New Classes Scheduled for Winter 2014

I've got my new schedule posted! Click on the Classes page, for details!

New Products in the Store!!!!

Zentangle® is introducing some new and beautiful products and as a CZT, I get to offer them to you first!!

 

Renaissance Tiles by Zentangle®

The Renaissance Tiles are now available from Certified Zentangle Teachers. The Renaissance Tiles feature beautiful 100% cotton paper in a tan colour. The new tan tiles are sold in packages of 21 and are now available in my store.

Zentangle® Notecards.

The new Renaissance Tiles made their debut in another new product, Zentangle® Notecards. The new notecards include 4 blank tiles for you to draw on, which you can then frame in the gorgeous cards. The blank tiles include one each of a Renaissance tile, black tile, white tile and a white Zendala® tile.

 

Lastly, it's great to introduce another new product, a keepsake box. This beautiful box is wooden and will hold 100 Zentangle® tiles.

Check out the new products in the store!!

Zentangle® Keepsake Box

Zentangle® Notecard with
Tan Tile completed by CZT Lisa Heron
(tiles in notecard package arrive blank)
this is a sample only

Zentangle® Notecard with white Zendala
Tile completed by CZT Lisa Heron
(tiles in notecard package arrive blank)
this is a sample, only

Artist Trading Cards and Ensembles!!

I'm participating in an Artist Trading Card swap.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it right now....I need to create 53 2.5x3.5 inch cards. They don't need to be finished until February, but the amount is a bit intimidating. This weekend I created 9.

The fun part about the swap is that it is for Certified Zentangle Teachers from all over the world and the only requirement is that Zentangle be found somewhere on the cards. It's going to be very amazing to see what I receive.



Not the best picture, but here is the first page
I did for the ATCs, I will be cutting these into 9 cards.  

Last year I participated in two ensembles. Two groups of 9 Certified Zentangle Teachers each completed a Zentangle ensemble, they were swapped and we ended up with new ensembles, featuring our original tiles in the middle and the artwork of our friends surrounding to complete the ensembles.

Here is one of my ensembles, before the swap occurred.
These are standard Zentangle tiles, not ATCs

I loved the ensemble experience and enjoyed getting art from everyone!

Once I get going on the cards for the ATC swap, it will all start to flow...just need to get into the groove.






Did you know?

ARTIST TRADING CARDS are miniature works of art created on 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm card stock. Also known as ATCs, they have their origin in Switzerland in 1997 by Zurich artist, M.Vänçi Stirnemann.

Book Making...my other fun pastime!

Well, I haven't posted much for a long time, but I'm really happy to share my two new works! These books are in the style of the Glazier Codex and based on a model from 500 AD. I'm not going to pretend their exact replicas, but they are certainly 'in the style of!'

One book has a wooden cover with mahogany goat leather for its spine and wrapping. There are two carved bone toggles which I stained with terracotta coloured ink. That book has leather wrapped that continues off of the spine and wraps around the edges of the book.

The other book's cover is paper covered davey board. The leather used on it is deer hide. It will soon have toggles, as well.

Enjoy!

Pointillism... This week's Diva's Challenge!

This week's Diva's Challenge was to use pointillism. It was a fun challenge, playing with the density of the dots to create the patterns and the darkness of those patterns

My tile has Printemps, Florz and Cubine. I left the fourth space blank. I also played with dots to create my string. ...just for fun!

A great challenge for the week! I may have to try another one!

 

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Zentangle Notecards

Zentangle has a brand new and beautiful product! Zentangle Notecards! They come I'm packages of 4. You get 4 beautiful cards to "frame" 4 tiles. Each card features Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts' beautiful art work that frame your tile!

Betweed and Purk

Here is my first use of the new product and I decided to try out a tan tile! Love the tiles and love the cards!

Ibex and Zinger on a tan tile

I'll be selling them in my store in the next week or so. If you're interested, let me know!

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Zentangle: Process or Product?

90% of the time, the art of Zentangle is about the process....at least for me.

In other words, it's about putting pen to paper, losing myself in the moment, and while certainly wanting to create a beautiful product, it is the activity itself, the ability to let go of everything and to just be mindful that I truly get the most joy from. It also means that the end product doesn't need to be perfect, that I truly try to let go of that end result, too.

When I started learning about Zentangle, my big drawing accomplishment was being able to draw flowers (loopy grade 3 ones) and stick people. My drawing aptitude likely stopped in about grade 3. Art, when I was going to school wasn't really drawing classes. And, that's fine, but it does leave you with a sense of being 'art challenged'

What I love about Zentangle is that it makes art accessible to so many of us who thought we'd never be able to draw, and in that accessibility it allows us to find that inner creativity that was dying to get out...we just didn't know how to express it.

I issue a challenge to all of you emerging artists!

LET GO!

We live in a world that judges, that labels and that determines something is better that something else. We also judge ourselves quickly and easily. Those voices in our heads that say we are too this and too that...or that say we need to do this or that better, you know those voices.

It is also easy when practicing the art of Zentangle to find ourselves intimidated by the amazing creations of others. There are some incredible artists out there.

