I've learned from past challenges that I work better when I have something I want to do or a theme I want to play with. A while ago I did a Zentangle swap and since then have had a hankering to do something with them. But until now that's as far as it got. I've been doddling zentangles in my sketchbook for the past couple of weeks. I thought it was time I put my thinking cap on and try to make some of my tangles into journal quilts. So that's my personal challenge for 2011, at least for the next four months. Here are some of my scribbles:
They are very simple to do, all you need to start making tangles is a piece of paper, a pencil and a pen such as a Micron 01 or ultra fine Sharpie. Using the pencil put a dot in each corner of the page and join them up, don't worry about being neat if they are wonky it adds character. Then take your pencil for a walk (called a string) to divid up your square (or rectangle). Here's where the fun begins, using the pen start adding pattern to each section. That's all there is to it. If you want to see more try
Zentangles or google 'zentangle', Amazon have several books on the subject by Suzanne McNeill which are relatively cheap.
Don't worry if your line goes outside the box these can be borders, fringes, flowers. The term Zentangle (which is a noun not a verb by the way) was coined by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, who is an ex monk. It's a form of art meditation. By that I mean you get so engrossed you loose yourself in it. Give it a go, have fun and chill out at the same time.
I've been practising turning my tangles into quilt tiles the one above is a 5"tile which I tried putting a bit of colour onto. The one below will is the prototype for February's Journal Page and so is 10". I wanted to see just how much a challenge I had taken on. I've started with some of the easier tangles to interpret but there are several that will be either impossible, at least for me, or difficult to quilt. This one is a quarter of a flower each month the petal and corners will be different and I hope when hung together will harmonise into a whole.
I ended up sewing the outlines and colouring some of the patterns using a black Sharpie. As you can see the quilting leaves a lot to desire but I need a lot more practise. This is going to be a real challenge but enjoyable I think.
The Sketchbook Challenge this month is 'Opposites' I did think of saying my tangles were opposite because they were done in black and white. I am going to do one on black paper with a white pen and then I might just change my mind and sketch something completely different.
