Happy Birthday, Switzerland!, a new Tangle, Square One, and more...

Square One week July 19th: Cindyer in addtion with my new tangle Swiss Lampion to celebrate Swiss National Day.

Tangle Patterns: Cindyer, Swiss Lampion

And here my Birthday Tile: the Swiss flag, abstract. I made this tile early - like 3 weeks ago, so in case I forget about the event I have at least ONE tile to honor her.  So, here it comes:

"Happy 727th Birthday, Switzerland!"
....and may you have 727 more.

Tangle Patterns: Rippy, Swiss Lampion

My new tangle Swiss Lampion.

Tangle Patterns: Swiss Lampion

A Swiss-Lampiondala balanced and unbalanced with Zonked, simple Aquafleur, Betweed, modified Flukes, and more Lines.

Tangle Patterns: Swiss Lampion, Zonked, Aquafleur, Betweed, Flukes

Another abstract Swiss flag/banner in honor of Switzerland's birthday...

Tangle Patterns: Swiss Lampion, N'Zeppel, Florz

...and some facts you may or may not know about this country:

• Our flag is red with a white cross in the middle and when Henry Dunant founded the Red Cross he made it easy for himself and simply switched the colors around. Despite the obvious, this confuses some people still today.
• We are located in the middle of Western Europe.
• In August 1291 the cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden bonded together and through the centuries more and more cantons joined the little alliance. We are still not big, but as we know, good things come in small packages.
• Switzerland's real name is Confoederatio Helvetica. So...
• ...our legal tender, the Swiss Frank (and Rappen), is abbreviated CHF and not SF. 
• Our capital is Bern and Zurich is our largest city (and not the other way round).
• We are neutral and we are not, never were, and very likely never will be in the EU. 
• We are called Swiss and not Swedes (they are up north).
• In 1848 we became a Federal State and our constitution was heavily based on the US constitution.  
• We have 4 official languages: German ~63%, French ~23%, Italian ~8%, and Romansh less than 1%, and the rest is "Other" and a lot of us speak English. This tells us that despite no ONE specific national Radio, TV, or Newspaper we still get along and you hardly hear from us. If we couldn't be found on the map you would forget we exist.
• We invented the wrist watch and gave birth to Rolex, Cartier, Tissot, Omega, Longines, Heuer and Swatch, hence we partake in all major sports games.
• We love Fondue, our own Chocolate, Cheese, and Wine; we protect the Pope (and our banks), and if you do not have a Swiss Army Knife yet, you don't know the real meaning of 'comes in handy'.

And thus closes my unpoetic ode to the Swiss event of August 1st at least for a year.

I instantly fell in love with the KolosKi tangle when I saw the video by Alena Light. I added mini iLeaf because the iLeaf of last week was too much influenced by Abundies.

Tangle Patterns: KolosKi, iLeaf

For better or worth! A Summer Tangles 2018 tile clustered with tangles from the days I missed out and into the future to put me ahead of the game: July 17 with a Gem, July 20 with Equerre, July 22 with Bwiya (the day I drew the tile), July 23 with Gingham and July 25 with Groovy.

Tangle Patterns: Equerre, Bwiya, Gingham, Groovy, and a gem

Summer Tangles 2018, July 24th - "Tranzending". It was only in last week's post when I expressed regret of mucking up the brown half of my own watercolor eco-print tile when Summer Tangles 2018 day 24 July saved it. Love it!

Tangle Patterns: Tranzending

Last comes IAST. Oh IAST, IAST, IAST #253. Pleeeease forgive me! Maybe next week I have more time to do you credit.

Tangle Patterns: Crescent Moon, Nipa, Printemps

Animal Happy Day

In pain, starving, but full of trust! I looooove these happy endings, but wished they were just fiction to make us cry because we had already eradicated all animal suffering on this planet.
One day, and that day cannot come too soon.

Have a great weekend and if any Swiss are visiting:
Enjoy the Birthday Party!

---

IAST 252, Summer Tangles Tiles, Refresher and more...

Summer Tangles 2018 (by night!), July 16, 18, 19, with tangles 'Dillo, XYP, Chainlea.

Tangle Patterns: 'Dillo, XYP, Chainlea

This week's IAST, #252, is based on the tangle Deeday and it is string inside a string challenge.

