During the first half of month June I was lucky and finished five refreshers - the same number I managed to finish in the whole of May. Tangle refresher lists you can find on Linda Farmer's website.
Refresher #34
Patterns: Dust Bunny, Meer, Hugs and Kisses, Bilt, Barberpole
We did it! Joey's alphabet challenge 2017 has come to an end with #171, letter Z and tangle Zonked. I am really proud I kept going throughout the 6 months - or half of this year - it took us to get all 26 letters in. I pledged to do capital and lowercase tiles for each letter and today I can hook that off as "done", too. A big thank you goes to Joey, for sure. I enjoyed the challenge tremendously, but without her I wouldn't even have started something like this.
The small z I kept real simple (this is the simplest tile I did in this challenge). Zonked only and a z that Zorror would have engraved on walls and cheeks had he had a ruler.
Pattern: Zonked
My ending tile to the challenge is the big Z and because as soon as this is uploaded I get myself the wheat beer I was talking about in the Y page. I made this tile a Party Zelebration tile.
DIVA Challenge #322 is a monotangle - we are "Trying Aquafleur". I love Aquafleur, it is organic!, and there are literally tons of different drawing possibilities. Funny enough, I only drew this tangle once before, exactly a year ago (plus 2 weeks or so, who is counting). Then, as now, I cannot just rest after drawing one, ideas just come flooding in.
My first tile is Aqua-Orchid.
Patterns: Aquafleur as an orchid
Here I tried to be pointy, so I mixed Aquafleur with Nouvart, Ria Mattheussen's tangle. I didn't know where to put the Nouvart diamond shaped foot, so on one I reversed its place and put it on top and on the others I just have it 'hang out'.
Patterns: Aquafleur, Nouvart
My 3rd is a stippling Aquafleur. Ask me whether I am up to any more stippling...
Patterns: Stippling Aquafleur
My 4th tile in the DIVA 322 challenge I hurried to get it done because I still haven't started with Joey's letter challenge yet - the last one! - let alone IAST. I tend to add beads everywhere so I needed to make a beaded Aquafleur tile. First I wanted to put the beads on the bands, but that is predictable, I do that all the time, so I made a melee of beads on strings and placed it on the fleur itself. The little white beads are actually tiny LED bulbs, solar powered. Well, it could be...it could be, couldn't it.
Patterns: Aquafleur with a strings of beads melee
And here the ones I did last year. The long red design further down is one I adapted from Helen Williams. If you ever need ideas on how to draw Aquafleur with an umph, visit Helen's website.
Animal Happy Day
Pregnant Pit Bull was not alone under abandoned school.
Thanks, Eldad, you did it again.
Animals Need Help
Whales - Denmark - Sea Shepherd needs your signature.
Yesterday I received an update and it says: After receiving over 240k signatures, Sea Shepherd has submitted the petition to the European Commission, which has acknowledged receipt of our request to start infringement proceedings.
During these illegal killings, the Danes do not differentiate between adult, pregnant, or baby whales. Everything gets slaughtered in the most brutal way. Whales are very intelligent mammals - we are mammals, but sometimes I wonder where our intellect has gone. The slaughter of whales in the whole world has got to stop and with a simple signature, you can help Sea Shepherd to succeed!
A huge thank you to everyone who signed the petition.
This is "It is a String Thing" or "IAST" #200challenge! Congratulations, Adele! What a milestone for you. You certainly deserve all the kudos and appreciation in the world!
I for one am glad I found your site and dared to participate. I made my initial mistakes, one such was not writing where I come from - or live - after my name. I am sure I caused you extra work (pin my name to a different location on your Zentangle map), but you didn't complain.
On a weekly basis you publish a challenge that covers a recent occurrence, festive days, or a theme fresh out of the Zentangle world. Each week you take time out to check with an eagle eye each individual tile that is sent to you (and there are many!) to honor us all with your little, always very accurate and uplifting, tidbits. Out of curiosity, I tried it once myself, going from one tile to the next. After half an hour and 7 tiles later I gave up. It definitely needs your trained Zentangle eye to spot and describe each tile's beauty.
Each week, too, there is one tile in which you see something special and you make it the honor tile of the week. But you don't stop there. You then send the artist of the honor tile a little something per snail mail. A beautiful gesture appreciated by all and sundry.
Adele, I have no idea how you do it all - and have done so 199 times already, but I thank you herewith for all your engagement and support you give to the Zentangle community.
