Category Archives: Wonder Wednesday

Because wonder means to be filled with adoration, amazement, or awe and I’m always amazed at the things I create

Zen-Untangled Week 16: Purk, Gneiss, and Tidings

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

This week’s tangles in the Zen-Untangled project are Assunta, Bales, Gneiss, Gourdgeous, Pea-nuckle, Purk, and Tidings. I love Gneiss and enjoy Purk but Gourdgeous is not a favorite at all, neither is Pea-nuckle. Tidings, however, is brand new to me. I didn’t think I’d like it but I actually did.

I got behind this week and although I only had three step-outs to draw, I didn’t do any of them. I looked at the string provided and decided right off that there was no way to make the tangles fit perfectly  in the sections provided. So I went with purk in the purk-shaped section. Since I love Gneiss, I was determined to find a way to use it in a section. And finished it out with Tidings filling in another section. I decided to keep one section blank.

Here is a scan of the tile before shading.

I’d taken pictures outside on this rainy, overcast day but something happened and they didn’t import. I’ve now learned to check to ensure that they actually imported before I delete them off the camera. :(  So I had to take them all over again but I couldn’t exactly remove the shading. :D

So here it is both the scan and the picture after shading.

Which angle picture do you like best? I couldn’t pick my favorite, so I included them all. :)

Right

Center:

Left:

This is how overcast it was the day I took these pictures. ;)

I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a good week.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Zen-Untangled Wk 15: Ratoon, Ambler, Waybop

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle, ,

This week’s tangles were Ambler, Paradox, Ratoon, Three & Three, Vermal, Waybop, and Xyp. Some of these are really great tangles: Paradox, Ratoon and Waybop. But Vermal! Really? Looks like alphabet soup. Some people couldn’t even make themselves put this tangle in their projects. :D I did simply because I wanted to remember what it was if I ever heard of it again. ;)

Three and Three is a pattern in the strictest use of the word pattern with 3 vertical lines followed by three O’s and repeated as desired. I can see it can be useful in some situations.

Ambler looks so much like Emingle to me. I’m told that Ambler is supposed to be drawn in ribbon fashion, like Hollibaugh though. Okay, whatever. ;)

I already had step-outs for Ambler, Paradox, and Xyp. And although I have used Ratoon before, I didn’t do a step-out for it, so I had four step-outs to do this week.

The other night, I grabbed one of my scratch-off tiles and showed Sean and Tiffany how to draw Waybop. I’m really enjoying that tangle a lot. :)

I didn’t get my spacing right and had to squeeze in one more seed but it still turned out nice. I really like it on this rainbow tile. :)

This week’s string was really loopy and not really conducive to the tangles we had to choose from. But strings are suggestions, so here’s what I did with it. (The first is the scan of my lineart and the second is a picture taken outside in natural light.)

I wasn’t sure what to do about that hill and loop. I thought about blackening them but was afraid it would be too drastic. Then I thought I could try shading it and if I didn’t like it I could blacken it digitally before putting pen to paper. But as it turned out, I rather liked the way it turned out shaded. ;)

Here’s the scan of the finished piece.

As usual, it looks a bit better smaller. ;)

I really like that short ambler on the top of the first loop; it kind of reminds me of a train. :D

And here it is out in natural light.

As you can see, I only did half a Ratoon and I tried to keep Waybop in its loop at first, so it is a bit lopsided. But I really like the shading on those two tangles. Not too sure how to shade ambler though. :D

Well, I’ll run for now. I hope you have a great day.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Using Art to De-Stress for People of All Ages

Thoughtful Thursday, Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

Art is a great de-stressor. I’m guessing that during a time like this, even children can use some de-stressing. :)

I highly suggest introducing them to Zentangle. Look at most of my Wednesday posts or ones tagged zentangle, to get an idea of what it is.

It is simply a process of drawing simple patterns together. There are some websites that have a collection of these patterns.

  • Pattern Collections This one has skill level groupings of the patterns so that you can start with easier patterns.
  • Tangle Patterns There is a selector on the left side of the webpage, which allows you to select patterns of a certain type among which include hearts, orbs, diamonds, grid based, and a number of other ways.
  • Musterquelle This one is in another country and language but it also includes fragments and reticula, which are fun to play around with.

