold back for a big celebration? Though I like firecracker it just didn’t work with my composition and I went freewheeling with Joy for my flames. That’s Zentangle for you. Thanks for all you do Adele.



From Lynn F. (Florida) IASThinger since #253 ~
Congratulations on 6 years!
Here’s my tile.



From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) IASThinger since #172 ~
Congratulations! on the 6th Birthday of ‘ It’s A String Thing ’
I’m very happy to join you to celebrate this 6th Birthday with my tile.
Attached is my tile for It’s A String Thing # 302


From Susie (Thailand) IASThinger since #182 ~
A super huge congratulations to you and your weekly IAST challenge, Adele!!! That is indeed a milestone you can be proud of. You are a pillar for many tanglers, me included. I started following you end of January 2017 or, to be more precise, 121 tiles ago. Now I sincerely hope you keep up the good work for many more birthdays to come so my "tiles ago" number grows indefinitely.



From Amy L, CZT (Connecticut) IASThinger since #237 ~
A very happy birthday! This is the second IAST birthday tangle I have done. I really wanted to squeeze it in, so I hope I’m not too late. Joy was a joy, and I liked practicing jonqal and learning decoo. Firecracker eluded me, so I left it off. But it was so much fun, thanks as always for doing this! I hope you like it.



From Allison (California)  IASThinger since #250~
Hi Adele, here my contribution to the party. I love how festive it came out. I am thinking something similar would look really great as a Christmas card. Anyway, thanks for including me.


From Sra (India)  IASThinger since #136 ~
Here's my entry for IAST 302. Thanks for keeping it going all these years and I hope it does for many more years to come. Have a wonderful week!



From Joyce Evans (Port Alberni, B.C., Canada)  IASThinger since #31 ~
Here is my entry. I hope you can use it as I only use an iPad.



From Susan (United Kingdom)  IASThinger since #127 ~
Happy 6th Birthday. Congratulations and many, many thanks for all you do.




From JoAnne (Ontario, Canada)  IASThinger since #255 ~
Happy 6th Birthday!! I think I started at IAST 255 just over a year ago! Thanks for all you do to make tangling fun! It’s so much fun to see everyone’s tiles!



From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona)  IASThinger since #3 ~
I had upsetting news yesterday, the death of a friend. He was only 63 and it was unexpected. I felt uninspired to be very imaginative with my rendition but as I persevered I found it comforting to draw lines over and over. Also (here's a "profound" observation lol) in Jonqal the wider/narrower alternation of spaces was difficult, like they wanted to move toward equilibrium. I remember you said something similar about Nipa, that the wiggly lines want to straighten out. So I reflected on equilibrium and how we feel when it's shaken.
It has been a fun 6 years. Thank you for all you do!


From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri)  IASThinger since #57 ~





From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts)  IASThinger since #27 ~
Happy IAST-6th birthday! You are amazing! Thank you for all the prompts, the tips for tangling, the words of wisdom, the family shares, the travel recounts ... all of which are filled with your joy and exuberance!!
It’s been fun watching IAST evolve ... looking forward to the coming century of prompts!
For all that, and more ... cheers to you and the IAST community you have gathered.



From  Antony Visconti (Milan, Italy)  IASThinger since #263 ~
My tile took a life of it's own as I went through it and ended up giving me a feeling of a Gothic cathedral setting. Must have been the candles!


From Cheryl (Missouri) IASThinger since #288 ~
I'm excited to see the different interpretations of this tangle. For me, I knew right away how I was going to use the patterns.



From Mary Helmers (Boerne, Texas - pronounced "Bernie")  IASThinger since #129 ~
Birthdays should be sparkly, and I tangled this with metallic pens. It may not show up in the photo. You'll notice that the candle flames are not shaded. That is because they do not throw shadows. Something I discovered when I attempted to photograph a lit candle. A fun tile! Tangles I used: Jonqal, Joy, Decoo, Firecracker, Avreal, Ambler, and Diva Dance-Waltz.



Thank you everyone for the gorgeous tiles and happy birthday greetings.

Many thanks to the creative minds behind the tangles we used for IAST #302 ~

Decoo by Ria Matheussen, CZT

Firecracker by Suzanne McNeill, CZT

Jonqal by Maria Thomas

Joy by Joyce Block, CZT


Tomorrow's post will include my thank you to all the String Thingers - hundreds of fabulous tanglers who have shared their tiles and love and stories over these past seven years.