ZENDALA DARE #92

... it's been a while -

FIRST thing FIRST, I've jumped back into the saddle with The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #92.

tangles used: drack, hastate

I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with this - especially since I went through a virtual creative desert for a few months.  I just... couldn't do anything.  Since the beginning of February I have been picking up pen & pencil every day, & it's finally started to flow again.

I can't ever say enough just how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Miss Helen Williams.  Seriously.  I gladly purchased her e-book Flips, folds, ribbon and string (if you haven't gotten this, I HIGHLY recommend it!) & have been fillings pages & pages with her neat little tricks.  I missed out on the complete pattern folio that she put out at the end of last year, but Helen is issuing links to the folio with purchase of the e-book - so that was a huge bonus.  THE POINT of this is, I love her patterns/tangles, yet there were a few I just couldn't get a hold of.  Drack is one of them... but I thiiiiiiink I've got it now!

I haven't seen the tangle Hastate used by anyone before, I just came across it going through boards on Pinterest.  If you haven't seen this, here it is:

Hastate by Lizzie Mayne

I really love this tangle, but never knew where to use it.  Instead of drawing the tangle in a linear manner as shown, I broke it into individual pieces & made them face each other.  I think it turned out pretty neat.
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So, things were going pretty well when I last posted/did any challenges (mid November).  Then...

 BOOM

things got crazy.

A pipe in the walls between my bathroom & my master closet busted.  Of course, I didn't realize it (because it was between the walls) until much later when it had migrated along the concrete slab under the barely year old wood laminate flooring through my whole house.  I had to have a restoration company come in & rip ALL of my flooring in the whole house out - including base boards & some door casings.  All needed to be replaced.  I had huge noisy machines in my house - blowers & dehumidifiers - to dry out the walls.  None of this happened quickly & my home was a disaster area.

The day after I noticed the water damage, while dealing with my insurance agent & the manager at the restoration company & having a lot of workers in & out of my house - I had to put my cat down.

Chedder Kitty Pie - 2003-2013

my favorite picture of me & mistuh cheddycat

You know how if you live with someone - see them everyday - you don't really notice gradual changes?  Even if it's become quite drastic & quite obvious to someone who has been removed from it for a long time?  See, I knew he was sick.  He was having tummy problems & not digesting his food right.  He was hungry all the time but it would run right through him.  Sometimes he wouldn't make it to the litter box.  He had lost a lot of weight & his hair was thin & dull.  I was aware that he wasn't feeling well, but he seemed happy (if a cat can be happy) & I just didn't notice the physical changes.  In all the panic to get things done the day before, my mom came by to see if she could help me out any.  I had been telling her that I thought cheddy was doing kinda crappy, but when she SAW him, she got choked up immediately.  While workers moved in & out of the house, we took him to the vet.  There was really nothing to be done for him... some things that might, maybe work, but he was just too far gone.  I was a complete & total wreck.  It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life, & the sadness & pain of the decision & the loss was & has been one of the hardest emotional things I've ever had to deal with in my life.

In the ensuing months, more damage was discovered in my home, & just this week the last of the workers finished.  I now get to recover my space for myself... & with no one coming & going anymore, there has been a VERY noticeable difference between being single living alone WITH a cat, & being single living alone... well, alone.  I'm getting used to it.

I don't like to say that anything good has come out of this, but I DO get to completely make over my spare room... & I'm going to fashion it as an office/art space/jewelry studio.  It's not a large space, but it's not exactly a small one either.  I want it to be highly functional, & I want everything to be visible & easily accessible.  I want a big table.  I want to be able to display finished/in-progress pieces & things that inspire me.  & I don't want to face a wall.  SO, if anyone has any studio space ideas that have worked for them, or that they heard/saw & liked, I'd love to hear about them.

That's about it for now.  It's weird, this is the first time I've written about everything that has happened in the past few months... it's not just the drawing that's slipped off, but written journaling completely stopped as well. 

Lets hope I'm finally back in the saddle again.  (gene autry <3 )

DIVA CHALLENGE #142 -or- THE DANGER ZONE!!

OK - this week's Diva Challenge #142 was to step outside of our comfort zones & into the DANGER ZONE.

I thought long & hard about the kinds of things I avoid, or don't like doing.  I made a list:
* I never really use organic, non-repetitive/tight patterned tangles
* I don't like to use only b&w/gray scale
* I have a hard time using strings
* I generally like to work with paper or board cut in perfect squares
* I find it difficult to throw symmetry out the window.
* I always sketch, sketch & re-sketch new tangles I'm learning before I ever put them down on paper
* I can always find a use for a ruler, compass & protractor - which is a Zentangle No-No.

I could go on further, but instead I'll just show you what I came up with.

tangles used: fern, zinger, decostar (modified into flower)

This first one is much looser & organic than anything I think I've done before.  I did this in gray-scale. Both fern & zinger are tangles I've never used.  I also have a tendency to not tangle with flowers at all (don't get me wrong, I can draw flowers for days - it's my favorite subject in any medium or style... but for some reason I just don't tangle with them.) 

next up:

tangles used: kandy ribnz, clothesline, fescu, por-fin, yew-dee, frillee, drack, asian fans, thumbprintz

First off - the paper.  This is a marbling that I did a few months back when experimenting with Mr. Sketch Scented Water Color Markers.  I know you all remember these things from when you were little.  I saw them in the store one day & snatched them up out of pure nostalgia.  Second, it's all done with black micron's.  Third (& most importantly,) each of these tangles are ones I've never even attempted before (excluding clothesline).  I didn't try them out in my sketch book on grids, I didn't use a pencil, ruler, compass, etc. to lay them out, & I started with a freehand string that I outlined in thick black lines to accentuate the use of the strings.  I really jumped in head first, & you know what, I really enjoyed doing this.  PLUS, it didn't turn out half bad!

I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions, criticisms... or anything else any of you'd like to say.

Have a happy, safe, & spooky Halloween!  I'll see you all once I'm done stuffing all the goblins back in the closet!