The basics of drawing a tile are to

  1. take a three and a half inch square paper (but you can use any size you desire)
  2. put a dot in each corner
  3. connect the dots, in straight, curvy, wavy, or even loopy lines
  4. draw a string be it a Z or X or loops or whatever (those sites have some string suggestions as well)
  5. then choose a pattern and fill a section the pattern
  6. add a little shading, either simple or more complex

It really is easy and can be quite fun. I hope you and your children will give it a try.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

 

Zen-Untangled Week 14 Tile: Stricles, Squill, Printemps

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle, ,

I got lucky this week and only had to draw the step-outs this week, which were Squill and Patena, the latter of which I’d never even heard of before. The other tangles were all familiar to me already: ING, Munchin, OOF (out of focus), Patena, Printemps, Squill and Strircles. I’ve got to say Stricles is my favorite, by far. Actually, most of them are tangles I don’t like very much, although I do like Squill somewhat, now that I’ve learned it.

Here is the string suggested for the week. It was suggested to use at least three of this week’s tangles on this week’s tile. (Yay! I remembered to take a picture before I did any tangling. :) )

I’ve been looking forward to using Stricles, so I’ve included it. :) The X section just lended perfectly to Squill. Then I was stumped as to how to add a third tangle to the tile since all the sections would be full. Then I realized that I’d put a border, so I could use some of that space. But what to put there? Hello filler–Printemps. :)

Here is the scan and then picture taken in natural light (it was a nice sunny day here, finally).

Here it is after I did some shading (scan first and then natural light). I also thickened the lines for the first cross lines of Squill and I think it looks better.

I like how it turned out. Squill looks kind of puffy and a few of the printemps look a bit raised. :)

Well, that’s my artistic endeavor for this week. I hope you are making time for art. It isn’t something that comes readily to me; I have to make time for it. At the very least, I hope you are taking time to do some things that help to de-stress you and bring you joy. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Braze, Eke, and Y-Not Tile

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

Week 13 of the Zen-Untangled project consists of Braze, BB, Eke, Pinch, Y-Not, Glace and Impossible. I had to do the step-outs for five of the tangles. I had BB and Eke already but had never even heard Glace, Braze, and Impossible.

So, Impossible was not easy for me. I tried the step-out and it just didn’t work for me. So, I did what I do when a tangle stumps me, I searched for it. I found the Kitchen Table video where Rick shared how to do this tangle. Then I found this blogpost by Linda on Time for Tangling where she wrote about the process of this tangle but also a good way to make the grid to begin with. :)

We were asked to use three of the tangles in the tile this week. Blaze and Eke were easy picks. I chose y-not for the third one but struggled a bit with it because it was a bit difficult to follow behind the other sections. ;) I also forgot to take the a picture of the string before I started but I did get a picture near the beginning.

So then here is the tile before shading.

Here’s the scan of the tile before shading.  I’m very thankful for shading because my lineart is not that beautiful, especially under the harsh light of the scanner. ;)

Here’s the finished tile. After taking pictures I think it could’ve used a bit more shading.

Here’s a picture I took of the tile outside in natural light. It’s so much softer than the scanned piece.

I’m always impressed with how the angle of the picture can really make a difference in how it looks.

Well, on second thought, I guess it doesn’t make that much difference on this one. :D

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this encourages you to try your hand at some art. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Drawings Diva Dance: Rock ‘n Roll Zen-Untangled 12

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

This week I’m doing the twelfth week of the Zen-Untangled project in the Tangle All Around facebook group with Alice Hendon. Last Saturday she started week 13 after taking a week for catch up the week before and I did nothing artistic at all. I’ve been reading. :)

So here I was without anything to show for myself once again and almost shared the lettering I’ve been doing this year but decided that I really want to continue with the project and not get behind (any more behind). So I got out to ATCs and did the two step-outs that I needed to do for the week: Drawings and Noom.

I must have been in just the right head space because I was able to do them both without much frustration at all. I tried to make friends with Drawings some time ago for a Diva Challenge and it turned out pretty nicely but I haven’t played with it at all since then.

Here are the two step-out atc I did.

And this week I even did the sample on the front of the atc step-out. :D I have about four from week 11 that I need to finish. :p

So this week I remembered to take a picture (but not a scan) of the string before filling in the sections. But then I completely forgot to take a scan of the lineart before shading. My my my . . .

I actually had no intention of using Drawings in this week’s tile. But that line in the string just screamed Drawings to me, so I did. I also had no intention of using Rock ‘n Roll in this week’s tile, even though it seemed perfect for that circular section, because again, that is not one of my comfort tangles. But I did it anyway. :)

Here is the picture in overcast natural light of the tile before shading.

I ended up erasing the parts of the string and border that were unusable.

Here is the scan of the tile after shading.

