Spie

Spie was the first original pattern I ever created. I've used it in a few places. My favorite thing about it is how it looks so three dimensional, by just making a line of lower case cursive s's all connected.

Start by writing! Make a lower case cursive S, and keep going until you have a line of them. Fill in the interior, and add shading for a real cool looking border or to add depth to the edge of a piece.

And this piece, which I created for a Diva challenge right when I first started tangling, is how I named this tangle "spie"

it is made of S's, and it looks like a pie crust...especially in this piece. So, it is called Spie.

Gala

Watching an awards ceremony on TV, I saw a dress with lovely dangly sequins all over it, and wanted to make a pattern of it.

First, make an elongated curve and aura it. Connect a loop and aura it. Then add more loops along the edge. Decorate the loops.

I used Gala in a challenge from earlier this year, when the Diva gave us a UMT using unbatz. You can see gala there dangling from the upper left, and lower right.

Though in these samples I've added bangles and dangles from the edges of the loops, the loops themselves look really nice with some shine on them.

Get In Line

This was a hard one to start, but once I got going, it was very relaxing. Somehow the "restriction" of drawing only lines brought about a very quiet mind for me.

For that was The Diva's Challenge: to use only straight lines in our work this week. Like Laura, I wanted to bring energy and action to my tile, and enjoyed finding a way to do that.

It started to come about with the addition of triangles along the edge. Hollibaugh laid down some planks there, and athitzi wanted to be everywhere. A modified Keeko, some paradox. Then I did something I wish I hadn't...I shaded the piece with the light coming from the top (my default setting for where light comes from. Because I grew up in a house facing south, when the sun comes up it is from the left. And that's why, whenever I shade, the light comes from the upper left.)

well anyway, I shaded things in that direction, then Footlites came to mind. And I put them in. On the bottom. *sigh* so the shading looks downright unnatural. But the piece does have energy, even though it's not my favorite.

Gotta admit, it does have energy.

However, this week I did make a tile that I JUST LOVE. It's on my cubicle wall at work, so I can look at it.

 I started with string #144, and was putting a different tangle in each section of string.

 Flux was in one section, and WOW! so I decided to do a monotangle with just flux in this string. Of course I had to add ribbons and tipple, some stippling, a couple of shiny ribbony places.

The finishing touches of weighting my lines, and stippling just solidify this piece as one of my absolute favorites that I've ever done.

So it's been a week of opposites. Curvy, leafy, ribbony, and straight, poky, thrusty, driven.

Good stuff, Maynard!

All my X's live....where?

hahahaha! (laughing at my own title)

Suzy Mosh's challenge this week was to use X patterns we have never used before. I found a new favorite, Xpetals.

THANK YOU, SUZY!

In addition to X's, we are to incorporate a pattern by Sue Jacobs. She has a LOT of patterns, and a couple of hers are favorites of mine. For this tile, I chose Coil, which I've used a lot. It is fun to draw and looks extremely cool when you get done shading.

Last week's String Thing challenge used string #98 and I like that string so much, I strung four tiles with it, and intend to use them in upcoming challenges INCLUDING this one.

I love all the curves and flow of this string.









I turned string 98 upside down, so the lines are cascading down from above, and filled them with coil. A border of Xav along the left edge and the top. Then, falling in love big time, I made a few x-petals in and among the coils.

To finish, I did a tangelation of beadlines (Maybe. This could be an actual tangle but I don't know what it is called) all in the background of the whole piece. Shading really solidified this piece. I JUST LOVE the depth on x-petals with the shading. I know this tangle will make it into many of my works.

this is so X-masy!

Don't you agree? 

White on Black

The Diva this week challenged us to create art on a black tile, using white. I have a few pieces already, white on black, and paradox looks so good wherever I've used it in one of these, I started out with paradox. Then, when I put paradox in the opposite corner, it reminded me of one of those Tesla things, with sparks and lightning shooting across two diodes.

However, when I finished making the little nodes on the edges of the paradoxes, they didn't look mad scientist-y, and I didn't feel confident in making jaggedy electric looking lines. So, quib it was.

Ultimately, this reminds me of a carousel, with lots of movement in the quib and a spinning quality in the paradox. I used a white charcoal pencil to provide some tipple here and there, and a black sparkle gel pen along the strands of quib, for sparkle.

Maybe a close up will show the sparkle a little bit better

This piece came along so fast. I finished it in about 15 minutes. Maybe the larger size pen, and maybe I was just relaxed putting it together. I'm quite pleased with this one. It's going on my wall at work.

It's a String Thing

It's rare that I do a blog entry for Adele Bruno's String Thing challenge, and in fact, though I usually do a tile with the elements she presents in her challenges, I don't usually post an entry, usually because I'm too late! ha!

But this time I found the string intriguing and I also loved all the tangles she selected for us, and I had a lot of fun with the challenge. I ended up creating a tile that I didn't like that much.

Little Lost Worms?

I think it's the predominance of the kandyribnz...which I DO love. It is a fun shape to tangle with, it just doesn't fit with the rest. Also, the darker background sort of swallows up the cayke frills. Choco box is loads of fun, though. I enjoyed learning it a lot.

So, once I got done with this one, I decided to go with a similar look, but filled the sections of string a little bit differently.

Cupcake Wars?

Choco box is the main player in this game, filling up the whole central area, and spilling over into other sections of string. Kandyribnz is delectable looking nestled along the edge.

I found the little cayke "trios" STILL getting swallowed up even with the more subdued background so I outlined them thick, and colored in behind them in black .

This second one will be what I submit to the String Thing challenge this week. This was a fun challenge!

