Tipple

Life's been quite hectic recently.

We returned home at midnight last Saturday from two weeks in Montreal with a couple of friends. Our youngest daughter is studying there so we were able to see her a lot, which was wonderful! My husband has been awaiting a work visa from China, and it had been delivered while we were away. That gave him four days to finish preparing so he could make his flight this morning (Thursday). As we did a few years ago, he'll be teaching English at a university, this time in Nanjing. He's up and away, for ten months! I've had three art shows to prepare for, one happening this Saturday, one opening Sunday evening, the other on September 21. Plus, I'm co-teaching a Zentangle weekend with Deb Kopeschny in Edmonton (several hours drive) in a couple of weeks and we've been planning that as my 'net connections permitted. Maybe all that was just a bit too much. Yesterday I woke up with a bad cough, stuffy nose and a sore throat.

But I really wanted to do this challenge. Like Laura, Tipple is one of my go-to tangles. I like monotangle challenges too because it forces me to think about what more could be done with a particular pattern. So today, between naps, I did a tile.

Tipple, the classic version.
Tipple, with a 005 pen, and overlapping.
Tipple, all tiny circles (I call it Caviar).
Tipple, tiny circles at the perimeter gradually getting larger towards the center.
Tipple like Pearlz, filled in around the edges.
Tipple, with a 08 pen and some hatching.
Tipple, with black 'bubbles' and highlights.
Tipple, with a black background.
Tipple, white on black.

Spirals plus

Once again I was looking for something on the Internet and got side-tracked. Instead, I happened upon an interesting spiral tattoo design. In a circle. Hmm. I copied it onto a blank zendala tile, made a few alterations, and tangled.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Cruffle, Firecracker, Fohbraid, Lamar, Puffle, Sindoo, Tipple

I have no idea why but overlapping images have always fascinated me. I decided to add this template to one of Zentangle's pre-strung zendala tiles and see if I could make both patterns visible. All in all, not great, but not bad. It really helps to keep in mind: light, dark, and mid-tone.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Paizel, Pearlz, Tipple, Wud

Then I went a little spiral crazy. I used a number of gray inks on this one and am very pleased with it.

Tangles: Black Pearlz and... not much else. Except stripes.
I've always loved stripes.

Montreal vacation

I've been enjoying Montreal for the past two weeks. We're here with a couple of friends who did a house exchange so we have wonderful company and wonderful accommodations. The weather has been beautiful! I'm eating my fill of Montreal bagels (the best), visiting lots of interesting places, and and doing a lot of walking - 9 kms one day! My husband and I lived here for five years B.C. (before children) and our youngest daughter is currently studying here.

I'd prepared a few posts before we left home - most of those have been posted - but today I'm on a computer where I can upload photos and I want to share some pictures from Montreal.

We took a walk through part of the huge cemetery on Mount Royal, looking for two particular grave sites (which we found!), and in our wanderings I saw this wonderful Celtic cross gravestone. I love Celtic interlacing and patterns.

We went to see an exhibition of work by Dale Chihuly at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Eye-poppingly gorgeous!!! He works in blown and molded glass and the works are huge (although composed of small parts). We were enchanted.

Not sure if the title is Sun or The Sun, but it's spectacular!

 Here is my husband in front of it, to give an idea of the scale:

This is but a small portion of a piece that filled an entire room at the gallery
and looks like an underwater landscape. I loved these green and black tendrils.

Part of a large ceiling!
There were pads so you could lie on the floor and look up at it.
I thought it would make a marvelous floor too, to walk over.

One of a series of what he calls 'chandeliers'.
There are also 'towers' that sit on the floor.

I went to a children's class that our daughter facilitates and taught the kids how to draw looped string lotus flowers, which they then colored and put a jewel in the centre. Some of them looked more like stars, which is fine. Mine do that too sometimes!

Tomorrow we're off to Toronto for two days, and will visit the ROM's special exhibit on Mesopotamia.

Awash

Recently I discovered a small square of 4-ply mat board on which I'd done a brushy gray wash. I tangled it of course.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Coaster, Finery, Knightsbridge, Paisley Boa, Seljuk, Unyun, Wud

Three zendalas

These three pieces were done with an initial random 'star' string. On the first one here I did a purple wash leaving some white areas. Then I drew the string respecting some of the lines left by the wash. Then, tangling!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Bunzo, Deelish variation, Going Down,
Kandysnake, Knase, Kuke, Lamar, Tripoli

Is it a star or a flower?

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Fohbraid, Paizel, Paradox, Pearlz, Sindoo, Tortuca

And... a really wonky one that I just love!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Flukes, Jemz, Knightsbridge, Paradox,
Pearlz, Spinning, Tripoli, Yew-Dee and something I thought was Warble
until I checked and discovered that I'd just made it up!

Jekyll and Hyde

Well! Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! I'm actually posting a Zendala Dare on time!

Erin's Dare #68 is quite an interesting one. She calls it Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The idea is to use her mandala template, divide it in halves, and do each half somehow quite different from the other half. Cool! She has some wonderful examples of her own on her blog post, here.

For this first outing I chose to do one half using curvy lines and circles, the other half using straight lines and angles. More or less. :)
I quite like this idea and think I'll try it again.

Tangles in the curvy half: Coaster, Lamar, Meer, Paisley Boa, Tipple
Tangles in the angular half: Braze, Knightsbridge, Paradox, Zedbra, Zewm variation
and elements of Cubine

Maori spirals

I was looking for something else on the Internet when I happened across Maori spiral facial tattoos. Wow! I printed a design that was circular. To use it as a 'string' I had to combine some sections, otherwise they were just too thin. Even so, there wasn't a lot of room for tangles, but I managed to squeeze a few in there.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Firecracker, Flux, Lamar, Paizel, stripes.

I really liked the black and white, but I wondered what it would look like in full color. If you're trying to figure out up from down (ooo, four prepositions in a row!) the bottom of the black and white one is at the top of the colored one.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Lamar, Opus, stripes

I love these swirly spirals, but it was a challenge to put some tangles in there.