We watched a video on youtube the other day of a gal harvesting lotus seeds. Michael said that the Diva Dance here looks like that and I agree, it does resemble it. I like Drawings best without all the detail lines in it.

Here is the finished tile in overcast natural light. It interests me how shooting the picture from a different angle changes how it looks to some degree.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope that sharing my artistic endeavors encourages you to pick up a pen and put it to paper. It really is easy, just follow the steps. (Go to youtube and type in the tangle you want to learn with the word tangle and you should get a decent tutorial. :) )

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

April 2020 Bullet Journal Pages

Wonder Wednesday

I was reading a good book/series this week and didn’t spend any time tangling. :p This week’s Zen-Untangled is comprised of tangles I’m familiar with. It includes the Diva Dance tangles along with Drawings and a few others I cannot recall at the moment. I only had 2 tangles to do the step-outs for and so I procrastinated–not surprising to me. :D

Well yesterday when I was supposed to be doing art, I was finishing up the fifth book in the Invisible Library series. Then I decided I didn’t feel like drawing/tangling, so I decided to share my bullet journal pages I prepped for this month.

I started by pulling out my washi tape . . . all of them. :)

I looked through them and tried to see what sparked joy. I realized that Easter was very soon and wanted to use some of my Easterish/spring tapes. From there I added some whimsical ones and then ones that fit with the colors of the tapes already chosen.

Here is the page I set up for the meeting Tiffany and I have at the beginning of the month and where I right down goals or things to focus on.

This page has a completely different approach than most of my monthly goal pages because I usually use some glitter washi tape. But I just wasn’t feeling that this time. I like how it turned out–it’s light and whimsical.

Then I picked some more tapes that I like and felt matched the feel of this page and just ran a strip down the middle of the page. Here you can see how I use it.

I right the list either at night before I go to bed or in the morning before I get busy. Then I add stickers or whatever, if I want to add a bit to extra space on the page when I’m done with it. Sometimes I journal a bit, sometimes I log what I eat, and sometimes I’m way to ambitious with what I write down to do. :D

Here are the pages I have set up for the rest of the month. I find that if I don’t pre-run the tape, I’m not as motivated to use the pages and then I’m not as motivated to accomplish things. ;) Writing it down means I’m more likely to do it. Otherwise I do only those things that are essential and spend the rest of my day indulging in other things.

Some of these are wide and some are more narrow. Most of these have a combination of several tapes of varying thicknesses. Some work out nicely and others just okay. :D

I hope this has inspired you to keep a bullet journal and that it doesn’t have to be a work of art. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Zen-Untangled Wk 11: Dribbetz, Cadent, Tidal, and Aquafleur,

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle, , , , ,

This week’s tangles in the Zen-Untangled project are Auraknot, Aquafleur, Bunzo, Cadent, Dribbetz, Finery, and Tidal.

Once again I had three of the seven tangles already on ATC cards with their step-outs. The other four I ended up getting the step-outs done but didn’t get the sample drawn on the front of any of them. :(

I decided I wanted to draw on a gray tile this week. I’ve been seeing so many lovely tan and gray tiles and have some here, so I pulled one out. They are definitely not my comfort zone.

Here’s the scan of my tile before shading.

Here’s the picture in natural light.

I’ve always drawn Cadent with circles instead of squares and I have to say that I definitely prefer it with the circles but now I’ve tried it with the squares.

I think Tidal looks very much like Tagh. Tidal is the first step in Tagh. Some think that Dribbetz has to be in a comma shape but from what I’ve seen, it really is just a series of dashes made to fill a section, which CAN be made in shapes.

I watched a few videos for aquafleur because I haven’t used it much. I opted to go with the version that is kind of like Pepper and not the one that spirals in on itself.

Part of the joys of gray paper is using white pencil or ink to make some pretty highlights. I decided to add some white Dribbetz to the remaining section of my tile. And then I added a little highlight and some graphite shading to each tangle or section too.

Here’s the scan and the natural light picture of the shaded tile.

It turned out okay. There’s definitely a learning curve to shading and highlights. :) Have you tried a gray tile?

Thanks for stopping by, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Zen-Untangled Week 10

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle, , ,

This week’s tangles were Arukas, Spoken, Ennies, Chartz, Fife, Hazen, and Sampson. I’ve tangled four of them before (arukas, ennies, fife, and sampson) and have seen chartz in my zentangle box.

