Diva Circle Challenge

Circles seem to be in the air these days, with Joey challenging us in circle strings the past several weeks, and now the Diva is asking us to use circles in whatever way we want, as a string, and then tangle in them.

Well, I opened the challenge at work and searched for things on my desk that I could trace:

Largest to smallest: a tub of desk wipes, the lid from my water jug, hand lotion, eyeglass spritzer bottom, eyeglass spritzer lid.


I used these to trace a string into a new sketchbook (which I do NOT like. The paper is thin, yet super "toothy" so it soaks up ink. My niece or granddaughter might like it, but I won't be using this sketchbook after all)

But here is the traced string in progress:

This was my "between calls" project at work, where we were only  moderately busy, so I was able to get some things done with minimal interruptions from my job. hahahaha!

The first pattern I thought of was Yew-Dee, and from there, the rest sort of fell into place, ending up looking like a basket.

Yew-dee, Narwhal, Carpet Daisy, Tipple, Crazy Poky String

That yewdee really makes it baskety, doesn't it. I do like it, though the paper is disappointing......even the shading is muddy and meh... 

After I got done with this I looked up. There, tacked to my cubicle wall, is a piece I created a while back...Circles! So I took a pic with my iPhone and here it is

Niuroda was entirely the inspiration for this, and I just went with it from there. I believe I traced circular items for this one, too. Niuroda, Purk, Bales, Mumsy, Arukas, Hollibaugh (looking like a ball of tape in the center, really small) and a Jettie ball there on the bottom.The top sunshiney looking thing is my own Concert, and there is a circle of circles there, dunno what that is called. For a finishing touch, I added little black perls here and there.

I agree with Laura: circles are relaxing to draw. I can fill a page with tipple, scruffle, go4th, jetties, or whatever circular patterns in a JIFF.

B'Twined, Served on a Bed of X

Joey has us circling still. :) and it has been a lot of fun. I haven't entered a piece every time, but I have been following along.

This week, our string is a circle with an X thru it, and the pattern is B'twined. I love these patterns that take on an over-under effect as you go. B'twined and Navaho are both faves of mine, related but very different to look at, in the end.

Well, anyway, I played around with it some. Finished up this one yesterday afternoon

I like it a lot, but as I was shading along the edge of the "disc" it occurred to me that wrapping all of the ends "around" (Aquafleur style) would look pretty cool











So I started over and ended up with this:

When I drew the first one, I had already lined the circle with my 1 micron pen. With the second, I left the circle in pencil and then tried to make the ends "wrap", and I put shading "under" all the b'twined.  I like them both! I prefer the big X in the first sample, the smoothness of it pleases me.







This was a fun challenge, and a really fun tangle! I'm all set to play with it some, and get more of an Over-Under effect by alternating the lines.

Peace Like a River

The Diva has a guest this week: Suzanne Fluhr whose boomer blog is always fun to read.

Her challenge to us was to tangle something peaceful. We have had such horrible news in the past week...honestly though, all of 2016 has been uneasy and ugly in the public square, in the States.

So, time to bring some peace, and that is what I did. There is a park nearby, one of my favorite places in the world. I have been taking myself there this past week, every day going to sit on the bank of the creek and ground myself.

I sit on the stones, and take off my shoes, and breathe. Listen. Be. 

The river has dozens of voices, all repeating the same lullaby, and it is very calming to sit here. I am determined to get out into this space every day, away from all else and seat myself on the earth and simply be there. 

Today, I brought my tangle supplies and did the Diva Challenge while immersed in the cool morning light and flowing song of the river. 

For the string, I traced the shadows of some grasses that fell across my tile.















Then I chose some organic patterns: Pokeleaf, Pokeroot, and Printemps.

Auraing things lent a calm creek feel to the piece.















Then I shaded using color, to bring in the lovely green/brown of the river. It really is the prettiest shade of green, and I love it when the runoff comes.

The river is calm and deep jade green. There are willow and cottonwood trees on the banks, and there are many places where it runs rapidly, along with placid level flow beneath the blue shade of the trees. Yes. Sitting on the banks is a tranquil experience.

And look! A perfect place to raise a family

Mama and seven little droplets

stars and stripey

Because Monday was Independence Day in the US, the Diva's challenge was to create a piece with our country's flag in mind. Patriotism, don't you know.

I confess, I stole the idea from hungrycorgistudio, where there is a very clever and interesting piece using two tangles and color to create a...flag!

Well, arukas was on my mind, and ribbons, and this is what I came up with.

It was fun playing with a shading technique I recently learned for prismacolor pencils, and I like the riff on color here: turquoise and magenta rather than the primary red and blue. I posted this on my cubicle...I am on an intersection, the first cubicle on the floor when you come in the entrance near the conference room. I wonder if people will recognize it as an American flag.