Planetary jewels.
Each planet she visited had special gemstones. Either forged in fire, such as the agate pendant or grown in the sea, like the beautiful pearls… They were collected and traded for other goods in the market. You see, even the finest, most valuable jewels cannot be eaten when you are hungry.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Starfish.
I decided to try an alternate color scheme for my Starfish tile, based on Eni’s Starfish Line Interrupted video lesson. I generally prefer cooler colors, such as blues and greens, but I also happen to like pinks and oranges on occasion. This choice is based on recently seen actual living starfish at the aquarium, where they tend more towards these colors in real life.
I added the frame, with the tiny details from the Tan Treasure lesson just to add some interest and frame the design.
Today’s Zenbutton is brought to you by the season: Spring!
Here, the weather can’t make up it’s mind. One day we’re handed Spring, another Summer and then we’re back in Winter. I have to check the weather report before I can get dressed!
So, I decided that I wanted to encourage Mother Nature and gift her with a Zenbutton that embodied flowers and leaves and the happy spring colors of warm pinks and yellow greens. It was fun looking through my tangles to select the ones that would work for this tile. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I did making it!
For my final Crazy Huggins sampler, I cut a large, apprentice-sized tile from a new paper I got recently. I filled the tile with Crazy Huggins shapes, then filled each element with another tangle. Somewhere along the line, the design developed a mind of its own, and decided not to be symmetrical anymore. But, honestly, I think that just made it “interesting!”
This tile took quite a while to complete. I knew it might take a bit longer, but it turned out to be a lot longer! And, when I finished filling in all the shapes, I wasn’t sure I liked it. But, in true, Zentangle fashion, I continued on and shaded the design. However, it wasn’t until I added the highlights that I decided everything was fine.
Sail away.
I originally created this Zentangle for Columbus Day, 2010. I’m sharing it today because this past Monday was Columbus day for this year, 2017.
I love the half-compass on the right side and feel like all the other tangles tie into the theme nicely.
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Aah Scallops Bannah Floo Tidal
Elemental.
This is the first Zendala I have ever drawn. A Zendala is a mandala created using tangles. I have never done one before because I was so worried about it being perfect. However, after watching Eni’s Radial Zendala video , I understand that it was OK to create something that was “perfectly imperfect”.
I was still very nervous about tackling this, but I had a concept in mind of creating a Zendala that would represent the basic elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. I knew some of the tangles that I wanted to use, but I also allowed the design to evolve and grow on it’s own, too.
There be dragons!
This tile is directly inspired by Eni Oken’s Tangled Dragons blogpost . I’ve been wanting to give it a go for quite a while, but just haven’t had time until yesterday. It was a little tricky figuring out how to do the overlapping loops, but I think it worked out well, over all! I think I want to try one with some color next time. Maybe I will try some distress inks with it!
Show time.
This tile was drawn from Eni Oken‘s tutorial for the Showgirl tangle. I have to confess, I had a lot of problems with this one. Showgirl isn‘t my favorite tangle to begin with, and I‘m not really happy with the way these came out. But after several false starts, I decided to persevere. I was kind of surprised that the end result is better than I thought it would be.
Around and around.
I ended up with a lot of tangles that were basically circular this time. But with a bit of careful placement, I think I managed to make them all play nice with each other!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Apollonian Waves Caviar Crescent Wave Gewgle Nipa Punzel Scallops Strircles Tipple
Sugilite is a rare purple cyclosilicate mineral. It was named after the Japanese petrologist, Ken-ichi Sugi, who first identified it in 1944 in Iwagi Islet, Japan. It is found primarily in Japan, Quebec, Canada and at the Wessels mine in South Africa although other deposits have been found since 1977.
It is often has inclusions of Richterite (blue) and rusty looking Bustamite. It‘s color ranges from royal purple through fuchsia. It can have some translucence.
Dingbatz.
I‘m still trying to wrap my brain around the Dingbatz-style Mookas. I decided to try making them over-sized to see if that made any difference. I kind of like the way tese wrap around to the back of the tile. But After I did them, I realized I should apply the same techniques used for twisted ropes to them. I‘ll have to give that a try here in the future!
Larimar.
Larimar is often goes by several names… the Stone of Atlantis, Stefilia‘s Stone, and Dolphin Stone. This rare, blue variety of pectolite is found only in the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean.
The color varies from white, light-blue, green-blue all the way through deep blue, reflecting all the different colors of the ocean.
Like other blue stones, this one is associated with the throat chakra. It facilitates the healing of the mental, and emotional healing of the individual and gives peace and comfort. This healing allows the person to speek calmly and completely about serious matters.
Twisted Ropes.
This is my first attempt at trying the twisted rope techniques introduced by Eni Oken . I had a small problem with my pink pen… it started puddling and making inconsistent lines shortly after I stared. I decided to carry on with it anyway because I didn‘t want to start my tile over again. It turns out that, IMHO, the blooping pen actually added to the designs.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron and pink, Sanford Uniball pens. Shading done with graphite pencil and Polychromos colored pencil.
Symmetry.
Not really, but this string gives you an illusion of symmetry because of the repetition of patterns on each side of the tile.
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Centipede Florz Kule Meer Scallops Shard Tink
Maui.
This is the second day of the Moana movie‘s influence on my daily tile. This time, I used a few of the symbols from the movie directly, namely Maui‘s fish hook and the shell from Moana‘s necklace, represented by a mother of pearl Zen Gem. Unfortunately, the stone just didn‘t scan well. It is actually stunning. I used Pearl-X on top of the colored pencil and it came out fabulous!