[If you’re thinking” Zen…What?”, you should probably start here.]
This week’s Zentangle Diva’s challenge was presented by summer substitute Diva, Erin Olson, CZT. Erin rounded things up this week by challenging us to use a specific Zendala tile string. For the uninitiated, a “Zendala” is a take on the word “Mandala”, which means “circle” in Sanskrit. In Hinduism and Buddhism, it represents the Universe. A Zendala, is a tangled piece of art done within a Mandala shape.
Fortunately, Erin also suggested a method for tracing her string onto a Zendala tile without carbon paper:
1) Print out the Zendala template on regular, light weight, white copy paper,
2) Using a soft graphite pencil, cover the string lines on the reverse side of the print out of the Zendala string,
3) Place the graphite side face down on top of your blank Zendala tile,
4) You can now trace the string design through the graphite with a pen or other stylus, so the graphite is transferred onto the blank tile.
In the olden days, most of us probably would have had a piece of carbon paper laying around. I was still using it with a dot matrix printer (remember those?) with my first desk top computer in the late 1980’s. We still use the anachronistic “cc” at the end of a letter to indicate that “carbon” copies of the letter are being sent to a recipient or recipients other than the addressee. However, of course, those”cc’s” are being photocopied. E-mail applications even allow us to send “cc’s” or, if we’re being sneaky, “bcc’s”. (Talk about tangential thinking — I seem to have veered slightly off course with this discourse on carbon paper.}
Right, back to this week’s challenge. Here’s what I came up with:
Because my tangles are all so dense (Sand Swirl, Knightsbridge, Tipple and Betweed), my efforts to use shading to add depth to the composition were basically for naught. Oh well, we live and we learn.
Speaking of learning, I am also publishing my first original tangle today. I’ve run it by a few CZT Facebook groups where people seem to think it hasn’t yet been “discovered”, but we’ll see if it passes the acid test when I submit it to Linda Farmer, CZT at TanglePatterns.com. I’ve named it “Phirst” because #1) it’s my first tangle invention, and #2) I’m from Philadelphia and we think it’s cute to write “F” as “Ph”. I even have a series of “Philadelphia Phriday” blog posts featuring my home town on Boomeresque. You can find “Phirst” here.
If you’re a Zentangle person, you can find “Phirst” here, along with the step-outs and some examples. If you know that someone else discovered “Phirst”, um, first, please let me know. I’ll be heartbroken, of course, but, not to worry, I’ll get over it.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I think your zendala turned out beautifully. If you feel it is too busy, you could aura around sections to leave a white space between each grouping next time. That’s what’s fun with a template, you can play over and over until you are happy. It is nice the way it is though 🙂 No, I haven’t seen your tangle before. It looks like a good filler!
Thanks for reminding me of the power of aura, Jean, and for checking out “Phirst”.
I do like your zendala and LOVE the (autumn?) colors. I often use aura’s like Jean means and I like the results a lot.
O, by the way, I still use carbon paper 🙂
I love the rich colors in your zendala. Your new tangle looks like lots of fun too!
Your tile reminds me of a pattern on a mosaïc floor, it’s beautiful!
I really like your Zendala. It’s so rich. And I’m going to try my hand at Phirst. It reminds me of a pattern I saw on Pinterest, but sufficiently different. I’ll probably have to turn my tile over because backward S’s drive me nuts.
Of course I’ve used carbon. And I “typed” rather than “keyed-in.” I cranked the return lever rather than “entered.” I rolled paper up away from the keys to try to wedge the pointed end of an eraser over an error rather than deleting. OMG – just remembered — I actually stopped and looked up words in the dictionary to make sure I’d spelled them correctly.
I’d say we had it bad, but then again, my mother had grown up using a wringer washing machine and hung clothes on a line and had to pump water from a well and carry it into the house. So, comparatively, it wasn’t so darned terrible.
What a wonderful zendala! I especially like the little pebbles–they look very real. Carbon paper still comes in handy now and then–mostly in art projects. That said, if I need 10 copies of a printed page I head for the copier!
It is a beautiful zendala. I like the tan colored tiles, and the black And brown to plat with. If you find it to busy, you could indeed use auta’s but what I would do in yours now, is using the whit pencil to put som highlighting, or with the white gelly roll I would bring some white accents so the zendala will shine. You used great tangles.
Thanks, Diana. These are all good suggestions.
Suzanne, I love your Zendala. It looks like a game board made of little pebbles and tiles embedded in terracotta. There is something just so satisfying about Knightsbridge, and the way you alternated the black and brown is wonderful!
I can say not much more than it is amazing artwork at its best! How gorgeous! Sarah
Thank you so much.
Wonderful zendala with a great contrast! I like the colours on the tan paper, too!
Wow! Another gorgeous tangle. Maybe it’s my wild eyes this morning, but this looks almost 3-D to me! Lots of depth!
nifty! It reminds me of a poker game. I especially like the “glint” you’ve put in your tippling there in the triangles. Very nice
Do you remember having to put carbon paper in “backwards” when typing a carbon copy? Oh, how things have improved.
I think the dense-ness give it lots of movement! I have been using tracing or carbon paper quite a lot in my art, especially doing portraits.. I remember using them in my typing class! I cannot wait to see your pattern! Keeping my fingers crossed!
The Tan paper brings out the central zendala. This drawing mixing red black and white is interesting, it is a difficult work to do for me.
What a beautiful tile! I love the rich warm colors and the textures, especially the Tipple pebbles. I love your “Phirst” pattern, it makes a beautiful border. I’m going to be trying that soon. Thanks for sharing that.
You’ve introduced me to something new today Suzanne! I’ve never heard of Zendala before. I think the one you created for this post is absolutely beautiful.
Yes, that’s it–a game board. I knew this zendala reminded me of something. It has that cool, graphic quality. I love the sparkle of your Tipple, too!
I take the easy way out to make my template. I copy the original from the blog (not the link to the template) to Word. Then I can change it to any size I want, increase the transparency to 85% so it’s barely visible, and print it on my printer.
Suzanne, I love your Zendala! It is filled with so much detail!
Thank you for visiting my blog. You mentioned that you were playing with Narwal. Have you looked at Helen William’s blog, a Little Lime? She shows a wonderful video of Narwal. Of course, she always makes everything look simple. :0) She’s amazing! Anyway,have fun with it! See you next week! :0) Annette
Thanks for the heads up about the Narwal video. Sometimes it does help me to see someone actually doing a particular tangle.
Lovely zendala, and I really love the intense colour, and dense tangles. Not all art needs to have white space 🙂
Like the two tone color. Provides a nice contrast. Like the Sand Swirl in the circles.
Beautiful tile, with beautiful colors.
I love your Zendala! So detailed and pretty.
Love the Renaissance Zendala. You are so clever to fit everything in. Gosh, you have taken me back with your talk of typing. It is incredible to think it was such a short time ago. We weren’t allowed to erase anything, make a mistake and you had to start again!