I’m supposed to be writing this from Mexico City where we planned to visit our digital nomad son who lives there — and also escape some cold winter weather. Instead, I’m sitting on our couch in Philadelphia, trying to avoid triggering a back spasm. I’m leaning on a heating pad, downing ibuprofen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory for your pharmacy types), and wallowing in a bit of self pity. I’m also wallowing in guilt because this is actually last week’s Hump Day Zentangle Challenge which should have been published last Wednesday.
Instead, last Wednesday, I finally saw a Physical Medicine and Rehab physician. He thinks I might have compression fractures in my thoracic spine and he ordered an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study. Many people find MRIs very difficult because you have to lay very still in a coffin-like tube that makes all sorts of loud noises for half an hour. I’ve had two other MRIs in my life. The key is to keep your eyes closed before you enter the tube. Five milligrams of valium (a tranquilizer) also helped.
This isn’t my first time being the poster child for Woody Allen’s observation:
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.
My unplanned hospital stay in Honolulu, Hawaii springs to mind. The good news is that even with my back issues, I’m still able to tangle. The coffee table in front of my couch perch is covered with paper, pens, pencils and creations in various states of completeness.
One day, the idea for a “new” tangle came to me. Maybe it’s not new and has already been named and claimed, but I didn’t find it on tanglepatterns.com. I know there are other compilations of tangles. I already have 951 pins (!) on my Pinterest board named: Tangle Patterns for Private, Non-commercial Use.
Hump Day Zentangle Challenge #28 – Use My New Tangle “Slinky”
For this week (really, last week) the challenge is to use Slinky in a composition. You can read about the genesis of the name for the tangle and find the step-outs here. It’s not a complicated tangle, but can “fancied” up. Here are some examples of compositions I’ve done using it.
In this mandala (Zendala), on a 6 inch x 6 inch tile, Slinky is used as the border in the outermost ring.
Here it is in color, also used as a border.
It can also be used to fill in a space:
Please Share Your Hump Day Zentangle® Challenge Creations!
Please share your responses to this week’s challenge with us in the Hump Day Zentangle Challenge Facebook Group and/or on your Instagram, Twitter or Flickr feeds. Use the hashtag #hdchallenge28. If you’re not a member of the FB group, ask to join and I’ll be happy to add you. The more the merrier. Please invite others you think might be interested.
There are other ways to share your work: We also have a Pinterest group board to share our Hump Day Challenge responses. Email me at suzanne@boomeresque.com if you’d like me to add you as a contributor to the Pinterest board or you can mention that in a comment below with your Pinterest name.
If you have your own blog and are posting your challenge responses there, leave the URL to your blog in a comment below so people can paste it into their browser and find your post. (PS: The first 2 times you comment, I will have to moderate the comment. After your first two comments on Boomeresque, your comments will appear without moderation.)
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When one leaves employment at the nuclear plant, we have to have a tube-experience similar to MRI – to check for radiation. I’m sure there is a professional name for that scan but it eludes me right now. And I did close my eyes – then also sang to myself until I was allowed to escape! Yuck! Love your second Zentangle, the space filler – looks pretty cool! I love your tiles – they are just things that bring me to a smile even if I don’t Zentangle!
Thank you. I’m glad my Zentangle “art” makes you smile. You should give it a try. I didn’t think I had any capacity to produce something artistic. I was the musical child in our family. My little sister was the artist. Did you have to go into a tube everyday after work to check for radiation?! I don’t think I would last very long at that job.