>>>> End of my monologue and back to IAST #200.
For the 200th IAST challenge Adele has also created a new tangle and calls it C-Perfs. I managed to mix a few C-Perfs with other tangles and didn't venture off string too gravely.
"Hurrah! We are going to kill him! He has a HERNIA (!!)" for heavens sake.
Good gracious me, he could be healthy, too, to get a death sentence. If you think I am sounding sarcastic, yes, dead on. Some of us humans do not deserve to have anything to do with animals of any kind.
Countdown Z - Y. This week's alphabet challenge at Joey's site is the letter Y, or #170, or the second last letter in the alphabet, or only two more tiles to go. In other words, two more tiles and I have actually finished a "Finish My Tile" theme in its completeness. I am not an avid beer drinker, but occasionally drink one in the evening to relax. A friend of mine came over yesterday and brought two bottles of wheat beer. I marked one of the bottles to lose its seal right after the very last stroke is done on my very last Z-tile in celebrations. I can hardly wait.
Here my lowercase y. Not one of my best weeks, but then I had several of these in the past and I start accepting the fact that we all have good and bad days and I should not be so critical.
I tried to be loyal to Yuma. I practiced it again and again and it never turned out 'right'. So I decided to go for Yuma tangelations on both tiles. I also tried my hand on gems. Here, too, I am still practicing those.
Patterns: Yuma, Yang, Y-Chain
The capital Y tile got a bit out of bounds. Although I like the Yuma tangelation better on this tile, it is clear like water that the tangles are just plastered on the tile without giving a thought. Plus, the Y has lost some of its Yew-Dee altered tiles and is falling apart. So while the whole thing looks a mess, life goes on.
Patterns: Yuma, Yew-Dee, Yoga
My exercise Yuma tangelation tile.
Pattern: Yuma tangelation
Animal Happy Day
I love to watch rescue videos by Animal Aid Unlimited in India. They are doing an incredible job rescuing all kinds of animals including donkeys. In this video they rescue a baby donkey with a hole in its head from certain death. Well done, guys!
This week's DIVA challenge #320 is another UMT (Use My Tile) theme. The tangle on the table it Dansk by Margaret Bremner. It looks very similar to Sand Swirl, lots of parallel lines or auras. Drawing parallel lines is not one of my strongest talents, so I knew I had to come up with a design where I can shortcut.
Voila! Dansk a la Hollibaugh! Holllibaugh gave me lots of breaks which equals shorter lines, and where there were no breaks I made breaks and hid the tale-telling spot under a bead.
Patterns: Dansk a la Hollibaugh
Animal Happy Day
Vet Ranch Clinic with Dr. Matt
Vet Ranch is another youtube channel I visit often to check on their latest animal rescue cases. The video here is Dr. Matt's first and it gets to show that sometimes saving a life already marked for euthanasia is saving a whole family from grieving.
Update June 23, 2017 - Just noticed that Adele Bruno from the IAST - It is a String Thing website has picked my tile below to be the honor tile in this challenge. She made me tremendously proud and I am over the moon for the recognition! Thank you, Adele.
There were so many other beautiful tiles on that week and I encourage you, to click here to have a look.
It's a String Thing (IAST) challenge #200-1 is a simple string of three Us, touching in the middle of the tile with their bottoms, with wired apple core tangle patterns. I got the Us sorted out - sort of; apple cores are aplenty; but the wiring system has been downplayed to a bare minimum. When everything was in position and before the shading, I noticed there was a letter hiding. How that came about I have no idea. Maybe my mind is still in the fangs of Joey's alphabet challenge.
However, I still had to make the whole thing look good, so I asked my watercolors to give me a hand and make an appearance. Thanks, watercolors, I try not to imagine the tile without you tubes. (No, not youTube. You, the tubes.)
Patterns: Apacore, Wired
Animal Happy Day
"Hey, goose baby! Where do you wanna go?" asked the truck driver, and, as the well-bred gentleman he was, brought her home safely. "Thank you, Mister!"
If you have a minute, please click on the YouTube icon in the video (or here) and give him a thumbs up. Nice guys do deserve thumb ups.
Countdown Z - Y - X . This week is Joey's alphabet letter challenge #169 - X with the tangle pattern Xs and Orbs and I have done my two entries. I actually liked the X challenge. I didn't suffer the headache I felt with some - or many - of the other letters. Eh...let me rephrase the above: replace 'headache' with 'challenge' and it sounds a lot less painful and a lot more artsy.
So here we have my capital X (obviously!!!). The tangle Xs and Orbs I placed exactly where Joey wanted to have it. So I am proud I can finally call this tile 'halfway' (X is wrong) "Finish my Tile" as is her theme throughout all her challenges and which I at times misdrew. I added xTracto, drawn a bit like half-dragonair and Xav, a simple but great looking tangle.
Patterns: Xs and Orbs, xTracto, Xav
My small x tile has three x's and I replaced the lines in Xs and Orbs with X-ess. Then there is another very interesting tangle, xPerope, that I drew in a circle. I drew a warm-up tile and I have to say, like with Xav above, I really felt in the Zentangle zone, relaxed and without a qualm in the world.
Patterns: Xs and Orbs, X-ess, xPerope
My training tiles
Patterns: xPerope and Xav.
Animal HOTT Zone
I am well aware that my blog is about drawing tangles and being in the zen zone. However, there is another side of me, the one that stands against animal abuse. There are no ZEN zones (or save spaces) for the chicken we eat, the fur animal we wear, and the dancing bear we find entertaining. Their zones are called Animal HOTT Zones (Hell of Thousand Tortures). Watching this video I was ashamed for mankind. They are all LOSERS!!!
Imagine you were one of these chicks...
Animal Happy Day
I had to end my post on a happier note, so here a complete different side of mankind. If only we were all wired like these heroes.
Already another week has past (time must have undergone an automatic update while I wasn't looking) and I am again uploading an "It's a String Thing" (IAST #198) post. This time we were given a string that looks like the letter A. Oh, no, please, not another letter! We are just about finishing the Alphabet challenge on Joey's site.
So I said to A in a real stern voice: "Simsalabim A, go and hide in the drawing. Anywhere. Inside the Agni tangle, or among the Tira pattern, or behind Knightsbridge, just go, hide, and stay put."
And so it did. So don't you go looking for it, you won't find it.
Patterns: Agni, Tira, Knightsbridge
Animal Help Line
A behind the scenes look. Whether it is in a zoo, circus or any other "for human entertainment" business, life for the animals is never sugarcoated. Please, do not support it by visiting these "attractions". Go bowling instead.
DIVA challenge #319 runs under the theme "Beads of Courage", which is totally unfamiliar to me. At first, when I read the post I didn't know what to make of it. What was I supposed to do and what is this BEads of Courage all about? I waited a couple of days to give others time to submit their tiles, hoping I will 'get the drift'. Indeed, the waiting was worth it as I came across MaggiBee's post where she explained the cause of "BEads of Courage". What a great cause and, no, this is not a challenge I want to miss. Thanks, MaggiBee!
So, off I went to my drawing board and did a training tile first before attempting the real one on a watercolored background. I used only one tangle - and the beads of course - as I thought it was enough. (Jean was on my mind.)
Pattern: Domizil and bead balls
This is the training tile. Simple...I like simplicity.
Pattern: Domizil and beads
I couldn't resist. Photoshoped a fading reflexion background. It just looks so much more interesting.
Animal Happy Day
All live matters! Just ask this mum, who waits patiently for her babies to be rescued.
Countdown Z - Y - X - WJoey's alphabet letter challenge #168 - W - or in other words: three more to go to #171 - the last letter. For W Joey chose the pattern W2, a tangle I already had a hard time with for IAST #186. I still don't feel comfy with it.
I am glad I got W in. I didn't tangle on Sunday. It was my big window cleaning day and I am glad that is done. On Monday I only tried a few strokes and I could feel it wasn't my day. I was not in the Zentangle Zen-zone. I noticed a few times already that when I skip tangling a day or two I have difficulties getting the juices flowing again. And when you 'have to' work with a tangle you are on a warpath...guess what the result will be.
If you think it looks cramped...Yes, it is.
If you think it looks like I had no idea what I wanted to draw...Yes, correct.
If you think the tile looks messy...Bingo! You hit the nail on the head.
If you ask yourself why did I draw it at all and waste good note paper...Right you are again, I am asking this myself, 2.
BUT!!!...the pressure is on. Only SIX more tiles in this challenge and I will actually be able to pound my chest as I will have completed Joey's alphabet challenge 2017 without missing a letter in both capital as well as lowercase characters. If you think, well, what's the big deal?...
