Thursday, May 15, 2014

Diva's Duotangle Challenge, (Happy Birthday, Laura), and String Thing #40

This week, this past Monday to be exact, was the Diva's (Laura Harms) birthday. We all hope she had a terrific day, and that it is the start of a wonderful year. Because the Diva loves Duotangles (a tile or ZIA using 2 tangles only), she has chosen to use this format for this week's challenge. And the 2 tangles she has chosen are Punzel and Well. Now, Well is one of my favorite tangles, but I don't think I have ever actually used Punzel. I have tried it out; put it in one of my Tangle Practice Sketchbooks, but I just never was able to get it to look anything like I wanted it to. So I was bound and determined to perfect it, or at least make it presentable for this Challenge. It's a challenge after all, isn't it? 

So I put in a little time working away at it, and finally came up with a version that I was OK with enough to use it as the centerpiece of my tile. The rest of it is made up of 3 different versions (or tangleations) of Well. Which is one of the reasons I like Well so much; it is truly versatile. There are so many different ways to use it.

So here I was, I had a tile using both Punzel and Well, and very happy with the results. Until I realized that one section was very sloppy, and totally detracted from the overall effect, So I spent the next couple of days trying to recreate the tile, and of course you know that I could never replicate what I had done with Punzel, and when I did it fairly well (pun intended) something else wouldn't work. But finally I got it together, more or less, and went to post it. Aargh! I had no trouble scanning it to my computer, but I couldn't get my photo program to import it, and when I finally accomplished that, I couldn't get Blogger to upload it. I spent a lot more time trying to get the tile onto this blog than it took to create it, problems and all. So here it is, warts and all. I hope you like it.

DC#167
If you haven't already, be sure to check out Laura's blog to see all the fabulous entriesIt's amazing how different all the responses are. Maybe you'll be inspired to try out one of the Challenges yourself.

The other challenge this week is That String Thing #40, using Beth Snodderly's string #043, one of my favorite strings of all. I really use this string a lot.




and any or all of the following: 
Beadlines by CZT Margaret Bremner
and three official Zentangle® patterns -
Beelite
Beeline and
Betweed

I chose to only use Betweed and Beadlines. In true Zentangle fashion, once I penciled in the string, the rest just followed. What a difference in the ease of doing this challenge compared to doing the previous one this week. 
Adele Bruno presents That String Thing tiles a little differently. Instead of having links to them all week, she presents the tiles themselves all together on Monday. This is the single link you need to access them.  The vast differences that can be achieved using the same tangles on the same string are truly incredible. She does, however, post links to the individual blogs so you can see the artist's other work. And for those interested in accepting the challenge, check back on Tuesday, when Adele offers new ones.

Thanks for visiting; please leave a comment, favorable or not. I'd love to hear your thoughts. That's how we learn and grow; and how we know someone out there is paying attention.

Have a wonderful day; see you all next time.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Easy; and not so easy.

This week's challenges posed 1 simple one, the Diva's, which is a UMT (Use My Tangle), usually a tangle that the Diva: CZT Laura Harms, hasn't had a chance to try. This time around, however, it's a tangle that Laura has come up with herself. As yet unnamed, here it is in a couple of my tiles:

I've also used Diva Dance (Fox Trot) and Tipple in the top one

 but added only Tipple in the second one.

Once I started playing around with it, I realized that it was really very simple to do, and quite versatile. I have a few other ideas to try; but as it's already Saturday night, I need to concentrate my efforts on the other, not so easy challenge.

For this week's It's a String thing, CZT Adele Bruno has offered this string by Yamit Fridman:
 
and any or all of the following tangles:
Mooka
Meer 
Msst - all official Zentangle® patterns
and
Mak-rah-mee by CZT Michele Beauchamp
Now I happen to like all of these patterns, (except that  I never get Mooka to look the way I would like it to look). But for the life of me I couldn't come up with an acceptable tile using them together with this string. Then I decided to take a look at what some others had come up with for this challenge (something I usually try not to do before I've done my tile, for fear of being influenced.) I only looked at a few, and sure enough they inspired me to try again, and hopefully not rip off someone else's ideas.
  But here it is late Saturday night, and I haven't come up with anything usable; so I'll have to skip this week's String Thing. Check back next week, and hopefully I'll have bounced back with a fabulous tile.

In the meantime, I tried another tile with Laura's unnamed tangle; this time white on black.
This was sort of an experiment. I used a wide opaque white pen (Recollections) to draw it all in, then used a black Micron to draw in the black lines over the white.

Be sure to visit the Diva's site to see the other wonderful entries; it's amazing how different all the responses are. Maybe you'll be inspired to try out one of the Challenges yourself.

And even though I don't have an entry in That String Thing this week. check out all the others @ Tickled to Tangle, on Monday, when Adele Bruno posts them. The vast differences that can be achieved using the same tangles on the same string are truly incredible. And, if you've a mind to try a String Thing yourself, check back on Tuesday, when she offers the new ones.

That's it for this week.
Thanks for visiting; please leave a comment, favorable or not. I'd love to hear your thoughts. That's how we learn and grow; and how we know someone out there is paying attention.

Have a wonderful day; see you all next time.
 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

String Thing #38

Using String #032 by Adele Bruno:
 
and any or all of these tangles/patterns:
Aquafleur - an official Zentangle® pattern
Aura Leah by Carla duPreez
Axlexa - a new pattern by  Henrike Bratz
and
AA's by Judy Murphy

I didn't think I would use all 4; was mostly going to concentrate on Aquafleur, which you may know is one of my absolute favorites. And possibly/probably Aura Leah, another favorite. But after finishing Aquafleur, I thought that Axlexa would be a good fit. And so at the last minute I threw in AA's as well. After all, A is my initial. I had to include it.

 This is the tile I entered in That String Thing #38:
 This is the same tile before the intense shading:
And this is one I did with a photo program, just for fun:
Be sure to check out all the entries @ Tickled to Tangle, on Monday, when Adele Bruno posts them. The vast differences that can be achieved using the same tangles on the same string are truly incredible. And, if you've a mind to try a String Thing yourself, check back on Tuesday, when she offers the new ones.

Thanks for visiting; please leave a comment, favorable or not. I'd love to hear your thoughts. That's how we learn and grow; and how we know someone out there is paying attention.

Have a wonderful day; see you all next time.