can you escape the maze?

The Diva’s Challenge #215 is to tangle using a labyrinth as a string.

What a challenge! I looked at the pages that Laura linked to on how to create your own labyrinth, but I wasn’t in the mood for so much thinking. Instead, I used Google Images to find a picture of one. But even after I got the picture, it took me a while to figure out how I could fit such a complicated string into a tangle and still keep its integrity.

Edit: I’ve just looked at my tile properly, and I realised that this isn’t a labyrinth at all. You can’t get to the centre from the outside! I must have gotten something wrong when I was bordering the lines. Oh well, I tried!

Mooka, Snail, Tipple

Mooka is a bit of my nemesis and I don’t often draw it, but I was inspired by Christ Gerstner’s post to attempt Mooka with Tipple. I didn’t use a pencil first like she suggests, but I did get tips on drawing and shading Mooka from her video. I like the results, although all that Tipple blunted the nib of my still pretty new Micron 01!

royalty

To celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 89th birthday and It’s a String Thing’s 89th challenge, Adele challenged us to use four tangles with a royal theme.

Jeewels, Jemz, Knightsbridge, Queen’s Crown

I like it when I meet a tangle that looks complicated, yet it turns out easy when I’m drawing it. Jemz is such a tangle. It looked like it had too many lines and steps, and I worried about getting my diamonds the right size, but in the end it turned out just fine. I think the trick is to think of the resulting shape as an octagon, like Margaret Bremner suggests. Jeewels reminds me a lot of Unyun. The part with the semicircles resembles owls’ eyes to me!

all things beautiful

The Diva’s Challenge #214 celebrates Earth Day.

When I think of the Earth, I picture mountains and seas, forests and deserts, wild animals on land and in the sea. I picture God’s creation, perfectly made, the way He made them from the start. Psalm 104 depicts this well. It is a beautiful poem, but I quote just two verses here that capture the beauty and purposeful order of nature, with all things sustained by their Maker.

He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Psalm 104: 10-11 (NIV)

Diva Dance, Mumsy, Sand Swirl, Undling

For this tile, I used four tangles that remind me of various things in nature. Sand Swirl represents the oceans, Undling represents the rolling hills, Diva Dance, which reminds me of wood, represents the trees, and Mumsy represents the flowers.

my loopy umbrella

Here’s another tile, this time courtesy of It’s a String Thing #87. It used two deceptively simple looking tangles!

‘Brella, Loop

I appreciated the simplicity of this week’s string. The tile reminds me of a frog, with the black loops at the side resembling a frog’s eyes!

jewelled fan

The Diva’s Challenge #212 was to use the tangle Fanz.

Fanz, Floatfest, Juke

I’ve been spending lots of time crocheting this week, so I didn’t get down to this tile until a little later in the week than I usually do. Floatfest seemed a perfect fit for Fanz, and I added some Juke, a Zentangle-original tangle, in the corner.

resurrection day

Good Friday and Easter are my favourite holidays in the calendar. It’s a time for remembering how Jesus suffered and died to pay atonement for our sins, and for celebrating, with fervour, the life we have through his sacrifice. It’s a time of sweet sorrow and jubilant rejoicing.

This Easter, Adele invites us to tangle with four tangles and an easter egg string.

Coaster, CO2, Well, Well-Mooka-Z

I won’t lie, I had lots of difficulties with Well-Mooka-Z. Sharyn makes it look beautiful, but I just couldn’t get the loops and the positioning right. Finally I took inspiration from Mooka and drew the loops the way I draw Mooka, with a big round blob at the end. Coaster is tangle I’ve seen frequently on Margaret Bremner’s blog, and I had lots of fun playing with it.

state of flux

Poor little Artoo is sick again this week, but Laura has issued a challenge to tangle with Flux. Flux was featured in the latest Zentangle newsletter and I was surprised to see that the step-outs have never been published online before! I was even more surprised to see that the original version of Flux, Maria’s version, is not the same as the Flux I learnt, which is Rick’s version. I like Rick’s version better though, so that’s what I tangled with today.

Flux, Puf

I knew I wanted to put Flux in a ring. The rest of it just emerged on its own. The middle was initially more Puf, but I like some solid black areas in my tiles, so I coloured it in.

I’m starting to get busier, and while I will still try to join in the Diva’s challenge and the String Thing challenge every week, there may be weeks when my tangling will be more sporadic. I’ll try my best, but if finding time to tangle gets too stressful, please forgive my absence.

spring has sprung

It’s a String Thing #85 celebrates spring with several light, organic patterns – Mumsy, Printemps and Kelp. It’s funny that I’ve never used Printemps before despite frequently doodling it on the sides of my pages. I have used Scoodle though, which is Printemps without the sparkle.

Kelp, Mumsy, Printemps

I tried out something new this time. I used Kelp along the string line, then totally ignored the string as I drew Mumsy, and then coloured in Mumsy and added Printemps according to the string borders. The tile looks somewhat Japanese to me!

in a whirl

I had some free time, so I did another spiral for my second submission to the Diva’s Weekly Challenge #210.

Dex, Drupe

This satisfied my curiosity on three issues:
1. How to fit a grid-based tangle into a spiral
2. How Dex would look with the black squares in random places (interesting, but the effect would be better with smaller squares)
3. What effect would be produced with Drupe as a background to the spiral

For some in-spiral-tion (sorry, couldn’t resist!), check out this post by Margaret Bremner.

spiralicious

The Diva’s 210st weekly challenge is to use spirals.

Aquafleur, Beadlines, Finery

I tried using two overlapping spirals, and included one of my favourite tangles, Aquafleur. It’s just a simple tile, but sometimes the simplest tiles are the most enjoyable to draw.