A Hearty Challenge

This week being Valentine's week, the Diva challenges us to create art that is Valentine centered: hearts, red or pink, lacy, etc.

So...at first my heh "heart" wasn't in it, and this is what I made. It is from string 21














I used HeartBox, LoLo, Heart Strings, and Kisses.

but they weren't enough...so I put in some hearts of my own, and added those spirals. I actually call this one Ugly Heart Art...It just didn't speak to me...but...

I liked the spiral hearts so much, I made a piece based on it...

Spiral Heart. with a background of Caught...first spotted on Tickled to Tangle, in last week's Wednesday Wisdom Words. and...
...Shading.
Oh, how I love shading!







And, with the monotangle in mind, and having peeked around on Adele's site, I remembered her LG pattern. A new tile, filled up with LG

Some color on this one. Magenta centers, violet shading

The little black dotty hearts to finish. Oh my GOODNESS, the shading!


And so i thought I was finished, until today. I got up to string 32
    

and when it came right to it, HeartBox called out my name.

I filled up the centers (that four corner area) with HeartBox...except I put the fourth one in a different corner. Put my trademark spirals (hee hee trademark hahaha) in the hearts. Then lines of hearts going up along the legs/arms of the 4

4 of Hearts string 32

It just turned out I put four hearts on each "limb" and that's when I named it. Four of Hearts. Then AND ONLY THEN, did I realize the string itself is a numeral four! ha! And if you're counting, I did put five on that bottom leg of the 4. what was I thinking!

So, Four of Hearts. And yes, the shading makes is SUPER cool.  Turned out to be a fun challenge, after all. 

and with that, I have a few more string tiles

Van Gogh is a Star string 20

  

Party in the Fabric Store string 23

Harmony string 31

Grotto string 26

Looking over my sketchbook, I've come to a conclusion. I like the pieces that use fewer patterns. A good monotangle, wow! And the simplicity of only two or three patterns makes a big difference.

However, if there is a piece that i like, with a lot of patterns, what appeals is a unity within. There should be a shape in common, or some kind of line that goes through the whole piece.

For instance,

this one has lots of patterns. Many more than I usually like. But I like this piece, and when I sat and tried to figure out why, it came to me: unity comes through in the black satiny ribbon that appears in the HeartRope, the Up&Across,  and in Bunzo, and it is there in the ribbons on the very bottom. There is a unity of form in the black perlz, and the heart shape is repeated in HeartRope and Join.

Hypnotic repeats the bunzo curves, and undling takes the repetition to a whole new level. You also see the repeated lines in Meringue.

Hollibaugh, crosscro, and the rivulet pattern (I invented that, but haven't named it yet) provide variety and balance.

Overall, a pleasing piece that could have been overly busy, but unity and balance bring it around.