What's interesting, though, is that I've noticed that those talented people also ooh and ahh at the work of others, too. It's so easy for us all to look at someone else's creations and think ours shoulda, coulda, woulda been better...if... And that the other work we are seeing is 'better.' But, those gifted artists are saying that too.

What if you challenge yourself to be kinder to yourself, to LET GO of your judgments? To LET GO of your labels and comparisons?

Treasure your personal creativity, learn from it, grow with it and love what you bring to this world. Only you are able to make those creations!

Learn from other's beautiful work, but LET GO of your desire to disparage yours in the process of admiring theirs.

LET GO!

And, LOVE your amazing creativity!!! Recognize the wonderful process that you are in! Admire the beauty that comes from your pen!

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8 Parte Dos. The Diva's Challenge!

My entry in this week's Diva's Challenge!

 

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Where have I been? Santa Fe!

Well, except for yesterday's post, I've been MIA for a month and what a month it's been! 

In September I had the wonderful opportunity to spend 12, yes twelve whole days in Santa Fe, New Mexico! 

It was an absolutely fantastic experience. 

I attended an Art Journalling class and it was absolutely lovely! 

I joined some great friends, and met new ones, learned some drawing skills and some water colour pencil skills! 

We toured various areas of Santa Fe and recorded things we saw and did in our journals. 

I laughed until my stomach hurt, and found joy on the paper. 

What fun!

Zentangle Adventures

Today's Zentangle Adventures class was small, but lots of fun.

On the first tiles, I had the students work on four different patterns that could work well as borders. They learned Onamato, Meer, Avreal, and Knase! We also had fun with Cadent, Betweed, and W2. 

A great group of ladies in the class, lots of fun!

Beamz and Well

This week, the Diva's challenge was to use Traci Frogley's tangle Beamz. AND Rick and Maria released a new tangle pattern, Well
What was I to do? I wanted to get trying both of the tangles.
So, I played with Wells, inside of the Beamz tangle. It was fun!
I also created a tile of Wells, just because!
Here they are! Enjoy!

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Zentangle In the News

Zentangle found its way into the news recently. This story does a lovely job of explaining Zentangle.

It took awhile to get the link to load, but it is worth the wait!!

New Drawing Method Could Help You Relax

Enjoy!

Framz

In the world of Zentangle® there are many beautiful patterns. There are the official Zentangle® patterns created by Rick and Maria. There are also many other wonderful patterns created by Certified Zentangle® Teachers and Zentangle® lovers.

I've been toying with a pattern, myself, and would like to introduce it today. 

This pattern, FRAMZ, as I call it, didn't really have an inspiration per se. It is just something that I like to draw. After showing it to a few people, I have been told that it reminds them of frames you can buy, where there are a number of them joined together. I've seen a few sold by Umbra. Maybe that is where my inspiration came from and I didn't realize?

Anyway, I hesitated for awhile to put the pattern out there. It has a bit of difficulty "playing" well with others....it is hard to find the right tangles to put with it on a string to keep the flow going. As a stand alone, it does create its own string, too, which I find quite fun. So, once I was able to create a few tiles with Framz and other tangles co-existing, I decided it was time to share in the fun.

Here you have it, Framz!

I think that the nice part about this pattern is that there is no set order for the shapes. Once you get started you're off to the races. So, there are really only two steps.

 

Top tile patterns: Hollibaugh, Cubine and Framz
Bottom tile patterns: Printemps, Nzeppel, Framz (with a few Printemps inside)

Top Tile Patterns: Nzeppel, Cubine, Jetties, Knightsbridge, Printemps, Hibred variation
Middle Tile Patterns: Printemps, Framz
Bottom Tile Patterns: Printemps, Framz, Widgets

 

The shading for this pattern is also fun. I've shaded in many different ways, as you can see.

Let me know what you think of it. I'd love to see what you do with it, too!

A Tipple Play!

This week the Diva posted a Tipple challenge. No typo here, it's not triple, it's tipple. As the Diva says, the tipple is a pattern that most seem to love or hate.

I remember it being one of the first patterns I used, when trying to teach myself Zentangle. Learning from a teacher was much better! But I'll save that for another post.
I'm the meantime, here is my tipple entry. The string was just a scribble, I had lots of fun.....more fun that the left hand challenge! :)

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Zenstones

Zentangle aka Rick and Maria, :) has introduced a new product: Zenstones.
In a recent newsletter, zenstones are explained:

Our Zenstone almost feels like powdered butter in your hand (it is called "soap" stone for a reason) and it settles into the texture of our black tiles with a buttery smoothness. Just wait til you get to "smudge" it with your finger tip! You will be thrilled with the subtle gradations in shading possible when a Zenstone meets a black Zentangle tile. (There are many more than 50 shades! :-)

How is the Zenstone different than the White Charcoal Pencil?The Zenstone and the White Charcoal Pencil each have unique characteristics. The Zenstone offers a soft mark which smudges smoothly with a gentle gradient. The White Charcoal pencils tends to leave a whiter, more precise line and a more abrupt falloff to smudging.

I finally got to play with my zenstones last night. Here are my results:

I don't do a lot of white on black work, so I have some learning to do, but the zenstone was fun to use!

They're now available in the store!

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