Spoken Tutorial Found

I don’t do very good with the squiggly lines of Sampson but it turns out decently. Spoken was a completely different situation. I just wasn’t quite sure how to tangle that one. So, after checking out the comments, I realized that nobody else really knew either. So I did a search and found that Melinda Barlow has a video for this one. It made so much more sense after watching her do it.

Basics of Spoken

In case you are not familiar with Spoken, it is like the spokes on a bicycle. First draw the circle for the center where all the spokes come from. Then it is one of the “take off and land” sort of tangles. The idea is to first do all the spokes going in one direction around the center be it clockwise or counter-clockwise, and then do the spokes in the other direction, all the way around the center orb.

Before watching the video, I thought maybe the second round of spokes were just the continuation of the first round of spokes from behind the center orb and then there were a couple extra spokes that didn’t match up. So glad the video cleared it up! :)

Homemade 3Z Tiles

This week’s tile was to be done on a 3Z tile but alas, I didn’t have any. So I set out to find a template to cut my own. I know that the 3Z tiles are equilateral triangles and each side is 3.5″ long. This makes the height a tiny bit over 3″. I found a video showing how to cut one for quilting. (Note: equilateral triangles have three 60º angles.) I got a nice rotary cutter set for Christmas, so I pulled it out and cut my tiles. I now have a nice pile of them from only one sheet of watercolor paper. Now, I want some in grey and tan. I do have both papers here. It’s just a matter of taking the time to cut them. ;)

Here’s the string:

I thought that since spoken and arukas both have a center orb, I could put the orb in the center of the tile and tangle each of those in a section. Then I decided that since ennies has some orbs in it, that it could fit in okay, so it would go into the third section.

Here is how it looked before shading.

It was dark out by the time I finished tangling, so the best I could do for a picture was on the table.

I wasn’t quite sure how to shade this one but I gave it a shot. ;)

Here’s the scan.

And here’s the picture.

I feel like this one could benefit from a splash of color but am too chicken to try it. :D

I hope you are enjoying this time of social distancing. Not much is different for me–I’m an introvert and enjoy being at home. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Zen-Untangled Week 9: Cogwheel, Cirquital, and Ravel

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle, ,

I’m happy with my new organization where I work on step-outs three to four days and then work on the string over the next two days. I’m not perfect at it yet, but it is helpful. :)

The tangles this week are Ravel, Cogwheel, Cirquital, Rixty, Courant, Rumpus, and Chillon. Thankfully I had three of these already down, so that just left Ravel, Cogwheel, Courant, and Rumpus.

I have to tell you Rumpus kicked my rump. I was struggling to follow the step-out, as it appears that step 4 was rotated a bit. Then someone on the facebook group shared this youtube video where Maria talks through tangling Rumpus. NOW I get it. It is quite lovely and I didn’t do it justice but at least now I know how to tangle it.

Alice shared the step-out by Holly Atwater for Chillon. There is one variation there that looks soooooo nice! It has a completely different look. (It’s the one on the upper right hand corner.)

I have to say that once again, there are a couple tangles that resemble each other so much that I would probably not name them correctly if I saw them in a tile or zia. This week those two tangles are courant and cogwheel. Now, if you search for cogwheel, the one Melinda Barlow does looks nothing like the official step-out. I saw on the group that someone said hers is called Wheel Cog . . . I don’t know who the creator of that one is though.

Well, this week’s string is a blind string. That means to put your pencil on your tile, close your eyes and draw a string. I do start by putting my dots and borders first though. As usual, I forgot to take a picture of my string before I started tangling.

Here is the scan of my tile before shading.

You can see some of my string but I marked it in red here.

As you can see, I opted to ignore part of the string. :) It was just too good of a place to put Cirquital. When I tangled Ravel, I added the striping as soon as I drew those first two lines, so I wouldn’t lose the middle. :D I much prefer the tangle with some kind of filler added to it than without, which is what I did for my step-out and didn’t care for it as much. Here’s the picture I took in natural light before shading.

Yeah, it’s another overcast day. ;)

Then I added some shading. Here is the scan of the shaded tile.

I was at a loss on how to shade cogwheel. I tried adding some graphite and ended up erasing it . . . yeah, I know, no erasing . . .

Here is the same scan only smaller, because it is so much kinder to my lineart. :D

Here is the picture taken out in natural light, where the sun did break through the clouds for a few minutes. ;)

I felt something needed to be done with cogwheel, so I added some red/pink watercolor pencil.

Yeah, the sun went back behind the clouds. :D

I considered blackening some of the white space but just wasn’t sure. And I’m still not sure about the pink. How would you shade cogwheel? Which one do you think is better, with or without the pink?

Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº