"Ebony & Ivory", Challenge #119

The Diva's Weekly Challenge #119 about "Ebony & Ivory" sure was a hard one for me! We had to try to get the black and white parts of our tile or ZIA in "perfect harmony". I never think about that, I just tangle.... Lots of thinking to do this time!
Well, my first attempt completely failed. I had colored two sections of a piece of heavy paper with black ink. After drying the paper was bumpy of course, oops!
Then, acting on the advice of the diva, my second attempt was to use some patterns with high contrast. A very good opportunity to try out some I'd never used before. I've added some embellishments with a white Sakura gelpen. The string is #2 from TanglePatterns.com. This is the result:

Tangles: Daggerly, Fleuri, Targets, Demi and Eye-Wa

Thanks to:

CZT® Carole Ohl for Daggerly;

CZT® Geneviève Crabe for Fleuri and Demi;

CZT® Suzanne McNeill for Targets (instructions in her book: "Zentangle 3");

CZT® Molly Hollibaugh from Zentangle® for Eye-Wa;

CZT® Linda Farmer for the enormous resource of strings on TanglePatterns.com;

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this balanced Challenge;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"Kuke" is Challenge #118

My entry for the Diva's Weekly Challenge #118 was highly influenced by the Eurovision Songcontest! Lots of Footlites and Msst there. Wonderful tangles to put Kuke in the spotlight!! Gneiss appeared because I like it very much and I haven't used it for a long time. I hope you recognize the "K" as the string.
This is what I did with one eye watching the television:

Tangles: Kuke, Msst, Footlites and Gneiss

Thanks to:

CZT® Katy Abott for Kuke;

Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Msst and Gneiss (no online instructions);

CZT® Carole Ohl for Footlites;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this "Use My Tangle" Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"♫ I did it myyyyy Schway ♫"

Thanks to the nice comment of Jane Eileen on my previous post I decided to finish another experiment I did with Schway/Aroz! She wrote: "This goes so nicely with the name of your blog!" I guess she is right, although it was not on purpose.
On my scratch paper I had played with the same string and arrows rotating around the center. Now it only had to be redrawn on a ZIA paper and the arrows had to be filled. It was great fun to do!
So here is my second entry for the Diva's Weekly Challenge #117!!

Tangles: Schway/Aroz and Tipple

Somehow it makes me think of Dazzle painting!

Thanks (again) to:
Rick Roberts from Zentangle® for Schway and Tipple;
Scott A. in Colorado for Aroz;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this dizzying Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"In out, in out, shake it all about", Challenge #117

The funny tangle pattern "Schway" (by Rick Roberts from Zentangle®), or "Aroz" (by Scott A. posted in May 2012) was the subject of the Diva's Weekly Challenge #117.
I didn't want to do anything that looks similar to the examples. And I wondered if it is possible to draw the arrows in more ways than only in orderly rows. The attempts on my scratch paper went fine! Therefore I drew some concentric circles on my ZIA paper (10.5 x 10.5 cm). Of course by hand, so they are not very regular.... just what I like!! In fact drawing the arrows was a piece of cake and for the overall look it didn't need more than just a little shading:

Tangle: Schway/Aroz

This piece recalls the good old days, when I studied to become a teacher!! On special occasions we loved to do the "Hokey Cokey" ("Hokey Pokey" in the US): "Put your left hand in, put your left hand out, etc.", which we did in a circle. More about this song and play I will post on the "Lovely lyrics ♫" page. 
This funny video is from YouTube:

Thanks to:
Rick Roberts from Zentangle® and Scott A. in Colorado for Schway/Aroz;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Challenge #116: "Blind Sighted"

Just posting my entry, the story about it follows tomorrow!!

It started with this blind string:

Thus it has become:

Tangles: Drupe, Diva's Dance, Flux, Fescu, Bunzo and Tipple

The 4 Elements for Challenge #115

"Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year."

A quote from WikipediA, where you can read more about this subject.

With Weekly Challenge #115 the Diva asked for our attention to Mother Earth and to express what she means to us.... I knew quite quickly, I wanted to use a circle as my string, representing the globe. The circle had to be divided into four quarters for drawing the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. They are the components of our surrounding reality, of Nature, to which we belong too. And.... they are indispensable in order to survive, they fulfill the basic needs of every living being. The earth produces our food, and water quenches our thirst. The fire keeps us warm, usually in the form of the sun. And we can do only minutes without air. Which means we have to take good care of our environment!!

The next step was choosing the tangles! I chose to do Sooflowers (earth), Aqua (water) and Brandee (fire). Lately I have often seen some swirly things to create clouds (air), and I decided to give it a try here.

Because at first the total result was a bit dull, I've traced some lines with a black Sakura Glaze gelpen. But now it's a little too bold here and there. Well, it is as it is:

Tangles: Sooflowers, Aqua, Brandee and "Cloudee"

I would like to call the clouds pattern "Cloudee", with the usual addition -dee as my personal tag. Haven't seen this pattern anywhere in the Zentangle community before, am I right?? If I'm wrong, please tell me. Should the name already exist, please do the same!

I guess, there is no other song that expresses the character of this Weekly Challenge so well as Michael Jackson's Earth Song! You'll find a small part of this song on the "Lovely lyrics ♫" page.

Thanks to:
Livia Chua for Sooflowers;

CZT® Christina Vandervlist for Aqua;
CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this very special Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

Maria's Zentangle has arrived!

It was another big surprise for me, to receive Maria's Zentangle so fast! Last Friday, only four days after Maria had sent it to me and crossing a whole ocean, it has safely arrived.
How exciting, to see my name and address so beautifully calligraphed on the envelope. It felt like profanation to open it.... but of course I was very curious which gorgeous tile was inside! It was such a thrill to see Maria had sent one of her tiles with her inimitable Mooka-esque strokes. It's amazing to see in reality how she swirled her pen across the paper!! Not one hesitation and all distances equal, so many details.... so much to learn from this Zentangle:

The day before its arrival I bought a 3D photo frame of which I thought it would be perfect to show Maria's "frame inspired" tile.... And it is!

Need I say how happy I am with this precious work of art? It's so dear to me!

With great gratitude to Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, the founders of Zentangle®, for this lovely gift and for their warm approval to write about it in this post.

Happy Tangling everyone!