Suzy Mosh's E Challenge and Joey Makes a Quandary Challenge

Again, I'm double challenged here. I created a piece with two challenges in it. Suzy Mosh gave us the challenge of using patterns beginning with the letter E, that we've never used before. I have a favorite E pattern, called Erbluehen, but because I've used it here and there, and because it didn't end up fitting with what I was doing, I didn't use erbluehen this time.

Along with Suzy's challenge, discovering E patterns I've not used before, I liked Joey's Challenge to use Quandary. It is a tangle I've never seen nor used before, and I LOVE IT! When I shaded it, I was just delighted. 

Quandary absorbed me for quite some time, as I played around with it and learned how to make the rice shapes and place them "just right" (ha! As usual, there is some wonky going down in my quandary but I still like it).

At any rate, when I got done with a section of quandary, it reminded me of tree tops, so I added some curves of Euca by Anne Marks (I remember her from Suzy's challenge last week!) and a trunk or two of Eye Wa by Zentangle (eye wa was created by the maker of Hollibaugh. It is packed with contrast)

and so, I made a little forest of quandary and E tangles. Not a forest. A little copse.

Two of them, in fact, and here they are:

 I added a little bit of color to this one, because the euca disappeared into the eye-wa  without it.

But just look at what quandary does, when you shade each "section"...it's leafy and rounded looking. I LOVE this pattern!+

I really like how Euca looks in that one strand, where I've colored the corners and left the middles shiny. I used a sage green pencil by Verybest Supply Co....it was an inexpensive set of six metallic pencils. Anyway, I like the way euca looks with just the ends colored in. It would look good using just graphite, that way.

In this one, you can see pieces of my little "invention" that came along while I practiced quandary. (the circular ones, separate from the quandary) I'm going submit it to tanglepatterns.com because I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, and it's one of those "by Jove, I do believe I've created something new!" moments coming directly out of playing with a pattern.

In this one, I made different sizes of the quandary for interest, and only one "trunk" of Eye Wa, which are filled in with lines and graphite, not blackened all the way with ink.







And there you have it (them)...fun challenges, both!

Dex and Bunzo Open a Restaurant

The Diva Challenge this week is a duotangle, using only the two patterns, Dex and Bunzo.

Bunzo was the very first tangle pattern I ever drew, and I learned a different form than the one I see displayed commonly.  It was an Ellen Wolters video and because my internet name has been bunsofaluminum for YEARS, sometimes shortened to bunso...well, the name Bunzo appealed to me, and I enjoyed making a whole page of Bunzo that day, using a regular pentel gel pen on sketch paper. The version I learned and drew that day, and which I have always used, doesn't have alternating stripes filled in black (though I do like and sometimes draw that version, too)

So, because it is lacking stripes, this version has always reminded me of clouds, while the stripey version of Bunzo reminds me of bees. Dex is like a window...it actually is based on a building face stacked with windows galore....

When I started this tile, I wanted the contrast of the sharp mitered edges of window panes with the fluffy roundness of billows of cloud, and this is what I created:

Walking by Bistro Bunsofaluminum

I like the way the dex is lifted up on the bunzo, sort of pillowed in there. The depth of those blackened squares is appealing, but so is the glassy look I achieved in the larger squares. With Bunzo billowing all around...heh now that I look at it, this tile reminds me of a factory fire or something.

No! the wafts of delectable fragrant smoke coming out of a restaurant window! enticing the passerby. That's more like it.

And as I worked on this one, the windowy-ness of the Dex grabbed me and I decided on the look I really wanted, so once I finished this one, I made a second piece.

Taking a break to look out the window

This is such a cheerful piece, I wanted to draw curtains around it! It was just as I pictured it: a window looking out on a sky of fluffy clouds. Maybe a little high schooler is working in the kitchen (of the Bistro Bunsofaluminum) and took a break to look out the window.

I used micron black pen .01 for both pieces, and shaded the first one with graphite 3B pencil. This second piece I used prismacolor slate gray to shade the Bunzo and China Blue in various densities for the window frame, with just a bit of layering using violet blue on the "underside" of the Dex window frame.

Such a good combination of tangles. There is something very appealing about the complementary shapes and lines between these two. Thank you Laura!

Mumsy in Black

This comes a little bit late, but I made the tile several days ago, just hadn't gotten around to loading it on my computer and blogging about it.

It would be really cool to make some black tiles with various colors too, but this one is all white gelly roll pen. Two mumsies, and then I put some sparkly things around and it ended up looking like fireworks to me.

Challenge Combo Post

This time around, I have two challenges in the same post, due to my computer impaired-ness. I had to load pictures from home, and am doing the post from work.

Anyway I am posting challenges from the Diva and Suzy Mosh together because once I saved them on a draft, I don't know how to move them around. I'm sure it's simple, but then so am I hahahaha!.

The Diva Challenge this week was to use the tangle Brella by Bunny Wright, CZT. I fiddled around with the pattern for a while, then decided to make a frame. The tangle on the top reminded me of water running in one of those wall fountains you see in dentist's offices. The Brella across the middle, and along the left edge, seems Native American, and as I went, it felt like I was creating a design for a sand painting or a fountain.

Patterns used: Lava Juice, Brella, Mssst, Nekton, with a ribbon of black satin.



















Suzy Mosh has a really fun challenge this week, with W patterns and using a tangle by Anne Marks, CZT. The patterns I chose were Weave and Web. I was hoping the weave would look more lush, but it is what it is. Maybe I can play with it some more. Web was fun made with Beadlines. Then, Anne's pattern "Sunflowers" along the bottom. This is surely a pattern I will use some more! what fun! It will go really well with Buttercup

 

My favorite part of this is the sunflowers, zinger, and fescu along the bottom. It's so cheery!

Ooh! I should have put a bunzo bee in there!