Tangle Patterns: Deeday string, Printemps, Hollibaugh, Tipple, fillers

Summer Tangles 2018, July 13-15, Fiore, Trix, and Zonked, or better yet: Blood, Sweat, and Tears. THREE days it took me until I got it 'somehow' together. Needless to say, the fact that the tile is another one of my watercolor eco-prints helps for background interest.

Tangle Patterns: Fiore, Trix, Zonked

Here the background. Unfortunately, I messed up the brown part.

Summer Tangles 2018 July 21st: "Add Color". All shading done with color, too, no pencil's applied. And thus this tile joins the Twins from last week and makes them Tipples.

Tangle Patterns: iLeaf, CrabEye, Tipple

Refresher #183.

Tangle Patterns: Beeline, Jobowtie, Conoor, Odee, Cheerz

My Mini Training Tiles with tangles Odee, Cheerz, and Stikz with Chunl.

Tangle Patterns: Odee, Cheerz, Stiks, Chunl

My Mini Training Tiles with odd man out and the tangles Munchin, Conoor, Jobowtie, and Dillo.

Tangle Patterns: Munchin, Conoor, Jobowtie, Dillo

Animal Happy Day

Do you have a thing for cows? Probably not, except that you like to fry them in your pan, unless you are vegetarian as I am. Well, this is cute and I hope they may live a long happy life now as famous social media stars.



Last week I introduced my new tangle Y.I.Am. I adopted the name from one of the Black Eyed Peas, Will I.Am. I became a fan of them when I saw their live act for the Oprah Kick off Party a few years back. Please, if you haven't seen this opening and you want to see something really amazing, don't miss out on this video. I can't say more else I would take away the amazing surprise factor.

---

IAST 251, my new Tangle Y.I.Am, lots of Browneees, and self-made Crystals

The story behind my Browneees. I bought a brown MICRON pen about a year ago and promptly forgot about it. Every once in a while though I noticed it in my pot of pens, but always only wondered about my purchase of 2 red 01 pens when red is not exactly a color I particularly like to draw with. Now, there is an event coming up in about 2 weeks for which I want to draw a dedicated tile and needed the red...only to grab the wrong red. Hey, those brown and red bottom caps look the same to my color-blind eyes! But now I am in love with my rediscovered brown Micron!

My Accidental Twins

First born: Summer Tangles 2018. Here my tile for July 7-9 featuring the tangles Dew Drops, Wisket, Abundies in respective order. I never draw Dew Drops, am not good at them. Maybe I will sincerely forget to draw them! Wow! That hope flushed down the drain the very instant Lynn Mead's (A Tangler's Mind) webpage Dew Drop tutorial popped up. You have to draw the DDs FIRST!

Tangle Patterns: Dew Drops, Wisket, Abundies

Second born: The Square One tangle for the week of July 6-12 was Tangleflake3, surrounded by Dublin and Tipple followed by my pre-natel Tangleflake test tile.

Tangle Patterns: Tangleflake3, Dublin, Tipple

Tangle Patterns: Tangleflake3

♻️  July 12th listed 'Monotangle' on the Summer Tangles 2018 manifest. I used Y.I.Am, my new tangle, stepout below, and Tipple as garnishing only. (Envelope tile)

Tangle Pattern: Y.I.Am with Tipple garnishing

On with Summer Tangles 2018, a tangle per day which I combine (mostly), day 10 and 11 July with Ponio, here as a suggested variation by the author - I think, and Cubic.

Tangle Patterns: Ponio, Cubic

♻️  IAST challenge #251 with tangles Stikz and Muchin (on another paper reuse).

Tangle Patterns: Stikz, Munchin

Y.I.Am (Why I Am) - My new Tangle

Tangle Patterns: Y.I.Am, Ruutz, Beadlines, Tipple, Mssst

Stepout and Variations

Tangle Pattern: Y.I.Am stepout and with variations

♻️  This (pre brown pen discovery) IAST challenge #250 experimental tile didn't get finished in time last week. Tira and Ahh! are drawn on white crumbly dried vegetable paper (here in Thailand the cauliflower stem is wrapped in soft wet paper) and then I glued the two-fold white paper on a black background.

Tangle Patterns: Tira and Ahh!

These past few weeks I was also busy making my own crystals. All it needs is Borax, food coloring and one of the many, many video instructions on youTube.

Animal Happy Day

Close to my heart, too!!!!

Enjoy and have a splendid weekend!