Patterns: W2, Wisket, Wyoming
Animal Happy Day
Well, this is a sight for sore eyes. If you have kids, you wished you had this bunch to teach them a thing or two.
This week's DIVA Challenge (#318) made us draw a Diptych tile. Honestly, I had to google it as I had never heard of "Diptych" and this is what I found:
1. a painting, especially an altarpiece, on two hinged wooden panels that may be closed like a book.
2. an ancient writing tablet consisting of two hinged leaves with waxed inner sides.
Aha! Exactly what we were asked to draw. Wait. Altarpiece? Wasn't there somebody who drew a papel hat? A Mitre? Yes, at Tinkered Art Studio. Perfect.
I hate it when I have to pick my own tangles. So I just used the one we recently used in the IAST 197 challenge - Tint. Yeap, you guessed it, 'lots of ideas' or 'creativity' is not my middle name.
So here my 'Diptych' tangle tile in a setting...
Patterns: Tint, Henna Drum, Tipple
...and here the Diptych flat and open and big enough to detect all the 'mirror' mistakes.
Patterns: Tint, Henna Drum, Tipple
Thai Elephant Happy Day
There is a special place in my heart for elephants. In my IAST challenge 197 page I went a bit further and explained the why and introduced the vet Soraida Salwala. A remarkable vet and my hero, who left an imprint in my head since 1993 when she and Honey, a baby elephant, were in the news.
In this video, however, the ending is a good one when an orphaned baby elephant arrives at a Thai elephant sanctuary in the north after it had been cared for by Soraida's founded first elephant hospital in the whole world - Friends of the Asia Elephant.
This week, It's A String Thing (IAST #197) introduced us to a new tangle called Tint. I fell instantly in love with it - I adore these kinds of tangles. Organic, free of restraints (speak grid), and enough variation possibilities for the tangle never to get boring. Thank you so very much, Henrike Bratz!
For this challenge I used my left-over coffee stain tile from the DIVA challenge #312 - finally it found its good use - and the tangle Tint is accompanied by Bales (took it out of its grid) and Antidots as per 'requirement'.
Patterns: Tint, Bales, Antidots
I couldn't resist and made a Tint monotile. Actually it is the Tint warm-up before attempting the IAST tile, I drew it with pencil on a white scrap of paper to be discarded at the end of the day (YES! I can really say "at the end of the day" here). However, the next day the warm-up was still on my desk. So I thought I use my brown Micron, which I bought some time ago and never used, to trace the pencil lines - again, a warm-up before attempting the real stuff. When the tracing was done I applied some color. Pink to brown strokes???!!! Where's my head??? Luckily this is still just a warm-up for the real thing, of course.
But then, it didn't turn out all that bad (I thought), Maybe a little tweak to compliment the main tile color scheme once that was done? (I had time to play.) So I applied a bit of Photoshop magic and now it looks very much OK (in my eyes!).
Here the PS tweak...
Pattern: Tint
...and here the original.
Pattern: Tint
Elephant Happy Day
This is a story that has a very special place in my heart. It is Mosha's story. A Thai elephant who lost its leg when he stepped onto a landmine at the border to Myanmar. He is being cared for by the only elephant hospital in Thailand, if not the whole of Asia, that was founded by a Thai veterinarian.
Soraida Salwala, founder of FAE's Elephant Hospital,
soothes Baby Honey in 1993.
I first heard about Soraida Salwala in the early 1990s when she was in the news here in Thailand and abroad because she wanted to help a baby elephant called Honey that got hit by a truck on a road in Bangkok and broke its hip. When the baby elephant was denied help and a few months later died, Soraida, who stayed with Honey the whole time, swore, no more elephants have to die because help is too expensive or unattainable...so she founded the world's first elephant hospital under the foundation Friends of the Asian Elephant.
I was able to do five more refresher tiles this May. While in the same month two more refresher tangle combinations came out on Linda Farmer's website, #153 and #154, I only progressed by three files. In other words, if I ever want to catch up to all refresher combinations published, I need to step up my game.
I choose the freshers randomly, but try to finish older ones first. However, sometimes there is that new one that teases my imagination and I can't resist. Hence, the new #154 below.
Refresher #28
Patterns: Tripoli, Asian Fans, Mumsy, Beadlines, Afterglo