---

IAST 250, Square One, Summer Tangles, Refresher, and more

A Sunday morning tile with focus on Dropz.

Tangle Patterns: Dropz

Square One week June 29 - July 5 with focus on MySwing. I added Maryhill, the tangle we had for Joey's very likely last challenge, #222, in yet another version, and Tipple.

Tangle Patterns: MySwing, Maryhill, Tipple

Refresher #182 featuring tangles Gneiss, Tumbleweed, Tamarai (in Thai: what are you doing), Cake, Joki. (I drew this with Margarete Gilge's tangle tiles in mind.)

Tangle Patterns: Gneiss, Tumbleweed, Tamarai, Cake, Joki

Tumbleweed is a tangle from the above refresher #182 listing and a horror tangle for me. Lots of round long lines, auras...something I have difficulties with as I can't draw them in one go. I need to stop and turn the tile several times and where I reconnect there is a nasty blob,  and the lines get wobbly, too. So I correct the lines and try to disguise the blob and end up with big, fat, ugly worms instead of fine, thin, beautiful, delicate wisps of lines. And then it hit me: who says I have to connect the lines? Voila! Here my almost perfectly executed Tumbleweed!

Tangle Patterns: Tumbleweed

Besides Tumbleweed, Tamarai (grid and free-spirited) and Cake (with striped Pokeleaf) from above refresher were new to me = TTs. The other, Tira 'Flower' on yellow, is from the IAST 250 challenge.

Tangle Patterns: Tamarai (grid and free-spirited) 

and Cake with Pokeleaf, Tira "Flower"

IAST #250 and it is all about July 4th, the American Independence Day, and fireworks, represented by the tangles Tire and Ahh! Coincidentally, this is also Adele Bruno's 250th tangle challenge, which translates into 5 years of commitment to

a) something we all, the partaker in her challenges, enjoy tremendously! Thanks so much, Adele!
and
b) laborious work for her herself! I lift my hat, Adele!

All in all the verdict is: Adele, you are a darling!

♻️♻️♻️ As for the tile, I took a coffee bag tile, metallic-like paper. The white gel pen was OK, but the yellow wouldn't even dry overnight! And you can forget about color and graphite pencils or charcoal pens for shading. Won't work! Hence my tile turned out to be a rather sad, 3D transparent-looking, 250 celebration plastic tile.

Tangle Patterns: Tira and Ahh!

In Photoshop I manipulated the drawing to add a drop shadow (you may have to come real close to the monitor...).

Tangle Patterns: Tira and Ahh!

♻️♻️♻️ Daily Summer Tangles 2018 challenge, July 4 to September 3, is a welcome substitution for the retired or semi retired Joey and DIVA challenges. I combined the first 3 days on a toilet tissue roll and added a 2nd in an abstract version. Both a flop, but you should have seen the designs I had in my mind....

Tangle Patterns: Footlites, Hamail, Z-Trik

The abstract version.

Tangle Patterns: Footlites, Hamail, Z-Trik

And one more Square One with MySwing and black Pokeleaf. It's last because I worked on it several day, not knowing where to go with it and only just finished a few minutes ago.

Tangle Patterns: MySwing, Pokeleaf, Sand Swirl

Animal Missing Day

Last week I mentioned the missing pregnant cat that visited me every afternoon to find some well deserved rest. She has still not turned up. However, my Swiss neighbor and I are quite certain she has come to no harm, but somebody has taken her in. We have about 10-12 cats in the area and no other cat is missing.

This morning I climbed onto a ladder to successfully rescue another neighbor's cat, an orange tabby with a green collar, from another neighbor's roof's edge.

I do get around, don't I.

The kids in the Cave in Thailand

I am sure you have heard the news about the kids soccer team and their coach stuck in a cave here in Thailand. This hits home with me as I have been a PADI Master Scuba Diving Instructor for 11 years and I understand very well the danger of bringing out the kids on scuba gear. My title and my experience of over 2000 dives would not have allowed me to join any cave diving expedition without prior training in a safe and controlled environment and with the appropriate gear (rebreather). It goes way beyond my imagination how these kids felt during the 10 days they were missing (one hell of a long time not knowing whether you will ever be found!!!) and now with no hope for immediate rescue, or a life threatening rescue...

If you are religious, please pray for the kids and their coach; I cross my fingers and hope they will (!) find a way to get them all out safe and alive before the month of October. Let it Be!

---